This one may be a bit more involved than you were looking for, but here goes…

Where is the creative control line when you are working as the Developer for a game? By this, I mean how much of the proposed game is given to you, and how much of it is “farmed out” to the writers and such that answer to you?

Cheers!

How many boogies can one toddler make in one day? And as a follow up, how much word could a wordchuck weave?

@Paul:

Creative line is fairly liberal toward the writers’ side, and I say this as more a writer than a developer (and freelance all the way through). Outlines and bibles dictate some key critical information, but the rest of the details are left to the writers.

Hope that answers it?

– c.

@Suzanne:

Boogers: Infinity.

Word Count: The Wordchuck weaves bare minimum 2000 words a day.

– c.

@Chuck: Yup. Danke.

@Paul –

To answer the question with another tidbit:

The thing is, you get a good writing team together, they function as a hivemind. The hivemind is smarter than the individual, which means the writers will come up with way more awesome shit than the developer can or does. So, it’s *good* to trust in that process and to open it up to that kind of creative input. It’s what makes a stronger product in the end. That’s not the say the developer doesn’t have his “NO” button nearby — “NO, we will not be allowing the players to assume control of Giant Rabbits. That makes no sense. This is a game about space marines. Are you high?”

– c.

How many poopies can you fit in before noon?

I reckon i can get three on a good day.

@Jay:

Well, calling them “poopies,” however cute, is disturbing.

And “fit in” asks: where am I fitting them? A jar? A backpack? The trunk of my car? Into what receptacle do I fit said poopies?

– c.

Should I go see a doctor about this? Is starting to stink and feels sticky.

@Rick:

No. That’s just evolution taking place. Sweet, sweet evolution.

This is your Becoming.

Soon you join the ranks of the Sewage Eaters. Soon you shall be among the Boil-Skins and the Canker-Monkeys.

– c.

CHUCK! Man I have been missing the beard! Work has kept me from what few blogs I partake in. Having Chuck/Beard withdrawal! The humanity. Would try to come up with a question to Stomp the Chuck but I’d be afraid of missing it at this rate. lol.

Hope all will soon be back to normal so I can check tweets and sneak off to read blogs at work again. Heh heh. And most importantly RT. Heh heh heh.

Go Chuck! Long Live The Beard!

Dear Chuck “Awesomeface” Wendig:

What is the best way to go about covering up an “accidental death”? I mean, I’ve watched CSI; those fuckers are thorough.

Also, how lazy can you really be, really? You claim to bang at least 2000 words a day, after all. That takes some dedication. And an understanding spouse.

Yours,
Maggie

Topic is gaming: Probably been asked before, but lately, I’ve been struggling with what effects system has on story. How (if at all) do you feel the gaming system used enables or hampers the telling of the game’s story? I’m a fan of gritty survival horror-esque games (think Bioshock, Condemned, Silent Hill) and establishing the right atmosphere is important. I want a system that gives me the framework and doesn’t take away from what we’re doing.

@Darren:

Without getting too crazy-specific, I think the system should serve the story (and also serve the bolstering of the mood and themes of said story), otherwise you’re cramming a square peg in a circle hole.

System and story marry together in a very cool syncretism if done right.

– c.

@Maggie:

My face is awesome.

You do not cover up an accidental death. You own it. Parade it around, WEEKEND AT BERNIE’s style. Don’t hide it. That means you’re ashamed. Have pride.

And my spouse is very understanding. She will remain understanding until the day she snaps and stabs me in the skull. I predict that day is coming.

– c.

Are there any words in the English language that give you the skeeves? A friend of mine hates the word, “moist.”

Also, in your 1950s cookbook, are there any recipes for a custardy type sauce not involving eggs that one would put on whipped Jell-O?

@Julie:

Words: No? I don’t think so. Oh, believe it or not, I am not fond of the word “fart.” I don’t know why. It just feels wrong.

Custardy Sauce: Don’t have the book handy, but can nab it from the kitchen — will report back!

– c.

“Fart” is a ridiculous word. It does feel wrong. Awkward. Currently I’m stuck with “poot” with the kids, and it’s kind of more fun. A bit.

Dear Chuck. WTF? KWIM? LOL.

Pax,
Cam

@Cam:

NASA, FYI.

– c.

@Julie:

I am a fan of “poot.”

Also, “poo.”

Also: custardy non-egg sauces include:

Brazil Nut Marshmallow Cream.

Marshmallow Mousse.

Brandy Pudding Sauce.

