Session 02: Tools for Measuring Objectives

Hey there. Welcome to this log about creating “Tales from the Wilds” – a series of short stories set within the Imbue Role Playing Game. What you are reading is Session 02 of the project – which is starting to form a vision. We have identified the goal, some core objectives and some guidelines. Today we will continue on this path and who knows, I may even get to my first major goal: the project plan!

Here is where the project stands as of last session:

Working Title: Tales from the Wilds

Goal: Create scripts for a podcast.

Objective 1: Highlight different types of adventures one could have within Imbue.
Objective 2: Ensure the stories are not trite or inconsistent.
Objective 3: Ensure the stories are not confusing or boring.
Objective 4: Ensure the stories are not all told from the same one or two identities.
Objective 5: Ensure the content of the stories: is all original content which takes place in the Imbue setting and remains the property of Cryptiquest, LLC.

Guideline 1: Stories should be told in first-person.
Guideline 2: Episodes should be episodic.
Guideline 3: Episodes should be about 20 – 30 minutes.
Guideline 4: There should be about 24 episodes.
Guideline 5: Episodes should target “general audience” regarding “maturity” rating.

So I see an inconsistency – the first objective and the fifth objective share the whole “adventures happen within Imbue” thing. Perhaps there is a way to consolidate that? I think objective one is more comprehensive regarding the topic so I will remove it from objective 5, which was originally supposed to entail “legal” stuff anyway.

(New) Objective 5: Ensure the content of the stories is all original content which remains the property of Cryptiquest, LLC.

Yeah. That makes sense.

Okay I think we can move on now. Since we have some core objectives lined up we can now consider HOW we will meet such objectives. We have to delve into this as it will help us identify the best way to tackle the project. Asking hard questions like “How will I know if so-and-so objective is successful?” breathes importance and weight into the objectives. It forces us to respect our objectives which ultimately helps us create the product that we envision.

Alright. Enough babbling. Let’s answer some tough questions.

How will this project highlights different types of adventures one could have within Imbue?

At first this sounds easy enough. There are 24 episodes so that provides plenty of opportunity for variety. But that’s not exactly the answer to this question. There is a key word that is missing from this objective that the other ones have: “Ensure”. The objective should be written as this:

Objective 1: Ensure the stories highlight the different types of adventures one could have within Imbue.

I’m not sure if that means anything to you, dear reader, but to me – this difference makes all the difference; effectively changing the question to:

How will you ensure that this project highlights different types of adventures one could have within Imbue?

To ensure that this project highlights the different types of adventures, I will need to create a list of adventures types that need to be included before I start writing. This will be an objective measurement: if, at the end of this project, the adventure types can be crossed off the list, then boom – objective complete. Success.

So that’s the answer: create a checklist of adventure types ahead of time.

How will this project ensure the stories are not trite or inconsistent?

Unfortunately, these are subjective qualities – not objective. I do not know a perfect way to objectively gauge such subjective qualities besides reader feedback. But even then how do you accurately mine such data? Surveys? “Rate this story 1 – 5 on how trite it is” can yield wild results. Unless… Hmm…

Maybe using a matrix survey would be best. Something like:

Which answer most accurately defines this setting?

Very Common	Lots of stories outside this series have settings like this. There was nothing new or unique about it.
Common	The setting in this story was very familiar. I know at least one other series, brand, or license that uses either this setting or one like it.
Uncommon	This story was (to be determined)
Rare	The setting in this story was a fresh take on a familiar trope (maybe?)
Very Rare	The setting in this story was fresh and unique – unlike anything I’ve ever heard of.

It’s not complete (I spent about 10 minutes on it) but I don’t need to write it this second – but this matrix is something I need to figure out before I start writing – so I know what I’ll be judging my work on. I’ll need to create a matrix for “TRITE” and for “INCONSISTENT”.

How will this project ensure the stories are not confusing or boring?

This sounds familiar – just like the previous question. I think I will have to create a matrix for these traits as well: “CONFUSING”, “BORING”.

How will this project ensure the stories are not all told from the same one or two identities?

Ah. In the last session I mentioned how this will probably need to be reworded. And I think here we see why. The simple answer to this (not-very-well-thought-out) question is to do as we will do for question 1: create a checklist –  of identities. We don’t want to do that. Creating a list of identities can lead to “tokenism” (regardless of intention). There’s a bold line between making a diverse cast of characters and treating character identities like a punch list (“Okay, so there’s the Asian guy and the white woman in this story, now who should be the gay guy?”). This rings even more true if once a “token” is used, the rest of the characters are homogeneous (“this Indian exchange student should be diverse enough so I guess the rest of the cast can be white”).

In addition, it’s important to point out that while I’m an inventor of worlds and universes, I can only write characters based off of my perspective. I cannot, for instance, write the experiences of a black woman on the autism spectrum without running a risk of trivializing autism, what it means to be black, and/or womanhood. This doesn’t mean that I can’t have a character who happens to be a black woman on the autism spectrum, I can (even as the protagonist) but I can do this only as long as I don’t try to write what it’s like to be someone who identifies as such – as it will come off exactly as it is: a white, neurotypical male “borrowing” an identity he can’t possibly understand and filtering it through his perspective and presenting it as an objective truth.

