Comments | greygirlbeast: "Its all sex and death as far as I can tell."

greygirlbeast

"Its all sex and death as far as I can tell."

Feb 27, 2011 12:17

Just as the last of the snow was melting, it snowed again last night. Not much here in Providence, but more up north.

Yesterday, I wrote another 1,068 words on the last chapter of The Drowning Girl: A Memoir. I think I'm terrified. The book is a house of cards, and I'm stacking more on top, and pulling cards out from the bottom, and somehow I have ( Read more... )

selwyn, endings, rp, the drowning girl, rift, snow, warcraft, mike mignola, richard kirk, the ammonite violin & others, sex, suzanne collins

Comments 26

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greygirlbeast February 27 2011, 20:18:52 UTC

(You know they're making a movie, right?)

I did not. It could be very cool.

Auntie Beast's Book Club ...

There's a thought.

stsisyphus February 27 2011, 17:02:43 UTC

I'm interested in this idea you present that writing is inherently connected to isolation, a private act which is necessarily divorced from social interaction. I'm not sure I agree, but I'm also not disagreeing that MMO RP is incongruent with formal writing. There's certainly stylistic things I'd do in RP that I'd never do in prose, and vice versa. I definitely have a different idiom for each kind of expression.

Perhaps the issue is that formal writing requires a kind of discipline which RP side steps as a form of recreation. But then, no, that would suggest that acting doesn't have its own discipline which (while social) can be no less rigourous. Hmm. Not sure.

greygirlbeast February 27 2011, 20:22:09 UTC

Perhaps the issue is that formal writing requires a kind of discipline which RP side steps as a form of recreation. But then, no, that would suggest that acting doesn't have its own discipline which (while social) can be no less rigorous. Hmm. Not sure.

I can't boil this down to different modes of expression. I mean they are, but these are differences of kind, not of degree. They are fundamentally different enterprises. On that I'll not budge.

As for the solitary thing, I believe it's necessary. I know that to others it's not. But I still maintain that roleplayers who claim they're partaking in "collaborative writing," or any sort of genuine writing, are either mistaken or deluded.

Typing, even acting via typing, isn't writing.

stsisyphus February 27 2011, 21:07:31 UTC

On that I'll not budge.

No need for you to budge, obviously. I just felt this might be one of those things that varies from practitioner to practitioner.

Do not assume that because I express my views that I'm obligated to defend those views to you or engage in a dialogue, or even listen to your views. And I will exchange the favour.

I sorta knew that you weren't really inviting discussion, but I felt compelled to comment.

catconley February 27 2011, 17:03:16 UTC

The Hunger Games is amazing! I'm as excited about Katniss and The Hunger Games as I was about Lyra and The Golden Compass when I read it in high school.

Have fun on your adventure and good luck with your work.

greygirlbeast February 27 2011, 20:23:45 UTC

I'm as excited about Katniss and The Hunger Games as I was about Lyra and The Golden Compass when I read it in high school.

Ah, if such books had existed when I was in high school. Then again, if they'd not, I might never have read The Lord of the Rings and Watership Down.

catconley February 28 2011, 06:32:27 UTC

Ah, if such books had existed when I was in high school.

That's kind of how I feel about all of the awesome YA that's come out in the past 10 years or so, even though there was a decent amount available when I was a teenager and I really can't complain.

Then again, if they'd not, I might never have read The Lord of the Rings and Watership Down.

Very true. I don't know what high school would have been like without Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Between quoting that and Monty Python, I barely had to think of an original thing to say all day...

pisceanblue February 27 2011, 17:19:16 UTC

Honestly, it feels like there are these people who want to be writers, but either they have no talent or they won't sign off a damned game or social dohicky or whatever long enough to endure the intense solitude of writing, so they're trying to change the definition of writing to include what they're doing.
Agreed. I have no experience in this in regards to RPGs, but I have encountered it in other forms, people who "write" but make no effort to actually create something of worth. I find those people do most *everything* halfassedly.

greygirlbeast February 27 2011, 20:24:12 UTC

Agreed. I have no experience in this in regards to RPGs, but I have encountered it in other forms, people who "write" but make no effort to actually create something of worth. I find those people do most *everything* halfassedly.

Yes.

ext_269782 February 27 2011, 17:52:20 UTC

Thanks for the link to the Kirk book - I love his work. I'll pick that up when the budget allows!

I am very fortunate that I've never come across anyone who thought that RP was writing. I suppose it helps that I don't interact w/many people I don't know in MMOPRGs. Therefore, I'm almost always RPing with someone I know already. I'd be curious to see if this occurs in Rift (I'm hoping not!!).

greygirlbeast February 27 2011, 20:24:57 UTC

I am very fortunate that I've never come across anyone who thought that RP was writing. I suppose it helps that I don't interact w/many people I don't know in MMOPRGs. Therefore, I'm almost always RPing with someone I know already. I'd be curious to see if this occurs in Rift (I'm hoping not!!).

I've encountered it mostly via SL.

Thanks for the link to the Kirk book - I love his work. I'll pick that up when the budget allows!

You're welcome!