MEET THE AUTHOR,
STEPHONIKA W. KAYE Kaye, born in '89, earned her Bachelor's degree for Science in Communication in 2011 from Ohio University. While in high school, she earned two awards for her short stories, which were entered into a young writer's competition. In 2004, she won 2nd place at the community level, and in 2007 (her senior year) she won the 1st place title in the statewide competition. During her time at Ohio University, she worked on several short films. She was among teams that won 3rd and 2nd place in OU's annual 48-hour Shoot-Out competitions, the first for which she worked as an art director, and the latter of which she produced and served as co-assistant director and script supervisor. She also served as the production designer for the 30 minute short film "A Human Condition." In her senior year, she balanced a full class schedule with a feature-length sci-fi project that she wrote, directed, and executive produced as well as taking up the slack for editor and production designer when others failed to maintain their roles. An early version of the film was released to two audiences in November 2011, and post-production work remains ongoing now into the year 2012. The website for her film can be found here: The Nameless Cryst And she can also be found on the Internet Movie Database. |
|
TURNING A FAMOUS GAME INTO A BOOK
Kaye has been asked by several fans over the years what her process is when she sits down to work on her adaptation. Here are 10 steps she has offered to her readers.
1. PLAY THE GAME
If you're writing something you have no idea about, no grasp on the story or its characters, you're gonna fail miserably at describing the world and what's going on with the characters we all know and love. So, play the game, understand it, and then play it again.
2. DO YOUR RESEARCH
Even with fiction you always find something you have to research more about. Whether its battle armor terminology or the history of Hyrule. Before I launched into writing, I went to several fan sites and looked up the chronology theories, read extensive backgrounds on characters that other people had written, theories on who the Shade was (which now has a confirmed identity), theories on who Zant really was to Midna, just anything and everything I could get my hands on. And then I made up my own mind about things, my own theories, and I went from there.
3. HAVE YOUR PLAYER'S GUIDE CLOSE BY - OR THREE
It helps when you play the game, but it helps so much more when you're writing it down! You have no idea. I admittedly only ever used my guide ONCE throughout the whole game. I love puzzles and I can normally figure them out, but to this day, I cannot do the Temple of Time's guardian's puzzle without aid. I use my guides--I have three different ones--every day that I'm writing. It was especially useful when I needed character bio's to go off of when creating the relationships and back stories. The other thing it's super useful for is when I'm reconstructing the dungeon layouts and all the maps are there for me already laid out to pick apart at my leisure. Speaking of maps, if you have a good guide it'll have come with an overworld map you can tear out. Hang it on the wall. Seriously.
4. OUTLINE, OUTLINE, OUTLINE
The game is already there all laid out for you, every main story event and side quest, so why should you outline? It's always good to outline something before you write so that you know how and when you're gonna break down your chapters, what you need to cut out, what might be good to add, or maybe how two or three scenes could be rearranged to fit better. I decided from the get-go that I wasn't going to do anything cheesy like hearts and treasure chests and that enormous magical pouch Link must have to be able to carry all that stuff, so I knew that I was going to be deleting and rearranging things especially on account of that.
A good, general outline is a good thing to start out with, and then outline in detail about five chapters at a time and work through those before you write up more outlines because in writing a chapter you'll sometimes find that you want to write something a little differently than you originally planned, so that way, you won't have to redo like ten or twenty chapter outlines because you changed something so early on.
5. PULL UP A VIDEO WALKTHROUGH AND A GAME SCRIPT
You can find just about anything on youtube these days, so for quick reference, I always watch the game scenes I'm working on over and over before I write and then go back to it in between paragraphs sometimes, or as often as I need. It was so hard to find a walkthrough where the person wasn't talking the entire time through it because I always try to incorporate the mood into my writing through the music and the sounds that are also present in the scenes. It was also hard to find it in good quality Gamecube version since I was going canon with it.
Secondly, for a lot of games these days, people will write their own written walkthroughs or transcribe the game events. It's good to have a good, complete game script on hand, 'cause a good one will have stuff like what people in Ordon or Kakariko will say after each major event that you wouldn't see in your playthrough or the video walkthrough unless you went out of your way and backtracked to talk with them. It's so good to have as much material to pull from as possible.
6. FIND SOME GOOD MUSIC
No lyrics. It'll distract you. For instance, I wrote Zelda, so I found Zelda music. Try to set it up that the music will play through many different tracks on its own or repeat one track if you need mood music. Another distracting thing is having to stop writing just to pick another track to listen to while you work. For my needs I have always pulled up ZREO's page. Their soundscapes are amazing.
7. SIT DOWN AND WRITE
Just sit down and do it. Have everything you need gathered. Have the sites you need for references pulled up. Have your printed outlines accessible. And above all else, let it be a comfortable chair. The thing that disturbs my writing mood the most is an uncomfortable chair.
8. USE YOUR CREATIVE LICENSE
Don't be afraid to change things around or add or delete. If you think it's necessary to tell the story you what to tell ... just do it.
