Solving the Puzzle, Crafting a Collage

Recently, Natalie Checo, a writer and narrative designer, asked a question on Bluesky about how writers see their writing process, which she perceives as a kind of puzzle. In response, a number of writers writers shared that, like Natalie, their writing process was akin to solving a puzzle, while others used analogies such as cooking a stewpot, watching a movie, solving a mystery, or charging up and firing an energy beam — so many interesting responses and ways of looking at the writing process.

My own answer is … it depends. It depends on the style of writing (fiction, poetry, nonfiction, or game writing), and sometimes even on the writing project itself.

With fiction, for example, it often feels like jumping in a river. At first (in the idea stage), I find myself just dipping in my toe in the water by writing a few lines here and there, testing to see how everything feels, how it might flow. Mostly, I’m trying to find the voice or tone of the piece. If I don’t have that voice, then writing can feel like trying to swim in a dry riverbed. But if I have the voice, then taking the leap allows me to go with the flow of the river and hopefully be carried along by the story to a completed draft (as long as I don’t try to struggle upstream).

Non-fiction writing tends to feel like I’m a collector. I find myself gathering up a collection of facts, insights, and random thoughts on a theme, which then I have categorize. This is generally how I think about outlining an essay or review. Once I have my collection well ordered, I can go in and write out the essay section-by-section, like organizing my thoughts into the proper display.

Game writing feels the most puzzle-like to me. Each element of the game — narrative, gameplay, art, sound design, and other elements — represents their own collection of pieces, which all need to be fitted together into a cohesive whole. Working within the narrative requires crafting, adjusting, and resizing the piece in line with the needs of the overall game, and it’s a constant give and take to figure out how big or small each piece should be.

How I perceive writing poetry is constantly shifting. Poetry writing can be a river-flow, a collection of images, a puzzle, or some other analogy, because poetry comes in a wild variety of forms and styles.

Meanwhile, the process of editing feels like bringing the text to a craft table. I find myself cutting, rearranging, collaging, and sewing new writing in — until the piece is polished.

I find this question interesting because it can be valuable to think about and analyze how you do your work. Early on in my writing journey, I was never sure I really knew what I was doing. I would write and shape words into poems or stories, and sometimes they would work (and often, they wouldn’t). When it did work, I couldn’t comfortably explain why it felt right to me or how I approached the process of creating the piece. I was fumbling to understand my own process.

As I’ve grown as a writer, I’ve learned to look at and understand my process more closely. Doing so, provides me with opportunities to play and experiment with different ways of approaching how I write. At the very least, experimentation allows me to learn what doesn’t work for me while writing — helping me to get closer to understanding what does.

So, how do you view your writing process?

What I’ve Been Working On

The Neo-Twiny Jam concluded, and I finished with two small interactive fiction games. In addition to “Scrapbook,” a sweet little interactive fiction about the nostalgia of finding an old scrapbook, I also completed a tiny game called “Take a Walk,” which explores the experience of needing to take a walk to clear one’s negative thoughts — which came directly out of my own feelings at the time of writing.

I’m now working on a combination of essays (I’ve about a dozen half way finished) and my freelance game writing work, which I’ll hopefully be able to share soon.

Over on Medium, I’ve completed a couple of video game reviews:

• This is Not a Game: The Kid A Mnesia Exhibition, published in Counter Arts

• ‘Blue Prince’ Is the Best Game I’ve Played That’s Ultimately Not for Me, in The Ugly Monster

Kerrine Bryan, founder of Butterfly Books, shared the cover for her picture book Aurora Watts’ Renewable Adventure, for which I provided some developmental editing. The book is a charming little story about a young girl learning about renewable energy, after her family plans to install solar power.

Good Reads

Heather Alexandra presents an insightful discussion on games criticism as an act of kindness: