Seems like I’m suffering from a major writer’s block today. Quite funny actually, because you wouldn’t expect such words to come out of the mouth of a walkthrough writer. “What’s the big deal, you just write down the progress of a game right?” is what most people would ask themselves. Wrong, just totally and utterly wrong. At least I’ve learnt a thing or two through my career as a walkthrough writer(which, I might add, is not really a career per se, but a hobby and a heartwarming passion that I’ve been keeping up since the early months of 2005). One of these things is that writing a good walkthrough can be compared to writing a good novel(or a short story at least). It’s really not as far-fetched as it might sound, becuase also when it comes to writing walkthroughs there are certain standards that are to be met. One day I’ll write a complete guide to walkthrough writing and gameplay, but for now I’ll stick to jotting down a couple of tips.
1) Be as accurate as possible. This is a very important aspect of walkthrough writing. Remember that the person reading the walkthrough is most likely playing the game for the first time and they were not there inside your head as you wrote down those words and lines. You might have easily spotted that invisible crevice up on the wall at the far end of the room, but if you start with a “grab the crevice and start shimmying left….” the reader will most likely be wandering around for ages wondering where the heck that crevice is located. This again will contribute in robbing the player of an otherwise splendid gaming experience. Instead of starting a paragraph with the line I put down as an example, begin by explaining where the crevice is located before describing how to reach it or where to go once you’re there. Or if a player needs to set up a jump with a left angle, just make sure you don’t write ”right angle” instead. The player might still see where s/he is going, but that won’t change the fact that they have a black-ink-on-white-paper proof that you’ve made a mistake.
2) Know when and how to pay attention to details. As a rule of thumb I ALWAYS write down a detailed description of sights and sounds for every new room I walk into. This adds a whole deal to the walkthrough and makes it more pleasant on the eye for a keen reader. Besides, as we spoke of in terms of accuracy above, it helps to ensure the reader that s/he is in the correct room before even exploring it. Describe the flowers in the field, the smoke rising from the chimneys, the cascades flowing down the mountainside and the leaves twirling through the autumn breeze. See? Not only does this paint a picture of the scenery surrounding the game character; it also makes it more real to the player/reader and makes the read a more enjoyable experience. Walkthroughs that go along the line of: “Walk five steps to the left. Pick up a batch of ammo. Turn right and run to the far wall. Pull the switch to open the nearby door. Go through. And so on and so forth….” might be very effective in that you know exactly what to do, but does it make for a very interesting read? I think not.
On that note make sure you don’t exaggerate. You don’t really have to describe every crack in the floor in depth, unless of course that one particular crack bears a certain importance to the gameplay(such as something essential being hidden below it or it being an indication of a hidden trapdoor). It doesn’t really matter whether the painting on the wall is a Picasso or a Miró and it’s not all that important to know that the bench in the courtyard is made from marble and not granite. It’s okay to call it simply a painting or a bench.
3) Use variation when writing. This is maybe one of the most important aspect of any kind of writing (bar certain types of poetry where monotony actually plays an essential part in emphasizing the atmosphere and message of the poem). With walkthroughs variation is not only important, but also very difficult to maintain. During the run of a game the player tends to be repeating certain moves and actions over and over again (in some cases these things become more than just a tad repetetive). The difficulty comes when you try to accurately capture the essence of the many movements without constantly using the same terms and explanations. This is to a certain extent impossible to avoid, but by cleverly employing descriptions, details and different words and explanations you can easily disguise the tediousness of a paragraph constantly repeating the same things over and over. Try to use a blossoming language and grab a hold of lots of synonyms. Whether they are correct synonyms doesn’t really matter as long as they describe what you’re trying to convey. A jump becomes a flip(as in back- or sideflips) becomes a leap becomes a hop becomes a bounce and so on.
Another rule of thumb I use in terms of variation is the following: I write my walkthroughs as Microsoft Word-documents. After each paragraph I stop writing, sit back and look at what I’ve just written. If I find any occurrences of the following:
and………………………………………
and………………………………………
and………………………………………
and………………………………………
I simply go back and check how and where I can rewrite some of the paragraph to avoid that unnecessary repetition of that one particular word (in this example illustrated by the word “and”, which is a quite common repetition in walkthroughs).
Finally: if you happen to encounter a writer’s block don’t fret about it. Simply close the game/document or both, breathe calmly and move away from the computer. Do something else until you feel inspired to once more sit down and continue the work. Even if you are in a hurry to get it over and done with(someone might be sitting there waiting for you to send it to them) do take some time off for a break or two. When I write a walkthrough I usually spend anything from two-three days to a couple of weeks only on a single level, depending on how I feel from day to day and how much time I have for it(believe it or not: I do have a life too and it doesn’t always make room for gaming and walkthrough writing, quite the contrary actually). When it comes to writing there’s hardly anything worse than sitting down and literally shoving yourself along, feeling as if you’re walking up a steep hill that never comes to an end. Some of my best walkthroughs/parts of them are written during my most inspired moments and that’s when I truly feel that my full potential is permitted to bloom……
