5 Ways Video Games Can Help Your Writing
If you follow my Gaming Writer’s Saturday posts, you already know I love video games and share my time between writing and gaming (and few other things), but those two hobbies are not as separated from each other as one would think. I play video games whenever I feel uninspired or when I need to fuel my creativity, and in a way, video games are a part of my writing process. They might come before I even write the first word down, but they definitely contribute to my plotting, worldbuilding, and outlining (in one case, a game and its soundtrack inspired a whole novel). So when a friend asked in a writing group about video games, I couldn’t stay silent, and my response became the root of this post. (more…)
3 Comments
November 28, 2016
Even though I usually end up focused on one project at the time, it’s never the only one that is brewing in my head. I’ve mentioned before I usually have several projects going, in different stages of (de)composition, as this is my way of escaping the dreaded writer’s block. If one project feels tiresome or boring at the time, I can always jump into another one and get my writing momentum back. 
Inquisitor is a game developed by a Czech studio, Cinemax Games. This game sat in my GoG library, insignificant and forgotten, until I got a real craving for some good old-style RPG and I decided to give it a go. 
I find it hard to believe another year of my 365k Club adventure slowly comes to an end. It feels like I’ve just started it, but on the other hand with the turmoil and changes in my life, I haven’t really settled back into my writing routine until autumn. And once I was positive I’d be able to catch up with all my tasks, life again proved me wrong. 
I was born in a country where Halloween tradition doesn’t exist, so I missed all the candy-collecting fun as a child, but the holiday itself had always seemed mesmerizing to me, especially in its darker and spookier way. The lanterns in the dark, the ghosts wandering between this world and another… What’s there for a speculative writer to not like? 
The other day we’ve met our neighbor heading out with his dog and his camera. “It’s this time of the year,” he said with a smile. I also watch the growing display of Halloween decorations in stores (many more than what I was used to in Ireland) and the biggest pumpkins I’ve ever seen (which in a way proves the cliche saying that “everything is bigger in America”). Because, yeah, it’s this time of the year too.
One would think that writing keeps me so occupied, I don’t have time for any other hobby, and in a way it does, though at this point I consider my writing more of a job than a hobby. I try to do it daily, and I still do it for fun, but also with quality in mind, and I write with a mindset of one day getting my work out there.
When over eight years ago I boarded the plane for the first time ever, I couldn’t help wondering whether I’d like flying. I still remember the first step I made on the steps leading up and the moment my other foot left the ground… My last step on the Polish ground for who knew how long: I was just about to immigrate to Ireland—excited, anticipating, maybe a bit worried—but I still couldn’t resist thinking of flying. After all, it’s the dreamer’s ultimate dream, isn’t it?