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Episode 23: Talysa Sainz, Editor of the Year
48 Plays10 months ago
Host Alan Bahr is joined by Talysa Sainz, a previous "Editor of the Year" award winning who edits and writes in poetry, rpgs, fiction, and more.
We discuss different styles of editing, how writers can work with editors, what goes into the different prose elements of different genres and lots more.
Recommended
Transcript
Introducing Talissa Saenz
00:00:10
Speaker
I'm Alan Barr, and this is Radio Free RPG.
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello, I'm Alan Barr and welcome to Radio Free RPG. Today I'm joined by my guest, Talissa Saenz. Talissa, how are you today? I'm doing great. I'm glad to hear that. Now, Talissa is an editor who has worked in fiction, poetry, technical editing, if I recall correctly, as well as role-playing games. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct.
Editing Mediums and Managing Structures
00:00:51
Speaker
So those are all four very different mediums of writing.
00:00:56
Speaker
with very different rules and structures and sort of themes and ideas in a large sense. Absolutely, yeah. That frankly, I can't keep the editing rules straight for one genre of writing, much less tell people how to do better at four. So let's, I mean, let's start with the obvious question. What the hell? Well,
00:01:24
Speaker
I started editing just getting the jobs that I could. So that was a lot of like small fiction projects or technical writing. And so you kind of learn to bounce around a little bit. And then as my career and business have grown, I've gotten to choose the projects that I work on. And now I because I write poetry, I'm one of the few people I know who can edit poetry. Okay.
Emotional Impact: Poetry vs. RPGs
00:01:49
Speaker
That's, I mean, it's impressive. Don't get me wrong, but it sounds daunting. So, you know, poetry, I think a lot of us who come up, you know, at least for me coming up through the education system where I did poetry was very sort of Robert Frost.
00:02:08
Speaker
kind of that style of limited exposure. We didn't really get to read a lot outside of what you might consider sort of to quote classic American poetry. Yeah. But I mean, obviously, I'm aware that that is not all poetry is. What what do you see as the defining characteristics of poetry and what do they share in common with role playing games?
00:02:36
Speaker
Well, any good poetry will make you feel something. And so even classic American poetry, it may be more structured, but its purpose is the same, is to get you to feel something specific. And in RPGs, the goal is to get you to interact, right? So I see that as kind of similar, where the goal is to get you to
00:03:04
Speaker
have some sort of real reaction to something that somebody else created. Interesting. And a lot of the way RPGs do that is through the setting, which I suppose is akin to poetry in the sense that to a degree they exist in that same sort of fiction space of creative writing. But some ways RPGs do that is with the rules. So does that change the parameters of
00:03:33
Speaker
you approach editing because rules are a lot more technical. It's kind of like poetry done in the style of technical writing maybe, trying to make you feel something and interact with something. But there are hard and fast rules and limitations to how that goes. Yeah, that's similar to how more structured poetry is where you have to follow very specific rules. And if you don't follow them, then
00:04:02
Speaker
the whole purpose kind of falls beneath it. Interesting. So, you know, we might say that rules are more akin to, for an example, using my limited knowledge of poetry, haiku, where there's a specific structure and format you have to follow, you know, the syllables and the order and the themes. And the creative side of RPGs is probably more akin to sort of freeform poetry or what you might see it like a poetry slam if you were to go to one. Yeah. I would agree with that.
00:04:31
Speaker
OK, that's interesting.
Editing Fiction Linked to RPGs
00:04:33
Speaker
So one of the reasons I had you on is you edited Brian Young's novella Welcome to Paradise, which was based in the Mecha's a Monsters game that my company Galanite Games produced, which is a role playing game about giant robots and stomping monsters. Not terribly poetic when Bush comes to shove, I suppose. Was that your first experience editing fiction that tied into game material?
00:05:03
Speaker
I would say yes. I edited other RPGs and other fiction works that I think gaming games have been based off of, but the first time I edited something that the gaming came first.
Challenges of Adapting RPGs to Fiction
00:05:20
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:21
Speaker
Now, obviously, at the core, RPGs are a lot more freeform. There is often, well, there might be in a established metanarrative or fictional what's going on. They aren't linear. There's not a protagonist who is being sort of driven down the rails, as it were, at least hopefully, unless you're on a railroady GM adventure. So what do you find challenging about that transition from
00:05:50
Speaker
sort of the protagonist has yet to be determined side of RPG fiction to the literary fiction where the protagonist is determined and there's sort of a character who's moving along because it, to me, as a person who writes only RPGs, I feel like one of the things that makes RPGs special is the freedom of the audience to become the author.
00:06:15
Speaker
And obviously, when you adapt a game to fiction, you lose that because now there is an author and the audience is not the protagonist anymore. Were there challenges? Did you have to approach it or think about it differently? Talk to me about what that felt like. Well, editing for an RPG that's more freeform like that
00:06:37
Speaker
It's more freeing, in a sense, because you don't have to focus on if everything in the work pushes the one main character down the road. In a sense, anything you do is going to be
00:06:56
Speaker
pushing your main character down the road when it comes to like an RPG. And the great thing about that is that anybody who plays gets to step in and be that protagonist. And so you're kind of editing more for the audience than you are for the author in a sense, if that makes sense.
00:07:20
Speaker
Sure, that does make sense. And I suppose with an RPG, if I want to write in a rule, I don't have to worry about how it's going to affect the protagonist, just if they're going to use it or not, per se, in terms of the fiction, right? Yeah. That's an interesting sort of delineator because I view rules and RPGs as fiction generating tools, but they themselves are generally not the fiction.
00:07:46
Speaker
Right. The fiction is what happens when you engage with them. They're more akin to maybe a pencil or a typewriter. Right. They allow you to get the fiction out. But I suppose if I were to look at it from a different perspective, the rules are a piece of fiction because there is a story about why you picked up that particular pencil or typewriter to use. Right. Right. And I had and just until you said that, I had never considered it from that perspective. So there we go. I am learning new things already.
00:08:16
Speaker
Oh, good. So congratulations. Welcome to Paradise won an award. So that's great. Yeah, it's really fun.
Monsters and Mimosas RPG Group
00:08:25
Speaker
Yeah, that was it was wonderful to see to be able to celebrate and high five both you and Brian and, you know, congratulate you on your award. What? What do you play when you play RPGs now? I see posts. I know you play role playing games. You have a monsters and mimosas weekly thing going on. Is that I get the name right?
00:08:46
Speaker
Yes, monsters and mimosas, we try to play once a month, and that's loosely D&D-based, but we move past some of the D&D rules and just make it a little more our own.
00:09:02
Speaker
Sure. Like every group does. I imagine once the mimosas start going, the rules start becoming a secondary concern. Yes. Have you ever, and this is a loaded question, but have you ever thought about calling it momsters and mimosas? I'm just saying. Momsters and mimosas? Yes. See? It would be interesting, but not everyone in the group is a mom. Oh, that's fair.
00:09:27
Speaker
I just, that one comes to heart because my editor missed that typo in Mecha's and Monsters and we had a section that was Mecha's and Momster's for a hot minute into the final print book. Oh boy. Yeah. So that'll be my April Fool's release, Momster's and Mecha.
00:09:46
Speaker
So when you play D&D 5e, do you have to turn your editor or well, any RPG, I suppose, really, but do you have to turn your editor brain off? Like, is there a part of you that wants to reach in there and be like, no, hang on, this doesn't make sense for the character based on how they've been, you know, operating?
00:10:04
Speaker
Um, I've never had an issue where my editor brain tries to stop me from playing. I'm pretty good at turning that editor side off when I'm reading or creating writing for myself. Um, so for playing, I think it's the same that turn that side off and enjoy it for what it is. Yeah. Okay. I mean, that's really, I have a hard time turning my game writer brain off when I play role playing games sometimes cause I'm in the zone and
00:10:31
Speaker
I'm looking at it going away, but if they laid it out this way, or if they reworded this, it would make more sense, or that's really smart. And that can take away some of the fun for me, because now my fun is work also. This is sort of the opposite of what I want. So when you're editing these RPGs, you've done some for me. I know you've done other work as well. What do you find?