You could, of course, just whip your own whipped cream, which is delicious.

– c.

What are your writing habits like? Is there a certain time of day you set aside specifically just for WRITING, or is a “do what you can with what you’ve got” sort of thing? Do you have a writing space, or anything you particularly need when you write?

@Patrick:

I get up very early (pre-6AM) and start writing by 7AM.

I write in the morning until I’m done. I edit in the afternoon (also until I’m done, or until I have to make dinner).

I need coffee.

I have an office.

But I don’t require much else!

Just a chair to which I may staple my ass.

– c.

What movie do you force other people to watch because they have probably never seen it before and it is AWESOME?

If you had the ability to go back in time and tell yourself one thing, what would it be? Would it be advice? Would it be to avoid a situation or make a different decision? Or would it just be some guru stuff like “Believe in yourself.”

What is your favorite RPG? Why?

Noah

@Lugh:

Oof, that’s a tricky one. Well, they’ve probably seen Amelie, but not Delicatessen or City of Lost Children, so those are on the menu.

Grosse Pointe Blank, potentially.

Head Trauma, my writing partner’s last film.

I’ll ponder some more.

– c.

@Liz:

I’d say two things:

1) “It gets better.”

2) And I’d tell myself when my father was going to die.

– c.

@Noah:

Probably a tie between Changeling: The Lost and Hunter: The Vigil. The latter because it’s my baby, the former because I’ve gotten so much mileage out of it.

– c.

how do you feel about works of fiction that take their main plot points from or are reworkings of myths/fairy/folk tales? does it depend on the execution?

@Sabrina:

I’m actually a sucker for those, but like anything in the fiction world, it definitely depends on the execution. Borrowing those elements just for the sake of doing so — and not for the sake of some theme, mood, emotional thrust, etc. — will result in a tepid reworking, I think.

– c.

When writing fiction, how much do you plan out before you start writing? I’m guessing it depends on what you’re writing, since a movie would have less space than a novel, but suppose it’s a novel. Do you set out with a clear idea of what happens in the middle and how it ends, or do you start before you have those points? Do you ever start writing and then decide it’ll be different than you’d originally intended?

@Danielle:

I plan it out as completely as I can manage it — I identify loose acts and the scenes and sequences that comprise those acts.

I do this with scripts and novels. Scripts actually get even more planning, and that’s worked out very well — it makes the writing process easier. People act like you’re somehow stealing the thunder from the writing process when you outline, but that’s silly: the outlining *is* part of the writing process. The actual writing is just making good on your promises to yourself.

That said, how often do I deviate from that? Often enough, either during, or in post.

I always like to compare it to a journey. I like to map the journey so I don’t get lost, but that doesn’t mean if I see a more scenic route I won’t take it.

– c.

Dear Chuck: WHAT IS BEST IN LIFE???

Also, best online memory of me. Go!

(made this hard on purpose. Hehehehehe…..purpose.)

Okay, say you have a loose idea for a story. Does the outlining process help you come up with how the story progresses, or do you figure out the ending some other way?

Like, if you have an idea for a really cool setting (like a fantasy city based off medieval Spain/Morocco) or just a very basic idea of a plot (like a mage/scientist who wants to build a spaceship). How would you flesh these ideas out into a full-fledged story that someone would actually want to read?

@John:

Best in life? Mine, or overall?

And my best online memory of you is all of them. They’re equally best. /copout

– c.

@Danielle:

Outlining may or may not help with figuring out how it progress — but it records the progress you make.

Figuring out the story is… well, a deal that is hard to encapsulate in comments, but it’s like this: stories have patterns, tricks, bones. You start figuring out the patterns and bones of the story: what do you want to do for an inciting incident? Who is the character and why is he interesting? What’s the conflict? A story? B story? C story? Arc turns? Important beats? Emotional thrust? Theme? Mood? You don’t have to necessary answer all those, but you answer the ones you can answer, and a story starts to emerge. The outlining actually comes last for me: the outline is just an arrangement of story elements, the path through the story.

– c.

Well, if you wrote down all the things you just listed, that sounds suspiciously like outlining. Thank you, though. I just wanted to get an idea of how people come up with and plan out their ideas.

On a completely different note, why does water from the bathroom sink always taste better than water from the kitchen sink, or any other sink?

@Danielle:

Oh, no, an outline is just… an arrangement, an ordering.

Answering those questions (I do them in a mindmap) are… notes. Ramblings. Thoughts. Needn’t be in any order, just an exploration of the elements of the piece.

