Re: [bookclub] Prose style in 'Losing Your Grip'

[icallaci@my-deja.com]

In article <389F91DF.6C52AE21@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz>,
  Greg Ewing <greg@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> icallaci@my-deja.com wrote:
> >
> > The question is: do I write the description as best I can and get
> > docked for not implementing every object mentioned in it, or do
> > I limit the description to objects I can code and get docked for
> > not providing rich descriptive text?
>
> I'd suggest adopting a style in which the first
> paragraph of the room text provides a general
> atmospheric description, and if there are any
> objects worth further examination, they get
> mentioned in a second paragraph. Then you
> only implement the stuff in the second paragraph
> as full objects, and arrange a stock "you don't
> need to refer to that" for everything else.

But such a rigid structure is exactly what inhibits the richness
of the text. When I write room descriptions (or NPC descriptions
or any other descriptive text in i-f), I am not thinking "how can
I best describe this?" but rather "how can I describe this without
coding a gazillion objects" or "how can I describe this and still
list all the exits" or "how can I describe this so that it's
reasonably fresh after the player has seen it ten times" or "how
can I describe this if the player has done X but not Y"...etc.
There are so many different things to think about and so many
different challenges that I wonder if the writing in i-f can ever
measure up to anyone's standard of "good writing" as it applies
to other forms of text.

irene


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