00:11:01
Speaker
I don't want to say fulfilling, but. I know when I take on work, especially creative work, even if it's more. Structured or prescriptive creative work, there is a sort of creative itch it scratches for me on some level, which is why I like doing all the different types of creative work. Is there do like the different types of editing scratch different itches is like, is there a reason you might find one more enjoyable in some ways than the other or vice versa?
00:11:31
Speaker
Absolutely. So right now I'm editing a business book and it really helps me practice almost my editing skills and hone my skills without having to worry about the creative writing side as much.
Technical vs. Creative Editing
00:11:47
Speaker
Whereas when I'm editing like a novella, then I have to be constantly thinking about all the creative aspects because I've gone to enough writing conferences and taken enough writing classes that I try and edit
00:12:01
Speaker
to where the author understands rather than from an editor's perspective, from an author's perspective. And so I'm constantly worried about all the different things the author is worried about when I'm editing something really creative. But technical writing, I get to focus a little more on the editing craft. And so for RPGs, it's interesting because I can kind of do both in a sense. In some ways, I can turn the creative side off
00:12:31
Speaker
um, in a lot of ways, but then I still get to enjoy the world building. Okay. I mean, that makes sense that, you know, I, it is sort of a hodgepodge of all the different styles of editing, I suppose, into one big pot, as it were. Yeah. Whereas, you know, I would imagine business editing or technical writing is very, always the same. Um, there's very few flourishes or extravagance about it, maybe. Yeah.
00:13:03
Speaker
So when you are working on these projects and doing these, well, doing all of this, do you have a particular workflow? Like, what does that look like? I know like when I work with editors, they slot into the Gallant Night Games workflow. But when I do projects for other companies, they always have different workflows with the editors. I work with some companies where the editors are editing the final laid out PDF, which like makes me cringe inside and cry a little bit.
00:13:33
Speaker
Yeah, me too. Some are editing Word documents, some are editing chapters at a time, whole documents. Is there a particular flow you like or prefer? And why might there be benefits and drawbacks to these different styles of editing workflow? So I prefer to work with an entire project rather than have it in pieces because then I can kind of see the beginning from the end and vice versa. I can kind of
00:14:02
Speaker
do more when it comes to consistency and I can get a feel for the whole thing rather than just one chapter at a time.
00:14:11
Speaker
Um, but I know for some people it's helpful to do one chapter at a time because then they can kind of approach it as a reader rather than as an editor and they can, um, say, Hey, this didn't make sense to me. Whereas it would make sense to somebody who read the end. And so you kind of get the reader reaction from your editor as well. Okay. Because if I were to give you chapter one, you might have a question that I'm like, well, that's explained in chapter four. Right.
00:14:40
Speaker
And OK, I see. And so in your case, you prefer that. Now, can you see what benefits there might be to doing it chapter by chapter? I have to imagine there are some. It really helps in terms of workload when you only have a chapter to edit at a time. Sure. It makes it much easier, much less stressful than seeing, you know, 100000 words at a time. So that makes sense.
00:15:09
Speaker
And I suppose if you correct something up front, they, it can be fixed before the next chapter is coming to you, which might make the workload easier as you go. Exactly. Okay. When it comes to developmental editing, I like to do things a little differently than I do with copy editing. Okay. Whereas developmental editing, I like seeing chapter at a time because then I can fix things before, you know, then they can do what you said and, um,
00:15:37
Speaker
fix the problems down the line in the novel before it gets to me. Whereas copy editing, I like to see the whole thing all in one go. I suppose that that does make sense, especially because developmental edits are more in the weeds about the overall structure and flow and products sort of contents. Whereas copy editing is sort of just standing off the rough edges of a relatively fully formed idea. That OK, that that tracks.
00:16:03
Speaker
So one of the things you got to do was you got to play test now at Night Games's game Tiny Caveman before it came out.
Tiny Caveman RPG Playtesting
00:16:12
Speaker
We were at a conference and there was a chance where I was running a game and we all sort of play tested this game. For those of you who are unaware, Tiny Caveman is a Tiny D6 game where you only know four words. One is your name. Three are the things you are known for or good at. And those are the only four words you can say. Everything else you say you have to draw.
