NENOREMO Day 29: A Guest Post

NENOREMO BONUS CONTENT

Please welcome Samantha Lienhard, a buddy from grad school and fellow writer/gamer. In honor of Finish Him’s release, she’s here today giving a different take on how video games can inspire the writing process. Share and enjoy!

How Professor Layton Inspired My Horror Story

by Samantha Lienhard

~Buy it here.

I’m both a writer and a gamer, so it’s no surprise video games often inspire my writing ideas. The idea for the zombie virus in The Accidental Zombie was sparked by Resident Evil, the references to yokai in Ace Attorney led to all of my yokai-themed stories, Professor Layton helped me complete my short horror story “Sand,” and—

Wait, what?

Yes. Even though “Sand” is filled with Lovecraftian horror, it wouldn’t be published if not for a cute, family-friendly puzzle series known as Professor Layton.

“Sand” was published in December 2014, but I wrote the first draft several years earlier. You wouldn’t recognize it as the same story. It had a different structure, setting, and even viewpoint character.

The original draft followed James as he watched an old classmate, Algernon P. Lewis, succumb to madness after a trip to the Eureka Dunes. Haunted by music he claimed to have heard there, Algernon believed sand was going to kill him.

I wrote it, polished it, and tried unsuccessfully to get it published. I revised it and tried again. And again. The problem was, “Sand” wasn’t scary. At all. And no matter how much tension I tried to add, something about it just didn’t work.

I finally accepted I had to rewrite the entire story from scratch—and tell it from Algernon’s viewpoint this time.

Now, when I write, I like to have background music. I’d just finished playing Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, the sixth and final game in the Professor Layton series, so it was on my mind. I put my favorite Layton song, Descole’s Theme, on repeat and started to write.

This time, I structured “Sand” as Algernon’s diary. And with Descole’s music in the background, Algernon changed. Gone was the banker from the original draft. In his place rose up a researcher devoted to uncovering the secrets of the lost Anaian civilization. With this at its core, an entirely new version of “Sand” formed, and this was the version accepted a few weeks later by The Mad Scientist Journal.

So, are the Anaian people the Azran?

Of course not. Professor Layton’s Azran civilization was an ancient culture of highly-advanced people, while the Anaia from “Sand” were an inhuman society that worshiped eldritch gods. The Anaia did not come from Professor Layton—but the idea did.

Without Professor Layton, Algernon would not be a researcher. There would not be an ancient civilization with mysteries for him to unearth. Algernon would have continued life as a banker who got into some generic Lovecraftian trouble, and his story would probably still be unpublished.

And so, baffling though it may sound, it’s the simple truth:

Professor Layton inspired my horror story.

ABOUT SAMANTHA

Samantha's publications include a horror/comedy novella called The Accidental Zombie, a Lovecraftian novella called The Book at Dernier, and a short horror story called "Rokurokubi," among others. When she isn't writing, she can probably be found playing video games. Her gaming tastes are varied, and conversations with her might jump from the latest story-driven RPG to a game about dating birds. You have been warned.

Find Samantha online:

-her website
-Facebook
-Twitter @SamLienhard

~~~

Thanks again, Sam, for stopping by!

Geek on,
Deanna

-Twitter @DDGeekWriter
-Facebook
-Amazon
-Goodreads

Writing for Geeks (At Least for Me)

“Geeky people often have. . . . a mind with its own heartbeat.”
-Garret Freymenn-Weyr

Once upon a time, two years ago, a girl picked up Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and loved it. The characters were real. The story was complex. The zeal for the virtual world that had become Earth’s place of choice reminded her of a time when she, too, wished to live in a virtual world and her eventual decision to leave it behind in favor of reality.

Once upon a time, later, this same girl discovered Ernest Cline was writing another book. She bounced in her chair with excitement and waited with eager breath for the release of this new book. A year later, Mr. Cline released Armada. The girl got it on release day and read.

And read.

And wondered.

