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Not that my setting necessarily has text-based social media, but if it did…

Hey there everyone! I’m the 🗨️Negotiator, and I hope we’ll all be good ❤️friends!

Here’s a bit about me: I’m a loving husband and father of 🎈one, living sustainably off the grid and looking for ways to make things better.

I’m recently retired, because it turns out you can’t 🔧fix a broken system from the inside. I took with me far too much secret knowledge for my own good, and I’m eager to 📣share that info with anyone and everyone who can use it. If that’s you, please get in touch ASAP because someday they will put me away!

⚠️⚠️⚠️ This post does NOT apply to you if you work for the Government. Government workers—including contractors such as Architects, ninjas, pirates, and athletes—do NOT have permission to view or interact with my social media account. ⚠️⚠️⚠️

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I could recommend specific sources, but honestly I think those are a matter of taste. TV Tropes was a great fit for my younger self, but it isn’t right for everyone. Nowadays I get most of my advice by listening to individual writers, especially in serialized works where the author posts their thoughts on the latest entry. And even if they don’t, simply consuming media is a great way to learn more about what you like and what you don’t, if you pay attention.

Perhaps this is why I’m drawn to media by solo indie creators. Most of the time, I can figure out how it was made. If I like a part, I have enough information to try something similar myself. If I don’t like a part, I can guess why they did it and what went wrong. In big budget productions by large teams, all the rough edges are filed off and that information is gone.

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Animals are adorable! Have you seen my puppy? You could never find another animal so smart, so well-behaved, or so handsome!

…

Excuse me? I never said that. Let me see that article!

Aha, of course. This insufferable tabloid took my words out of context, as they love to do so very often. You should really be more careful about what media you read.

But no matter; I can clear this up. I said that as part of a longer interview about commercial animal breeding. When I said that no one would love these animals, it was with great sorrow, to explain why this is wrong. All animals deserve a loving home, but when these breeders breed more animals than there are good homes, it inevitably follows that some will fail to find a home, or will be given to a bad home. Hence my call to outlaw breeders, or at least create a minimum wealth requirement for pet ownership, to ensure all pets will be cared-for the way they deserve.

For the record, he never did give that magazine back. It went straight in the recycling.

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Not that I can recall. I don’t consciously follow other people’s advice while I write, which means I can’t exactly stop following it.

Like every other young writer, I was told “show, don’t tell.” Feels like that advice is everywhere.

It sounded like good advice, but I have always been a little contrary, so from the start I put a twist on it. I would tell (or have a character tell), but in the process I’d show something different. My characters often make bold statements, telling each other (and the reader) what to think, but the more important thing is how they say it or what they leave out, because that shows something about their character.

Sometimes it’s as simple as “this character will geek out if given a chance.” Other times, it hints at ulterior motives, or past events. There’s always something, not because of any rule, but because I get bored writing if there aren’t at least two things going on at once.

(I never changed my mind on this, but I think it’s relevant enough to be worth sharing.)

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Child:

Uhhhh…. Can I say the Bunny? ‘Cause if not I’d have to pick between Dad and the Angel, ’cause there’s no one else coming with us.

…

Don’t tell him, but Dad’s no fun these days. It’s like, yes Dad, I know the Angel’s mean and bad, but can we talk about anything else?

At least the Angel shows me how to build stuff, that’s kinda fun. I tell Dad I’m doing espinage– esp-pi– espi-o-nage. It’s a word that means like I’m spying on him, except without the hiding part. But I’m not doing much espi-o-naging or much spying, I just wanna make some things. And even though he’s a big ol’ jerk, he tells me how.

Angel:

That’s easy: my friends back home.

I’ve missed our game nights, I miss listening to the Digger go on about rocks for hours on end… I guess I miss getting pranked by the Jester. He’s always coming up with cool new widgets, but of course he can’t show them off normally, he has to come up with a prank that makes you doubt reality for a second.

Most of all, I miss being around people who can check my work! Other than myself and the Runner, no one here in the Tunnels has even a basic level of competence. I’d count myself lucky there are two of us, but for some reason she’s off wasting time instead of helping get home.

The Child gets a pass because he’s young and willing to learn. He can barely hold a wrench or soldering iron, much less remember where all the parts go, but when you point out a mistake, he fixes it. That alone could make him the least-bad engineer in his generation.

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It boggles the mind how little people understand. How much they willingly accept.

Aren’t these projectors the Architects installed great? New toys to play with! Free toys! What could be wrong with free? Don’t mind the cameras, they let you control your toy, that’s all.

Let the toys distract you from our divisions. Rich and poor? That’s how it’s meant to be. Male and female? Yeah, let’s cut society in half again, and make fun of anyone who reaches out across the imaginary aisle. Hey, let’s sign up for careers! Isn’t it nice how we get to pick which box we’ll be trapped in?

Start questioning any of this and boom: pirate attack. Panic, find shelter, let yourself be distracted. Cheer in relief when ninjas “save the day.” Don’t ask where they come from, or why they’re so evenly matched.

Why can’t anyone see the pattern? Our Government is terrified of what we could do together. They want us divided, surveilled, and afraid.

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Can I count mysteries as a type of conflict? My story features a lot of them. Even in-universe, they’re important. The Duplicator is racing to uncover what he believes to be a massive conspiracy, and if he’s right, there are forces working to make sure no one figures it out.

Beyond that, we see plenty of characters get into arguments, there’s the challenge of getting home from outer space, and after that the end goal is for a family of three to face off against a planetary government.