00:16:32
Speaker
in as caveman-like fashion as possible. And so you sat in on a playtest, but then you also saw me run it for a panel at a later conference, but almost a year later. At somebody on the outside, per se, because obviously the game exists in my head and I'm always iterating it or thinking about it or learning new things, even if it's not about that game in particular.
00:17:00
Speaker
Uh, well, what were like, what did you think seeing that like didn't have changes? Did you see where it had changed? You know, what were your thoughts about changes you might've noticed or didn't notice? Um, well, I thought it was really fun. Uh, it was definitely much easier to communicate when we played it, um, because we were able to draw. And when you were doing it for as, um, like in front of an audience, they didn't get to like draw out.
00:17:30
Speaker
what they wanted to do. And so it makes it harder. But then it was funnier for the audience because then they acted it out more. And it probably took more creativity without the drawing. Sure. That's interesting. That drawing was primarily a technical limitation. We had no way to give everybody four tablets so they could draw on and everybody could see.
00:17:55
Speaker
I'm no idea how we were able to pull that off effectively in any way. But it was it. It's a fun. For me, taking away words, which are the biggest tool I have to communicate games. Is I don't want to say subversive because I don't feel like it's that subversive, but it's it's an interesting exercise to think about, like, how effectively can I communicate in as little
00:18:23
Speaker
in as little text as possible, you know, verbally. Yeah. And I wrote the entire game in that style of caveman writing, which one of itself was a thing. But what like, what do you think about like when you played it, having all your words gone as a writer and a creative, what did that feel like? It was terrifying.
00:18:50
Speaker
Mainly because I wasn't, when I decided my name and my three words that I could do, I didn't know those would be the only things I could say. And so I wasn't strategic about what words I would choose. Whereas someone who read all the rules beforehand and knew that those were the only words you could use, you're going to be a little more strategic about it. So it was really interesting just being told, okay, now you can't say anything but those words and then
00:19:20
Speaker
Um, my, my kind of going blank thinking, how am I supposed to communicate? How am I supposed to? Um, what was it? We had to go kill a saber to tiger. I think that was sort of the mission of our little band of cave people. There was to a tiger had been, uh, plaguing the village or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. That was really, it was hard. Um,
00:19:50
Speaker
It was really fun to see how we use the different words. Like someone's name was yes. And so that made it so easy for us to communicate because we could just say if we agreed with something or not. Sure. By using their name. So that was great. Right. So one thing that happened is when you played, I allowed the group to use everybody's words at the table. When we played it on the panel, I restricted them to only their words.
00:20:20
Speaker
Did that change sort of the tenor or fill of what you saw happening and the way they were playing? It was definitely harder with fewer words. And they, I felt that they couldn't interact as much with each other. They could do their own part, but they couldn't like,
00:20:46
Speaker
advise the other people like, oh, I'll do this and you do this and this person does this and kind of work together. So it was more like there's four people working on a mission, but they're all working on it through you rather than working on it together with you watching. Yeah, it does. Yeah. And, you know, with my designer brain on in hindsight, I if I thought about it, I would have had a projector up in the back with like all the words they could say for all the different characters.
00:21:14
Speaker
So they could easily reference and I would have let them do that. But I was trying to think how to make it easy on these panelists who are suddenly playing an RPG. Some of them didn't have a lot of gaming experience and I was taking away all the words and making them learn a game and playing in front of an audience. And so limiting the words to just them was sort of my call it an ad hoc decision to try to help them maintain some like semblance of scope. Right. I didn't want to overwhelm them with things.
00:21:44
Speaker
Yeah. And in hindsight, I kind of wonder if I should have just had some sort of projector in the back and said, OK, these the four of you, these are the 16 words you can say. Right.
00:21:56
Speaker
And I don't know your your point of interaction there puts a fine finger on what I had been like trying to unpack in my thought process about why didn't it work the way I wanted it to. Quite right. Everybody had fun. Everybody had a good time. Like I don't think it was bad. But like as the designer in my head, I'm going to something was off. Why was it off? What was off? And I don't think I'd been able to quite pinpoint what it was, but that puts it into a nice little a little sort of bubble for me to think about. So that's good.
00:22:29
Speaker
Yes, me too, thank you.
