I Wrote a Novel, Now What? A Visual Novel Writer’s Pro Tips for Honing Your Skills

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Every year, we emerge from NaNo with a better understanding of ourselves as writers, and new goals for the months to come. Today, visual novel writer and NaNo participant Cara Hillstock shares her thoughts on the many skills it takes to craft a great story, and how to prepare for the “next steps”:

I’m staring across the abyss at what I’d like to call my finished novel. It’s a mess—a tangle of loosely collected plot threads, hesitant relationships, and symbolic themes as potent as the flowers on an old lady’s wallpaper. On the other side of thirty days, I have a half-finished novel in hand and a deepening frustration with the age old advice for writers seeking to improve: “Just write.”

You see, when I’m not driving myself to the edge of madness with a thirty-day novel-writing binge, I’m a video game author and editor. I primarily work in visual novels—a type of video game that mirrors a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, except that one interacts directly with the characters and the choices made come back to haunt you.

The ‘visual’ aspect of a visual novel means descriptions are redundant. The reader can see everything worth describing onscreen. Instead, visual novels use potent dialogue to move the story forward and meaningful choices that trigger players to reflect on the consequences of their decisions.

The interactivity in a video game is obvious, but the change in mindset required for writing an interactive experience might not be. The player must be attached to certain characters and plots in a way that will allow them to weigh the choice between potential scenarios evenly. Obvious choices make for boring games, so each side needs strong arguments and sympathetic antagonists.

Clues must be subtle, but obvious, so that a choice doesn’t take the player by surprise or feel unfair. Every decision the player makes should be one where they understand what the consequences of their actions will be.

“Writing is not a single skill. Writing is a major skill made up of tiny subsets.”

Novels require a different, more predictive form of interactivity. They require communication with a reader who is inherently creating the experience with you. The methods a novel can use to communicate—imagery, metaphor, and symbolism—don’t tend to fit as neatly into the script of a collaborative work like a video game.

One of these communication methods is description, an ability I’ve found has weakened over my years of intensive visual novel work. With the visuals already taken care of, I excel at small motions that show the emotions of my characters, but find them walking through ever-shifting landscapes that mix and merge like bubbles in a lava lamp.

It was this decline in my descriptive skill that reignited my annoyance with the advice, “Just write.” This is what many writers, seeking improvement, are told they should do. It’s similar to an artist who tells a frustrated beginner, “Just draw!”

Writing is not a single skill. Writing is a major skill made up of tiny subsets: dialogue, description, knowledge of audience and genre, integrating feedback, pacing, character development, plotting, symbolism, rhythm, world-building, discipline, collaboration. But just as many young artists are told to draw more instead of practicing their fundamentals, many writers lack a common knowledge of exercises to target and develop each of these skills.

It’s easy to find yourself sticking to one thing that keeps you feeling relatively good about your work, whether that be novels, poetry, flash-fiction, or plays. But what my adventure in this year’s NaNoWriMo has taught me is that sticking to one medium can wilt skills you previously excelled at. Just like drawing, writing requires all skills be practiced often.

At the end of my challenging thirty days, I emerged armed with a new vision of what it looks like for me to be a writer and the elusive knowledge of how I can get there. I’m grateful for that.

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Cara Hillstock is a Seattle-based writer who primarily writes visual novels. Her own, Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club, stars a shy girl named Hana who dates characters based off the real-life YouTube groups known as Normal Boots and Hidden Block. In her spare time, she streams and critiques visual novels and story-based games on Twitch. You can catch her escapades on Twitter!

Top image licensed under Creative Commons from chiaralily on Flickr.

Dec. 4 2017
#nanowrimo #now what #by oll guest #writing #cara hillstock #visual novel
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