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.

Break Time

May 4th, 2011

The last post on the Golden Passage concludes my level analysis posts. I still have much more to write about Wario Land 4 obviously and the stuff I’ve already posted needs major editing before it’s ready for publishing, however, I have met my “phase 1” goal.

My “phase 1” goal was to have written about the mechanics, core elements, levels and covered most of the design essays by May 15^th and I’ve met this deadline with ten days still left on the clock. My estimates peg my output over the last 3 and a half months at roughly 180 pages. I’m pretty damned proud of that figure. The idea behind the deadline was to prove to myself that I could actually do this whole author thing for real. Already I am thinking ahead to the next part of this project and other projects too.

I have cleverly titled the second phase of the Wario Land 4 project “phase 2”. I’m hoping that phase 2 will last about 4 months and basically sees the project through from what it is now to book form. If it takes longer than 4 months then that’s really no big issue at all. So long as I get it out this year. I need to spend the next part of the project getting some distance and a fresh perspective. This means that I will probably go back to writing about other games like I did before, but still keeping up my input on the Wario project. There will be an extensive editing phase which won’t materialise on the blog too.

For now though, I need to chill out and switch my brain off Wario Land 4, so that I can come back all ready for the next part. I have no idea what I’ll be posting next, but I’m itching to write something. I’m thinking that I’ll start the other projects now and start fostering those ideas early. Who knows? I’ll get back seen.

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