Writing & Publishing

Imagine

  

How do we make sure our imaginations are sharp and ready to be called into action at a moment’s notice? Well, there’s no substitute for practice, but there are some tools out there that can help us practice. One great example is the new creative writing video game, Elegy for a Dead World.

 

Elegy for a Dead World allows you to explore the worlds of three great English poets, Lord Byron, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. The worlds are sci-fi/fantasy inspired and contain writing prompts to describe the environments and imagine stories behind the way things appear. The prompts vary: grammar lessons, dialogue, poetry, narrative description, and free form writing. The variety offers you a chance to really stretch the imaginative writing muscles.

 

When complete with a given prompt, you save the stories and either publish them for the community to see or put them aside for later edits.

 

The screencast below gives you a tour through the game. It highlights the useful features that can fuel our imaginative writing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s true that Elegy for a Dead World does cost $15 and this is – for many of us – not an inconsequential amount of money to spend. However, it should be kept in mind that as far as video games are concerned, this is relatively inexpensive. Elegy is available through the reputable game system Steam, which is free for download on the website http://store.steampowered.com.

 

As the developers of the game say, “We created Elegy so everyone can write”. It provides a stimulus to the imagination with beautiful scenery and writing prompts that mature writers might not need. But for those less experienced, it can be a catalyst for improved imaginative writing.