The Generation Loss writing process (and where we are with Oasis)

Hello! Ran here. Thought that I would give you all a bit of a behind the scenes look at how we are going about writing and producing the next parts of generation loss! As we havent had a lot of behind the scenes work to show as if we did well, you would know what happens in the next part! We also have an update on where we are currently at with Oasis!

Before I get into it however I wanted to give a special thank you founder’s beloved for the continued support!  It means a lot now more than ever!

Every project we have started mainly starts with me having a format I want to do! For Generation 1 it was a live stream, for The Founder’s Game it was a choose your own adventure game, and for Oasis we wanted to go back and experiment with an edited series format!

We then decide what kind of story would fit best within the format. I usually want the story we tell to be able to take advantage of whatever format it is in! So for example with the founder’s game we were able to use the fact it was on a website to have weekly votes that changed how the story would be told.

The process of coming up with an idea is usually me going into my mind and figuring out what idea I have would be best for the format! Either that or I have a setting or an event that I REALLY want to write around and i try developing a story for it!

So for context, the beginning of the founders game was me and Kertoir going back and forth coming up with different routes that could be taken and different stories we could feasibly do with the budget and format that we have. We found that limiting factors are really important when it comes to horror as sometimes figuring out how to show something with more limited resources ends up better than what we could have come up with on a bigger budget!

The way I am writing oasis however is a lot different than the other two projects. Oasis is by far the most story rich one I have fleshed out yet, and with that we have ran into a LOT of challenges. It all started out with me having an idea of the plot and moreso what I wanted to do. A few sentence “elevator pitch” if you will.

Now even though each Generation is a separate story, they do have some strings and subjects that connect nonetheless. Oasis is the first time we will be having EVERY character fully fleshed out with a LOT more characters than any other project we have done. While some projects have had characters that simply serve a purpose, we really wanted to try and hone in on making this more of an emotional piece than anything, so making fully fleshed out characters that people care about became the number one priority. We want to make sure that everything feels planned from the beginning, no room for improv. That includes the story as well!

With oasis we will be very purposeful with a lot but not to the point where it wont be understandable to a general audience. We want to balance the mystery of “analog horror” that people love with an actual story that can bring in people who maybe dont have the time to try to figure out what a random string of letters means. Balancing that is another thing we are keeping in mind during the writing process.

So here’s a more kind of “simplified” way the writing process looks especially for this project.

1. Initial Idea
(Simple enough, what idea are we working with?)

2. Expand upon the idea
(Start to think of characters, what the beginning would look like, what scenes you would want to include and how to get there feasibly. Even if a scene is incredibly cool if there’s no way to get there sadly it can’t be included)

3. The plot point phase.
(Here is where we write out a LOT of plot points beginning to end. They usually look like 2-4 sentences explaining what happens and why if it is needed.)

4. Plot point expansion
(Here is where we write out the WHOLE explanation of what happens and why. Including character motivation, how it ties in, and how it leads into the next plotpoint.)

5. Scene outline
(Now we go to write each scene and what happens within it. Including mainly what will be shown to the audience.)

6. Final script
(Now it is time for the final script! Mainly including each line of dialog fully written out as well as including descriptions of EVERY shot and the emotion behind each line.)

7. Storyboard
(On the visual side we would also write out a storyboard in order to see the flow of the story and check on any last minute issues. As well as experiment with different kinds of visual ideas for each scene if creativity strikes!)

I would say as of right now with oasis we are in the middle of part 5! This is the exciting part because it means we also get to finalize what is 100 percent in the story and thus create teaser ideas. Overall oasis has been a VERY fun story to write, and I am very excited for you all to see this wonderful story we have been crafting! Thank you again founder’s beloved for the continued support, and we are excited to give you more!