Clearing out those writerly sinuses

[jongibbs]

Lately, I haven’t been able to get excited about doing revision work on Waking up Jack Thunder or the rewrite of A Union of Snakes.

This surprised me, because I rarely find myself uninspired.

I decided the best thing I could do to unblock my writerly sinuses was to write something completely new, and that’s when I realized I haven’t started any new

Comments

[nathreee]

Roleplay does it for me. First time I tried to make a story into a novel and I got stuck, I released a bad of five unsuspecting players into the premise of my story, to see what they would do and what they thought about it. It really opened my eyes.

Second time was when I got really stuck on a story with a lot of secrets and intrige. I got three players together and I gave them only the information their characters would know, just to see what they would or wouldn't say to each other. A great learning experience for me.

Third time was much the same, only even more helpful. I got stuck on the ending of my novel, knowing exactly what my characters would do, but not exactly how they would react at the reactions of others. So I had four people play it out for me. I loved every second of it. But I had really good players.
http://nathreee.livejournal.com/270034.html
http://nathreee.livejournal.com/270102.html

[jongibbs]

Interesting. Were any of these folks writers too?

[nathreee]

nope, they were just people who like to roleplay a lot. Two of them dabble a bit with writing, but in this case I was just happy they were willing to play those characters with conviction.

[jongibbs]

That sounds like a great idea.

[tracy_d74]

that's a cool idea . . . role playing.

[out_totheblack]

LOL, awesome. I have done much the same thing.

[out_totheblack]

In fact, I HAD to run a game to make sure everything worked. My writing crutch comes with a 6 sided.

[jongibbs]

What sort of game was it?

[out_totheblack]

It was a PbEM(Play by Email) game using a combination of BESM and Amber rules. I created the character races and magic system using BESM and used Amber to determine outcomes in the game and character advances. Amber is a diceless system. Outcomes and advances are heavily dependent on write-ups and explanations.

I talk about it a little here http://out-totheblack.livejournal.com/152715.html

[jongibbs]

It looks very complicated, though I imagine it's straightforward for those who are used to it.