Monday, June 14, 2010

Left Coast: A day in the life of a writer

Here's a little something I wrote up for Left Coast, my game about drug-addled science fiction writers struggling to write their books.


6 am. Can't sleep.
6.07 am. Baby wakes up screaming.
6.30 am. Wash baby poo off hands.
7.34 am. Score.


8.40am. Sit down to write.
8.43am. Breakfast.
9.04am. Sit down to write.
9.11am. Tidy room.
9.15 am. Blink.



Sometime. Sit down to write.
Afternoon. Blank.



2.14pm. Realise I’ve been staring at a wall for a long time.
2.15pm. Wash unidentified brown substance off own hands.
2.something. Blank.


4pm. Driving north.


4.23pm. Coffee with the gang.


5.05pm. Steal TV back from Eddie.



6.10pm. Pick up more nappies. For baby.
6.11pm. Score.
6.13pm. Phone dealer.
6.15pm. Phone dealer.
6.16pm. Phone dealer.


7.48pm. Party with dealer & the gang.

8.09pm. Replace smashed painting with vase of flowers picked from front lawn.


1am. Where am I?
1.02am. Call wife.
2am. Walk 5 miles back to home.
2.50am. Scribble short story idea on borrowed napkin from diner.

4am. Write on front porch while drinking beer and ignoring screams of baby.








4 comments:

Simon said...

Cool! Sounds good.

Now: Where are the conflicts? What do the different characters want, and how do tey try to get that?

Or else maybe that kind of conflict-focused resolution isn't right for this concept. Have you seen Archipelago II? I don't know a lot about it but it seems like it might have some ideas that would suit this kind of narrative.

Steve said...

Thanks, Simon. I gave some feedback on 'Love in the time of the Seid', a module using the Archipelago II system. You're right; there might be something to that.

I'm going to be writing up my notes about conflicts and when they happen, but that'll be in a couple of days. (They're influenced by some of the clunkier moments in our Bliss Stage game.) I also had a good discussion with Sean today about what the characters *do* that'll feed into that.

*returns gaze to desk, keeps writing*

Steve said...

*looks up again*

Although, what I think I might do is publish some stuff here about conflicts and what the characters do. It'd be good to get your feedback on that at this stage.

Matt said...

I read part of the above as 'get your feedback on' as in 'get your groove on'. I think that's a usage I want to adopt.

"Hey Steve, I wrote a story and I'm not sure about the ending. You wanna get your feedback on?"

Also, ignoring crying baby may be historically accurate but it made me deeply dislike this character. Being weird at children is something I can really get behind in gaming, but the spectre of abusive neglect turns me off. Obviously that's a personal taste thing influenced by having a little dude in the room while I read this...