As for bathroom sink question: it’s the rime of poo that crusts the bottom of the spigot.

– c.

Ahh. I always take all pre-planning to be part of outlining. Probably because I never did any of it when I wrote fiction in school, even if I was getting graded on my planning. (I rarely wrote rough drafts for essays, either. I did write notes though. College is going to kick my ass.)

Yummy, yummy poo.

Dear Chuck.

Who was cooler? The Fonz, Templeton “Faceman” Peck, or Michael Knight?

@Paul:

“Face” is easily the coolest of the three.

Michael Knight eats cheeseburgers drunk on the floor.

The Fonz jumped a shark. Which sounds cool, but has become the sign of “totally not cool.”

– c.

How can you be so awesome? I mean, you have the beard of Chuck Norris and write like a god. Also, what do you like to write the most? Novel, shorter fiction, screenplay, RPG stuff, gameline development? And the one you hate the most?

@Shadow Freak: I do write like a god. Meaning, I literally write with fire and sea spray, in lava and in the orchestrations of birds, in raw revenge and dripping adoration.

Okay, no. But thank you for the kind words.

I… generally really like writing all of that stuff? So, no hate. But I like “novel” and “screenplay” most — particularly original content stuff. RPG stuff is great, but it’s a harder groove to groove to. I love short fiction in theory, but find that ultimately it’s a waste of time and energy given the result.

– c.

Is it too late for you to answer this?

@Rick:

No.

– c.

The current question from the masses:

over?
under?
on the back of the tank?
“someone bring me a damn roll!”?

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night having to unleash a lemon squirt and find yourself beardless?

You know it’s cheating on you with other men when you’re not watching. Rather than being strapped to a keyboard jockey 24/7, it’s out picking fights with bikers and stealing from the collection plate at fundamentalist churches. Just thought I’d let you know why you keep seeing those sticky bits of Eucharist tangled in there every weekend. It’s not because you’re being orally probed by angels while you’re asleep, regardless of what Father Joe told you.

This Q&A thing just took a deep, deep slide. I feel queasy.

I may be a bit late off the mark here and too late to join the band wagon but here goes…

This is not so much a question as it is my thoughts on writing. I am on the first draft of a MS and I believe what I am experiencing is true of most writers or maybe no one at all however I doubt that I am unique.

It is very difficult first time around, wondering what in the hell you are doing, what were you thinking and who the hell you are even undertaking this journey, but then on a good day and 2000 words later you feel you are one of the luckiest people alive to be able to do this.

The story that made so much sense takes on a life of its own and now resembles very little of what it did in the planning stages, but nevertheless pretty damn good – then turns around and makes absolutely no sense to you, so why would anyone else understand it.

The blank looks on peoples faces when you tell them “well, I write and no I have never been published” as they snicker and roll their eyes at your pretentiousness at even calling yourself a writer because you are NOT writing about vampires or child wizards and that seems to be the meter of successfull writing these days.

Finding what works for you. Outlining or not. Keyboard or longhand on days when the words are not coming fast enough. Morning or evening and laying down 500 words of crap as long as you write something. Getiing down the first draft come hell or high water or editing as you go along. Reading countless blogs of successfull writers as if some insight into their mind will clear the confusion in your own.

All I have discovered thus far is this: You hate yourself for even attempting this, but you would have hated yourself more for not and if they ask? Tell them your name is really Dan Brown and then they will shut the heck up!

@Tina:

Well, no real question there, so I don’t have any answer as a result, but…

All I can say is, the only person you actually have to live with is yourself, so do what feels right. Own the process. The input of others doesn’t matter. Or, rather, it doesn’t matter *now* — it’ll damn sure matter when you’ve got a finished product, but only then.

If you’re trying to be a writer because you want other people to be excited by it, heh, don’t. You will find alarmingly little support for being a writer. Most people think it’s lazy or insane or wonder why you’re not rich or writing bestsellers.

Write because it’s what you want to do, not because it’s what you want other people to want you to do.

– c.

LOL!!….no I decided a long time ago, that this is for me. If I like it…and ONLY then, will I send it out into the world and then….I will do it again.

I think that learning the process is an incrediable experience, not so easy at it looks huh?

As for success….well I can say to anyone who considers being published as being successfull. This is what I have to say….what have you written lately?

What? A copout and you didn’t answer my Conan quote? I’m a sad panda.

My best memory of you was when you were at the con signing books and looking pleased with yourself about Hunter. OK, that wasn’t an online memory but it still counts!