Speaking of that family, the Duplicator and Demagogue are counting on their son to work with them, but he’s still figuring out what he wants to do with his life. Will he do what he thinks of as the responsible thing? Or will he follow his own interests?

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Am I happy? No.

They imprisoned me in outer space because I knew too much. I’m separated from my wife, and my son is separated from his mother. Everyone else trapped with us is either a liar or a fool.

It’s hard to see the bright side, some days.

But there is a bright side: we can see all the other things they locked away. Alien life, vast riches, mutagenic chemicals, and secrets of the Universe itself! If we can bring home the proof, the jig will be up. Society will see the truth and rise against the Government, and it will all have been worth it.

Here’s some background knowledge from my story, for context. No comment on how accurate his interpretations are.

“Alien life”: a tunnel assembled itself out of component pieces, and tunnels seem to have some sort of sensory apparatus.

“Vast riches”: the Tunnels have hundreds if not thousands of batteries floating around, and their society uses batteries as currency. They aren’t the same type of battery, but everyone seems to be assuming you can substitute them.

“Mutagenic chemicals”: the Duplicator ingested an unknown substance, went catatonic for multiple days, turned blue, and gained the ability to make holographic copies of himself.

“Secrets of the Universe itself”: there’s a lot of advanced technology on display, including a large wormhole in the distance. Plus, there are some phenomena that haven’t been conclusively explained.

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Political: there’s the Government itself, plus several factions attempting to influence it. The Duplicator generally interprets these factions as either working for the Government or being their pawns.

Religious: Pastafarianism is a serious religion in this setting. Others follow the Founder, though they insist he’s real and they aren’t a cult. The Sage provides guidance to those who seek it out, but claims no religious significance.

Corporate: the Architects are a wealthy family who behave something like a corporation. They take an active role in politics and other affairs. The Factory behaves more like a non-profit, taking a passive role.

Other: the strange technology of the Tunnels shapes how the main cast gets from place to place. A lot of this technology conveniently produces platformer game mechanics. (I made the game first, then wrote the story to explain it.)

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He has the power to create semitransparent copies of himself nearby. They mimic his motions, interact with the world, and don’t feel pain. If he’s in trouble he can swap places with any of them.

An ability like this would seem to be useful in a fight, but unfortunately for him, this story doesn’t feature combat. It’s considered pointless, perhaps even childish. Neither he nor his enemies would think to solve their problems that way.

Before the story began, he had been a legislator with considerable sway within the Government. He tried to serve as the voice of the common people there, always consulting with constituents and presenting their ideas and concerns to the other officials. Then one day, he willingly stepped down, giving up all that power and influence. Now he peddles wild conspiracy theories and works to bring the whole Government down.

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More than he should. Less than he’d like.

He won’t admit it, even to himself, but he misses having the Negotiator’s help.

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Most of my story so far has focused on eight individuals stuck in outer space. Most of them could represent a community (conspiracy theorists, engineers, Pastafarians, rich people, athletes, scientists), but it’s hard to say that the community plays a role in the story with only one member present. Probably the best indication of this is that the story hasn’t made clear whether the characters are typical for their respective communities. Do all Pastafarians talk like that? Who knows, we’ve only met the one.

That said, I’m working to flesh out more communities. For example, artisans. They’re a loose-knit movement who make things by hand, and since the Duplicator swore not to trust anything that came out of a 3D printer, they’ve been his go-to source of goods. He always tells them to keep fighting the good fight, even though activists are in the minority. Most artisans do it as a hobby or a point of artistic pride.

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I honestly don’t know what to call Run 3. Is it sci-fi because it’s in space and features alien characters? That feels reductive. Is it slice of life because everyone’s doing their own thing and they spend a lot of time chatting? Or is it adventure because they’re exploring?

• Sci-fi tropes: no laser battles, no planets with exactly one defining feature each, yes strange alien technology.
• Slice of life tropes: no love triangles, yes clashing personalities, yes improbable friends.
• Adventure tropes: no inseparable band of intrepid heroes, no shared foe (except maybe the emptiness of space), yes getting stranded away from home.

These are just the broad strokes; I’m sure there are many more.

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A planner for sure, except sometimes when he’s caught off-guard.

He has a background in politics, mostly the thankless and boring kind. The kind where you’re caught between several sides who all want something different, and you spend weeks ironing out details and trying to address all concerns at once, and sometimes the best possible outcome is that everyone will be equally unhappy.

Since he married the Demagogue, the two of them have spent a lot of time on plans to delegitimize and/or destabilize the Government. They’ve gathered information (got a conspiracy board and everything), worked to win allies, trained, and more.

But there are also times when the Duplicator jumps to conclusions too quickly. His excuse is he’s playing dumb to make people underestimate him, but there’s another part of him that longs to be the stereotypical genius detective, making deductions in an instant and catching bad guys the moment they make the tiniest mistake.

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Whatever it is, I haven’t watched that movie yet. It likely exists, I just don’t watch many movies.

I suspect he’d like 24, based on Jon Bois’s description of the show (mind the CW). Well, he’d like it once he got over the shock factor, and the culture shock for that matter. A lone hero who’s the only one capable of keeping the peace in a horrible world? Someone who makes impossible moral decisions but is always vindicated in the end? That’s his jam!

I think his ideal movie would be a detective/courtroom drama with similar themes. An intrepid investigator who brings down a seemingly untouchable foe (e.g., a widely-loved but corrupt CEO), using hardball tactics to peel back their layers of deception until everyone finally sees their true depravity.

