You know that voice in your head after your work gets cut?
"Maybe I'm just not good enough at this."
"Maybe I don't understand game writing the way I thought I did."
"Maybe I should have been a novelist/gardener/anything else."
That voice is lying to you.
I know this because I've heard it in my own head dozens of times. And I've now worked with hundreds of game writers who tell me the same thing: when their work gets cut or changed beyond recognition, their first instinct is to assume they failed somehow.
But I've been a game writer for 15+ years, and I've worked with hundreds of game writers in The Narrative Department, so I'm here to tell you: the quality of your writing is almost never the reason it got cut.
The Real Reason Your Work Gets Cut
Think about the last time a designer cut one of your scenes or asked you to make major changes.
Did they say "this is badly written"? Probably not.
Did they say "this doesn't work for the player experience"? Maybe.
More likely, they said something vague like "pacing feels off" or "playtesters said it dragged" or just "we need to cut this."
And when you tried to defend it—to explain the character arc, the emotional payoff, why this moment matters to the story—you probably felt like you were speaking into a void. They weren't hearing you.
Here's why: they literally couldn't see how your scene fit into their world.
Designers aren't thinking about emotional beats and character arcs when they evaluate your work. They're thinking about:
- How long will this take the player?
- What is the player doing during this?
- Does this interrupt the flow we just spent weeks balancing?
- How does this affect the difficulty curve?
- Can we afford the scope?
When you pitch your idea as "this is an important emotional moment" or "this character needs this beat," all they hear is: "I need you to make room for something that might break your carefully balanced systems, and I can't tell you how it fits."
That's not a quality judgment. That's a communication breakdown.
You're Speaking Different Languages
Designers aren't wrong to think this way.
They're juggling combat duration, puzzle difficulty, traversal mechanics, progression systems, tutorial flow, player agency—your dialogue is one piece in a massive, interconnected system. When something doesn't clearly fit, when it feels risky or unclear, the safest move under deadline pressure is always to cut it.
Not because your writing is bad. Because they can't quickly see how it works within their constraints.
And you? You're approaching from a completely different angle. You see story, character, emotional journey. You're focused on the player experience too, but you're thinking about it through narrative, not systems.
Neither perspective is wrong. But without a way to translate between them—to speak each other's language—your best ideas are going to keep dying in your documents. DOOOOOM
What This Actually Looks Like
Let me give you a concrete example.
You pitch a scene: "After the boss fight, I want a quiet moment where the two characters reflect on what just happened. It's important for their relationship arc."
The designer hears: "After the boss fight [high-energy gameplay], insert a break [pacing risk] where nothing happens [no player agency] to service a relationship arc [abstract narrative goal I can't measure]."
You think you're pitching a beautiful character moment. They're hearing a request to interrupt their carefully designed flow for something they can't evaluate against their player experience goals.
No wonder it gets cut.
But What If You Said This Instead:
"After the boss fight, while the player is looting and catching their breath, what if the two characters had a brief exchange that sets up the next objective? It gives the player context during a natural downtime moment, and we can keep it under 30 seconds."
Same scene. Different framing.
Now the designer hears: "During existing downtime [fits our pacing], brief exchange [manageable scope] that sets up next objective [supports progression system], under 30 seconds [concrete constraint I can evaluate]."
Suddenly, your scene isn't a risk. It's a solution that fits their world. VICTORY
This Is Fixable
I spent years thinking I just needed to write better material. "Once they see how great the script is, they won't dream of changing it!"
But even Shakespeare himself can't overcome a language barrier.
The real problem was never my writing. It was that I didn't know how to frame my ideas in a way designers could hear. I didn't understand their constraints, their vocabulary, or how they evaluated player experience.
And here's the truth that's both hard and hopeful: you're probably a better writer than you need to be right now. What you need isn't more craft. It's translation skills.
- You need to learn how to:
- Lead with mechanics, not emotions
- Acknowledge constraints before pitching
- Frame narrative in terms of player action and system fit
- Show how your story ideas support design, not compete with it
The Good News
This isn't about becoming a designer. You don't need to abandon your love of character and story. You just need to learn enough of their language to build a bridge.
I didn't figure this out on my own. I had to find someone who understood both worlds—someone who could show me what designers were actually thinking when I pitched my ideas, and what signals would help them say yes instead of no.
That someone was Will Shen (Lead Designer at Unknown Worlds Entertainment, former Design Director at Bethesda Game Studios). Will is one of those rare people who can translate design thinking into language writers can actually use.
And that's exactly what we're going to do this Saturday.
Join Me for a Free Workshop
I'm hosting a 90-minute workshop on January 24th: How to Pitch Story Ideas So Designers Actually Listen.
Will is joining us (via recording) to share how designers actually think about story pitches. And I'm going to teach you a framework you can use immediately—next pitch, next meeting, next time you need to advocate for your work.
You'll learn:
- How to lead with mechanics instead of emotions
- How to acknowledge constraints in a way that signals collaboration
- A specific pitch structure that gets designers to lean in: [Player action] + [Narrative payoff] + [Why it fits existing systems]
The scene you're proud of? The character moment that got cut? They're probably great.
But if you can't help your designer see how they fit—how they support the design instead of competing with it—it won't matter how good they are.
Your writing isn't the problem. The language gap is.
And that? That's fixable.
Susan O'Connor is an award-winning game writer with credits on BioShock, Far Cry, and Tomb Raider. Her projects have sold over 30 million copies and generated more than $500 million in sales. She founded The Narrative Department to help writers learn the ins and outs of writing for games - skills that everyone assumes you somehow already know.