Mental Health in Creative Industries
00:22:33
Speaker
So one of the things that I find, when we first met, I was a guest at a conference in Utah and you'd come to some of my panels and you would ask me questions about
00:22:51
Speaker
I had talked a little bit about myself presenting as an advocate for mental health because of my neurodivergence and how I had sort of worked that into my, I don't want to say public image, but it was something that was important to me. And so I talked about it. And we had talked about how that had an impact on me and my life in the space of social media and everything.
00:23:22
Speaker
Yeah, that conversation really stuck with me because it was I won't say it's the first time I had to confront it, but it's the first time I had to explain what I had been processing, you know, internally, maybe subconsciously for a long time. And it was helpful to me to have that conversation. Just just because you were asking questions, I was like, oh, I haven't actually thought about this. Now I have to answer this question. What's my thought?
00:23:52
Speaker
I know I'm not the only creative who has struggles like this. Sometimes creatives, they feel bound by whatever their creative focus is or whatever they've chosen to, I don't wanna say platform themselves on, but whatever sort of a plank they are presenting as part of their identity, right? That's important to them. And we all have these things that we like to present. For me, it's RPGs and mental health.
00:24:21
Speaker
for other people, they have other topics. So you have your fingers in a lot of different creative areas. Do you find the different areas the authors tend to have different planks? Do they seem to fit into these buckets? Do they like what? Like to me, it's a really interesting thing to sit back and look at all of a sudden because it's I mean, it's the people that make games are the point of this podcast, right? And
00:24:51
Speaker
you have an interesting perspective in that you spend a lot of time outside of the game industry will still be in it. And so I'm kind of curious, what do you feel like is maybe different there in the issues that are important to people who make games versus maybe poetry or technical writing, et cetera? Well, I think a lot of creatives tend to have the same. I don't want to say issues, but same aspects
00:25:21
Speaker
of like mental health or personal struggles, a lot of creatives kind of share this common world. There's a lot of neurodivergent people in the creative sphere. And so there are a lot of similarities. However,
00:25:45
Speaker
people in creative writing, and especially poetry, try to use those in their work, in their craft. While gaming, it's there sometimes, but you don't get to see it as much. And so certain projects where you bring the mental health aspect into it are the rare and really special ones.
00:26:15
Speaker
That's yeah, it's it's interesting because, you know, when you are the person in the weeds is often a very different perspective from somebody on the outside. And what I always find really interesting is I often because of the topics I write about, which are sort of tools and toolboxes for making believe. Right. I'm sort of like a more technical Mr. Rogers. I'm going to pretend that's valid. It's not folks. I don't wear sweaters and I don't have any trolley cars.
00:26:45
Speaker
Though I do now wish I did have a trolley car. Yes. And also a sweater. So, hey, that's the next stage of my evolution, I think, is Mr. Rogers. I often feel like I am not a real writer in the same sense, right?
Identity and Imposter Syndrome
00:27:03
Speaker
Because the things I'm crafting are the skeleton of tools that help you create a narrative rather than creating a narrative.
00:27:11
Speaker
And for a long time, I had sort of a suit I in my head, you know, and my own thoughts like to be a writer, you have to craft a narrative. And that's not what I'm doing. I'm giving other people tools to craft narratives. I'm at best a writing enabler. And that is that is sort of a feeling that swings up and swings down based on, you know, what conference I'm at or what I'm working on or what have you.
00:27:39
Speaker
What do you find when you are switching between these editing roles and then also becoming a writer and also doing developmental that isn't copy edits? Like, do you ever get that feeling of like, this isn't the thing I do? Maybe I'm kind of in the orbit, but this isn't quite right. Yes, I get that a lot. How do you overcome that? I'm asking for a friend.
00:28:03
Speaker
Well, part of it is just facing down your imposter syndrome. But also, all right, so I...
00:28:13
Speaker
2022 I was named the national editor of the year by aces, which was really really cool but it messed with my head quite a bit because I didn't get into editing because I wanted to be the best editor or to be recognized for editing I got into editing because I wanted to be a writer and I wanted to improve my skills my technical skills through that aspect because I
00:28:41
Speaker
I dreamed of being a writer since I was young. And so sometimes I'm in the editing world and I'm like, I'm not really an editor. All these people look up to me as this editor. I'm the president of the Utah freelance editors. I'm known for my editing business in a lot of ways, but sometimes I feel like an imposter because I really am a writer who's just editing. But how to overcome that?