~~~

I write for geeks. When the idea of Critical Hit-On first came to me, I thought “I want to write a romance novel for gamers. I want to write a romance for girls like me—ones who consider themselves geeky and fear that being geeky will keep them from finding someone. I want to write a romance novel for girls who love to reference LOTR and Star Wars and all that stuff as much as their male counter parts.”

So I did.

And then I changed it.

It took a long time, but I finally realized somewhere in the process of writing Critical Hit-On that there was such a thing as too many geek references. Not only does it get tiresome, it alienates an entire portion of the population that could become fans. So I cut back on the references and expanded the book. My new goal was to write romance novels that could be appreciated by geeks but that weren’t necessarily for geeks. I feel I succeeded, but I’ll leave that up to the readers.

I finished reading Armada last week. Upon completion of this long-awaited book, I stared at the final page and thought “that’s it?” At the risk of sounding too geeky here, you know that part of the movie where the hero realizes the grizzled old mentor isn’t perfect?

Yeah, that’s what happened.

As a reader, I hold a certain place of esteem for authors who pen novels that make me feel. Ernest Cline made me feel with Ready Player One. I so wanted the same experience with Armada, and I simply did not get it.

Why not? Well, it’s simple, really. There was too much geek. The references started on page one and didn’t let up until the end—literally. Some I got. Some I didn’t. Perhaps the worst part was that I knew I wasn’t getting a lot of the references. I felt excluded from the story because I didn’t know every tiny reference to the most obscure geek culture. It’s not a good feeling.

I had the idea to not use too many references long before Armada. Still, I didn’t know what that really meant. Where was the harm? Well, the harm is here. Geeks are geeks. Any geek who’s asked will automatically admit it. Most will also admit to other interests that aren’t traditionally considered “geek,” too. Like anything else, there are degrees. Armada seems to be written for the all-knowing kind from the 80’s who want the glory days back. If you aren’t in the club, either join or find another club. I’m not in the club, and honestly, I don’t feel it’s worth the work to join when I am happy where I am.

Critical Hit-On and One Fling to Rule Them All are geek romance. There’s no way around it. My characters play RPGs (role playing games), video games, trading card games, most other kinds of games one can think of. They quote books and movies from pop culture, but that’s not all they do. There is more to the books than a love of geek culture. There’s heart and relationships and friendship and family and people with real goals—like wanting to counsel parents with wayward teens or start a small business through which a career in music can be built. Man does not live on pop culture references alone. A good story needs something at its center, something all readers (geek, self-proclaimed or otherwise, or not) can identify with. With Critical Hit-On and One Fling, my aim was to provide a celebration of pop culture while focusing on some real life issues of people who just happen to be gamers. I can only hope I succeeded.

-Twitter @DDGeekWriter
-Facebook
-Amazon
-Goodreads

This Week in Geek...a day late

Hi there,

Yeah, yesterday was a mess, so I’m geeking out today instead. Let’s get started, shall we?

First, video games - Civilization Beyond Earth

Next, check this out. A Massachusetts couple changed their middle names to seamonster.

What would you change your middle name to if given the chance?

Hey, Disney, you rock! You know why? Because they’re building a Star Wars theme park.

And some videos

A female Spiderman movie?

And here’s the honest trailer for Divergent, which I am including here because it gave me an excuse to watch it again.

Geek on,
Deanna

“I’m a geek. I write romance. Allegedly, I write geek romance.”

Find me on Twitter @DDGeekWriter.

This Week in Geek 7-3-14

Sorry I missed last week. Visiting friends and geeking out and such.

Anyway, this week I have some heartbreaking news. Remember the whole blowing-into-your-Nintendo-games thing to make them work? Well, much like the cake, it was a lie.

For some more depressing news. Airtight games is officially closing.

Now for some happier stuff. Check out this Monty Python hoody. It’s only a flesh wound, after all.

And now for the best (and last…because those go together). D&D makes the basic rules free.

Geek on,
Deanna

“I’m a geek. I write romance. Allegedly, I write geek romance.”

Find me on Twitter @DDGeekWriter.