Script Doctoring - Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing - page 162

to report to, one person to give tasks, one person to funnel requests or concerns
through. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting hit from all sides with requests,
complaints, feedback, and ideas, none of which will help you do what you're actually
there to do.
Set up a chain of communication. This goes hand in hand with finding a point of
contact. You need to establish how your docs are getting out and whom they're going
to, or else your work may just fly off into the ether. You also need to know who has
approvals on your work, whom you should be talking to about particular characters
or features or levels, and generally establish whom you'll need to talk with and why.
If there's a clear chain of communication in place, then the set-up cuts down on
the number of potential surprises heading your way. It also lets you prioritize your
email and other messages; the guy who sounds utterly urgent and desperate may not
be in a position to actually ask you to do anything.
Set up a chain of command. It can't be said often enough: game writing doesn't
happen in a vacuum. Multiple people are going to be clamoring for writing deliver-
ables, or giving them out, or commenting on them, and that's just during the normal
chaos of game development. Add in the caffeinating factor of script doctoring, and
you have the potential for a snarl that looks like a wad of taffy in an industrial loom.
It is vital, then, to establish very clearly whom you report to and who gets to tell
you what to do. It's equally important to lay out who needs to see your work and who
doesn't. This isn't an attempt to hide your writing from the team, but if every single
team member has final cut on the script, then the script's never getting done. Instead,
it's best to solidify a relationship with a single point person. All deliverables go out
through them; all requests come in the same way. And together with them, you can
figure out who needs to see each deliverable so that proper workflow is maintained.
Ultimately, this comes down to two clear lists: who gets to make assignments,
and who gets signoff. A subset of signoff is who gets the right to edit, but once
your work is approved, the editing process should be over anyway. Keeping both
lists short, clear, and public saves you from distraction and saves the project from the
horrors of having a writer being pulled in multiple, possibly contradictory, directions.
Prioritization
Knowing what to do first is almost as important as knowing what to do, period.
Sadly, script doctoring is generally done under serious time pressure, and that means
you can't agonize over and polish each line. It also means that, more than ever, some
stuff is more important than others. Going the extra mile to make the bark pools
25 lines deep instead of 15 is admirable, but if that means you don't get to two
characters' main dialog before recording starts, you've made a bad time-management
decision somewhere.
Instead, work out with your point of contact what your schedule should be.
What gets done first, what gets cut first, and who needs what when—these are the
things that you need to know.