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the bits I like writing
Mar. 24th, 2006 10:41 amLast night, after replaying a bit in Jade Empire that I didn't get to come out right my first time through, I was working on the next Flower of War entry, and I got to a bit where a description of nightmares was called for.
It's probably good that I don't actually work for Morpheus, because I know what my job would be--scripting nightmares for people. It's something I really like doing, because it's where a character's subconcious fears run amok, the place where I get to ask them, "What terrifies you?" and have them answer, and then use that knowledge to scare the living daylights out of them.
And it's not just about fear, it's about guilt, and sorrow. For the character I'm writing for, a dream where she is torn to pieces by a crowd of the people she's killed is sigificantly less terrible than a dream where someone she loved and killed because she was ordered to just stands there and looks at her. A nightmare like that is that sorrow and guilt saying, I am here, and I am not going away just because you're ignoring me.
I stayed up late because I was having so much fun with the nightmares, and wanted to see where they ended. And, yes, I slept well. My characters' nightmares aren't my own--if fact, I very rarely have nightmares, because i'm a lucid dreamer, and it's only a nightmare if you can't change it. I have dreams that other people might consider nightmares, but if I'm in control of them, they're really interesting rather than scary.
So, this brings up a question for my writer friends. What bits do you really like writing? Which parts of a story or poem or book or whatever really get you jazzed up for them? Me, i love nightmares, and a fuzzy category of things that i call "transformative moments", places where characters turn corners of various sorts.
It's probably good that I don't actually work for Morpheus, because I know what my job would be--scripting nightmares for people. It's something I really like doing, because it's where a character's subconcious fears run amok, the place where I get to ask them, "What terrifies you?" and have them answer, and then use that knowledge to scare the living daylights out of them.
And it's not just about fear, it's about guilt, and sorrow. For the character I'm writing for, a dream where she is torn to pieces by a crowd of the people she's killed is sigificantly less terrible than a dream where someone she loved and killed because she was ordered to just stands there and looks at her. A nightmare like that is that sorrow and guilt saying, I am here, and I am not going away just because you're ignoring me.
I stayed up late because I was having so much fun with the nightmares, and wanted to see where they ended. And, yes, I slept well. My characters' nightmares aren't my own--if fact, I very rarely have nightmares, because i'm a lucid dreamer, and it's only a nightmare if you can't change it. I have dreams that other people might consider nightmares, but if I'm in control of them, they're really interesting rather than scary.
So, this brings up a question for my writer friends. What bits do you really like writing? Which parts of a story or poem or book or whatever really get you jazzed up for them? Me, i love nightmares, and a fuzzy category of things that i call "transformative moments", places where characters turn corners of various sorts.
