Paul Callaghan – writer: Emerging Writers’ Festival

Paul Callaghan – writer: Emerging Writers’ Festival  

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I’m in the minority of people, I think, in that I’ve pretty much always wanted to do what I now do - I always wanted to make video games in some form or another.

What did you become?

I now write video games, do some teaching & design consulting, and work on my own projects when I can find the time.

What's your official title?

I’m a freelance writer.

What's your background - how did you end up here?

Back when I got into video games, the only way to really make anything happen was to learn how to program, so that’s what I did. I spent a lot of time, on a lot of different machines, learning how to make little stick figures walk around on the screen.

That led into me doing a computer science degree at university and then onto my first industry job as a programmer. I lasted for about five years before I realised that I was always solving the same sorts of problems and that there were always going to be people more interested and better suited to dealing with the technical challenges.

And that’s when I started to write, which opened up this whole new world to explore that I felt was a bit better suited to my creative temperament. So I kept writing - comics, short films, short stories, novels - and produced some utter garbage, but gradually improved until the opportunity to shift over to more of a game design role came along, which I grabbed with both hands.

How would you describe your work to a complete stranger?

Some games are just about what you do – Tetris or Guitar Hero – but a large number of games also contain stories, and as technology has improved, those stories have become increasingly complex. My job is to write those stories, creating characters and plot and dialogue, while still working work within the constraints of what the player does moment to moment.

What's the first thing career related you usually do each day?

Read and reply to email.

Can you describe an "average" working day for you?

It’s just like any other writing job – you sit there, in front of a computer, and you write.

Normally, I just pick up where I left off the previous day. Games writing in the early stages tends to be about problem-solving – I have a clear goal for the player so how do I split that up into smaller goals and how do I keep that interesting. I write, in longhand, a lot of notes, then I turn that into a beat by beat description of the game’s story, peppering it with descriptions of what the player’s actually going to be doing moment to moment. Sometimes, I’ll write a little character sketch or an exchange of dialogue, but mostly it’s just about tracing out the spine of the story. If it’s a large project, once that’s done, there’s the opportunity to go off and explore some of the nooks and crannies of the world and making sure there’s something interesting for the player to do there or an interesting character to meet. If it’s a smaller project, then that’s where I’ll actually start breaking things down into a more traditional scriptwriting format and begin working with the game’s artists and designers to see how we’re going to tell the story and integrate it into the gameplay.

Who or what in the arts world most inspires you?

There’s a Neil Gaiman quote about writing for comics that I really like:

“One of the joys of comics has always been the knowledge that it was, in many ways, untouched ground. It was virgin territory. When I was working on Sandman, I felt a lot of the time that I was actually picking up a machete and heading out into the jungle. I got to write in places and do things that nobody had ever done before. When I’m writing novels I’m painfully aware that I’m working in a medium that people have been writing absolutely jaw-droppingly brilliant things for, you know, three-four thousand years now. You know, you can go back. We have things like The Golden Ass. And you go, well, I don’t know that I’m as good as that and that’s two and a half thousand years old. But with comics I felt like — I can do stuff nobody has ever done. I can do stuff nobody has ever thought of. And I could and it was enormously fun.”

For me, I just replace comics with games. I like the idea that there’s still opportunity because there’s a real possibility that I can do something that nobody has ever done before.

What's the toughest challenge you've dealt with on the job?

I had the opportunity to work on a project I’d dreamt of since I was 11 years old. It was a once in a lifetime type thing and I put my heart and soul into it. When that died, it took a little piece of my soul with it. Still, my time on it was one of the greatest and most fulfilling creative experiences of my life, it taught me an enormous amount, and it put me on the path to where I am now.

What's the best piece of advice you were ever given for your career?

Write - you can’t edit something that isn’t there. And all first drafts are rubbish so don’t worry so much about it.

What are the top three skills you need in your particular role?

You need to be a good communicator. So much of games writing is a collaborative process. Sure, you might spend weeks on your own, but at the end of the day, your work is going to pass through many, many hands, and you need to be clear about what you’re trying to achieve and why that’s important.

You need to be a problem solver. A lot of the time, you’re working within the constraints of somebody else’s ideas, which makes it all the more interesting to try and sneak some of your own interests and themes.

You need a grasp of story and medium. Games have their own strengths and weaknesses as a storytelling form and you need to be aware of how they relate to – and what you can steal from – other mediums.

What's the best thing about your job?

I get paid to write! And across a broad range of genres and styles, which gives me the chance to experiment and try things I’d probably never do with my own work.

And the worst?

I think the hardest thing is that you occasionally come up against an attitude that writing is easy and that anyone can do it. The challenge in that situation is to nudge and cajole and show that what you’re doing is a delicate balance of theme and language, of idea and execution, of art and craft. It’s always a pleasure when people acknowledge the skills you bring to a project, but it’s incredibly difficult when people think that all you’re actually doing is having ideas and spitting them out onto the page. Ideas are cheap and easy, but my job is to craft something sustainable and interesting out of them, which is the much harder part.

And if you had to sum your working life in a word or phrase, what would it be?

Unexpected, but right – I never intended to be where I am now, but I can’t imagine being anywhere else.