You know, just yesterday I talked about how my protagonist likes to think of himself as a stereotypical genius detective. Perhaps the two of them aren’t so different after all.

Don’t worry, my antagonist won’t drop that line during the climax. Both he and my protagonist are already well aware.

They knew it, but I’m only now realizing it. I’m sitting here rereading my post and thinking, “oh of course, that’s what they saw in one another.”

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That’s easy, he and his wife would spread conspiracy theories.

• Breaking down the ways the Government tracks you
• The confiscated items being stored in the Factory
• Why recycling is a scam
• We staked out a Government facility for three days (you won’t believe what we found!)
• Five ways the Moon influences your thoughts (number four will shock you!)

Naturally, clickbait increases over time as the show struggles to be noticed.

I’ve spent all month talking about the Duplicator’s obsession with the Government, and I’m worried it’ll get stale. So let’s suppose he can’t talk about conspiracy theories; what other shows might he host?

• He likes puzzles and mysteries, so he could review the latest mystery books/movies, interspersed with puzzles for the listeners.
• His family plays subversive TTRPGs, and could stream their sessions. (Not a talk show, but whatever.)
• He has ties to the artisan community, so perhaps a show where they bring artisans on to talk about their latest projects.
• He likes talking to people one-on-one about all sorts of things, and probably misses that part of his Government days. (Downsides to turning yourself into an outcast.) Honestly he could go for all kinds of subjects as long as he was meeting a variety of people.

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I’d hesitate to call myself an expert in anything besides programming and game design, and the story isn’t about programming or game design. But I do read up on various other topics, and that knowledge does have a way of sneaking in.

• I’ve read plenty about how and why people make mistakes (I recommend “Thinking, Fast and Slow”), and I sometimes use that as a basis for character flaws.
• When I was young I was a little obsessed with black holes. (I just thought they were cool.) (And I still do, but with more nuance.) Now I have a half-decent intuition for warped space, which inspired me to use a wormhole as a location of interest.
• Recently I’ve been getting into urbanism, and I’m sure it’ll show up sooner or later.

There are more examples, but most of the ones coming to mind are spoilers.

Here’s a specific example that isn’t a spoiler.

After reading this anecdote about the Socratic Method, I felt like I’d learned a cool new approach to teaching, and I wanted to share it.

To fit it into my story, I decided the Child would demonstrate a misunderstanding about the Runner’s map, and she’d use questions to guide him to the answer. (I also had some philosophical ideas to share about maps, so I got to do two things at once.)

Looking back, I think I made the scene too short. Rick Garlikov’s anecdote worked specifically because he took it slow, starting with a simplified analogy and elaborating one tiny step at a time. Whereas in my scene, the Child has to make leaps of logic, and I’m sure some of my intended meaning was lost. If I find the time, I’d like to extend the scene to make it more obvious (1) what the Child got wrong, (2) what he learned, (3) what the Socratic Method is, and (4) how to try it yourself.

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No, because I’ve never stuck to a single genre. Yes, because most of my writing falls into one of the genres I liked as a child, if not more than one.

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The more time I spend writing a character, the more bits of myself I notice in them. Generally this means I relate to main characters the most. Especially this month, since I decided to focus on the Duplicator as the MC. I’ve written a lot about him already, but not much about his antagonist, and I figured a month of writing prompts would be a good chance to fix that.

It’s definitely worth noting that my MCs antagonize each other a bunch. Early on, they (especially the Angel) were the closest things I had to antagonists. The Angel was almost the antagonist this month, since the Duplicator sees him as one. However, I’ve already used him as the antagonist in a previous month, and he doesn’t see the Duplicator as a foe.

I know you hate me and don’t want my help, but you don’t know how to get home on your own, so I’m going to help you anyway.

—The Angel to the Duplicator, or me to a bug in my room.

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I don’t usually think about themes. Perhaps if I did, it would be easier to write endings.

Thinking about it now, I would say the Duplicator’s story features themes of distrust, subterfuge, and institutional power. I did knowingly add those things to the story, but only because they followed from him being a conspiracy theorist. I wasn’t thinking of them as themes, just aiming for consistency.

Looking at this from a different angle, I sometimes write with the goal of sharing a specific idea, which can be like having a theme. For instance, I have a storyline sitting on the back burner because the core idea feels like it’s missing something. I know who will be where, roughly what they’ll do, and what the outcome will be, but I don’t feel like I know what the story’s about, and I can’t write a satisfying ending until I figure it out.

Maybe the solution is never to write endings. Maybe that’s the problem here. /s

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Yes.

But that’s not the most interesting answer, so let’s tweak the question.

Hey Dad, I’ve been thinking. You know how we’re gonna trick the Angel to get home?

Sure. What’s up?

I just, what if you didn’t have your duplicates? Wouldn’t that break the plan?

Yes, this plan relies on him not knowing what the duplicates can really do. But we could have made another plan instead, relying on something else he doesn’t know. We had time.

But what if they stop working now?

If the Angel could get rid of them, he’d have tried already. Oh! Unless he’s waiting for the last minute…But even if he did, we’d call off the launch and find another way.

…

What’s wrong?

…I don’t want to not go home.

Oh kiddo, it’s ok. Please don’t worry, we aren’t really calling off the launch. The plan is good.

I think it’s worth posting my first draft too. Here’s how he might have answered a slightly different question:

If I couldn’t tell people’s true motives, we’d be in enormous trouble.

To be fair, we are in trouble already. I got tricked and they were able to banish us to outer space. But the only reason we’re so close to getting back is I’ve been on top of my game ever since.

