DeAnna Knippling's Blog, page 87

Interview with RolePages creator Joseph Gambit

I was recently invited to exchange blogs with the creator of RolePages, Joseph Gambit.  RolePages is a…I don't know that there's a word for it.  Maybe there is.  An in-character place to game without the bother of rules, but with an overarching story arc.  It's like stepping into a little multiverse, a text-based MMORPG.  A MUSH without code.  On the site, it says it's an experimental role-playing site.  Well.  I had to know more, so I begged for an interview…

First, give us a summary of what RolePages is all about and why you made the decision to set up the site.

RolePages is a community website that is part social network, part writing group, and part roleplaying game. The mechanics are very similar to Facebook, except instead of signing up as yourself, you sign up as a fictional character that you create. You then tell the story of that character's life by interacting with other characters across the site.

I've always been a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy, and I have experimented with a number of different websites in this genre. A few years back I started getting interested in Alternate Reality Games and the way that they could take a fictional experience, such as watching the popular TV series Lost, and make it even more real by bringing elements of that story into the world around you.

These are games that featured characters that had real Twitter accounts, with videos posting on YouTube, phone numbers that you could call or text for clues, and even in some cases real-life meet ups or clues left in physical locations. The idea was to take the gaming experience and make it as "immersive" and realistic as possible.

At the same time I saw the explosion of networks such as Myspace and then Facebook, which were essentially social games and personal storytelling devices. When I started RolePages, my idea was to take those same basic tools and use them to allow groups of people to tell stories about fictional characters, worlds, and situations that they created.

What's your background in gaming? That is, what made you start gaming, what kind of games do you play, and–I gotta know–did you MUSH, back in the day? If so, what/where did you play?

I assume by gaming you aren't talking about me playing Candyland as a toddler.

But seriously, my experience with gaming started about 15 years ago. The internet was relatively new to consumer households at the time, and I, like many others back then, discovered and fell in love with chat rooms. Being able to talk to and interact with people socially without having to be face to face was really important for a shy, awkward teenager like me.

I was on the Prodigy ISP when I stumbled across a small group of rooms that were labeled as roleplaying chat spaces. When I entered, I found something that was truly amazing.

Rather than chatting with one another about the latest music video, these people were playing a game that was made up entirely of written words. They were all acting like these crazy characters and were interacting with one another in a writing style that was very much like reading a novel, except that this was a novel that I could jump into and help write whenever I wanted.

And because it was entirely word-based, your character could be absolutely anyone, and they could do anything that you could imagine.

I spent several years there "gaming" with an amazing group of people before Prodigy failed and the rooms were closed down. After that I tried a number of different interactive games, MUDs, MMORPGs, and even spent some time on Furcadia, one of the first graphic-based interactive RPGs back when it was still a new concept. I also dabbled in D&D and White Wolf with friends locally.

However I was never as taken with any of these games as I was with those original chat rooms because I always felt restricted. They were usually based largely on numbers, stats, and points, which often made the game feel like math homework. I was also dissatisfied with the AIs, which seemed to get in the way of the kind of storytelling that could happen between two or more people. Even now, with all of the advances in programming, graphics, and AIs, I still find things like World of Warcraft to be a little restrictive.

How do you feel RolePages comes out of your gaming background?

Over the years I've played numerous MUDs, MMORPGs, Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), graphical adventures, and social RPGs, as well as a variety of chat and forum games.

RolePages is my attempt to take what I consider the best parts of those experiences–the creativity, the interactive storytelling, the art, and the beauty of the narrative–and bring those elements together in a way that facilitates the creation of fictional tales.

What is the itch that RolePages scratches, that no other gaming system/site does?

For one thing RolePages offers a fairly unprecedented level of freedom to be creative. With an AI or graphic-based game, there are going to be some inherent restrictions. Even if you have a millions choices as to how your character looks or where they are going to go, you are still relying on the creativity of the game designer for the final feel and function of the experience.

On RolePages, the entire experience is supplied by the players. The adventures, quests, and events are not operated by AIs and do not rely on a certain set of graphics or programs. Rather, these are player generated situations, which are designed to tell the best stories possible through the unbridled creativity afforded by words, pictures, and on occasion videos.

There is also an artistic element to RolePages which isn't present in many other games. When you go raiding for hours, you get virtual gold and experience points. When you spend the same amount of time telling stories about a character that you have created, you end up with blog posts, artwork, and written interactions that detail narrative elements of a work of fiction that you are creating.

