The State of the Art

I recently addressed creative stagnation in genre novels. That post led to speculation on where to find cutting edge science fiction and fantasy. Several interested parties identified video games as the new medium for visionary storytelling. I agree that games have inherited a large swath of the cultural real estate once dominated by novels. But is this a positive development?

One fact that tends to be overlooked in a given "video games are the new novels" discussion is that the medium a story is told through matters. That's why artists use different media to tell their stories. One of the most common mistakes made by first time novelists is to write like they're dictating the action of a movie. Similarly, a film shot at the relentless pace of a novel would be an exhausting visual jackhammer.

As is rightly said, film is primarily a visual medium. Directors can include pages of expository dialogue and whole reels of establishing scenes because the visuals keep the audience entertained. A novelist who writes two consecutive paragraphs of description or whose characters spout exposition for more than half a page will quickly find his book set aside. Words are all writers have, so each one needs to be important.

Video games are something of a chimera. They too rely mostly on images. However, it's not uncommon to find blocks of text, audio snippets, and non-interactive video in the mix. Your mileage will vary by genre, but the one feature that all games must have in order to be games at all is challenge.

It's been said that interactivity is what makes games special and that books and films are passive media. As I point out here, that's an oversimplification. Whether you're immersed in a game or staring at a sculpture, all art is interactive. No artist can force engagement with his work. The audience's personal perspective is always vital to shaping the experience.

Games aren't the only interactive art medium. They are the most prominent art form that calls attention to audience participation. Video game interactivity is so overt that players feel cheated if a game is too linear or arbitrarily limits their choices. That is as it should be since the most fundamental level of engagement with a game comes from meeting and overcoming challenges.

The fundamentally different approaches to narrative in novels and games are why I doubt that video games can truly replace books. They're built for different jobs. Conflict is essential to novels, but only as a narrative device. In contrast, conflict is the whole point of a game. Hence the rising criticism of a certain game that shall remain nameless.

Balancing complex character, engaging narrative, striking scenery, and challenging conflict in a game is a herculean task. Overemphasizing character may impede the player's vicarious experience. Excessive focus on narrative can make players impatient. Visuals that are too lush can be distracting, and we all know how frustrating imbalanced difficulty is.

Novels are far more straightforward. All a writer has to worry about is setting up strong internal and external conflict and arranging the story so that the stakes progressively rise. None of that is simple, but it's far easier without the added burdens of game development.

In short, the natural focus of games is on the overall immersive experience. Novels are entirely about the story.

Art Idea

I have to credit Mick with what I think is a great idea for acquiring novel illustrations. When I wrote about an author's financial responsibilities to the publisher, I mentioned that the writer is often required to provide artwork or pay someone else to create it. I somehow forgot about the legions of university art students struggling to build their portfolios.

Mick's suggestion was to approach a student artist with a proposal to draft illustrations for a soon to be published book, which would add to the artist's body of work while increasing his exposure. Even if the publisher rejected the artwork, it would give their in-house design department visual aids to realizing the author's vision.

And of course, a student would be far more likely to work for the experience alone, or at least at a far lower cost than a professional.

Art and Additional Materials

Visual art seems to enjoy pride of first place among the aesthetic fields. One of the primary reasons for its universal appeal is probably its immediacy. Anyone can get the gist of a drawing or painting after even a cursory glimpse, but extracting the meat of a literary piece takes significantly more time and effort. Artists, therefore, seem to achieve recognition more easily than writers.

If you want a practical example, try finding a comic book publisher who's accepting unsolicited script submissions. Even bigger studios periodically have open calls for new artists, but unless a story is accompanied by finished pencils at least, good luck getting it in the door.

An interesting observation I made during my unsuccessful bid to launch a web comic is that, while many authors (myself included) openly admit that they can barely manage artwork equaling grade school notebook sketches, every artist I've ever spoken to judges his writing to be on par with his art.

Having been rebuffed by pencilers who already had stories to go along with their artwork, and thus no need for me, I resolved to abandon comics for the time being in order to focus on novels--an medium dedicated entirely to the written word...or so I thought, until I came upon a common clause included in many standard book contracts imposing upon the author the obligation of providing additional materials, including original art.

Since, as I stated, I can't draw, the obvious answer was to include no artwork in my book, other than the front and back cover, which are the publisher's problem. However, I soon discovered that the standard contract specifies that the inclusion of additional artwork is at the publisher's sole discretion. If I do get a book deal, the publisher can demand interior art. Now, publishers know very well that there's every chance a particular author can't draw or paint as well as he can write (a rare combination despite what many artists seem to think), so they add a clause stipulating that the author will be forced to pay for the services of a third-party artist (or even the publisher's own art department).

Usually the publisher will just go ahead and farm out the production of additional materials for the novel, including permissions and indexes (or even maps made by actual cartographers) in addition to original art. Then they'll charge a debit to the author's account which, like the advance, is recoupable via royalties.

Long story short, if you're an author with a book deal on the horizon, make sure to renegotiate these generally unfavorable provisions of most standard literary contracts.

Your Book Is not Your Khakis

As Tyler Durden so eloquently pointed out, few of us will ever achieve movie star, rock god, or millionaire status, despite TV's claims to the contrary. Not only did Fight Club acquaint us with this paradox of contemporary society, it did so for the right reasons. Instead of preaching a defeatist apathy, Durden and the other members of Project Mayhem celebrated the intrinsic value of human talent, though admittedly to an extreme degree.

The point remains that purely utilitarian, materialistic ends shouldn't motivate the pursuit of one's passion. That kind of value system is what's gotten Hollywood mired in the stagnant depths of sequel and reboot obsession.

Not that an artist doesn't deserve just compensation for the years of effort it can take to create a finished work. The simple fact is that it's pretty amazing when anyone produces a sculpture, writes a poem, or scripts a play, whether or not the achievement gets major recognition.

Some of the best advice I've heard on the use of talent was given by Bill Flanagan to Sinead O'Connor when her career was on the rocks. When she lamented that she still had a lot of songs left in her, he told her to write them anyway, even if she just left them unrecorded in a shoebox.

I've often heard professional authors caution amateurs to curb their dreams of the elusive six-figure advance and the highly competitive bestseller list. Art is not a field one enters for the money.

Everyone has a skill in which heredity and environment have predisposed them to excel. Allowing that gift to atrophy is a monumental waste. Plus, I hold to Tolkien's concept of sub-creation: that human beings are privileged above any other animal to be made collaborators in the ongoing beautification and perfection of nature. Engaging our powers as authors; be it as painters, writers, filmmakers, or parents, is the way in which we most closely approach the activity of the Author.