The Angel is quickly running out of time, and he knows it. He’s going to keep hoping to find an opening, and when he hasn’t found one by launch day, he’ll have no option but to drop the pretense and maroon us in space. And when that doesn’t work, we expose his beloved Government to the whole world.

…

You meant my duplicates? Come on, you know that’s not my main skill. Yes, the Angel doesn’t know their full potential, making them vital to our current plan, but without them we could have made a different plan. Without my intuition, we wouldn’t have a plan in the first place!

I think the second draft is closer to what would happen in canon, but it’s a shame to lose the insight into what the Duplicator thinks his “main skill” is. But there’s no reason for the Child to phrase the question as “what if you didn’t have your main skill?” when he could be specific.

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Sight and hearing come the most naturally. Plus, I’m making a video game and those are what’s available.

Actually, most types of media have similar limitations. Being able to describe all the senses is the exception, not the rule.

• Movies are visuals + audio. A narrator could describe other senses, but it’s hard to make that work.
• Paintings have to rely on appearance alone. Well, appearance and texture, as long as you ignore the museum’s “no touching” signs.
• Comics are a visual medium, but they have well-established conventions for some types of sound.
• Plays have access to visuals and audio. And also smell if the director is brave enough.

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In Earth years, the youngest would be 8-12, most would fall between 15-35, and the oldest would be at least 50, probably over 60. (I haven’t felt the need to nail down their ages, much to fans’ frustration.)

Generally I assume older characters have greater expertise and background knowledge, but only in areas where they’ve put in the work. Dropping everyone into deep space evens the playing field: neither the kids nor the adults have experience with alien technology, so they’re all (?) starting from square one.

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Yes, but it rarely gets discussed. The Gentleman is the only one who makes a big deal out of it.

Part of this stems from the fact that there’s little use for money when you’re separated from society. Sure the Gentleman is able to build up a figurative dragon’s hoard, but what does he think he’s he going to do with it? No one’s selling anything.

The other part is that their society has a good social safety net, so no one grew up in what we’d consider poverty. On the Planet, being poor doesn’t mean you’re starving, or that you can’t get healthcare, or that you can’t afford a place to stay.

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My wife is the most amazing woman you’ll ever meet. She’s gorgeous, driven, passionate, caring, and ten times the public speaker I ever was. We did get off on the wrong foot, but after giving each other a second chance, we clicked.

My ex was the exact opposite. He was the perfect partner at first: romantic, funny, well-meaning, and always finding cute little gifts to give. But over our parallel careers in politics, all that evaporated. The more power he got, the less he could think about anything else. Yet no matter what lows he sunk to, somehow no one ever believed anything bad about him.

Then I realized that the rest of the Government was equally corrupt, and I’d somehow never noticed. Turns out, they put chemicals in the ventilation that scramble your brain, and I was as clueless as the rest until one month when I happened to travel a lot.

I guess I was lucky in love twice. Once when I escaped, and once when I found the real deal.

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I can’t seem to stop writing characters with secrets, so it might be easier to list who isn’t hiding.

• The Skater is uncomplicated and wears his heart on his sleeve.
• The Student isn’t deliberately hiding, she’s just an introvert.
• The Pastafarian is quite eager to share her views and opinions.

Everyone else is deliberately (and more-or-less successfully) hiding at least one thing. Sometimes for personal reasons, other times because of some kind of obligation.

And of course, the Child is literally hiding. You can spot him in the background of certain cutscenes, practicing his ninja skills.

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The Duplicator and his wife blame everyone in the story to varying degrees, other than their son. And yes, that includes themselves.

Interestingly, they receive relatively little blame in return. People see them as annoying but too misguided to do any real harm.

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Maybe I should, but no.

I wonder if this is a reflection of my own biases. As an introvert, I can’t imagine having the energy to be outgoing/cheerful all the time, so I don’t write any characters who do.

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I usually avoid passing judgement on my characters, but perhaps I’ll make an exception this time.

No, I don’t think the Duplicator’s shame is justified. He entered politics with good intentions and did his best with the tools he had, even if he made mistakes along the way. He’s holding his past self to an unrealistic standard.

While I’m at it, I don’t think he should feel ashamed about taking so long to notice the mind-control gas: there was no such thing.

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The Duplicator considers animal ownership to be cruel and coercive, the same sort of power-seeking behavior he saw all too often in the Government.

Instead, he believes you should befriend wild animals, like his son did with the Bunny. Allow the animal to come and go as it wishes, and never force it to do anything. If it chooses to hang around, then you know it genuinely likes you.

…So who has the worse take? The Duplicator, with “no one should ever own a pet,” or the Lawyer, with “pets are great but poor people can’t care for them properly”?

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Fact about the present: of the main cast, the Skater is the one who most enjoys the game-like nature of the Tunnels. The moment-to-moment experience of timing his jumps, sticking the perfect landing, and replaying the same level over and over to find ever more optimal routes. In other words, he’s the one most invested in the core game loop. For comparison, the Runner is more into the meta loop of exploring and completing her map, and the Angel only cares about the meta meta loop: getting out of this place.

Fact about the past: the Skater will tell you that he’s awful at STEM, though in reality, his grades were just mediocre. He just has bad memories of the class laughing when he got an answer wrong, overriding the facts of the matter.

Fact about the future: the Tunnels are merely the start. The Skater intends to become a Planet-famous gymnast, capable of turning any obstacle course into a spectacle of color and motion.

