Young Men Apparently Are Not Writing Novels

[Pamela Jo]

A lot of discussion about this. This is meant to be the answer. More young men are doing interactive gaming where you write story as you go. My sons ae deep into this and the podcasts about writing games sounds very much like what I listen to about writing fiction. Larping’s reality bleed: ‘I’m basically falling in love with a person that does not exist’

 

[Peyton Stafford]

To me, this looks like a contrast between two modes of writing fiction. We know what novels do. Interactive gaming provides a similar experience, but with the added thrill of deciding which way the story will go. LARP goes a step further by turning player roles into lived experiences in the fullest sense. From a writer's perspective, both gaming and LARP reduce or eliminate one of the main dimensions of written fiction--internal monologue.

In response to this article, especially to the idea that one of its subjects fell in love with a woman who was also a player, but she did not really exist because she existed only in the game, I think this is a wonderful idea for a romance or sci-fi/romance story in which people, already married but not to each other, meet while playing a LARP long weekend, fall in love, and then try to sort it all out.

Obviously, the man in the article spent a few days as an actor in a LARP. He fell in love with a female LARP actor while they were in the LARP. He could not deal with this, so he decided she was not real. She did not exist outside the LARP. He became an unreliable narrator telling a distorted version of what happened, and the reporter bit. The reporter said she did not exist. But she did. And she had a life outside the LARP.

The reporter believed his BS and wrote it as truth.

At the same time, the subject of the story knew the woman was real. She knew he was real. Their spouses knew nothing of this. They both lived IRL, probably nearby each other. If they had children, perhaps they attended the same school or preschool, went to the same church or had other deep social connections full of morality, guilt, and consequences.

Where does this go? Do lovers find each other IRL? Do spouses deal with this? A foursome marriage? I am rooting for the third option.

Just putting this out there ...

 

[Pamela Jo]

To me, this looks like a contrast between two modes of writing fiction. We know what novels do. Interactive gaming provides a similar experience, but with the added thrill of deciding which way the story will go. LARP goes a step further by turning player roles into lived experiences in the fullest sense. From a writer's perspective, both gaming and LARP reduce or eliminate one of the main dimensions of written fiction--internal monologue.

In response to this article, especially to the idea that one of its subjects fell in love with a woman who was also a player, but she did not really exist because she existed only in the game, I think this is a wonderful idea for a romance or sci-fi/romance story in which people, already married but not to each other, meet while playing a LARP long weekend, fall in love, and then try to sort it all out.

Obviously, the man in the article spent a few days as an actor in a LARP. He fell in love with a female LARP actor while they were in the LARP. He could not deal with this, so he decided she was not real. She did not exist outside the LARP. He became an unreliable narrator telling a distorted version of what happened, and the reporter bit. The reporter said she did not exist. But she did. And she had a life outside the LARP.

The reporter believed his BS and wrote it as truth.

At the same time, the subject of the story knew the woman was real. She knew he was real. Their spouses knew nothing of this. They both lived IRL, probably nearby each other. If they had children, perhaps they attended the same school or preschool, went to the same church or had other deep social connections full of morality, guilt, and consequences.

Where does this go? Do lovers find each other IRL? Do spouses deal with this? A foursome marriage? I am rooting for the third option.

Just putting this out there ...

There's your next novel. Collette's Cheri is about a man who is in love with a woman who lives but no longer exists. To me the most relevant part of the story is that he has the same endorphins as falling in love-which is what readers get when they read a romance. I do wonder if books will go the way of classical music. Only for a small niche of the dedicated. The new Dark Ages.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

I would not worry. That’s not what the sales figure show.

 

[izi 出久]

To me, this looks like a contrast between two modes of writing fiction. We know what novels do. Interactive gaming provides a similar experience, but with the added thrill of deciding which way the story will go. LARP goes a step further by turning player roles into lived experiences in the fullest sense. From a writer's perspective, both gaming and LARP reduce or eliminate one of the main dimensions of written fiction--internal monologue.

In response to this article, especially to the idea that one of its subjects fell in love with a woman who was also a player, but she did not really exist because she existed only in the game, I think this is a wonderful idea for a romance or sci-fi/romance story in which people, already married but not to each other, meet while playing a LARP long weekend, fall in love, and then try to sort it all out.

Obviously, the man in the article spent a few days as an actor in a LARP. He fell in love with a female LARP actor while they were in the LARP. He could not deal with this, so he decided she was not real. She did not exist outside the LARP. He became an unreliable narrator telling a distorted version of what happened, and the reporter bit. The reporter said she did not exist. But she did. And she had a life outside the LARP.

