SHADOWBLADE'S PROFILE

To topic, I personally find music of any kind to be my greatest inspiration for anything I do in making a game.

Glad to know I'm not the only one. I don't know about you, but when I write a cutscene, I sometimes have a theme/song in mind for the scene before the dialogue is even finished. 8)

I like most if not all of the Rm2k RTP midis. Especially the first two Pirate themes, Field1, Devil, and the battle/boss themes.

The rm2k3 midis... hmm, fierce-battle is my favorite one right now.

Oh good god, what did I start?! I'm sorry! I'M SORRYYYYY!

If it makes you feel better, I'm as sorry as you are.

Seriously, let's go back to talking about how big a douchebag Strata was. Or why everyone loves Shadar with a manly love.

Agreed.

Having recently finished The Way I have to give a shout out to Scatha and Slade

Eh, I thought the "two schools" were a way of making my thoughts on the matter easier to understand. They're having the exact opposite effect. I'll try one more time. :P

No offense but as someone who completed fully four years of college level education on this subject and currently holds a B.A. in Creative Writing, I am the only one here even remotely qualified for this discussion.

I fully completed three years of college level education... No B.A. in creative writing, but I did get the chance to talk to more than a few teachers and writers (I've yet to talk to a well-known professional writer "in the flesh", unfortunately, but I do like reading interviews of those writers).

The super, super, super short version is that every remotely competent writer understands, instinctively or intellectually, that it is NECESSARY both to hone the technical aspects of your craft ("School #2") and be receptive to inspiration and riffing when the muse takes you ("School #1").

I should have made that bit clearer - of course, School #1 authors will rarely write a story purely from inspiration without ever resorting to a tiny bit of crafting

So, uh... How do we disagree, again? When did I say you either had to write a story purely from inspiration or purely from a writer's manual?

Let's take some more examples - if you really have a lot of experience with the storytelling world, surely you've seen some exams where the teachers asked the students to write a short story within a set amount of time, say two hours. And surely you've noticed how there are people who don't mind, and others who really don't like it because they feel it's overly restricting. Some people can only write great stories when they've got one to tell and are incapable of writing a story "on demand". Other people have got no trouble with making stories on demand, but, sometimes (NOT ALWAYS - super extra emphasis on that), these people think so much in terms of crafting that they can have trouble making a story that they genuinely care about. How many times have we seen series with a good plot decay, simply because the editor kept pressuring the author to release his/her book sooner? Likewise, how many times have we seen movies/books/video games with scenes that bring nothing whatsoever to the plot and that were only added because "people are supposed to like that of stuff"?

There are writers who use "tricks" and pre-made story outlines that apply to every story they make but there are people who think that a story cannot be defined in mathematical terms.

If you're having fun all the time and just breezing along, you're probably not doing it right- likewise, if writing makes you miserable, you're probably not doing it right.

Yeah, we agree, actually - I shouldn't have used the word "school". Maybe more something like "tendencies"? (And I do know that there are people who are right in the middle of those tendencies, and who will sometimes use a lot of "craft", and sometimes mostly inspiration. Still, in my experience, authors lean towards one of these two tendencies and stick to it. I could be wrong, but darn, that's just how it is with the people I've met.)

Actually these two "schools" of yours are, to be bluntly honest, bullshit. I won't spend all day getting into it, but if you really feel that these are the two schools of thought for storytelling, then, I hate to sound harsh here, you have no idea what storytelling is.

By all means, feel free to elaborate. In my experience, the two schools I mentioned are certainly real, as is the quarrel between them.

if you just tell a story "you" want to tell, only people like "you" are going to read it/watch it/whatever.

That's kind of the point, though, isn't it? Let's say Bob has a story in mind, and Bob wants to share it with other people. Bob thinks his story is very good with deep thoughts on the Meaning Of Life Itself or whatever. However, Bob notices that not many people will like his story, because there's not enough action/romance or whatever it is that most people are supposed to like. Should Bob butcher his story to please an audience he doesn't care about, just to "please as many people as possible", or should he just tell his story as it is, and please people like him who think that there aren't enough stories like this?

And, of course, there's just plain bad choices one can make. Like making a character completely inconsequential to the audience's experience, yet having the narrative try to prop them up as if they actually meant anything.

Heh. You're talking about Marion again, aren't you? As I said before, I do believe the Govan are a very important part of iishenron's story, and I believe we will see them again. If we never see them again, then I'll agree with you : having every single Govan disappear from the story just because Fayette refused to be Queen would be queer. But I'm very confident that they're not going to give up so easily.

Your "schools" are little more than the extremes of two sides

I should have made that bit clearer - of course, School #1 authors will rarely write a story purely from inspiration without ever resorting to a tiny bit of crafting or asking themselves things like "let's see, should I make a cutscene that shows the player what his enemies are doing right now, or should I wait a bit more?"; just as even School #2 writers will usually not *completely* change their story to please people who are not part of their target audience : If a fantasy writer gets complaints that there aren't enough spaceships is his/her story, I doubt he/she is going to change this.

And of course, quite a few writers are a mix of both schools - still, generally, a writer will lean towards one of the two schools.

Also, don't try to peg my way of thinking like that. It's insulting.

That's not what I'm trying to do, I'm merely pointing out how writers seem to think.