Where's the best place for new players or interested guests to start?

I would suggest that new players check out the instructions to get a brief overview of how the site works.

We also have a community newspaper that is crowd written, detailing the overall story arc that is created by the many threads of story that are woven into the tapestry of the site.

Finally, I'd suggest people take a look at the role-playing chat. It acts as a sort of center stage for the site, with live improvised stories being written by a variety of author-actors all the time.

Where do you see the site going in the future? And have there been any extensions/coincidences into RL?

The future of RolePages will involve refining the mechanics of the social game. We have planned events several nights a week which involve the creation of fictional narrative stories in interactive ways using chat rooms and shared documents. There are also at least two independent group efforts being made to crowdsource RolePages novels.

As far as extensions into real life, we just had our first official community meet up at DragonCon 2011 where we marched in costume in the parade. Small unofficial groups also meet all the time and a number of important friendships, romantic relationships, and even a couple of weddings have come from people meeting across the community.

What's the most inspiring work by your members to come out of the site?

We sometimes refer to the entire site as a living novel, because all of the different stories being told by all of the different characters are woven into a larger, over-arcing storyline that provides a rough backdrop for the entire experience. This is a story that is changing, expanding, and deepening every second of the day.

We started weaving these disparate tales into a single broad narrative when the site opened in 2009, and over the course of two years we were able to tell a single, cogent, logical story arc, with a beginning, middle, and even a climactic end. This was a story with thousands of characters and hundreds of plot lines that stretched in every direction imaginable, and yet was able to be contained within the backdrop of the overall narrative that we provided.

The climax of the story occurred just this past August, and since then we've toned down the scale of the overall narrative somewhat. However, I will always be proud of the infinitely subtle and complex story we told over those two years. You can read about that in the community newspaper that we kept detailing the events.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

I think I've babbled on the other questions quite enough. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I hope I wasn't too verbose, but I am passionate about this site, so when you get me started it's often difficult to stop.

What are mysteries for?

You are what you eat, right?

But you're also what you do.  The things you do over and over and over write themselves into your brain:  your habits reach quite deep.  And which comes first–the habit or the state of mind that goes with the habit?  It's hard to say.  For example, I'm always fighting a tendency to bite my nails, especially when I'm stressed, mentally or emotionally.  I'm fine if they're smooth, but if there's a hangnail or one side that's uneven, I suddenly find my nails in my mouth, trying to make them perfect.  It never works (teeth just aren't made to produce perfectly smooth nails), and I have to fix my mistakes by nibbling more.

I'm a perfectionist, the worst kind: nothing is good enough.  My natural tendency is to mess around with things until they're worn to nubbins.  I actually have enough control over myself that I can post blogs that aren't perfect, stories that aren't perfect, and state my imperfect opinions out loud, although I have to admit my heart does a lurch every time I do.  I also have fingernails and, for the most part, use a clipper.  However, my hands are still in and out of my mouth all day, as I go, "Nope.  Nope.  Nope."

Why don't I just stop chewing my nails?  Hey, why don't I just be someone completely different while I'm at it?  It's hard disconnecting that habit from an associated habit of mind.

All of which is a ramble to get me to the point: when you read a certain genre constantly, it indicates something.  One, that there's something in the genre that appeals to you, and two, that you're reprogramming your brain to be a little better at the things that brought you to the genre in the first place.  The action of reading and the mental habit are tied together.

So mysteries:  What are they for?

I recently read a thick tome of Agatha Christie/Poirot short stories, 50 of them altogether.  My usual record for her stuff is figuring out about one in ten.  These, I got about half:  the half that I got were the ones where I was alert; the half I didn't was where I was on autopilot or starting to fall asleep.  I have been trying to figure out what on earth changed that made the stories easier to figure out.  The stories were the same; it must have been something I'd done.

Well, also recently, I went on a kick where I went totally nuts over sudoku.  Stupid nuts.  Snarling when interrupted nuts.  I don't know what it was, but I just got sucked in.  Over and over and over, until I started to see patterns:  this must be true, this must not be true. This is suspicious. This is obvious.

I think that's what did it: I spent so much time looking at logical patterns that the habit of mind started to carry over to other things.  I stopped asking, "Who dunnit" when I read mysteries, and started asking, "What's wrong with this picture?  What must be true, yet appears to be not true?  What must not be true, yet is?"