00:29:12
Speaker
is a hard question. And the solution is often very personal to each individual, I think, right? I'm not expecting what you do to work for you versus always work for me, right? Yeah. But what are some of the things you've learned about tackling that? Well, you hear a lot in the writing world, like if you write, you're a writer. And so I kind of apply that across the board and say, OK, if I edit, that means I am an editor.
00:29:42
Speaker
If I am being a writer enabler, I am a writer because that's something that writers have to do too, is that they have to have all those tools. They have to enable themselves to write. And so part of what you do is something that writers have to do anyway. They just take it, you know, another step that you prefer to leave to the player. Right.
00:30:07
Speaker
No, and obviously I feel like I'm a writer. I look at the hundreds of thousands of words and hundreds of books. I have my name on them and I'm clearly a person who writes. Even if it's not literary or, you know, narrative fiction, it's still writing. But, you know, there is there is definitely a sort of. These these bubbles can feel very constrained. I once heard somebody at a writing conference say. Most people who go on to RPGs are just failed authors.
00:30:37
Speaker
Oh, ouch. That's so mean. And I was like, well, I've never an author. I never tried. So I can't have failed. So ha to you. I'm just a never has been somehow better. And they were it was a person who had been an editor at like or an acquiring editor for a long time. And they were around during sort of the boom of Dragon Lance and everything. And I think that probably colored their perception a lot. And I do think their statement was wildly unfair and inaccurate.
00:31:06
Speaker
But, you know, I often have to remind myself there are different ways to tell stories. And, you know, what we might consider narrative fiction is just one of them. You know, there's a lot of arrows in that quiver of telling a story. So with that in mind. This and this is a purely theoretical question. I'm going to spring on you and I should have warned you about this. I just thought of it right now. So here you go.
00:31:33
Speaker
How would you approach making an RPG based on the idea of poetry? Oh, boy. I to the best of my knowledge, that's never been done other than there's a there's a card game called a haiku warrior, haiku samurai that was like a haiku RPG game.
Poetry-Based RPG Discussion
00:31:52
Speaker
Yeah. A poetry RPG. Hmm.
00:32:04
Speaker
Yeah, right. That's I'm trying to think what that would look like. I've used jazz music and RPGs as like mechanical basis, but I'm looking at poetry going, how would I do that? Right now, off the top of my head, I'm thinking a combination of those. Letter magnets that you get that you can rearrange all over your fridge. OK.
00:32:24
Speaker
that with combined with the tiny caveman idea where you take away someone's words and you only give them certain amounts, certain words that they're allowed to say. And then giving like topics and then they have to
00:32:47
Speaker
I see where you're going. It's interesting to think about, right? Because we use words so heavily in role-playing games. A lot of people, you know, like, oh, dice are the tool, or cards are the tool. And I'm like, no, words are the tool, right? There's words all over your character sheet. There's words in the book. There's words telling you what dice to roll and how to read them. They are expression of the tool, which is language, right? Right. And so I always find it really interesting to think about how language
00:33:18
Speaker
plays into these games we're experiencing. And so I just had that thought while we were talking. I was like, I wonder what you would do. And I I now have an idea which I will tell you after we're done recording, because I don't want to say it here in case somebody runs out and does it. Not that that would happen, because I don't think I'll ever do it, but it's an idea. So so tell us that we're coming up near the end of our time here.
Exploring Industry Roles and Experiences
00:33:42
Speaker
This has been a really great conversation. I feel like you've sort of helped me
00:33:47
Speaker
unlock some stuff I've been thinking about, but not quite fully unlocked. And so that's one of the reasons I love doing this podcast is every time I talk to somebody, I come away with a different viewpoint or expression of what their perception and role in place in the industry is. So there's always three questions I ask at the end here.
00:34:09
Speaker
Um, the first one is what are, you know, three RPGs that you look at as sort of the bedrock of your foundational RPG experience. Oh, that's hard. Um, one of them is Dungeons and Dragons because it's so widespread. That is a popular answer this season. Last season, I don't think anybody brought that up once.