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(Clarification: I don’t actually have favorite characters, the Skater is just one who’s had a side role so far.)

The Skater and Runner get along just fine, thanks for asking. I guess they got off to a bit of a rocky start when the Skater bowled the Runner over and made her drop her map and stayed only long enough to help retrieve it before skating off. He was just very excited about this new environment. And he did stay to help!

Later on (not shown yet), they start a friendly game where each tries to “prove” the superiority of their means of locomotion, by finding a level they can cross that the other can’t. Basically it’s an excuse to hang out and practice obstacles.

From the Runner’s perspective, the Skater is one of the least stressful characters to be around. Everyone else asks tough questions, or is abrasive, or otherwise requires mental effort. The Skater only requires physical effort (usually).

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Disorganized.

If you’re accused of a crime, the outcome depends largely on where (and whether) it goes to court. Some courts have a reputation for favoring businesses, others are said to be harsh to everyone, etc.

Punishments vary wildly depending on the whim of the judge. You might pay a fine, lose your job, lose your name, get banned from a city, or get something akin to an RFID implant warning people about what you did. Imprisonment is only considered for repeat offenders.

Appeals go straight to the High Court, which almost always rejects them. For those lucky(?) accepted appeals, the Lawyer makes a point to air both sides’ dirty laundry for the world to see.

If you don’t trust the courts, you can hire a mercenary (often a ninja) instead. Careful: most ninjas do their own investigation before enacting their subtle and barely-legal vigilante justice. If they decide you’re wrong, good luck tracking them down for a refund!

The character limit kept me from going into detail on some things, like what I meant by “dirty laundry.” @Ninpan commented that “The lawyer sounds like a bit of a twat,” so I figured I’d give the Lawyer a chance to explain himself.

As a representative of the High Court, I have sworn to uphold not merely the letter of the law, but the concept of justice itself. This requires the utmost transparency.

I ask you, could a jury deliver justice with only some of the facts? Could you negotiate a fair settlement if either side kept secrets?

No, you most certainly could not. Thus, all facts relevant to the case must be brought to light, including details about the character of those involved.

And yes, concluded cases must be disclosed to the public, to help them fully understand the jury’s decision. Justice requires vindication; if the public were allowed to believe the High Court had made a mistake, the case’s winner would be denied vindication.

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I liked my job.

Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy cartography, but I can’t enjoy doing it as a job. Not since everyone decided to put me on a pedestal.

At last count, four people hurt themselves by trusting my maps too much. Including my own brother! I’ve added five errors to school curricula that I know of. And I upset the Pastafarian Church that one time, but we worked that out.

I love the process of map-making. The challenge of exploring and documenting things. Distilling places and concepts down into the simplest useful representation. Figuring out which details I can omit, and which ones people need to recognize the shape of the map.

I love using my own maps. The pure satisfaction of seeing how simple tasks become once I have maps for them.

I do like making other people’s lives easier. If only that didn’t come with so much risk…

(The Runner abdicated her job years ago.)

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In her very first workplace, as few sounds as possible.

Not that you can ever truly achieve silence. You can pad the walls and turn off the music, but there’s still the ticking of a clock, the hum of a ventilation fan, the scratching of a stylus, the shrrpt of a paper cutter, and so on.

There are also smells of paints and dyes, new and old books, the faintest waft of fresh air from the ventilation, and if you’re lucky, the aroma of fresh baked goods.

Near one door, you might make out the hum of a heating element or the bubbling of a chemical solution. From the crack in the door might waft the scent of acids and bases, experimental polymers, rusted metal, and more.

Sometimes, there would be the squeak of that door opening, followed by a quiet conversation lasting minutes or hours. Or rarely, a not-so-quiet argument, about topics such as if it’s appropriate to disassemble your father’s clock to make the ticking stop.

Following one such argument, the building was very nearly silent for a time. No notes being written on paper, no chemical solutions boiling, no ticking, no fan. Just one set of footfalls on soft carpet.

This silence was broken briefly, first by a girl’s voice, then by a boy’s.

“Well maybe I’ll just find somewhere else to live.”

“Could you, please? That’d benefit us both.”

This may have been followed by a grunt of frustration from the girl (having failed to get the response she wanted), but no one can prove such a thing happened.

After another, shorter, period of silence, sounds of packing began. Shifting boxes, zippers opening and closing, stacks of items falling over, and the occasional exclamation of delight at the discovery of a lost possession. Several hours later, a faint buzz and the smell of ozone trailed a vehicle leaving the premises, and silence reigned once more.

The Cartographer’s second workplace featured instrumental music and the smell of the sea.

Credit where credit is due: some of my descriptions were heavily inspired by Betsy Lee’s Calamity Observes: The Silence.

Original post by imanoutlawontherun includes the full-size image

Disclaimer: fan art always involves the artist’s personal interpretations. I featured it here (with permission) because I like it, not to confirm or deny that these interpretations are canon.

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Since my story is a video game, it already has a soundtrack! Here’s what plays in the first level of each game.

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The Runner is pretty restrained, so it’s rare to hear more than a sensible chuckle from her.

There are a small number of things that can make her totally break down laughing, and it’s never the sort of thing that you (or she) would expect. When it happens, it comes out as a kind of wheezing guffaw, generally accompanied by a few gasped-out words, an attempt to get herself under control, and then at least one relapse.

She finds this totally embarrassing, and tries not to let it happen.

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The other day the Student and I spent a while hanging out, and she asked if I thought humans could really exist.