Over and over, I read Hercule Poirot say that he had his methods.  What were they?  He never says what his methods are.  And yet I think I know what they are now: "Given X, what must be true?  Given Y, what must not be true?"  Where, as it were, has reality been photoshopped?  Questions of who dunnit come later, as the evidence of what's been changed and who changed it comes to light.

I think a love for mysteries–not real-life investigators, who may or may not use the same methods; I don't know enough to say–comes out of the desire to solve logic puzzles, and the love of mysteries contributes to the ability to solve logic puzzles.  More practically, I think that love of mysteries goes along with people with a talent for seeing past BS, with qualities of nosiness and persnicketiness, and who feel they have the right to act on their own judgments in ethical questions.  One of the major themes in mystery stories is the ability of the detective to judge for themselves whether punishment is deserved or not–to be able to take action based on information, rather than pure impulse.  Of course, mystery readers can make asses of themselves by making unwarranted assumptions; it's almost a trope to have a mystery reader who tries (and fails) to help solve the mystery.

But then again, maybe they haven't read enough mysteries yet.

Look back at anger

Over the last couple of years, I've been trying to lessen the presence of anger in my life.  Yes, it sounds hokey when I say it like that, but I really don't have any other language other than that to describe what I'm trying to do.  I think it has more to do with our attitudes toward our emotions than it does with any inherent hokeyness of the sentiment; it sounds weird because we're uncomfortable talking about the opposite of anger.

We're comfortable talking about being surrounded by and embracing anger.  We're not embarrassed by talking about how angry we are at work, how frustrated we are with our spouses–we're not uncomfortable making fun of our spouses and how shallow they are, or how shallow and useless the opposite sex in general–we talk smack about everything.  We insult people constantly.  Peace and love? Those things sound hokey.

I can't say I'm over my anger, but I am starting to get a handle on it.

When I'm tired and stressed and down, it's easier to be negative.  When I don't have the energy to deal with things, it's easier to be angry and defensive.  When I'm tired, negative things are more funny, although I haven't ever gotten to the point where seeing people getting kicked in the crotch is hilarious.  I'm starting to separate anger from "the way things are, the things I take for granted" to "well, that's poisonous and will probably start a vicious cycle today."

It's meant that I've had to back away from some people; it doesn't matter whether they're right or wrong, because they drag me down for the rest of the day.  I still love a good argument–but if it looks like the other party just wants to lash out rather than hash out differences, I have to back away.  Do you argue to be right, or to present your ideas and learn new information?  I don't care whether you're right or whether you're on the same "side" as I am: if all you're doing is ranting, I really ought to go.  I try to wait out the short rants, because everyone has flareups, but if it starts to set me off, I'm better off walking away.

I've noticed that a lot of people are unthinkingly hateful, angry, spiteful, and judgmental–and will outright lie to back up their actions–and I know I'm still like that, too, but at least I can see myself doing it at the time, even if I can't always talk myself out of it once I get started.

It's a bit early for a New Year's Resolution, but here's where I'm going next: I'm going to start interrupting myself to give myself a chance to react positively to situations.  "You don't have the energy to deal with this.  Why not put it off until later, when you do?  Why not apologize for being cranky?  Why not do X for a while to see if it help perk you up?  Why not assume the other person has the best of intentions…they just can't read your mind?"

I can't say that I'm trying to switch from pessimism from optimism.  I'd rather say that I'm trying to switch from saying, "Who filled this @#$%^& glass, anyway?" to "That was @#$%^& delicious!  What's next?"  I'd rather be the old lady dancing naked on the table than muttering to herself in the corner, and lessening anger might get me out of the corner, but it won't help me have any fun.

Goodreads book giveaway for Tales Told Under the Covers!

All, I'm giving away three signed copies of Tales Told Under the Covers: Zombie Girl Invasion & Other Stories. Three paper copies, via Goodreads–sign up from now to December 31st.  I may toss in an ebook copy of Exotics 1, if it's ready.

If you would like to buy a signed copy for delivery before Christmas, contact me at dknippling {at} gmail {dot} com.

 

"…whilst reading "Tales Told Under The Covers" I definitely felt that De is the natural successor to Lewis Carroll in terms of imagination, variety, surreal madness and dark wit." –Emma Hunneyball

"These kids were underdogs — like I was as a kid. They inspired bravery and made me laugh out loud. The stories themselves are a blast, even at their creepiest; De has the coolest imagination." –Liz Barone

TALES TOLD UNDER THE COVERS: ZOMBIE GIRL INVASION & OTHER STORIES, by De Kenyon (that is, me!)

