The Fountain Pen Blog

It can be tempting to freak out a bit these days as a writer and avid reader. About e-books becoming more popular and potentially replacing physical books. About the fact that people’s attention spans seem to be getting shorter. Yet at the same time, there are incredible new platforms opening up that have led to a great deal of new, varied work from writers. Platforms that weren’t like this mere decades ago. I’m of the opinion that thanks in part to all these changes, this is actually an extremely exciting time to be a writer.

Take video games for example. They get better every year, more engaging, and more expansive. The world building alone can be dizzying. Many have plots that carry on for many hours of gameplay, with twists and turns that keep players on the edge of their seats for days, weeks, even months. With the way video games are still primarily marketed to teenage boys, it’s often tempting to think of the medium as a collection of violent war emulators, but they are much more varied than that.

For example, I love the Portal games. You play as a character who is being forced to navigate through dangerous puzzle-like tests in a lab facility run by an evil AI computer named GLaDOS. You navigate through complicated puzzles using a portal device, learning the in-game physics of how it works as you go, trying to get to the AI to shut it down for good. Meanwhile, you’re taunted by GLaDOS, whose ranting (coupled with dialogue from other characters in the second game) builds a complicated backstory of how you got there in the first place and how she came to be in control. What I love about games like that is that while they’re filled with interactive puzzles that are really fun to solve and plenty of action-packed gameplay that keeps you on your toes, they’re also telling a story and immersing you in a new and vast world.

One game style that really speaks to the new opportunities video games offer for writers is one made by Telltale Games. My brother likes to play one of their most popular games called The Walking Dead, (set in pretty much the same universe as the TV show but with different characters). It’s a game that really stretches the definition of a video game. The Walking Dead is basically an interactive zombie apocalypse movie in which your decisions determine who you’re loyal to, who you save in life or death situations, and ultimately where you end up in the end. It’s basically an action-packed choose-your-own-adventure book in video game form. It can be every bit as thrilling and suspenseful as zombie movies and TV shows often are, but the interactive element adds a new level of complexity. Your companion’s been infected. Do you cut off the limb that got bitten? Do you kill the zombie that did it? Do you just run?

Some decisions only change minor details, while others result in a significantly different chain of events. Someone had to sit down and figure out how that was all going to work. A writer wrote the dialogue, and the plot. A writer got to make that game what it is, and that’s one of the many reasons I love it. I’ve only ever watched my brother play it, but I could sit and watch that game for hours, that’s how good the story is. I imagine the interactive element makes it even more riveting for the player. I’ve even seen my brother go back and make different choices to see how the story plays out, which is something I’ve done in the past with choose-your-own-adventure books.

Video games aren’t the only new and expanding platform for writers though. The internet itself offers a myriad of choices. Of course, there’s blogging and website development, which allows one to couple text with pictures, gifs, and video content to get one’s ideas across. There’s also the realm of online video. If you’ve spent much time on YouTube lately and looked at older and newer videos, you’ve probably seen how much the production quality has increased on a lot of channels. Many YouTubers make scripted content now, so if you’re a writer with film skills, there’s a fabulous free platform where you can do your thing and showcase a huge array of different types of scripts, from semi-scripted vlogs to short films.

I’m also excited to see how new technology affects older media, and eventually the writing that goes into it. Just look what’s happening to TV right now. Subscription services like Netflix and Hulu that allow you to view specific episodes of your favorite TV shows whenever you want instead of just when they’re on TV are changing the way TV shows are being consumed, which will definitely in turn affect the way they’re released, and maybe even the way they’re written. It’s difficult now to gain an audience for new regular TV shows that air one new episode at a time, but the people at Netflix have realized that and now Netflix sometimes makes its own series, releasing entire seasons at a time for those of us who can’t resist a binge watching session. This is changing both the way TV shows are being released, and the way they’re viewed. Now, the format of TV shows may have to change at least a bit from the way they were when shows like Friends were coming out with new episodes, and I’m OK with that. As a writer, I’m curious to see how these changes to TV consumption as we know it affect our story telling formats. Story telling won’t end, it’ll just change formats, and it’s exciting to watch as the mediums and platforms through which we tell our stories affect the methods we use to shape them.

Have any thoughts on new media and writing? Feel free to leave a comment!