Writing The Brilliance of Mass Effect 2

Happy Holidays! I apologize for how behind I've been on posts. But now that I'm over my cold, and Christmas is over, I can finally tell all about the writing of The Mass Effect 2 video...

After finishing the Mass Effect 1 video in August 2021, a choice was presented to me. Do I go right into writing the video for Mass Effect 2, or do a take a small break with another video first? While it might be harder to maintain consistency and momentum between the Mass Effect videos by taking a break, it would give my brain a much-needed reprieve from the Mass Effect universe so that the ideas and themes I'd analyze next would be even fresher for me. As you can see today, I opted to take a break by working on The Bad Batch video first, and I don't regret it. However, that's not to dismiss the disastrous bumps and hurdles I'd encounter over the 10-week span it would take me to write the Mass Effect 2 video. 

While work on the Bad Batch video did take priority, the first thing I did after finishing The Legend of Mass Effect was start my Paragon playthrough of ME2, taking notes on themes, characters, and observations that would be instrumental in the outlining I would do for the video in November. 

Similar to the process I described last week in the Writing of The Legend of Mass Effect, outlining the ME2 video began with an important question: what story am I telling? Between Shepard's death and resurrection, the Normandy SR-2, the new status quo for former characters, the overarching tonal shift of the game, and the internal restructuring of Hudson's development team, one motif resounded more loudly than all others: reinvention. What are the pros and cons of reinvention? Why and when does it occur, and what are its' drawbacks? Reinvention would lead the conversation in a thematically-richer Mass Effect analysis, one that would challenge the idealism and determinism posited by the first video's discussion.

This chart was my first attempt to channel my thoughts on the game into a coherent exploration of themes; themes presented in the ME1 video and relevant to our ongoing discussion of the Trilogy, themes that would be added to that discussion through this video, and themes that were exclusive to the storytelling of Mass Effect 2. Of the latter, I believed Mass Effect 2 was largely challenging the reasons ME1 presented for both interspecies unification and human excellence, dwelling its storytelling on the cruelty of organics and the many barriers that divide us. Really, it's all outlined in this paragraph in the introduction--

Aside from the theme chart, the only other 'outlines' I made for myself early-on were these: one classifying the dirty dozen companions by a recurring motif, and the other 'listing' the aspects of the game I'd discuss in each chapter--

At this point, it's important to note that just before Thanksgiving that November, I would not only be moving back to my home state of PA from a temporary stay in another state, but moving into an apartment with close friends that was months in planning. Ironically, I believed-- much like Shepard and Anderson did in Mass Effect 1-- that determination would be enough to get me through the Mass Effect 2 script. I could finish a rough draft in 3 weeks or less, make the move, enjoy the holiday, make a final draft before December, then have the video edited and published before year's end. I was hopelessly mistaken. 

While I was on a roll during the first week of writing, where I wrote the Intro, Chapter 6, and 7 in their entirety (all of which underwent minimal changes on subsequent drafts), one sly paragraph at the end of Ch. 7 would fuck me up for weeks to come...

This was the paragraph I originally wrote to end the 'Stranger in a Strange Land' chapter of the Mass Effect 2 analysis, coming right after the confrontation with the Virmire Survivor on Horizon. 

In the final video, this is how that chapter ends...

It goes without saying that every writer wants to like their writing as they're putting it on the page. They want it to sound like the best version of something they'd say or like to convey, and captivate the audience or reader all the same with it. Because it's rarely easy to do that, the words that do produce that pride and attraction for the writer feel indispensable. To me, the paragraph that originally ended Ch. 7 felt that way; a perfect and exciting transition from the harrowing dive into the ugly side of the Milky Way to Shepard's interruption-laden rebound. I liked it so much that I let it distort the structure of Ch. 8 irrespective of its tone and content, effectively blocking me from moving forward in the script for a very long time.

As you can glean from the original paragraph, my initiative was to explore the importance of the interrupt mechanic introduced in ME2-- a tool given to the player to reclaim some of the 'agency' robbed from them by Cerberus. It is a rebellious act, and is both a countermeasure to the toll of reinvention, and is only accessible because of our reinvention. In short, it's a complicated, but important element of ME2, and fits best in the discussion after completely exploring the depletive nature of reinvention.

Reinvention -> Reinvigoration -> Interruption -> Intervention -> Redemption

Of course, I'd eventually discover discussing interrupt at the start of Ch. 8 was not the right place for it. But the ensuing problem came with how do we further explore the effects of reinvention for BioWare and the second-wave of companions before introducing the solution of the interrupt mechanic? Do we talk about Tali, Thane, Samara, BioWare, then the interrupt mechanic? Or; BioWare, Tali, Samara, Thane, then Interrupt? If your goal is to ensure each one of your ideas thematically and emotionally leads into the next idea, attributing order to a discussion on a game with such a chaotic middle structure becomes immensely difficult.

Ultimately, it took weeks of experimentation and kicking myself. Finding the motivation where I'd be willing to try and fail different approaches to Ch. 8 until it worked. For failure can be just as pivotal to the writing process as it can in any other realm of creativity. There's no shame in it; you're not a bad writer for not knowing how to write about something on the first, second, or even third attempt. That was the lesson I had to swallow, else I wouldn't have finished my little video about Mass Effect 2. 

Once I finally found a flow to the interrupt mechanic in Ch. 8, my troubles for the rest of writing were few. I understood there were would be another tonal shift leading toward the end of Ch. 9, and used a paragraph about the companions' loyalty missions to move the audience through that shift; starting with the simplest, but nonetheless meaningful companion missions to the more emotionally profound missions of characters reconnecting with loved ones or learning a valuable lesson of personal identity.

And by Ch. 10, I was celebrating every word that stayed on the page. After several weeks of wrestling with my writer's pride and learning difficult lessons, I was finally writing about The Suicide Mission: the best part of the entire Mass Effect series. I would end up writing almost doubly more about the mission up to the final draft, elaborating more on the Illusive Man's interest in the Human Reaper and the overall structure of the mission. It was also crucial that, in this section of the discussion, we finally achieved the hard-earned epiphany about what makes humanity standout in Mass Effect 2: their ability to inspire. To give this revelation as much weight as possible, I didn't want to denote it in the discussion until after we understood the power of trust and the type of interruption/intervention necessary to achieve it. 

Finally, there was this brief line at the end of Ch. 10, exclaiming the thrilling achievement of The Suicide Mission in the very words I would use to express how it felt to have reached the end of my script. But, fittingly, I decided to cut it from the video as, sometimes, words don't do the justice that visuals can. The last minutes of the Suicide Mission were enough to express that feeling, and so I let that do the talking in the final video. Always remember fellow video essayists: the visuals, sound, and music in your video are just as instrumental in conveying your message as the writing is. At least, that's what I subscribe to!

A list of notes with personal feedback on what I wanted to change/add in the second draft of the script. I usually do one of these after every first draft completion.

So, there you have it folks. I learned a lot from making mistakes on this script, and developed some much-needed humility for my aspirations as a creator. My best hope with this post, if not to have illuminated others on how mistakes can be useful, is to encourage reflection on how one's writing process can be better. Can we take more time with an outline, be more willing to experiment, and refuse pride from putting its hands on the wheel? The answer could only lie in what we write next...

Thank you all for reading, and stay tuned for a behind the scenes commentary on the Mass Effect 2 video, as well as some much-belated posts on the Mass Effect 3 video.