Whole life before eyes

"You're not a writer, you don't know what we need".

That was roughly the feedback I received from the narrative designer when I was presenting my ideas for solving some issues with the story and dialogue tools. It hit me. It hit me hard. As a tools programmer, I often hear, to put it mildly, a lack of enthusiasm toward my first proposals. It's normal and understandable. That's why I prototype and iterate ideas directly with users. Every meeting brings us a step closer to a satisfying solution. The feedback had always been about the ideas, but this time it was personal.

I did some research on writing. I started reading about screenwriting, listened to podcasts about writing books, and even read Save the Cat!, the bible of storytelling. It didn't really help much with designing tools, but it gave me a new perspective on literature. Just like in programming, a good story has to follow certain rules, and learning that opened new doors in my mind but, more importantly, created new needs. I knew I had to push myself and introduce the most crucial element of learning any new field — practice.

The process of coming up with stories turned out to be... relaxing. I started making up bedtime stories for my kids and ended up writing short novels. I don't have aspirations to become the greatest writer of our time, but I won't deny I was curious how I was doing. To find it out, I entered a contest organized by the fantasy club Ad Astra, and I did it! My story made it into the anthology Fantazje Zielonogórskie XIV. I hope this success will motivate me to keep developing, while still allowing writing to stay a simple and enjoyable hobby.

Someone might try to draw a moral from this story, that I turned a bad experience into something positive. There's definitely some truth to that. About how it's sometimes worth stepping out of your comfort zone and being pleasantly surprised. Also true. About searching for a solution and finding it in an unexpected way. Absolutely. For me, though, it's mostly another exercise, where I try to write a concise story in four short paragraphs.