If you haven’t heard of humans, they come from these old pop sci-fi stories, which describe them as tall, hairy, reddish-brown aliens. Usually with a bunch more strange traits and abilities.

So I said yeah, almost anything could exist, as long as you leave out the blatantly supernatural stuff. Super strength and speed could come from advanced biology. Future vision and water breathing, probably not.

When I mentioned these examples, the Student immediately pulled up a story on her e-reader. Apparently, not only does the protagonist use some kind of precognition for danger, not only do they dive into a lake for protection, they claim their body contains over 50% water. So the two of us shared a laugh at the absurdity of the writing.

…Hey, if you specifically wanted a joke, you should have said so.

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I never focus on writing jokes. Sometimes I have a silly idea and decide to write it in, but rarely as just a joke. There always has to be some character development or plot progression or something, so that if other people don’t find it as amusing as I do, they can still enjoy the story.

Beyond that, I think this ties back to the lack of confidence I mentioned in my earlier writing.

For instance, early in the story, the Duplicator accuses the Runner of stealing a planet. I think this is a funny concept, but instead of exploring it, I had the Runner shut the idea down.

Maybe it’s still a funny scene, but less so than I think it could be. Also a bit out of character for the Runner. Nowadays she never passes up a teaching opportunity.

As an experiment, I want to try rewriting the scene.

Hey! Runner!

Bad news: our planet is missing! It’s gone, like *poof*!

Oh, uh, yeah.

Just “yeah”? [narrows eye] Did you already know about this?

It left us behind the moment we landed. You didn’t watch it go?

I watched- uh, never mind that.

What do you mean it left us behind? Planets don’t just leave!

Hear me out. [pulls out map]

The Planet orbits quite a bit faster than these tunnels, putting it somewhere ahead of us, in this range. [drags the image of the Planet back and forth]

Hmm, I see. Wait, how are you moving the Planet?

[gasps dramatically] It was you! You stole our planet using that map!

Beg pardon?

How could you, you fiend! My wife lives there!

Hah, I wish maps could do that.

…No I don’t.

Is it funny now? I don’t know, but I do prefer it to the old version:

Duplicator: The Planet is gone!

So? It’ll come back.

How do you know? *gasp* It was you! It was you! You stole the Planet! That’s how you know!

…

I think I’ll ignore that entirely. Now help me map out this next area.

[time passes]

So… Where’d you put the Planet? I promise not to tell.

You still think I “stole” it? Think. Why else might a planet move?

I’m going to find another tunnel to map out. Catch up once you realize the Planet orbits faster than us.

I know brevity is the soul of wit, but I think that version did a disservice to both characters by not giving either of them a chance to explain themselves.

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Laugh.

I’ve talked before about how I designed the game first and wrote the story around it. And the game is a straightforward (pun intended) platforming challenge. One of the most common questions before I started writing the story was “what are the character running from?” Since I was feeling contrary, I decided the answer was nothing: they were running to something, and weren’t in danger.

This led to a story that… well, it isn’t lighthearted exactly, but it certainly isn’t dark. It’s just a story about a group of aliens exploring a very strange location. No time to be sad*, there are mysteries to solve!

*Not true, there’s almost nothing but time. And while some of the others might be going through some stuff, the Runner is enjoying the break from the hustle and bustle.

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There are sad scenes that I could write, yes. Some characters have sad/difficult backstories, for instance. The question is, will the story ever call for exploring those events? I intentionally haven’t decided yet.

I’ve found I enjoy writing most when I’m not 100% sure where it’ll end up. Which might be why it’s so hard for me to finish the plot: I already planned out events that will happen, so I find those scenes less fun to work on.

Besides that, I inadvertently ended up with a lot of children in my audience, and I have to keep them in mind. I’m still going to write what I want, but I also have to be careful how I present that writing.

As an example, if part of the story featured animal abuse, that might not make it into the main game. I might instead release it as a spinoff story with appropriate warnings.

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Run 3 isn’t exactly a written work, but if it was, this would be the Skater’s first chronological appearance:

The inside of the square blue tunnel was silent by the time the Runner touched down. It appeared everyone had already left.

No, check that. An adolescent sat alone in the corner, his arms full of broken red and white items, and a look of intense concentration on his face. His athletic build and sun-bleached skin suggested a great deal of time spent outdoors.

The boy grumbled in frustration as he attempted to shove a dented wheel into what looked like the bottom of a boot.

“I can hold something for you,” the Runner offered.

“I saa, I gah hiss,” he retorted, trying not to drop the additional pieces held in his mouth. He tossed the wheel into the air, flipped the boot over for a better angle, then deftly re-caught it.

The Runner decided to leave him to it for the moment.

The Skater is next seen doing this:

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Oh absolutely. Celebrities get lots of attention, but we can’t possibly date everyone who asks, much less commit to long-term relationships. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve had to turn down.

You’d think by now I’d know a good strategy to turn someone down, but nope. Everyone takes it differently. If you give a reason, some people take it as a challenge: fix this thing and try again. If you give no reason, some people take that as an invitation to keep trying.

Stepping back from the public eye helped a lot, but it still happens. I mean, consider this. Of the seven people here, three either asked me out or mentioned having feelings for me.

Oh don’t worry, I got used to it long ago. Feelings happen.

For context:

The Runner is too polite to name names, so I guess I’ll just have to post this here instead.

Angel: ​/​ (asked out, mentioned feelings)
Gentleman: (asked out, likely for political reasons)
Student: (mentioned feelings)

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No.

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She’s learning!