–Middle-grade horror, sf, and fantasy short stories.–

Ten tales of death, invasions from other realms, bullies, babysitters, liars, and the brave kids who fight back. Zombie girls who have to hide, lest they get eaten by bigger zombies. Food that bites back. Wizards who are scared of their own power. Murdered (and murderous) pets. Secret superpowers. And that last, great voyage into the unknown.

Stories to be whispered under the covers, by flashlight.

Stories to be read by firelight to the robots who come out of the woods.

Stories to be told when the witches are ready to eat you but want to hear just one more story before they shove you in the oven.

Creepy Stories. Fantastical Stories. Weird Stories.

Amazon.com

Barnes and Noble

Print

And other online stores.

 

The Unspoken Rules of Guest Posting for Authors

I'm not the world's most prolific guest poster, but someone asked me about it, so I'll ramble about what I know…

As an author, if you're writing a guest post, there are some unspoken rules of etiquette that I will speak of, because I'm all about speaking about the generally unspeakable:  TMI!

In brief:

Write an original post that you do not use elsewhere.  You can always write multiple posts on the same topic, but do not copy old material in a guest post, and do not post your guest post on the same site.  The general idea is to drive traffic to the host's website.  If your content can be found elsewhere on the web, there's no reason for your followers to go to the host's website.  Of course, you hope that the hosts's followers will go to your website, too, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Be entertaining.  If you are not entertaining, people will not expect to be entertained by your books.  The reason that you are being invited to guest post is to be entertaining–Aha, says the host, I will invite someone to guest post that will entertain my readers. No matter what you are technically supposed to be writing about, you must be entertaining.  (Unlike at your own website, where you are allowed to be as dry as you like.)
Keep it under 1000 words; longer than that, and people may not read the whole way through–and the links to your website will be at the bottom of the post.  Leave them wanting more–at your website.
Always include links to a) the book you're promoting and b) your website at the bottom of your post, whether you're prompted to or not.
At your website, write a brief summary (100 words or less) about what you wrote about on the other website, and link to the other website.  Announce your guest posting over whatever social networking that you normally use.
If you are doing an interview, only answer the questions with amusing stories.  Even if the questions read like a personality questionnaire or you've heard them a thousand times already, you must a) tell a story and b) be entertaining.  The readers want to meet the author; you have to be your most charming.  You're the writer; it's your job to convince people to care–not your interviewer's.

If you want to be more professional about it, here are additional tips:

Read a selection of posts on the host's website, both posts on what they write about usually and a few guest posts.
Try to figure out who their audience is and what they want–readers, people who want to know about a certain subject, people who are amused by the host's attitude toward life, etc.
Consider where your book meets their audience and write about that.  If you wrote a foodie romance and you're on a cooking website, talk more about the food; if you're on a romance website, talk more about the people who inspired you.
If you want to be really over-the-top helpful about it and know anything about keywords, figure out the intersection of search terms you think people would use to find you and to find your host's site…and include those in your post. If not, don't worry about it.

Massive holiday writerly giveaway.

Starting the 9th, leave a comment over at Avery Olive's website to be entered into a drawing for many, many different books, ebooks, journals, gift cards–lots of STUFF.  My book, Tales Told Under the Covers, is part of the drawing for December 14, so leave a comment then

Updated cover updates of doom!

Thank you for the excellent comments.  Updates…still need to get the non-swirly version; I may be getting a new wolf silhouette from my friend Asia's Dark Moon Farm & Kennels…she has a husky who likes to sing, she says

 

The Distance of Fantasy

I've been thinking about fantasy novels, having written a lot about mirrors lately during NaNoWriMo (via Through the Looking-Glass).  What is fantasy?  A reflection, either internal or external, of something real.  But I was noticing that different types of fantasy have different, I don't know, lengths (and complexity) of reflection.

How far away is Urban Fantasy from "real life"?  Considering that it's supposed to be about a fantasy world that very well could exist, but that we in the real world don't know about, not very far.

Alternate History isn't very far.  (Sorry:  Alternate history is mainly considered science fiction, but I realize that it's based on "what if," the way SF is.  However, it's a reflection; I'm using it here.)

How far away is Epic Fantasy?  A little farther–at first, you think, "But it's a totally made-up world!" but soon realize that X fantasy country is analogous to Y "real world" country.  Or–further still–you realize that X fantasy mythology is based on Y "real world" mythology, a story based on a story.  A second-level reflection.

