Buckling down to work

[Captain NeMo]

I'm wondering how other (aspiring) DM's keep themselves disciplined enough to write up information on their settings, campaigns, NPC's etc. as I seem to be having some trouble. I think I'm an okay writer, but I dunno whether it is lack of motivation (having no RL gaming group) or whether I'm just lazy. What sort of things do other people do to try and make themselves work?

 

[Crothian]

Just take a day when you aren't doing anything else and just start writing. If you are having trouble in one area, switch to another.

 

[JoeGKushner]

What do you mean no RL gaming group?

If you're not playing, you're not GMing. You may be doing some future prep work, but at this stage, unless you're playing or plan on doing so with that material, it's mental masterbation.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

The best way to defeat writer's block is to write stuff. Just work through it.

Also, you could strip out the campaign setting specific information and submit your ideas to Dragon or Dungeon. May as well try to get paid for your efforts.

 

[DanMcS]

I'm wondering how other (aspiring) DM's keep themselves disciplined enough to write up information on their settings, campaigns, NPC's etc. as I seem to be having some trouble. I think I'm an okay writer, but I dunno whether it is lack of motivation (having no RL gaming group) or whether I'm just lazy. What sort of things do other people do to try and make themselves work?

The advice authors give to aspiring authors is to treat writing like a job. Set up a solid block of time, every day, which is your work time. No distractions, turn off the email and the web forums, mute your phone ringer. Even if what you write is crap, you're writing. That's for a writing professional; they recommend an eight hour writing work day.

I'm working on a game book right now, and I've set aside a couple of hours every evening to work on it, every weeknight. I kill all my browser windows except the SRD and whatever reference works I'm using (thesaurus.reference.com, dictionary.reference.com are great, wikipedia for color and google for searching). That's for a semi-professional kind of product, I'm not a full-time author by any means.

But the same kind of discipline can work for something you are doing for fun. Allocate a block of time with no distractions, and just write.

 

[Insight]

It's not so much a question of ability, but setting goals and priorities. No matter how talented you are, if you can't get yourself working on things, you will never see the fruits of your ideas.

Try setting goals/deadlines for yourself. For example, "Today, I'm going to finish the writeups on Kingdoms X, Y, and Z." Or even on a weekly basis. I find that monthly goals/deadlines are too far ahead to manage, but daily and weekly ones seem to work well.

Another trick you could use is to lay out your documents ahead of time, creating headers and sections for topics you want to cover. That way, you have the skeleton of the document you want to eventually finish, and each time you look at it, you'll have an idea of what you've done so far, and what's left to do.

Not having a group is a problem though. What's your motivation to create this setting? Are you planning to have a group later, or run a game online?

 

[Captain NeMo]

Well, there is the fanciful idea I'll find a RL group at some point...or even get my current friends interested (not likely) but I'm mainly thinking towards running an online game. I think part of my problem is that I cannot concentrate on one idea at a time, and tend to go from one thing to another frequently without actually laying anything down.

 

[MerakSpielman]

The advice authors give to aspiring authors is to treat writing like a job. Set up a solid block of time, every day, which is your work time. No distractions, turn off the email and the web forums, mute your phone ringer. Even if what you write is crap, you're writing. That's for a writing professional; they recommend an eight hour writing work day.

I'm working on a game book right now, and I've set aside a couple of hours every evening to work on it, every weeknight. I kill all my browser windows except the SRD and whatever reference works I'm using (thesaurus.reference.com, dictionary.reference.com are great, wikipedia for color and google for searching). That's for a semi-professional kind of product, I'm not a full-time author by any means.

But the same kind of discipline can work for something you are doing for fun. Allocate a block of time with no distractions, and just write.

It's tougher for those of us with small kids. You should hear the number of differnet people with different things they think I should be able to do... they all claim "surely you can find half an hour that your wife will watch the kids and you can lock yourself in a room and do this..." My Tai Ch'i practice, my homework, my personal writing, my D&D work, my Warcraft3 friends online.... After a while there's no way to make solid, distinct blocks of "alone time" to handle the numerous demands. But it's still possible to get things done - you just have to grab the time whenever you can. A few minutes here and there, a bunch of ad-libbing during the game... it all comes together.

 

[IronWolf]

If you are having difficulty staying motivated try breaking things into smaller chunks. Thinking to yourself that you need to figure out an entire village can be difficult and you end up putting it off. Instead break the village up into smaller chunks. Where is it maybe? Small? Big? Defending against natural threats? Who is the village leader? Is there a village council?

Take those smaller chunks and start with one of them. Next thing you know it leads you to another piece and so on and so on. This often leads to me getting the whole thing done even when I sat down to work on a small piece. Even if I don't at least it got me thinking and I accomplished one small piece.

Sometimes you are just having an off night. Declare it an off night, and do something else. Don't feel guilty for not working on the above village in my example. Just enjoy your time and come back refreshed tomorrow.

The combination of those two things help keep me fresh and getting bits and pieces of what I need done.

 

[Mercule]

It's tougher for those of us with small kids.

Oy, you speak truth. Last night, I finally got my first "dedicated evening" to work on my game since the baby was born. Of course, it was also one of the few times my wife and I were sitting in planned silence. That means we could hear each other talk without shouting over a four-year-old and a two-year-old. I got about a page of hand-written notes done -- no stats, just fluff. *sigh*