9. GET AN OPINION OR TWO OR SEVERAL
The best thing I ever did was post my work online for Zelda fans to read. Their critiques and suggestions have been so helpful. Plus they catch my mistakes if I accidentally write Wii version things.
10. PUT IT AWAY - COME BACK TO IT LATER
After you're done with it, let it set in a drawer or untouched on your computer for at least a month if not more. Getting away from the material is the best thing for it because it is too fresh in your mind if you try to go back and reread it immediately after you're completed it. This way you can look at it with a fresh eye and give it a good objective read and correct what needs to be corrected.
1. PLAY THE GAME
If you're writing something you have no idea about, no grasp on the story or its characters, you're gonna fail miserably at describing the world and what's going on with the characters we all know and love. So, play the game, understand it, and then play it again.
2. DO YOUR RESEARCH
Even with fiction you always find something you have to research more about. Whether its battle armor terminology or the history of Hyrule. Before I launched into writing, I went to several fan sites and looked up the chronology theories, read extensive backgrounds on characters that other people had written, theories on who the Shade was (which now has a confirmed identity), theories on who Zant really was to Midna, just anything and everything I could get my hands on. And then I made up my own mind about things, my own theories, and I went from there.
3. HAVE YOUR PLAYER'S GUIDE CLOSE BY - OR THREE
It helps when you play the game, but it helps so much more when you're writing it down! You have no idea. I admittedly only ever used my guide ONCE throughout the whole game. I love puzzles and I can normally figure them out, but to this day, I cannot do the Temple of Time's guardian's puzzle without aid. I use my guides--I have three different ones--every day that I'm writing. It was especially useful when I needed character bio's to go off of when creating the relationships and back stories. The other thing it's super useful for is when I'm reconstructing the dungeon layouts and all the maps are there for me already laid out to pick apart at my leisure. Speaking of maps, if you have a good guide it'll have come with an overworld map you can tear out. Hang it on the wall. Seriously.
4. OUTLINE, OUTLINE, OUTLINE
The game is already there all laid out for you, every main story event and side quest, so why should you outline? It's always good to outline something before you write so that you know how and when you're gonna break down your chapters, what you need to cut out, what might be good to add, or maybe how two or three scenes could be rearranged to fit better. I decided from the get-go that I wasn't going to do anything cheesy like hearts and treasure chests and that enormous magical pouch Link must have to be able to carry all that stuff, so I knew that I was going to be deleting and rearranging things especially on account of that.
A good, general outline is a good thing to start out with, and then outline in detail about five chapters at a time and work through those before you write up more outlines because in writing a chapter you'll sometimes find that you want to write something a little differently than you originally planned, so that way, you won't have to redo like ten or twenty chapter outlines because you changed something so early on.
5. PULL UP A VIDEO WALKTHROUGH AND A GAME SCRIPT
You can find just about anything on youtube these days, so for quick reference, I always watch the game scenes I'm working on over and over before I write and then go back to it in between paragraphs sometimes, or as often as I need. It was so hard to find a walkthrough where the person wasn't talking the entire time through it because I always try to incorporate the mood into my writing through the music and the sounds that are also present in the scenes. It was also hard to find it in good quality Gamecube version since I was going canon with it.
Secondly, for a lot of games these days, people will write their own written walkthroughs or transcribe the game events. It's good to have a good, complete game script on hand, 'cause a good one will have stuff like what people in Ordon or Kakariko will say after each major event that you wouldn't see in your playthrough or the video walkthrough unless you went out of your way and backtracked to talk with them. It's so good to have as much material to pull from as possible.
6. FIND SOME GOOD MUSIC
No lyrics. It'll distract you. For instance, I wrote Zelda, so I found Zelda music. Try to set it up that the music will play through many different tracks on its own or repeat one track if you need mood music. Another distracting thing is having to stop writing just to pick another track to listen to while you work. For my needs I have always pulled up ZREO's page. Their soundscapes are amazing.
7. SIT DOWN AND WRITE
Just sit down and do it. Have everything you need gathered. Have the sites you need for references pulled up. Have your printed outlines accessible. And above all else, let it be a comfortable chair. The thing that disturbs my writing mood the most is an uncomfortable chair.
8. USE YOUR CREATIVE LICENSE
Don't be afraid to change things around or add or delete. If you think it's necessary to tell the story you what to tell ... just do it.
9. GET AN OPINION OR TWO OR SEVERAL
The best thing I ever did was post my work online for Zelda fans to read. Their critiques and suggestions have been so helpful. Plus they catch my mistakes if I accidentally write Wii version things.
10. PUT IT AWAY - COME BACK TO IT LATER
After you're done with it, let it set in a drawer or untouched on your computer for at least a month if not more. Getting away from the material is the best thing for it because it is too fresh in your mind if you try to go back and reread it immediately after you're completed it. This way you can look at it with a fresh eye and give it a good objective read and correct what needs to be corrected.
RESOURCES
The following are some of the resources--as described above--that the author used in creating this novel.
GAMECUBE VIDEO WALKTHROUGH
This is the best GC walkthrough I've found on Youtube.
|
MUSIC
I always went to Zelda Reorchestrated.
|