The Legend of Zelda are adventure games, and I’ve been looking at each one in the series for inspiration. The first Legend of Zelda gave us storytelling tips and the second helped us navigate writing roadblocks. What next? Well, novels take a long time to write. They require a marathon of words. During your first draft, you face down all these blank pages, but what if you could write faster? Have you heard of speedrunning games? What if you could speedrun your next novel?
First, a little background.
Zelda History: A Link to the Past
The year was 1991. On the Super Nintendo, or SNES, the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was released. The graphics were upgraded to 16-bit glory with an entirely different perspective from earlier games, called oblique projection(1).
In A Link to the Past, the story and world of Link and Zelda expand. There are two parallel worlds to discover: the dark world and the light world. Before the games had brief interactions with a mysterious old woman or an old man who gives you a sword. Now we have an Uncle. Link is descended from the knights of old. (He is a link to the past.) There is also Princess Zelda and six maidens trapped in crystals, a mysterious forest to navigate, aggressive fish people, blacksmith dwarves, and a strange lockpick. The dark lord Ganon isn’t the only threat. An evil Wizard named Aganim stirs up trouble and will bring the land to doom unless you stop him.
These story elements make the game and its world feel bigger than ever. It is an epic story for the ages.
Speedrunning and Glitching the game
The game A Link to the Past is also full of glitches and a community of speedrunners play a competitive version that randomizes the game items. Two players play the game at the same time, as fast as possible. They have to find certain key items in order to enter “go mode” when they race to beat the final boss. These races take anywhere from 1-3 hours. (A far cry from the over 40 hours for me to defeat Ganon.)(2)
The game is wonderful in its original, but to see it revitalized as a randomizer race is equally amazing.
Instead of exploring and encountering characters, you glitch your way across bridges and through walls. You become a ‘wizard’ yourself and master the game’s mechanics. It is no longer about playing but performing. Racing requires you to think fast and make judgment calls. Should you check the swamp? Or zip over to Death Mountain?
Best of all, you are experiencing the game in an entirely new way. It is refreshing and fascinating to watch runners and follow the tournament brackets. If you want, you can pick up the game and join them. (3)(4)(5)
Writing is an Adventure
Like the Zelda games, sometimes writing feels like an endless journey. Especially writing long fantasy novels. There are certain expectations to have over 100,000 words. (That’s a lot of words!) Recently, I’ve been experimenting with writing fast and being prolific. I wanted to write as I read; dive straight into the story and see what happens. I’ve embraced the panther/pantser life.
Writing faster is not always the answer. It can produce a lot of badly written words and scenes. It always requires a lot of revisions. This method can put unwanted and unnecessary pressure; when you can’t write it feels like you’re stuck in a mound of garbage, becoming one with the garbage.
But if your goal is to write fast, then do it! And have fun!
How can we become speedrunning writers?
10 writing tips to write fast, and speedrun your novel
I think there is something to be said for momentum. You have this passionate idea for a story. Don’t let that passion go to waste. Use it. Set yourself up for success. Writing is more about showing up than anything else. Consider this the Nanowrimo style of writing.
Here are 10 tips to speedrun your next novel.
1. Morning Journaling
Start every morning with a journal entry. Morning pages are a key part of the Artist’s Way. They seemed pointless, but they are priming you; warming up your storytelling muscles, like artists do.
Artist Patrick Jones calls his first drawings “clangers”. Get your clangers out of the way, he says. “Let them be messy, and make mistakes and learn from it. You might have 4-5 clangers before you get a nice drawing.” (6) So allow yourself to warm up when writing.
2. Word Sprints
These are when you set a timer and write as many words as you possibly can squeeze. Don’t think. Just write. Ready set go!
3. Focus Sessions
Set a timer for 20 minutes, then take a 5-minute break. Repeat as needed. It’s the Pomodoro technique for getting stuff done. (7)
4. Cliffhangers
End your writing session in the middle of something. Give yourself a cliffhanger. Stop in the middle of a sentence. Whatever it takes so that tomorrow, you’ll be ready to start rolling.
5. Word Count Trackers
Search and you will find a tracker! They let you input your project goal, start and end date, and the word count goal. The graph you get shows your daily word count goal. This encourages me to write just a little more every day!
6. Share with others
Find someone to be your writing buddy, who can encourage you, and vice versa. Seek out people, join communities where you can encourage others, and receive in kind.
7. Typing speed
Practice your typing. Get fast enough that you can keep up with the flurry of furious words in your head. It helps with the flow. Practice being accurate and get better at spelling. Fix your grammar later! Also, make sure you have a good keyboard with no sticky keys! (I’m looking at you, left arrow! Stop being sticky!)
8. Daydreaming
I was a daydreamer as a teen. Sleeping in? No, I was daydreaming. Make time to let your mind wander. Daydream about your characters, what’s happening, and where the story is going. Or about the world you’re building. Can you have a vampire romance where he isn’t so predatory? Is that possible? Cozy vampires? (I’ll get back to you on that.)
9. Active Rest
Like daydreaming, active rest is when you let your mind wander during a walk or doing dishes. Let any writing problems drift around in the background. Ideas come to us in the shower because we’re doing something, but it’s on autopilot.
Athletics actively rest their bodies after a hard workout. (8) So actively rest your mind. Mindful yoga for writing anyone?
10. And now for something completely different
Go read a book. Go to the library or bookstore and browse randomly. Paint something silly. Find thrift store treasures. In order words, take an artist’s date. These activities are meant to rejuvenate your spirit and inspire your inner artist.
Speedrunning involves a lot of practice. Zelda speedrunners play thousands of hours on the same game. They may play the game fast, but they put in the hours. Practicing takes time. Don’t be hard on yourself in the beginning. Build your momentum.
You can write more words and write faster. I can’t promise they’ll be good words. That’s what revisions and editing are for. And that’s a different story for another day.
Writing When?
I’m a morning person, so I write best in the mornings. I was in-between jobs at the beginning of this year and my goal was to improve my habits by writing every day. This list worked for me for the two months. I write most of a novel about dragon racing (finished it in May) and I finished writing my Vella Story The Thorn Path (which is complete and still available for a limited time!)
Let yourself experiment. Find your optimal writing time and embrace that.
I’m starting a new full-time job, so consider this list part 1. I’ll do a follow up with my new schedule. How can I get more writing into my life. Will I squeezed writing into my lunch break, before work, and after dinner? (Yes! All of the above!) I’ll try a few sentences at a time, instead of looking at webtoons or comics or anime news. (First, I have to find an apartment, and safe/fun/capricious space to write)
When is your best time for writing? Let me know!
Stay tuned for more Legend of Zelda inspired!
References
- Definition of an oblique drawing: https://civilseek.com/oblique-drawing-projection/
- ALTTP Randomizer Speedrunners on Twitch: https://alttpr.com/en/watch
- Speedrunning A Link to the Past, or ALTTP. https://www.speedrun.com/alttp/guides/jllru
- Getting started with A Link to the Past speedruns https://alttp-wiki.net/index.php/GettingStarted
- A tutorial for speedrunning ALLTP by Fruitbat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBiCzWubXCg
- Patrick Jones Clanger’s story: https://youtu.be/2bYWdNU-Clg?si=-T6RvEGpgdS5QNlo&t=101
- Pomodoro was invented by Francesco https://www.pomodorotechnique.com/what-is-the-pomodoro-technique.phpCirillo.
- Health benefits of Active Rest from Healthline: https://www.healthline.com/health/exercise-fitness/rest-day#what-to-do