Faearth Game

“A game must have a clearly defined goal. This goal must be expressed in terms of the effect that it will have on the player. It is not enough to declare that a game will be enjoyable, fun, exciting, or good; the goal must establish the fantasies that the game will support and the types of emotions it will engender in its audience. Since many games are in some way educational, the goal should in such cases establish what the player will learn. It is entirely appropriate for the game designer to ask how the game will edify its audience. …

Most game designers start off by selecting their topic, with their goals subordinated to their topic. Indeed, they commonly describe a game under development by its topic rather than its goal. When I tell other designers that I am working on a game about leadership, I am met with quizzical expressions. Is it a space game, or a wargame, or a dungeon game, they wonder; they seem satisfied when I tell them it’s a game about King Arthur. It is a serious mistake to subordinate the goal to the topic. Although your initial flash of inspiration may focus more on the topic than the goal, you must have the determination to take control of the design and impose your own goals onto the topic rather than allowing yourself to be swept away by the momentum of the topic.”

http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Chapter5.html

GOAL: To be able to see from others’ point of view and cooperate with them in creating ever larger groups of coordinated warrior dancers.

STRUCTURE: Player can only “see” what is in their power to see. Visions teach them things and allow them to learn dances.

CHARACTER TYPES, MAJOR AND MINOR:

[Fae – Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple
Low, High]

Human – Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple
Tavaedi, Zavaedi, Vaedi
Morvae, Imorvae

Fresh Look

I have loathed my wip. Last year, when I’d been working on it for a while, and agents had been rejecting it right and left, I revised and revised until the words just melted into one molten mass of Sucks Rocks. Every revision seemed to drag it further into the abyss of Suckiness.

Now, returning to it after ten months hiatus for a fresh look, I was mildly surprised upon reading it. I enjoyed reading it. Hey! My wip improved while I wasn’t looking! How did that happen?

Were the revisions worth it? Yes and no.

In some ways, I think the original story as I conceived it — all one book — was solid. It was 180,000 words, however. Way too long to have a chance at publication. The excess might have been all fat, but I didn’t (and still don’t) think so. It had to be that long because of the number of characters, the amount of world building, and the number of plotlines. In early revisions, I cut it down to 140,000 words, and frankly, eviscerated it. There’s a reason fantasy stories run in series.

On the other hand, when I turned the story into a series, I had to add characters and plotlines, or it would have been too thin. I’ve done that. The world is richer now. I’ve invested more in my characters. The first book is complete, and the other books in the series are substantially outlined. All have sequences of scenes already written. The end of the series is written.

I’ve spent ten years working on this series. True, that includes periods like the last ten months, where I did no work on the project. It also includes periods where I wrote steadily, four to fourteen hours a day, every day, for years in a row.

Maybe that was a mistake. One of the new agents I queried works at an agency I have queried before. I envisioned the experienced agent warning the new agent, “That old chestnut is still floating around? That loser needs to give it a rest. Write something new already, you no-hit-wonder.” (This is a conceit, of course, since I doubt my query sparked any discussion or recognition whatsoever. I’m sure the new agent is perfectly capable of rejecting projects on her own!)

I do, in fact, have other projects and other ideas. So why don’t I just put this wip in a drawer and stop harassing innocent agents with it? Why did I revise & query yet again?

I still like the story. I still love my characters. I still think their tale is worth telling. And frankly, there is so much world-building involved in a good fantasy epic, it’s incredibly difficult to walk away from a world I know so intimately.

Oh, yeah, and I’m an obsessive lunatic who still imagines I can perfect this book.

Query Response Time

There are new agents in my genre since I last looked. Naturally, I had to pester them with queries on my Dindi novel. I read up on them, winnowed down my list to the ones who seemed awesome, and queried yesterday. One agent replied today! Reject, of course, but wow, that’s fast turn-around. I know it’s not good form to email a thank you, because agents have too much mail already, so I refrained.

On the unlikely chance that the agent in question, or any other agents, read this blog, I will simply offer my thanks here. You rock. Thanks for the quick and courteous reply.