The reporter believed his BS and wrote it as truth.

At the same time, the subject of the story knew the woman was real. She knew he was real. Their spouses knew nothing of this. They both lived IRL, probably nearby each other. If they had children, perhaps they attended the same school or preschool, went to the same church or had other deep social connections full of morality, guilt, and consequences.

Where does this go? Do lovers find each other IRL? Do spouses deal with this? A foursome marriage? I am rooting for the third option.

Just putting this out there ...

But ho, this is already the theme of a Black Mirror episode, and it's two guys who fall in love in virtual reality. And one of them always plays as a female and they struggle with a lot of guilt because 1) they are REALLY attracted to each other in VR as m-f relationship, 2) they think they might be attracted to each other irl (turns out no), and 3) one of them is married and has kids.

 

[izi 出久]

When I started writing my story, I wanted to make it VR. My sister talked me out of it (for now) because she thinks it's too complex. But who knows? If the world is built well enough I might be able to make it VR. I'd love to get better at that kind of game development.

 

[Serra K]

@StaceyDale You do game development?

 

[izi 出久]

@StaceyDale You do game development?

Super basic. It would be a big step for me to try my hand at VR. But some of the GUIs for VR are pretty intuitive.

Edit to clarify: the GUIs for VR code editors.

 

[Serra K]

Super basic. It would be a big step for me to try my hand at VR. But some of the GUIs for VR are pretty intuitive.

That's awesome though. I've often dreamed of writing game story. There have been a handful of games that got me through some hard times and I'd love to contribute to that space. A lot of gamers are lonely and live full time in other worlds. They can be hard to reach and may not read at all, but they consume stories in their own way.

 

[Pamela Jo]

That's awesome though. I've often dreamed of writing game story. There have been a handful of games that got me through some hard times and I'd love to contribute to that space. A lot of gamers are lonely and live full time in other worlds. They can be hard to reach and may not read at all, but they consume stories in their own way.

The Witcher series being an example of stories that became a game that became Netflix.

 

[Serra K]

The Witcher series

Yes! Great example. I'd love to see Days Gone made into a movie, using the soundtrack from the game. I think there were around six occasions during my playthrough when I broke down bawling. So powerful. I'll put an example of the music here just because.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

To me, this looks like a contrast between two modes of writing fiction. We know what novels do. Interactive gaming provides a similar experience, but with the added thrill of deciding which way the story will go. LARP goes a step further by turning player roles into lived experiences in the fullest sense. From a writer's perspective, both gaming and LARP reduce or eliminate one of the main dimensions of written fiction--internal monologue.

In response to this article, especially to the idea that one of its subjects fell in love with a woman who was also a player, but she did not really exist because she existed only in the game, I think this is a wonderful idea for a romance or sci-fi/romance story in which people, already married but not to each other, meet while playing a LARP long weekend, fall in love, and then try to sort it all out.

Obviously, the man in the article spent a few days as an actor in a LARP. He fell in love with a female LARP actor while they were in the LARP. He could not deal with this, so he decided she was not real. She did not exist outside the LARP. He became an unreliable narrator telling a distorted version of what happened, and the reporter bit. The reporter said she did not exist. But she did. And she had a life outside the LARP.

The reporter believed his BS and wrote it as truth.

At the same time, the subject of the story knew the woman was real. She knew he was real. Their spouses knew nothing of this. They both lived IRL, probably nearby each other. If they had children, perhaps they attended the same school or preschool, went to the same church or had other deep social connections full of morality, guilt, and consequences.

Where does this go? Do lovers find each other IRL? Do spouses deal with this? A foursome marriage? I am rooting for the third option.

Just putting this out there ...

There is an episode of Black Mirror where something like this happens, but it is two men, old friends, one married to a woman, the other single. They are a man and a woman in their interactive game and they have sex. The single man is the 'woman' and the married man is the 'man'. The virtual sex is so good, they wonder, does it mean they are gay? The single man aka virtual woman wants more. The married man is very worried and uncomfortable, but hooked. Has he been unfaithful to his wife or not? He doesn't know.

They work it out when a) the two men kiss in real life and it just isn't the same, and b) it turns out the wife of the married man has her own extramarital adventures going on. They love one another, and they stay happily married, agreeing to allow one another just one of these adventures a year. But will they honour the agreement?

 

[Hannah F]

If you like Pina Colada . . .