Today we’d like to introduce you to Kc Cresc
Hi Kc, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started writing short stories & poems as far back as I can remember! I really fell into writing episodic formatted storytelling in college getting my major in [art], and in my spare time writing on Episode Interactive. I have a great love of reading passed down from mother to mother and just wanted to write dramas, comedies, and epics that they themselves could get lost into.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s has been a smooth road simply because I haven’t pushed much into pursuing writing full time. However, in the creative career I do work in, I see how writing and [my day job] have parallel struggles. I say my writing journey has a pretty smooth road without many obstacles because I always write for myself and maybe for my friends second. It’s great having my work featured in different magazines and online publications! (Because it’s one thing when your mom says “yes honey, you’re great!” and when a stranger is in awe with your work.) But I always write for myself and to get the stories in my head onto paper. Because capitalism hasn’t influenced and redirected my writing journey as heavily, I write when I can. My deadlines are my own. Sometimes consistency can become a problem, but mainly because life happens. And I try to have self compassion when that happens because I won’t let so much anger and frustration tear apart my appreciation for writing because writing is what keeps me tethered here.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a storyteller.
I’ve written narrative scripts and as well as gaming script formats (Episode), I’ve also written short stories and essays. I always find myself going back to paper and pen when my voice fails me. But if anyone were to ask me, “No, but like, what do you do?” I always just say “Poet.” Because I’ve always written poetry the most and my poetry bleeds into my other creative writing.
I’m hoping to remain in episodic storytelling format; I am curious about Amazon Vella. As a Kindle lover, I’m interested about writing chapters at a time without animating what has to happen or creating branching story plot threads based on player choices. I’m most known (I say this humbly) for my scripts on Episode; “Dating All Of Me” and “Rebounding Champion”. Both genres dabbling in romance and comedy. “Dating All Of Me” was about [the player] learning they are someone with dissociative identity disorder and they have to date with not just them [the player], but also the other personalities that reside in their mind. It touched base on DID and other mental illnesses while also being thrown into comedic romantic entangles. Rebounding Champion highlighted over the five stages of grief that Cayden (who you play as) goes through after his breakup with his ex girlfriend, while also being slowly swept up into a new love interest who is far from graceful. It touched topics like needing your home community to help you remain grounded and bring you back home, in a metaphorical sense.
I had consistent readers with Dating All Of Me and Rebounding Champion. During DAOM, I finished my major, graduated college, took the longest nap ever, and just never really touched the story again. (To my readers who still send me fanmail in the year of 2024, thank you. I adore you. You’re the reason I cleaned up my act and started writing again.) Rebounding Champion was the next popular title, but it ended quickly because I got a little tired of animating and writing. But at least that story was able to come to conclusion. I’m most proud of this time period because even then, I still wrote for myself and wrote stories about what society deems as “the undesirables” but showed how their lives are worth diving into. The reason I’m proud of that is because it does still carry over to the writing I do now.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I worry a lot about my industry because the traditional ways of getting into the industry and its pipeline are crumbling in a sense. Networks and gaming studios are having a hard time allowing for new stories to be told, having a hard time for letting new talent enter the industry. I worry in the next few years we are getting a talent “gap”. Because we weren’t willing to take risks because we are scared of change and different. I see that “gap” trying to be filled in with artificially written [projects] and thankfully I don’t see it lasting very long.
Once my industry and adjacent industries realize that storytelling is and always will be solely human nature, we will stop trying to find a quick fix towards it. Then start allowing new stories to be told.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.poetcrescendo.com
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/poetcresc
- Other: https://poetcresc.tumblr.com
Image Credits
Illustration Icon by: Caitlin Rogers (www.pensurfing.com)
Website Design & Art Direction by: Caitlin Rogers (www.pensurfing.com)
Haiku Poem Written by: KC Cresc (www.poetcrescendo.com)
Poems Graphic Designed by: Caitlin Rogers (www.pensurfing.com)
Photo of Zines by: KC Cresc (www.poetcrescendo.com)
