The Tao of Video Games

A lovely Wednesday to you all!

How goes it? I'm doing pretty well, with the exception of a pulled muscle or something in my back. Damndest thing - I was just turning around this morning to walk into my office and something in the middle of my back went "POP!!" Hurt like an SOB . . . thought somebody'd shoved a knife in me for a moment. Back injuries suck. You never know how much you use your back until it hurts . . . then the pain never stops! The only thing worse is getting the top of your bald head sunburned (trust me, I speak from experience here!) the top of your head moves when you talk, smile, chew, blink, etc. Not fun!

Got some work done on "First" today though not as much as I wanted. I actually did almost 1,000 words yesterday but I had to dump them all today (something I rarely do in first draft!) They were awful - well, not the words themselves, so much as the POV I was using. I know what has to happen but the way I was introducing it just wasn't working. It read terrbily, dragged, and -quite frankly- was almost impossible to write. I dumped the entire thing and started from an entirely different place and POV. It works much better now. Still, the time spent trying to fix it killed me so I only got about 500 or so new words but at least they're good words!

So, I've been playing an online video game with my boy the last week or so. It's very cool: we spend much time berating each other's characters and pointing out that our guy would have done TWICE as much damage as the other, fighting such a weak ass monster . . . you get the point. The Wife does not understand video games. I tell her it's a bonding thing but she doesn't buy it. She feels video games are a mindless waste of time (and some are, I admit!) but I think last night she finally got an inkling of why I enjoy playing them with the boy so much . . . See, the game itself is unimportant. What matters is the fun you have while playing it. I am an idiot (in case you didn't already know!) and I love to provide voices for the on-screen characters. My son (who is a junior idiot!) does the same. We have running jokes and ongoing conversations, all performed in character voices as we play these games. So last night, I'm in the middle of a running conversation with a tiny creature on the screen named "Chico" who's about to fall into a crevasse and I'm yelling at the top of my lungs (in a very cheesy mexican accent) "No, Chico, no! Don't go near de green slime! Jou gonna get all eaten up, man!" and my son is chiming in (as Chico, in an equally bad accent) "Oh, but is sooooo pretty! I want to swiiiim!" The two of us were laughing our butts off. What we didn't know was that The Wife was listening to us from the other room. She came in, shaking her head and laughing, to hug us both and say she loved us (even though we ARE idiots!) I think she finally understands what the video games are all about.

The games can be great ways to spend time with your kids and they are also great for letting your imagination run free. Sometimes, as a writer, I get entrenched in the rules and forms we need to work with and I forget about the joys of letting the imagination run wild. I love being able to fill in my own storyline to go along with someone's game. That's how the boy and I do every game. We create our own story line as we go, complete with dialog and background that we just spout out as we kill stuff. Hell, if nothing else, it's a great way to get comfortable with your dialogue skills! It's not mindless entertainment . . . it's an exceptional way of exercising the imagination (ya' know, while still being mindlessly entertaining!) I hereby order you to go play a video game with the nearest child under the age of fifteen you can find (Yes, mental age counts!)

Have some fun today, will ya? ;-)

Later!