Thursday, April 29, 2010

I Always Dread . . .

. . . the story meetings with the video game team.

I try to push them off for as long as possible and never get much done until the hours before.

Last week I wrote of a lost drive. I ran out of steam and couldn't even jerk generic dialogue onto the page. Luckily, that feeling subsided and I've been back on track. So when I arrived last night, I handed over 20-pages of banter to be heard as the player plays. (Players gotta play. Haters gotta hate. Sorry, had to put that out there.)

This right here is why I try to push these things off for as long as possible. It's one thing to put content out for others to read; it's another (and for me, fucking unbearable) to sit in the same room as someone who is reading something you wrote. I can only liken it to a job interview where it seems like the interviewer is reading your resume for the first time.

Then it happens. The laugh. Then a current beings where you hear the laugh from another. Then another. As the writer you know where they are. It's like that first drop in the roller coaster. That hurdle you needed to get past to kick this thing off. Now you have an idea of where they are and what's next. So you start tracing through in your head. The child has passed the chamber beneath the trap floor. Now they've maneuvered through the "soul binder" so here the overhead voice should be telling the child that he will lead the brigade of the catamite.

"What's catamite," asks one.

I answer, "It's a weird kind of slave."

"Oh, cool."

I leave with their praise ringing in my head. The drive home, I'm jubilant and decide to celebrate the best way I know how.

"Yes, thank you. I'll have three chicken and three double cheese."

"Sir, how many people are in the car?"

"Just one."

"You sicken me."

"..."

"Please pull around."

3 comments:

Cammie said...

haha:) that is so hilarious!!!yes i know exactly what you mean when someone is reading something you wrote and just doesnt have the emotion you intended it to have, my English teacher does not do me justice!:) ha i really enjoyed reading your blog you are very creative!:)

Sooraj V Mathew said...

nice blog.........

Graeme said...

That is so true about Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in Julie & Julia. I only suffered through the Julie Powell parts because I didn't know how to use the fast-forward button on my remote.