Writer Lessons from Plants vs Zombies

by | Nov 13, 2010 | Uncategorized

1. It’s not enough to play defensively. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Break out the equivalent of watermelon catapults and corncob cannons and let loose.

2. Invest in resources. You can’t have too many sunflowers to keep planting new plants, and you can’t have too many sources for idea seeds, either.

3. Do not let brain-eating zombies invade your house or it’s game over. Do not let the equivalent devour your creativity.

4. When you survive the first wave, the challenge increases. Look to your tension; is the antagonist throwing out more obstacles, making things harder for your protagonist?

5. Lots of surprises to unlock and unexpected gifts that later come in handy. Is your character gaining these?

6. Sometimes the best writer recreation is wordless. It creates space for new words to form. Your words.

7. It’s supposed to be fun.

8. When your go-to choices are grayed out, you have to come up with more options. Take away your protagonist’s main line of defense. Now what?

9. Potatoes keep zombies occupied while you keep shooting at them. What equivalent can you use to pin down your antagonist? Converse: is your protagonist stuck on the equivalent of a potato distraction?

10. When in doubt, fling butter at the opposition. Makes ’em look silly and it’s surprisingly effective.

Shakespeare said it best

by | Nov 11, 2010 | Uncategorized

On Veteran’s Day, I’m always wordless. Fortunately, Shakespeare has words for the ages. From Hamlet:

This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian.’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.’
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day.

5 things I’ve been doing

by | Nov 9, 2010 | Uncategorized

1. SFWA sent out their handbook which is chock full of good stuff, like an article by Richard Curtis on royalty statements. Lots meaty reading in there.

2. Whole family went to see Megamind. Wonderful, funny, unexpected, romantic. (Yes, my idea of romance goes well with explosions.) Go see.

3. Fighting off bugs. Die, bugs, die.

4. Playing Plants vs Zombies, and I believe there’s a whole blog post on that topic coming up. There’s a lot a writer can learn from this game. Also, it’s fun to blow up zombies.

5. Writing. So far I’ve fired my original protagonist and love interest, recast, found my plot and theme, and had some fun.

Ready…set…write!

by | Nov 1, 2010 | Uncategorized

NaNoWriMo is here! A whole month dedicated to writing a novel. Or, you know, multiple novels. Whatever works for you. Which brings us to 5 Simple Rules for NaNo:

1. Write

2. Don’t judge

3. If it works, do it

4. If it doesn’t work, don’t force it

5. Have a good time