'Writing, Motivation and People'

Here we are again, another week, another dev blog. I'm not sure how long I should (or could) keep this up considering we might be back in full production in two weeks.
School does have top priority right now and particularly this very week is excruciatingly busy.
But enough 'no', I don't like 'no', I'm more a man of err... 'Yes, I can' kinda guy. That same thought is what brought me here, that same thought will be propelling me into the future.

It's often that kind of thinking that will kill your project: 'Can I really do this?' or 'what if I fail?'.
You know what I like to call that? Noise.
Noise is your mind working against you, or rather the 'thinking' part of your brain. While you wonder if that girl will decline if you ask her out, your sub conscious is out there climbing K2, sailing through space in a starfighter and battling the Dragon demon from the depths of Antakuze!

Do you draw random things whether you should be doing algebra? Do you stare out the window and imagine what it would be like to rather than listening to whatever the teacher has to say? Can you watch for countless hours at the starry nightsky instead of 'Oh my god, he's SO hot!"?
You should. That's your subconscious and it's an infinitely powerful tool you can learn to use. It's actually rather simple.

Whenever you get into a project like this, you're always super excited about it because you can do ANYTHING. That's you believing it, utterly convinced of yourself that you can do whatever you want to do, and let's face it... there's no reason you can't.
Further down the line however, you start losing faith for whatever reason. You start the dreaded 'thinking': what if you can't do this? What if the other projects are way cooler? The most useless and demotivational thoughts cross your mind, kicking you off the path you had initially chosen and stopping you from doing what you wanted to do.

I'm not really sure what causes it and even I still have this problem sometimes, but I found that working with other likeminded people provides a huge motivational boost.
Enter the Storybook Collab (god, took me long enough to get to that bridge).

I played around with the tale in my head a few weeks before I came across this project.
It always starts with one thought, this thought can be anything and can be triggered by anything. Suddenly it just hits you. In my case it crossed my mind while walking the dog around 10 in the evening: a man who has a certain gift, or maybe a curse.
A snowball effect occurs; from that tiny speck going down the hill eventually an entire world is born.

Of all things creative, writing is the one thing I consider myself truly adept in. It's hard to explain really, but it's something I do automatically. You 'feel' your way through it, so to speak. You have this flow you can instantly jump into and ride to wherever you want.
For the rest however... I kinda suck haha, though I'm on my way on developing myself in various areas.
But that's not the point...

The point is that this particular collab brings together people who can 'feel' their way around their respective expertises. The first issue which comes up is: how do you convey your feel to on entirely different medium?
This isn't your average story, due to its mixture of voice acting, illustrations and music its more a cross between graphic novel and audiobook. Film is what comes to mind as well.

It was that question which led me to writing my story out as a script, rather than a straightforward short story. Along with it I wrote up documents detailing character backgrounds and characteristics and one where I laid out my rough vision of the world it took place in. Everyone was free to interpret it all their own way and even come up with their own ideas.
That's I think the most beautiful thing there is, people who take your stuff, play around with it and come up with something you hadn't thought possible.
It was truly overwhelming and I still get goosebumps listening to the voice-overs or looking at the artwork sucho has made.

I couldn't begin to imagine this would come out of it, and I'm truly grateful for everything that has happened *sheds a tear*.
It's more than the sum of its parts. The combination of creativity and the best people have to offer creates something... beyond numbers.

The script called for a relatively big cast of characters: two main characters, two supporting and I personally believe most importantly, one narrator.
No, don't kill me D:, I'm not playing favourites! It's just that because of the nature of the script the narrator is the one who strings together the entire story and signifies certain important elements, and she (voicegirl) does that with absolute grace and brilliance.
Initially she offered her voice for a discount, to which I sent a reply explaining this didn't involve money, to which she then replied 'I'll do it for free.'.
To me... that's the biggest compliment you can give and I am... still speechless about that.

Even so it's a relatively big tale: twenty pages. Taking the unwritten rule that one page roughly equals one minute... Yeah, that's a lot of work. The voice over of the narrator alone clocks in at over sixteen minutes...
Initially I had planned the story to be even bigger (I'd estimate an additional ten pages) and have it end with a huge chase scene but obviously that wasn't going to happen, the artist is a human being too :P

So when a choice had to be made, I opted for an alternative: breaking it up. It wasn't really a difficult choice to make, but at first I didn't know what to do. Perhaps I wanted an answer from someone higher up the chain, but since I was the highest...
The cut was made and the story was divided in... I don't know how many parts, actually...
I'm actually happy I had to do it, as it allowed me to further expand the story and the world (I already have the first few scenes of a possible sequel roughly sketched out).

It's a strange but at the same time liberating realization. I don't see myself as an all-controlling manager type person, yet I call the shots. It doesn't feel like I assumed control and directed everything, but I was more or less... elected or something.
Whatever it is, I set out to make something beautiful and I think I did and this wouldn't be possible without everyone who involved.

Hmm, looking back this post doesn't really elaborate that much on writing at all, haha.
If you have any questions, don't mind to ask.

Cheers.