Timetable to Completion

October 21st, 2011

And there I was thinking that editing would be a breeze. Instead I’m pouring more of myself into the project than before. The more time I invest, the more I realise that I need even more time to edit and extend the book. It’s not all bad. I’m hitting a high benchmark with each edit revealing another bit of detail I can add or some way to remove unnecessary words. The end result is going to be dense. I can assure you of that. I’m hoping it will set a new standard for the way we talk about games.

I’ve outlined what I think will be a realistic timetable for the final phase of the book, granted that I don’t crash and burn. The next 7 weeks of finishing up the levels will be the hardest. After that it should be smooth sailing. Although I said that before, didn’t I?

October, November, December – Finish the master edit

December, January, February, March – Add topical essays and other articles, prepare reference material and online portal, and do a final edit.

April – Prepare the book for publication

Thanks for being patient. I’m eager to finish this thing and get started on the next project.

Editing Continues…

August 31st, 2011

As indicated in the last post, I’m currently editing the Wario Land 4 articles into a book. The title of the book will be The Wario Land 4 Reader. I’ve been editing every free moment between work, socialising and life responsibilities and should be ready for publishing by the end of the year.

My plan of attack consists of 2 fronts. The first, a master edit where I edit and re-edit each post. Currently I’m a good chunk through the “Digging Deeper” part of the book which constitutes most of the analysis. I hope to finish the master edit by early to mid October at which point the book will be close to completion. After the master edit, I’ll be conducting a final edit where I prepare references for the web portal and clear any minor errors. During this time I’ll be preparing topical essays and filling in any blanks.

Starting from this week I’ll have 3 days off a week which should help build some momentum. My main fear, as has been all along, is that I’ll crash and burn out. I’ve been living in China now for a year and 4 months and won’t see my family for another 3 months. Writing this book has been wedged in between my first job out of uni, the first time I’ve lived by myself, and days off managing a long-term relationship. It’s fair to say that haven’t had a lot of down time these past 7 months.

I’m feeling doubtful that I’ll be ready for publishing this year and even then these processes take time. So don’t be surprised if the book is released in January next year. To focus on the project, I won’t be making posts about other games until I at least finish the master edit. I am, of course, taking lots of notes, so expect some in-depth material on Fire Emblem and Harvest Moon later on.

For now, my energy is in making this book as polished as I can get it and I’m quite confident that I’m meeting a high benchmark. If it takes a little more time to make the book that bit better, then it’s worth it. The editing process is teaching me A LOT about writing. I’m sure you’ll be able to see the results in the book and later articles. So far I’ve master-edited roughly 70 pages. I’m predicting that the book will end up at about 250 pages. Previously, I was thinking closer to 300, but the editing process is clearing up a lot of unneeded commentary.

Again, if you’re interested in contributing a topical essay to the book, please let me know. I may also be reaching out for some opinions and anecdotes in the future.

Time to Edit me a Book

July 6th, 2011

Having only continued writing about Wario Land 4 for roughly 6 weeks after my last break, I feel a bit guilty, but I really shouldn’t do because this part is inevitable…it’s time to edit.

I’ve spent the past 5-6 months writing up what should constitute the majority of content for this project. As I’ve stated before, I hope to turn my analysis into a self-published book and to get the material up to a level that I’m satisfied with I need to edit and edit thoroughly. What this means is that I won’t be posting any new Wario Land 4 material here on the blog. At least not until I’m ready to share a few samples from the final draft as I hope to do.

There are still numerous gaps in my understanding of Wario Land 4. I’m hoping that the editing process will allow me to consolidate what I’ve learnt and help prepare me to fill in these blanks.

Writing is a process of constant pain. You know that you’ve got something worthwhile in your head and only the fragments of that are getting put up on the page in some form. Its hardly glorious. Writing is just the hashing out of something great in the making. Editing, though, is the process of refinement. Editing is where you rattle the chains of your words to become the master of your ideas. In honesty, it’s the one part of the story where you actually don’t feel overwhelmingly impotent.

With the writing so far, I think that I’ve got the right structure and content. With the editing, I hope make it persuasive and wholesome. Keenly, my goal is clarify the analysis while making it readable, perhaps even to the point of genuinely interesting. I’m not going to deny that this type of writing isn’t exactly full of sex appeal—it’s frankly dry, maybe too technical and arguably taken to an absurd extreme—but it’s important. It’s important because, as we are reminded by people who like to sit around and discuss inaction, “we need a language in which to understand video games”. The language is here for those willing to work with it. What we need is an example. I think that’s sort of what this project is, an extreme example of how to use “new” language to deeply discuss a video game.

I honestly have no idea how long its going to take me to edit this thing. I’ve given myself until this December (when I go home for Christmas) to finish which I think should be a generous time frame. Unlike the past 6 months, I’ll be having an extra day off from September too. So that ought to help as well. To be honest, I’m thinking of slowing down a bit and separating myself from the project a bit so as to get a better perspective for editing. I still want to write other stuff, on other games, so look forward to that.

Speaking of which, I downloaded Harvest Moon for the Wii’s Virtual Console last night to celebrate me making it so far. You know, even though it was expensive at around 12 Aussie dollars, it’s just the kinda chill out game that I want to play this summer. So, I’m jazzed for reliving some of my childhood. I load up the game and can’t play it because I don’t have a classic controller or a Gamecube pad. Argh. I’m going to try and get a new Gamecube pad from Japan through Play-Asia. Turns out they have free shipping in mainland China too which is pretty rad. Anyways, thanks for bearing with me during this beat down of Wario-related posts. Anyone wanna talk about Harvest Moon?

BTW, I’m still looking for user submissions if you’re interested.

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