Prototyping has been showing up a lot in my reading lately. First, it formed the basis of a game design book I read. Then, right as I started wondering what prototyping looks like for writers, one of the blogs I follow linked to an article on prototyping. (I really should have saved it.) My first reaction to running into prototyping repeatedly was t0 tweet: I need to develop a modeling/prototype habit.
Then I opened my design notebook, which is full of notes on all sorts of random things, including character and setting notes for various projects, and I realized that I do prototype, at least as a writer. I lay out these people and places and then experiment with their development until I find something that works or that inspires me to build a story. When I was trying to build my first branched story, I had a map for all of the scenes and puzzles I wanted to create. Every level and its connections to other parts of the story were carefully laid out and tested and adjusted as I went. I still have that map somewhere. If I ever want to pick up that project again, I have that early work to review and build from.
When I thought more about it, I realized that I’ve always prototyped in some form or another. When I was a child, I used to play with wooden blocks and Lego. I’d rebuild the same concept on a near-daily basis, making adjustments each day to the new version in an attempt to reach my ultimate vision. Sometimes, I’d succeed in finding the actual construction I was looking for. On rare occasions, I’d find a much better way to build my design. There were even days when I had to accept my vision was impossible and give up. (That happened a lot more frequently with the wooden blocks, mainly because there just weren’t enough to accommodate some of my grander plans.)
Even when I was pinning plastic necklaces to nightgowns to adorn them for a game as a child, I was constantly experimenting with attachment methods and ways to arrange one piece onto another. When I found a style I liked, it tended to show up in a number of my creations until I discovered yet another way to do it better.
I’ve been prototyping all along. But instead of creating physical models of my prototype (which doesn’t suit my current work), I’m doing it through sketches.
Prototyping is really experimenting. You build something the way you think it should go in your mind, and then try it out. As the problems you didn’t think of show up, you re-build and re-build until the problems become so tiny that you just don’t care anymore. Without thinking about it, a lot of us did it in our play as children, and those of us who haven’t lost our love of tinkering still do it without a whole lot of thought as adults. We often get so focused on looking for the “right” solution that we forget to have fun with it, explore, and find the right solution.