00:34:33
Speaker
Um, it is, I would say it's become basic to the point where like, it's more it's like Kleenex. Yeah. It's, uh, so common out there at this point that it's a stepping stone more than it is a destination at this point. Sure. Um,
00:35:05
Speaker
This one is, it started as a board game, but it has like an RPG book that goes with it so that you can play it. It's called Root. The board game won a bunch of awards. It has a cute little RPG book. And then Magpie did the Powered by the Apocalypse RPG version of it. Yes. Yeah. Okay. That's a great choice. That's a very beautiful product. The art style is just gorgeous. Yes. Yes, it is.
00:35:33
Speaker
And then I'm going to say the one that I think is the funnest to watch and play. Excuse me, editor. Most fun. Thank you. It's the most fun. Can't say funnest. Funnest isn't a word. I've been told repeatedly by my editors.
00:35:56
Speaker
It is not a proper word for proper academic English. I am a descriptivist, not a prescriptivist. I embattled all of it, so it's funny. The most fun that I've watched is dread because there's
00:36:20
Speaker
so much anxiety anticipation that when you're playing it and when you're watching it, you get to feel the same things as the people playing it, which you always get to do when you're watching other RPGs. That makes sense. Dred is an excellent expression. And when I use this example, when I talk about how mechanics can evoke a feeling or theme, Dred is a great example of that. Because the anticipation of the Jenga Tower coming over is something we all have experienced one way or another, right? Right.
00:36:48
Speaker
maybe not Jenga per se, but stacking something as a kid on blocks or whatever, then it would follow. You know what that looks like. Or perfection when it, you know, you have to get it all stacked perfectly before it explodes. Right. Exactly. Yeah. So there's a, now I think that's, those are, those are great answers. Uh, so the second question is if you could answer any one question in an interview, what would it be?
00:37:15
Speaker
Um, I could answer any one question in an interview. What's one question you've never been asked in an interview that you've always wanted to answer? Maybe is a better way to say that. Um, why do I prefer writing over editing? So why do you prefer writing over editing? Well,
00:37:41
Speaker
I mean, okay, so my background is in linguistics and I've studied editing and I
00:37:46
Speaker
have worked in that for a long time. So I know the beauty of language and how the mechanics work together to be really beautiful. And in writing, you get to make mistakes. In writing, you get to break all the rules. Whereas I know how the rules function and why, and I know why they're all important and how they work together.
00:38:15
Speaker
But in writing, I get to just kind of know all of that and do something else on purpose. It's easier to break the rules effectively if you know what rules you're breaking. Exactly. But writing, you get to break the rules and still understand how that can be even more fulfilling for the reader than following the rules.
00:38:35
Speaker
We have a similar concept in games and when I use, when people join our community is, you know, you should feel free to change the rules of the game, but you should, we call it raw first, which stands for rules as written first. Because if you start changing things before you understand them, you might break the game, right? Right. And a similar concept that shares a lot of the same principles, I think. So I think that's great. That's a great question and a great answer. And now you've been asked it. So there you go. Thank you. Do you have any questions for me?
00:39:07
Speaker
What is your favorite RPG? My favorite RPG is Pendragon. Pendragon? I'm pretty sure listeners are tired of hearing about it, but it is Pendragon. It will be Pendragon for a considerable while, folks. Okay. That answer will not change. It has not changed in 10 years. Okay, good to know. I consider Pendragon the most perfect RPG ever made. Interesting. Okay. That's a whole other discussion. I can wax lyrical about that.
00:39:35
Speaker
Uh, yeah. So, uh, Talissa, if folks want to find you or support you online or, uh, you know, interact with you, what's the best way in place for them to do so? Well, I have a website, talissascience.com and you can find me social media anywhere at Talissa Talissa. Um, and I recently have a new Facebook and Instagram page, um, for my poetry, which is Talissa Ray poetry.
00:40:05
Speaker
Okay. And that's about it. Great. No, it was great. We'll include links in the show notes, everyone. So just look for them there. Tell us, thanks for coming on. It's been great to have you. I really appreciate it. Thank you. It's been great to be here. Good. All right, folks, I am Alan Barr and this is Radio Free RPG.