Since this is a fantasy/sci-fi setting with a completely different history than our own, “Earth identities” could very well be strewn about the cast for this project arbitrarily – it matters not for the plot or setting. And identities need not be explicit. Ultimately, the point of this is to try to ensure that readers – of any background – could see that this fictional world has room for them. And as mentioned in the last session, this doesn’t mean that every type of identity must have representation. It just means that identities shouldn’t feel excluded.

But what does this mean exactly? It’s not just characters and their perspectives of characters, right? It’s also verbiage of the narration. If the narration (whether unintentionally or not) assumes that gender is binary then readers who either identify as nonbinary or acknowledge that gender is not will feel that the narration is not meant for them. It will pull them out of the story and the abandonment may turn them away. Similarly, if the narration goes out of its way to declare a spectrum of genders or denies the existence of gender altogether, it could have the same effect on those who don’t acknowledge nonbinary genders. And while I – as the creator – consider myself to be in the former camp, I don’t see this particular publication as a vehicle for overt social declarations.

I think that all this means is that during sections where there is an “objective” voice, it should remain as objective as possible. Characters, on the other hand, can be as subjective about perspectives all they want. And it wasn’t until just now that I remembered that these stories are supposed to be all told in the first-person so that last paragraph took us to unnecessary places. Oh well. Good to have that all worked out for future Cryptiquest projects. Ha.

Okay. So. Wow. This went way deeper than I expected. But it deserves special attention, right? This is complicated stuff. It’s honestly uncomfortable. (Also, I’m sure my perspective or my language was incorrect or insensitive on some of the things I discussed but I can only base this off what I know now and seek out voices to improve over time.) As I said, this is uncomfortable, but it isn’t impossible. And it’s worth it. This absolutely worries me. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not worried that I will “offend” someone (something people like to poke fun at) – it’s much worse than that. I am worried that a reader – who comes to these stories in delight, with the sole purpose to wander lovingly into wonder – hears something that says “this isn’t for you.” The idea of that happening breaks my heart and I want to do what’s necessary to mitigate that experience.

So, after going through all of that heavy stuff, and sort-of, kind-of finding a crux, how can I ensure that readers won’t be abandoned due to – ?

Due to what? What should I call it? Identity abuse? Exclusionary language?Narrow perspective? Off switches? I kind of like “off switches”.

“The author had a tendency to throw the off switch when it came to writing about female characters. His detailed descriptions of their voluptuous curves seemed to be written in a way that said ‘for men only’.”

So how can I ensure that stories won’t contain off switches? (Yeah, I like that.) I don’t think a survey or matrix survey would work here. I don’t think a checklist would work here either. Or could it? Is it possible to create a checklist of “off switches” to look out for? A checklist seems to touch on the point about tokenism, but this isn’t intended to serve as a “punch-list” of must-haves as much as it is a checklist of things to be aware of while editing. “Does the story have misandrist off switches?” This list will most likely grow over time. I may have to mull over this, but for the time being this seems like a possible solution.

How will this project ensure the content of the stories is all original content which remains the property of Cryptiquest, LLC?

This seems easy enough to answer. I, as owner of Cryptiquest, will write all stories for Cryptiquest. If there are any other writers, I will ensure they sign a contract that gives Cryptiquest  the copyright and ownership of the creative properties, etc. By original content, I (and any contracted writers) will have to do our to invent new characters and stories. I don’t know how to measure that.

Okay. So after all that, where do we stand? What did I do? I identified some possible tools that will measure the success of the project. These tools will also serve me when writing to ensure I’m actively thinking of what’s important to the project during production. During the process, the objectives have been further refined. Here’s the results.

Working Title: Tales from the Wilds

Goal: Create scripts for a podcast.
Objective 1: Ensure the stories highlight different the types of adventures one could have within Imbue.
Objective 2: Ensure the stories are not trite or inconsistent.
Objective 3: Ensure the stories are not confusing or boring.
Objective 4: Ensure the stories don’t contain “off switches”.
Objective 5: Ensure the content of the stories are original content which remains the property of Cryptiquest, LLC.

Guideline 1: Stories should be told in first-person.
Guideline 2: Episodes should be episodic.
Guideline 3: Episodes should be about 20 – 30 minutes.
Guideline 4: There should be about 24 episodes.
Guideline 5: Episodes should target “general audience” regarding “maturity” rating.

Tool 1: Create a checklist of the must-have adventure types (determines what to write).
Tool 2: Survey matrix that rates each story on: Uniqueness | Consistency | Flow | Entertainment (determines quality of writing).
Tool 3: Create a checklist of “off switches” (determines what to look for during edit to prevent reader abandonment).

Wow. This honestly took me to some unexpected places and new understanding – which is why I go through this process. Writing this out – with a purpose of strangers reading it – has additionally pressed me to think about these further than I ever had before. During the next session, I think I’ll try to figure out the rest of the deliverables. Honestly, I should have initially blocked out the phases so perhaps we’ll take a step back and look at that.