She spent a large portion of her life as a celebrity, and it takes time to relearn how to talk to people as equals. Fortunately, the Sailor has plenty of good advice on the topic. Unfortunately, theory is not practice.

I guess it could be telling that she’s in no rush to head back home. If she’d made close friends back home, wouldn’t her priority be to get back to them?

(The answer is no. Friends can wait; there’s advanced technology to discover and a galaxy to explore!)

But it’s also true that she’s made closer friendships out here than she had back home. This is partially a consequence of being stuck with only a few people to talk to, and partially thanks to having more practice.

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Why wouldn’t I trust the Runner? She’s cool.

Stole the- Are you kidding?! She didn’t steal the Planet! That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, and I say some pretty stupid things, let me tell you.

Nope, she never tried to take my stuff. Your son did, though. Yes, I can tell.

…Are we done here? Can I be excused?

What’s wrong with going where she says? She has the map, I like exploring.

Why would she set a trap? How would she set a trap?

Hah! I could get out of that easy. That’s barely even a trap.

Yeah well, I guess I’m just awesome then.

Enough, ok? She’s not like that, and I got stuff to do. Bye!

No I don’t know who she was talking to. Maybe she was thinking out loud. Who even cares?

Yeah no way, that’s not her style. I’m leaving now, ok? Ok.

…Do you mind?

…Uh huh.

…Oh. I guess?

Fine, jeez, I’ll ask her about the Government! Bye.

Astute readers will have noticed that the Skater didn’t exactly go into detail. Part of that was the fact that his unnamed conversation partner was being antagonistic, but there’s at least one reason that he’s just not going to admit out loud.

A big reason he trusts the Runner so much is he used to smuggle her maps into exams to cheat. They always provided good answers in an easy-to-understand format, so he came to rely on them. And, dare I say it, trust them. So by extension, he trusts the person behind the maps.

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Yep. Especially back in the day, when she was on top of her game as the Cartographer. She had poise, confidence, energy, and a rotation of fancy outfits. This all fueled the hype surrounding her, and the hype in turn drove her to refine her performances. (Like how some real-world video essayists turn each essay into a small theatrical performance, complete with costumes and sets.)

She had a lot of fans, and when you have a lot of fans, some of them are likely to be *~admirers~*.

In her mind, it was all meant to educate and inspire people. Showmanship helped emphasize important points. Printing maps/diagrams on her outfits could pique people’s curiosity in new subjects (at the expense of temporarily staining her skin underneath). Maintaining a large following meant there would be a whole community willing to put effort into learning from her.

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Of course.

But she’d have some choice words for me afterwards, and she’d demand concessions in exchange. She even has a way to hold me to it: she’s keeping secrets that would mess up the plot if revealed.

Fortunately for the plot, this scenario seems unlikely to happen.

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Illicit substances? No. Characters eating substances not meant for consumption because the warning label was printed in an alien language? Yes.

But it’s fine, he received medical attention and made a full recovery. (Where “full recovery” means “no more deluded than he was before.”)

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Hmm. Only one piece of advice?

Well, I could say “find a better work-life balance.” That would’ve saved past me a fair bit of grief.

But you know, I pulled through, and even learned from it. If I only get to send one message, do I really want to spend it on undoing that?

Instead, what if I sent advance warning of a disaster? “On Calming 35, double-check the coupling between cars 26 and 27 of the City Circuit Train.” That single tip would have saved hundreds of person-hours of cleanup.

No, even better: “Tell the Factory workers to scan for ozone pockets before rerouting any rivers.” Or I could sound the alarm about the raid that destroyed the First City.

Sorry, I have a habit of turning personal questions into optimization problems. Given actual time travel, I’d try to save the First City, but if that doesn’t fit the spirit of the game, then I’ll go with avoiding burnout.

This was the longest I’ve spent on any #WritingWonders question, specifically because the Runner needed to mention a date, and I had never spent the time to nail down a calendar system.

Several hours later, I finally have one, complete with number of days/weeks/months in a year and day/month names. The first part was tricky because math, the second was tricky because names.

Based on my already-established naming conventions, each day/month name must be a descriptive noun. With that explained, here are the months:

1. Northrise
2. March
3. Weathering
4. Southrise
5. Trek
6. Calming
7. Foundation

(Fingers crossed that I did enough research, and I didn’t get Calming and Weathering backwards…) 2024 update: I definitely got some things wrong. My new tentative list is Calming, March, Buildup, Weathering, Trek, Foundation, and Deluge.

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I was going to say “first,” but then I realized the answer is probably “neither.”

Most of my plots start in medias res, skipping the scene-setting and exposition. Also, zero out of three major plotlines have an ending written yet.

In other words: what happened before a scene is a secret, and what happens afterwards is also a secret. Or sometimes it’s a puzzle rather than a secret, something you can figure out if you pay attention to the right details. I enjoy writing bite-size mysteries; not much else to it.

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Depends if I could get a farm going before running out of rations my body is capable of digesting. I’ve previously stated that such rations exist, but I don’t know how many there would realistically be.

Thing is, I barely know anything about farming, and I know even less about hydroponics. There might be a guide somewhere, if I could find it among all the odds and ends. Even then, I’d say my chances are slim.

This despite everyone else being (more or less) friendly towards me. Friendly and not in any danger themselves, but they’d have to watch the first alien they ever met slowly dehydrate and/or starve. (“Care and feeding of alien beings” was sadly not part of their school curriculum.)

…

Wait a minute, I know all the spoilers. There is a way I could cheat the system and almost assuredly survive, though it wouldn’t be particularly fun.

