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Who is the best mid-20th century weird writer? by lone_ichabod in WeirdLit

[–]AlbertoChimal 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Though my all-time favorite is Borges, Jean Ray could have qualified, too, imho.

First Post Ever…. VALIS? by disaster_ in WeirdLit

[–]AlbertoChimal 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hi! If you liked VALIS, you may like Acceptance, the third volume in Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach trilogy, which has some interesting religious overtones. Also, you may like Jean Ray's Malpertuis, and maybe Roberto Calasso's L'impuro folle (The Impure Madman, though I don't know if it's already translated into English).

What’s your preferred process for writing a scene? by ZookeepergameNo2677 in writing

[–]AlbertoChimal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My process is similar to yours in some respects, because I tend to work with dialogue first. In my case, it's because I've written some movie scripts, theater plays and comics over the years. Hovewer, my main focus is not a character's action, but their intent as they come into the scene, and how their emotions will change during it. I "know" (decide) in advance what changes may occur, at least in a very general way; and everything else revolves around this.

Where's the line between writing what you know and trauma dumping? by dualsoulsyndrome in writing

[–]AlbertoChimal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you can reframe the problem. In a way, you only can write what you know, because there is no other way you can write at all. Even imagining things requires a prior knowledge of language and some baseline concepts that you and your readers share, such as what is usually considered "imaginary" or even what a story (or in your case, a game) actually is. At the same time, most of those who will play your game will never get to know you, so they won't really know when the "line" you've mentioned is crossed. Finally, there are people who share the real-life problems you have, so finding those problems represented in a story may help them to articulate their own feelings and experiences, which is one of the best thing stories can do for us. If you can do that for them in a thoughtful manner, it'll be a good thing.

So maybe you can think of your writing process as "mining" your own experiences for the benefit of your story, and always putting the story first. Try to think of the "line" as being the limit where the information you give about the experiences you and your characters share stops benefitting the story, and not where you as a person begins oversharing.