From Tabletop to Paperback – Gamers Who Want To Be Writers
I've written a few posts on the subject of how being a gamer and gamemaster (that is, a lover of tabletop roleplaying games) has influenced my writing. In almost every single case, it's been a good influence, although I've often had to refocus the usual writing advice lens to make it so. The skills I use as a player and a gamemaster are, at times, so similar to the skills I employ as a writer that the places where they don't overlap can actually make the places where they do all the more confusing. Here's the beginning of a series of essays where I try to make the most sense out of this.
What is a Roleplaying Game?
A pen and paper role-playing game is a form of interactive story telling equipped with a rules system to resolve conflict. A role playing game is played by a group of players and a Game Master (GM). If you are a player, you create and control a character called a player character (PCs). If you are a Game Master, you create and control the plot and setting. The plot is the scenario that the GM presents to the players and...
Did you make it that far? I hope so, because I'm just kidding about that. If you're reading this, the odds are you already know what a roleplaying game is because you've already spent hundreds if not thousands of hours playing them. I just always hated the "What is an RPG?" section of every single rulebook I ever bought and wanted to have a little fun with you. Now for the real stuff.
The Pep Talk
If you're reading this, the odds are very good that you're part of a regular gaming group. This probably means that you meet weekly or bi-weekly to spend 3-6 hours living in a fantasy world you've co-created with a group of friends.
If this is the case, and you're used to regularly playing (that is, running your own, single player character) in a roleplaying game, and take the hobby somewhat seriously, then I have good news for you. The same amount of work, focused in a different direction, is all you need to write a novel.
If you're used to running a regular roleplaying game (that is, acting as the gamemaster for your particular group) and you take that role somewhat seriously, then I have great news for you. Writing a novel is likely less work than you're doing to get your regular game together.
But here's the first place that writing and gaming diverge. A lot of players and GMs, me included, don't prep all week between game sessions. If I'm diligent, I might do my prep a day or two in advance so it has time to settle in my head, I can look for weak spots, and generally tweak it so it has a more finished feel. But a lot of gamers don't think about the game until the afternoon before. Sadly, that's not really going to cut it as a novelist.
Every. Damn. Day.
You have to write every day. Yes, every single day.
I can already hear the whines. "Every day? Who has the time?" You do...if you're going to be a writer.
Okay, that said, here's confession time. I don't write every day. I write damn near every day, and the days I don't write usually have a pretty spectacular reason why I didn't. The beauty is, now that it's a habit, it doesn't even phase me to sit down and write something on a daily basis.
Let me head off the next whine before it even gets started. "But you're a professional writer, of course you have time to write every day."
Listen, I wasn't born a professional writer. Heck, I wasn't even born a very good one. The only reason I started out as even halfway decent is because I am an avid and voracious reader. (By the way, you also have to read a lot to be a good writer. If you aren't putting good stuff in, then good stuff isn't going to come out. Good writers are almost always good readers. More on that later.) I've had a few jobs where I got to write professionally. I've had a lot more jobs where I didn't. But when I decided to be serious about my writing, I had to set aside time every single day and write.
It's like anything else. If you practice that often, you cannot help but get better.
One more whine I expect to hear. "But if I have to do it everyday, then it isn't fun anymore. It'll be like my job."
You're damn right it will be. I once read that being a writer is like giving yourself homework every night for the rest of your life. It is exactly like that. And if you get published, it's like having homework that anywhere from dozens to hundreds of thousands of perfect strangers get to grade.
But don't worry! Not only will you get better, but if you get into the habit of writing every day, you also cannot help but finish writing the novel. And make no mistake, the first sign of a serious writer is finishing things.
Now, none of that means that this hypothetical, finished novel will be particularly readable. But that's where the good news for you as a writer comes in. Nobody, and I don't care if we're talking Stephen King, William Shakespeare, or the creepy guy down the block writing anti-government manifestos in his basement, nobody writes a perfect first draft. So don't worry about whether it's any good or not. Don't worry about that gaping plot hole in Act Two. Don't worry that the dialogue isn't snappy enough. You'll rewrite it and it'll get better.
The second sign of a serious writer is rewriting. Fixing troubled manuscripts is what we do.
Little Pebbles Start The Avalanche
Okay, back to writing every day. If you write a frankly tiny number of words, say two hundred a day, then you've got a novel-length manuscript in a year. If you write around 1,600 words a day, you've got a novel-length manuscript in a month. I know this because I've done it several times, usually in November during National Novel Writing Month.
As an aside, I can't recommend NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org) enough. Knowing that a host of other people, maybe even your friends and family, are joining you in the same massive, possibly quixotic endeavor has huge psychological value. If you don't think so, ask marathon runners. All those other people can't finish the race for them, but it sure helps knowing they're all there.
Okay, so that's all the tough stuff. You have to write every day, first drafts always suck, you have to finish things. But there was some good news in there also, like how few daily words it takes to make that novel happen. But wait, there's more!
The Best News I Have For Gamers Who Want To Write Fiction
If you've been gaming for a while, especially if you're a regular gamemaster, you're already good at most of the things fiction writers need to be good at.
Stop and think about that. You already have the skills necessary to write good fiction. I know this because I consistently shocked my writing coach, bestselling fantasy author Aaron Pogue (who also maintains a blog dedicated to helping new writers) with my grasp of Character, Plot, and Setting. When he started to ask how I understood these things when I obviously lacked formal training, my repeated answer mystified him.
"Oh that?" I'd say. "I do that at the table every week. Have dice, will travel, you know?"
You guys are the same way and I'm going to prove it with my next few posts on Character, Plot, and Setting. In fact, the odds are good that you're amazing at one or two of them. Rare gems might be especially talented at all three, but one or two strong suits is more likely.
If you need a boost, treat this like a Choose Your Own Adventure and skip to the one you're best at. When you've read that and see how instinctively you manage that aspect of fiction writing, then hopefully you'll be convinced that you've got a leg up on the others as well, even if they aren't your main strength.
Just because it's one of my favorites, I'm going to start with Character on Thursday. See you then!
