I wish this were more profound, but most of my writing is influenced by Saturday morning cartoons. Episodic storytelling with absurd but predictably placed plot twists. I probably should have spent less time loafing in front of the TV when I was a little kid.

It may sound trite, but the Roadrunner cartoons have always been an inspiration of mine. This doesn't mean that my driveway is a sequence of traps, or that I have shares in Acme. Rather, even though Coyote keeps losing, he still gets up and tries again. I think that's a rather important lesson to remember.

Hmm, The Golden Compass (and the rest of the trilogy, I suppose)... I'm not sure why, but I think it's the only book where I *really* fell in love with the universe.
I mean, LoTR was dull dull dull. Harry Potter is ok'ish, but like sunandshadow said, it doesn't really resonate with me either. It has some fun parts, and the writing style isn't annoying, so I don't mind reading it, but that's all.

But in The Golden Compass, the world just seemed so much more vivid and real (And fun, weird and interesting as well) than any other book I can think of.

I really like character driven stories moreso than plot/action driven stories.

I like stories where two (or more) completely different characters are forced together into a situation beyond their control, ultimately clash, and eventually find a way past their differences. For instance, Enemy Mine, Rain Man, Changing Lanes, etc.

I also like stories where a character is put into an extremely dire situation where through sheer power of their character they ultimately flourish. For instance, Shawshank Redemption.

Also, I like stories with one person against the system. eg., Rob Roy, Gladiator, Equilibrium, Gattaca.

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Original post by Anonymous Poster Quote: Why do we want fiction instead of fact I dont know if I agree with that statement. Ive seen my share of WWII games on the shelves that seem to never die off. Although fictional in play, the draw is factural.

That's true. I certainly loved this Ghost Recon game I had, Island Thunder or something, and I love castles too, as well as ancient cities and pyrimids. Fact isn't boring, but some people seem to love fiction more. Heh, I'd rather visit modern Rome for a day, then play a medieval MMO or RPG for a week.

Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan. Great series before it becomes too bloated, I like how the author is able to create a whole world with just plain text on a paper, not many people is able to do that.

George R.R. Martin's, Song of Ice and Fire Series, same reasons as above.

Robert A. Heinlein's books are nice too for example Starship Troopers.

Legends of the Fall (the novella), by Jim Harrison. IMHO, one of the strongest stories written by an American.

The short stories of Roger Zelazny. He once said that his short stories are the last chapters of all the novels he never wrote. Brilliant stuff.

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Simultaneously one of the most beautiful and one of the most horrifying books I have ever read.

Mostly I like stories which show the vastness of the world/universe/story-scape, and what a small, fragile, impermanent place we hold in it. Then invert the story so this tiny microcosm contains within it all that is fundamental about the rest of creation.

See also:
the works of H.P. Lovecraft
the Hyperion cantos (Hyperion and Endymion series) by Dan Simmons
the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton
the Tao Te Ching

I'm fascinated when reading certain parts of stories that hits home so well. It's often when I feel the author captured something very true and human. I also like when a story has a certain feel or theme that it manages to mediate. I'm inspired by stories such as The Black Cat by Edgar Alan Poe. I like the feeling of mystery. I also like being presented to a vision or unique perspective on something. I'm also fond of other ingredients such as feeling of adventure and freedom. What inspires me to write is wanting to bring together these different themes and ingredients I love into a story. And I don't mean just putting together a puzzle of different themes and ideas (creating a frankensteins monster) - I mean finding a common thread that binds it all together and using techniques I like to mediate the story.

another one which makes me feel dizzy with genius is "the Yellow Wallpaper". Right now, I can't remember the name of the author, but go ahead, google it, and you'll just find the best piece of writing expressing the fall into madness, while remaining clearsighted all along. Just ahead of Mauypassant's "Le Horla", in my opinion...

Okay, time to talk about myth analysis and how it is a useful tool for a writer. [smile]

Much of the writing advice I have given here on Gamedev has to do with analyzing what one subconsciously things is important and consciously exploring these themes in your fiction. Often you will find that that novel or videogame story you yearn to write has underlying similarities with other pieces of fiction which have struck you as particularly important (usually for mysterious subconscious reasons).

If you don't understand why a piece of fiction is important to you, you don't know where to start in attempting to capture this importance in your own writing. This is why myth analysis is awesome. [wink] Using the two-part process of symplifying a story to an outline of its essential archetypes and transformations, then comparing several stories to see what archetypes, transformations, and plot patterns they have in common, can help you figure out what you really want to write and why it matters.

Let's look at the Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons as a simple yet quite interesting example. What exactly happen is a typical coyote and roadrunner cartoon? The coyote wants to eat the roadrunner. The coyote's usual motivation is simple hunger, but it has also been portrayed variously as hunting instinct, desire to prove that he is smarter than the roadrunner, and desire to assuage feelings of inadequacy and frustration from having been defeated by the roadrunner so many times before. The coyote's general method of attacking the problem is to create a trap, usually with the aid of technology. So thematically, we have the coyote allied with the side of brains and civilization (humans), while we have the roadrunner allied with nature and luck (aka magical favoritsm by the world). Interestingly nature is not characterized by brawn and violence, as it is in many other stories, but instead with speed and slipperiness.

So, the coyote tries to use technology and wit to defeat the roadrunner, but always fails. Often, the coyote fails where he could logically be expected to have succeded. In some cases this is luck (his traps always get stuck while the roadrunner is in range, then go off and clobber the coyote). In other cases it goes beyond luck and into the realm of magic - the roadrunner runs through a painted doorway, while the coyote can't but instead crashes into the wall the doorway is painted on. Arguably, the coyote is actually fighting not the roadrunner but the whole world which favors the roadrunner and bends the laws of physics to protect it and smack down the coyote. This has a side effect of making the coyote more sympathetic to the audience, because people empathize with being treated unfairly and like to cheer for underdogs.

As poss74 says, one of the most notable things about this series of cartoons is that the coyote never gives up. He may wave a white flag after being particularly beaten, or resort to a vegetarian meal, but the audience knows that this is a temporary retreat, he's always going to regroup and try again.

Some other interesting factors to consider - there is only one roadrunner. This is important because if the roadrunner were ever eaten the plot would abruptly end because there wouldn't be anything left for the coyote to chase. There couldn't just be another roadrunner, because the emnity between the coyote and the roadrunner is personal. The coyote might even have to feel guilty for eating the roadrunner, and audience sympathy would be destroyed because the roadrunner hasn't been characterized as evil and deserving of death, just as annoying and deserving of being the one a boulder falls on for once. The roadrunner's death would also be unsatisfying because it is incompatible with the story universe - if death was possible, the coyote's injuries should have killed him long ago, and if the coyote was capable of winning despite the world being biased against him we should have seen the coyote making some sort of progress, pushing the limits of what the world can do to work against him, foreshadowing his final discovery of a way to finally outmanuver the world. But none of this happens because there are no limits on what the world can do to protect the roadrunner, since the world has magic which can mess with the laws of physics and the coyote has only technology which must work within the laws of physics.

So since the series portrays an eternal cycle, part of the series' thematic argument is that eternal cycles exist and are a good and right way of life which has room for both nature and technological progress.


That's my initial analysis, what do you all think? [smile]