The nonsense in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass aren't random; they're based on real-world logic and the way it clashed with the manners at the time; the books were closer to the real world–then–than many so-called fantasy stories.  Many of the surreal effects of the books come from our not getting the joke, now.

Something I'm wondering is, how far away do you have to get before you're writing a fantasy world?

If there are werewolves in London (aaaa-ooooo), is it a fantasy world?  –Not merely an urban fantasy world, which is supposed to be the real world with extra stuff in it, but a fantasy world?

If you change the name of London to Underthings and keep the werewolves but leave everything else the same, is it a fantasy world?

I think the (thin and laughably permeable) boundary is crossed when you change public consensus about physical reality.  For example, Underthings becomes the capital city of a fantasy world when you make it common knowledge that air flight is powered by a compound derived from frog skins.

Now: this is illogical on the face of it, because it means that fantasy-ish steampunk is not set in the "real world" plus changes, but in a fantasy world. (The steampunk where the science is realistic but based on steam rather than gasoline is SF, to my mind.)

Scott Westerfield's Leviathan series is in a fantasy universe where the locations happen to have the same names as ours.  (Because those genetic manipulations and machines are totally logical and plausible to have built for the time and place.  Riiiiight.)  Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century books are in a fantasy universe where the locations happen to have the same names as ours.  (And ditto.)  Those fantasies are further away from the real world than actual alternate history books, but they are closer than books based on Tolkein, like Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, which are third-level reflections (Norse mythology–>Tolkein–>Sanderson.)

The fundamental rules of the universe have changed, and changed openly.  They are no longer "real worlds" being invaded by fantasy elements, as in Urban Fantasy and Contemporary Fantasy.  They are unreal worlds, even if they happen to have "real-world" names.

 

Test Cover: Please comment!

All, I'm working on a cover for the next De Kenyon book, the first in a middle-grade series.  Please give me comments!  The genre is an adventure/spy story with lots of magic and animals, modern day.  (I may add a tagline later.)

The last version, everybody had a problem with the font. Here's the deal: I went to change it, showed it to Ray, and she was like bleah. She's already associating that font with the book: it must be a powerful font. I just have to figure out how to harness that power safely. Pics are low-res and freebie version of the high-res, non-swirly versions I will pick up later, if this works.

The reason for the color change is that I need to be able to do something consistently across the books:  if the wolf is a solid color, this is the solid color he has to be…

New version:

 

Old version:

NaNoEDIT6Mo: Get 'Er Done!

Now that I've finished NaNoWriMo2011, I'm going to switch gears: to editing.

I find that my enjoyment of editing swings back and forth; usually what happens is that I hate it until I'm in the middle of it, and then I enjoy it until I get sick of it, and then I hate it again. So I've been trying to reduce the amount of time, per story, that I need to spend editing by trying to get better as first drafts, so I have less to work on. This whole writing-fast experiment I've been doing over the last year and a half has really seen an improvement in my writing, but not enough that a) I don't have to do line edits and b) it can magically go back and fix things that I didn't write well the first time 'round.

Therefore: I'm taking off time from writing new novels in order to get my old ones up and out.

I'm not sure about the short stories. I want to keep writing them, but it takes about eight hours to get a 4K story written, edited, formatted, and posted, and that means I lose a day every week to short stories. I have to keep writing new stories. I'll have nightmares if I don't keep writing something new. But I may quit putting them up for a while–I'll still keep submitting, though. I've figured out how to format a pretty clean story and design a not-completely-idiotic cover, so I've achieved what I wanted to achieve as far as those go.

Here's what I have:

Four novels in a chapter book/middle grade series (the character gets older), with a fifth still to write.
A SF novel of an alien invasion that can only be stopped by beer
A fantasy novel about a 13-year-old boy investigating the death of his friend, in and out of fairy
The first book in a fantasy trilogy about a post-WWII nurse trying to prevent the invasion of Nazi mechs from a fantasy universe
A Japanese teen who steals a sword from the death-goddess and ends up trying to stop an apocalypse started by her dead father (on sub–but it's been six months with no word, absolutely none)
A caterer investigating the mysterious slaughter of her desserts (on sub)
And now, Alice Liddell and zombies

My goal is to get all of these edited (perhaps not posted, but either posted or on sub) by the end of May.  I want a clean slate, dammit.