Writing Is Fun

I was doing some thinking recently about what exactly Chasing Elysium is to me. Is it a story or is it a game? This question was answered with almost no thought at all. It’s a story. A story that I want to tell in the format of a game, but it is a story first. And I would much rather it exist as a written story than as an incomplete and unreleased game.

This is not to say I am giving up on making Chasing Elysium a game in any way. No, I’m still working on it. Right now I am exploring a few things with regards to how I want to make it, but it’s still being made. But now in addition to that, I am also trying to write out the story as an actual proper novel.

Chapters will very probably be published on AO3 and maybe even here as I finish them. If I am lucky, maybe some talented people will come across it and want to help out. Doing it all myself on my breaks at work is very obviously an excruciatingly slow process. But I am willing to make the game myself if I have to. But! I want to share this dang story, and I am going to start doing that.

A few days ago I finally wrote out a particular scene that has been stuck in my head for over a year. It’s a “night before the final battle” type scene, and since it takes place right near the end it will likely need to be rewritten by the time I get there. Regardless, it was extremely satisfying to write it out finally, and some very unexpected character traits popped up in the process so it’s becoming more evident why I should be writing the story first and making the game after.

Anyways, I am working on writing the prologue chapter now. Not sure when it will get done. I would like to aim for a target of around 2000 words per chapter, but we will see what ends up happening. If a chapter needs to be shorter or longer, so be it. For now my daily writing target is 150 words, if I hit more then awesome, but 150 words a day is a pretty easy target and totals around 54k words over the course of a year which is about a novel. Not too bad!