Behind The Scenes - Audio Preview!? (Patreon)

BEHIND THE SCENES?!

Hey folks! So you may be wondering what this is? It is basically a behind the scenes sneak peak. A short snippet of something I shouldn't be working on, but am. The audio is a short recording I made to test a script and delivery, the text below is me explaining my process.

I've thought about doing one of these for a while. But I haven't felt the "want" to do it, I just didn't see the purpose. HOWEVER today I was writing Cruel Werewolf 4 and got a teensy bit side-tracked and wrote for a future script. Plus I think it's interesting insight into my creative process.

Meet our resident serial killer Druid. You'll get a hefty portion of the story from this short clip, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

One of the hardest challenges I find in writing this style of content is exposition. Finding a way to explain people, stories and motives while not being boring or too heavy handed is difficult. Especially when the listener can't directly speak, so it's hard to bounce off someone. That's why I and other creators will just make up what you say haha.

This is small piece is me trying different things to learn how to approach this issue. This is effectively just exposition. Telling you backstory, motives, world building and personality. BUT using flavourful wording, creative story telling and emotional delivery. Hopefully at least haha.

One thing you will often find in my work, is that I do my absolute best to not repeat words. Not too close to each other anyway. It was extremely notable to me that I use the word "flesh" twice very close to each other. In one of the last lines I say it with only five words in between. To me, that is uncomfortable to hear. So for the final script it'll be different, but just as effective.

So let's talk about vocabulary! With my annoying little repetition rule, I clearly need to use a wide variety of words. So what is the best way to learn? Reading is always a good start, not necessarily books though. Any kind of reading is good, especially if the writer has a rock solid vocabulary. Quick fire for other outlets; YouTube, Google "___ Synonym" (make sure to read about the word in case it's wrong), honestly any kind of media as long as you pay attention.

Speaking of media, let's talk about inspirations. Like all scripts I write, it comes from an over productive mind. This came from a discord call I had with someone, talking about monster march and then Baldur's Gate 3.

I was playing my first Durge playthrough and wanted to be a good boy, so I was a druid. If you know the game, you understand how I came to this conclusion haha. If you don't, I'll just say that murder is on the mind.

If I had to list all my inspirations for what this script would be, it wouldn't be too big. Baldur's Gate 3, Dota 2's Nature's Prophet and Darth Maul from Clone Wars and Rebels. These are... all over the place. But that's how inspiration works, it's messy and mixed together, but the foundation is still strong.

Baldur's Gate has been a wave of fresh air for me, this game hits every single spot just right. The story telling, the dialogue and the characters just make me swoon. I love it. Anyone that has played may see where it is, one of my favourite lines is "I am the smile of the worm-cleansed skull". And that fucking stuck with me, cause that's the coolest fucking way to describe a smile AND tells you about the character that says it. The writers of this game are amazing haha.

Ok the last two inspo's are quickies. NP from Dota 2; I stole the last line of the script from him, word for word. I honestly never do this, but I got my ass kicked by a good NP recently and heard that line and went "oooo", so I knew I had to use it for this. Darth Maul from Clone Wars and Rebels is one of the best characters in Star Wars. Yeah I know nerdy and shit idc, this character is insanely well written and incredibly acted by Sam Witwer. Fucking love everything about him. The somewhat broken mental state in the audio is the same as Mauls at a certain point in the story.

Soooo, you might be wondering how close the lines of inspiration, plagiarism and blatant theft are? Well there are examples in this audio, and that is why it's a draft. Placeholders for an improved, plagiarism and theft free version.

Witwers acting, long winded adjectives and general atmosphere/vibe from speech is inspiration. You'll find that an overwhelming amount of actors and writers derive their base plan or even their final product on someone else's work. Be it performance, writing or audible piece. It's easy to claim someone copies a person by doing so, but if you go down that route, you inevitably get to the point where everyone is copying everyone.

The use of Nature Prophet's line of dialogue however, is blatant plagiarism and theft. If anyone said otherwise, they could be right honestly I've got no idea what perimeters exist. I normally just write everything from scratch, any similarities are coincidental or not on purpose. (wow that sounded very "legal friendly")

I'm not sure what the moral quandaries are for a single line of dialogue. Will I keep it? No. I want to make something that is purely my own. It may have the same bones and origins, but it will be better suited to the final script and the final character that has formed.

WELL that was a lot of text. If you read this, I hope you enjoyed it! I didn't know if I would like doing this, but honestly this was a blast. Maybe one day I'll go into my SFX pipeline, maybe script writing or something. But I have to keep some secrets to myself, after all idk how wrong I'm doing everything haha.

If you had any questions or curious little titbits you'd like to ask about, shoot! I may not be a veteran writer, or even an experienced one at that. But I'd like to think I do aight.

(I was meant to be writing scripts but did this instead ooop-)