TV and Video Games: How to Rot your Brains

The last couple months, while editing my novel, I haven't been entirely sure if my writing has been improving or not. I've thought so, but it is impossible to tell without some sort of outside verification. I gotten positive feedback from my parents as they have re-read the edited sections, but that doesn't necessarily imply that I am improving, merely that Erin (my editor) is good at communicating areas that need greater detail.

Unfortunately, there aren't many tests that allow me to demonstrate my writing prowess, other than a new work. And it would still be difficult to tell: differences in plot, length, pacing, etc. could all impact the quality of the work. Outside of a direct sequel, there aren't many ways to tell.

But I may have found a litmus test of sorts: television. I don't really watch much television at all, but the other night I was flipping through the channels during a commercial break in the X-games. I stumbled upon a show that I actually enjoy, Star Trek: Enterprise. What hit me next was something very odd... I realized that although I liked the overall premise of the show, there was something lacking in the episode I was watching. The characters were obviously in a supposedly tense situation while infiltrating something or some such, and therein lay the problem. There was nothing definitive about the planet the heroes were on; nothing struck me as extraordinary about their situation, or spoke volumes about the Enterprise world. I might have only picked up on it because I had basically jumped into the show right smack in the middle. With nothing to shape the environment or story premise, I found my brief snapshot of their world lacking and somewhat uninteresting.

That was the moment I realized I might be improving as writer.

I've realized that when writing a story, if you were to take a snapshot of any given moment in the plot, there must be something that stands out, something that draws the reader in. I am not sure if this is truly always possible, but I understood that in a sci-fi show like Enterprise, there should have been something in that scene alone that marked it as unique to that world. There is a balance that must be maintained, of course, but in a genre such as science fiction, it is an almost unforgivable sin to have a scene which correlates so exactly to another generic situation. Four heroes, holding guns, hiding behind a rock could be a scene out of a thousand movies or tens of thousands of books.

And it made me cringe at scenes I had constructed similarly in my own work.

On the flip side, I have also recently witnessed how smallest details can make a situation all the more inspiring and epic. Take for instance, the humorous tactics and strategy game Plants vs Zombies I recently downloaded onto my computer. The premise of the game is simple - and silly enough: protect yourself from brain-eating zombies by planting a garden of dangerous, semi-sentient plants across your lawn. It's a well-crafted game, with an easy game mechanic and a rather deep strategy and tactics component: each plant has distinct advantages and disadvantages against the many varieties of zombie you encounter, all of whom are seeking your succulent brains.

But besides the humorous premise, the finale of the game is actually quite exciting: the ultimate battle with Dr. Edgar von Zomboss and his giant Zom-bot.

OK, OK, so maybe it doesn't sounds more silly than epic, but it really is the little details: From the faster beat to the music, to the slightly decreased size of battlefield, to the change in tactics from surviving waves of enemy zombies to actually needing to damage Dr. Zomboss - all contribute to the excitement of the final battle. But beyond that, details that flesh out the world add to the finale as well. The grammatically correct note of warning from Dr. Zomboss just before the final battle (as opposed to the more common: Deer naybor, plez lets us eats your brainz). The loss of your most trusted ally, Crazy Dave, just before the battle. The nighttime onslaught, so your plants don't recieve additional sunlight to beef them up. It is these details that are unique to world and add depth to it.

It is these details that suck a player, a watcher, a reader into the world. For a brief moment in time, my lawn really is all that stands between the world and oblivion, and Dave - Crazy Dave is counting on me.

So ready the Cob Cannons, reinforce the Wall-Nuts, and wake up the Magnet Shrooms, the final battle has come!

Of course, maybe all that TV and those video games just rotted my brains, instead...

Mmmmm...brainz...