Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
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From: magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson)
Subject: Re: hints and How Do You Author?
Message-ID: <1992Dec10.160133.11256@pollux.lu.se>
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Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sweden
References: <Bz14zw.3Fy.2@cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 16:01:33 GMT
Lines: 49

In article <Bz14zw.3Fy.2@cs.cmu.edu> pww+@A.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Peter Weyhrauch) writes:
>On a (semi)related note, I have a question about how authors invent
>their interactive fictions.  Do they (you?) say:
>
>"Hum ... Here is a bunch of neat puzzles I have thought up.  How can I
>put them into some kind of coherent story?"
>
>or 
>
>"Ah, here is a really cool story-line.  Let me see what sorts of
>puzzles fit into the story."
>
>or 
>
>"Wow, I just thought of a really cool story that has a lot of puzzles
>naturally fitting into it.  I can't wait!"
>
>or 
>
>"Hmmm... here is a vague situation that might make a good theme for an
>interactive fiction.  I think I'll sort of brainstorm a bit on the
>possible storylines and puzzles that could fit in here."
>
>or (most likely)
>
>something completely different?

All of the above.

Sometimes, I certainly invent the puzzles first, and then add plot and
settings to make it plausible. At other times, the plot, or just the
setting,  comes first, and the puzzles are thought out afterwards. 
Your third alternative is more rare (at least for me).

Finally, let's not forget that writing IF, like all authoring, is
often some sort of self-sustaining process: you start out with a
pretty vague idea of what's going to happen, and the plot, and the
world you've created and its inhabitants, seem to get lives of their
own, and things sort of just happen because they seem right. Of
course, such "inspired" passages almost always need some polishing, or
maybe major rewriting afterwards, but the point is that much of the
plot (and puzzles in IF) aren't planned at all - they just seem to
arise naturally out of the story's internal logic. 

              Magnus Olsson                | \e+      /_
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