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She helped me realize it’s ok not to be good at school, you can still be good at other things.

Everything got so much better when I realized I didn’t have to spend the rest of my life sitting still and crunching numbers and writing essays.

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Yes he does, but beyond that I think I have to pass on this one, sorry. I haven’t done enough research and I haven’t nailed down enough details about their metabolism.

Like, I could say he’s a fan of spicy foods, but I couldn’t tell you what chemicals or substances make food taste spicy to them. (Because it isn’t necessarily capsaicin.)

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Not at the moment. At least, not directly. The cast is on their own, far away from the media and the public.

That said, several of the characters are driven by hopes of becoming popular, changing public opinion, or righting wrongs. (Almost typed “writing wrongs.” No, that’s my job.) So though society is far away, it indirectly plays a role.

Here are the characters most concerned with the media and/or public opinion:

The Runner’s biggest question in this story is “what lies beyond the Wormhole?” Her second-biggest question is “should the public find out about it?” After all, someone went to some lengths to keep it secret.

The Skater wants to be a famous athlete. He sees this as a chance to catch up to the competition, by practicing on obstacle courses they don’t have access to yet.

The Duplicator wants to shine a light on the Government’s wrongdoings. He sees this as the biggest Government cover-up ever.

The Gentleman is almost completely driven by the idea that success is the best revenge. He sees this as a unique opportunity to accrue wealth, influence, and incredible technology.

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The game’s soundtrack, written about a decade ago, is full of high-intensity techno*. It fits the action gameplay quite nicely, but the story has started to go a different direction. Nowadays I write more about learning, searching, interpersonal conflicts, secret-keeping, self-doubt… All kinds of things besides action.

*Or something electronic, at least. I can’t always tell the difference between these genres.

If I were to expand the soundtrack, I’d still want electronic music for consistency, but I’d want a wider range of moods.

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Trying to parent us. Like, what’s even the point of running away from home if all the adults are gonna keep telling us to eat healthy, go to sleep, and play nice?

What if I DO want to be like the kids in the stories? What then? Besides, fairy tales aren’t scientific. There’s no such thing as “turning into strong wild garbage” or “going to the Never Land where you can never grow up.” They made it all up to scare you, and I’m not fooled.

…So yeah, that’s about the worst thing I can think of to say about the Runner. That she and the other adults look out for me.

The Runner isn’t even the one who brings up the stories. She brings up actual scientific reasons to do things. Stuff like the Circadian Cycle. I just wish she wouldn’t try so hard to explain it to me. She should know I’m just going to zone out!

(I had to toss in a Clickhole reference, sorry.)

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The Government is an institution that records, interprets, and enforces the definitions of words. These codified definitions are known as “laws.” The Government’s various branches each have an official definition of what they are and what they do.

For instance, the Courts are defined as enacting justice, and since that’s in its definition, that’s its mandate. Additionally, the definition of “court” spells out how a court case is handled, mentioning the judge, jury, procedures, etc. And each of those things have their own definitions, and so on.

Similarly, the definition of each public office includes a mechanism for electing or appointing officials, and the definition of “law” includes mechanisms for creating and updating laws.

Since the Government is defined as enforcing definitions, it does so. The end result is something like a representative democracy, except with a bunch of extra steps.

Law enforcement is defined as keeping track of the official definitions of words and resolving definitional disputes. Law enforcement, naturally, tends to attract people passionate about language and linguistics. This passion gives them a reputation for being willing to fight you (and each other (especially each other)) over definitions. Academics, am I right?

Additionally, they issue regular reports on the changing use of language. The Government uses these reports to help determine if and when legal definitions are out of sync with common usage, and therefore ought to be updated.

Note that most crimes count as “definitional disputes.” For instance, if you own a piece of property, that item’s official name reflects the fact that it belongs to you. Thus, theft counts as disputing the item’s definition, so by default law enforcement will give it back to you, unless the thief can disprove the definition.

Oh, speaking of which, names are definitions too. That’s why the Government is so picky about names, and why you have to prove to them that your name accurately describes you. Your name is effectively a small law unto itself, and they take that seriously.

Fortunately, it (supposedly) isn’t that hard to change names. Just complete the name change form and the subsequent verification/renaming process. Unfortunately for anyone in a hurry, it isn’t just a name change form. A better term might be identity change form, since it’s full of questions about gender, profession, identifying item(s), and more. All of this data then becomes the Government’s official definition of you, and people you meet will be able to intuit that it’s accurate.

(For those keeping count, stealing someone’s identifying item is two crimes. One for violating the definition of the item as belonging to the person, and another for violating the definition of the person as possessing the item.)

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Mostly, none. The story frequently shifts between locations, and each location has a different color.

I do associate colors with characters, though. Brown for the Runner’s map, red for the Student’s backpack, green for the Child’s balloon, yellow for the Angel’s halo ring, etc.

I do associate red with the plot thread involving the Student, because the location is red and so is her backpack.

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Does anyone try to rein the Angel in? Absolutely.

Are there people the Angel trusts? Certainly.

Does anyone the Angel trusts try to rein him in? Rarely, if ever.

His friends all egg each other on, challenging each other to accomplish ever-greater pranks and feats of engineering (in the vein of MIT “hacks”).

Meanwhile his mentor is very busy, and would only step in in extreme cases. I guess the Angel reins himself in to avoid his mentor’s ire, but that’s mostly “stay on the media’s good side and don’t break anything important,” not “treat people with kindness and respect.”