D20 Writers: How do you stay inspired?

[2WS-Steve]

And now for my politically incorrect technique...

I go outside and smoke a cigarette; sometimes I'll come up with as many as three ideas that way.

The Surgeon General has determined that this solution to writer's block causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy.

 

[d20Dwarf]

And now for my politically incorrect technique...

I go outside and smoke a cigarette; sometimes I'll come up with as many as three ideas that way.

The Surgeon General has determined that this solution to writer's block causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy.

When I worked at FFG, I would go out with Greg and Wood for regular smoke breaks, even though I didn't smoke. It certainly did help refresh the mind to get outside, and we usually bandied about ideas about things that just don't fit into the normal workday, even when work-related.

((And, uhhh, don't smoke kids, you'll end up like Steve!!))

 

[Erik Mona]

Sometimes you've just got to step away. Don't step away too long, though, or it'll be hard as hell to come back. Avoid Playstation if at all possible, and only use the Internet for Dictionary.com and an occasional Google.com research check. Otherwise, your project's going to be late.

Two things really help me. I read nonfiction almost exclusively. For now, I feel like fiction is a waste of time--like I'm flipping through a celebrity magazine when I could have been learning something. Everything I learn has a chance of making it into a product of mine. Everything. So keep one or two books related to your subject matter near at hand. When you're stuck, read for an hour or two and see where that leads you.

Also, I've been keeping an idea "sketchbook" for most of the last year. I tend to get obsessed with little side-topics now and again, so I often write one or two pages of ideas on a given topic in my notebook. Even if the ideas have nothing to do with the project I'm currently working on, I try to trap them in my notebook. I keep it near me when I sleep, in my car when I go out, and on my desk at work. Some of my best ideas, many of which have ended up in d20 or D&D projects, came in the middle of a meeting that had nothing to do with the project at hand.

Later, when I'm stuck, I flip through my notebook and see what jumps out at me. Without a doubt, this has had the greatest impact on my writing of anything since I went to college to learn how to get serious about writing.

I always used to scoff at people who told me to keep a journal, because the fact of the matter is that I'm not really interested in deconstructing the events of my day in writing. I _am_ interested, however, in scribbling down every cool idea for a feat, a spell, or a comic (or character) that ever passes through my head.

They're not all golden. I look back at a small percentage of this stuff and wonder what it was I was thinking. But it's also fun to page through my notebooks and see where I first sketched out a map for "River of Blood," one of the first Living Greyhawk scenarios, or where I wrote all my ideas for the "Darkhouse of Saerloon," from Faiths & Pantheons.

There are literally dozens of ideas in my notebooks that will appear in products I haven't even been asked to write, yet.

--Erik

 

[Walter_J]

I had to train myself a long time ago to keep writing (and writing, and writing and writing...) without inspiration. In fact, most inspiration ends up in one of a dozen or so journals I keep around. A routine I follow to keep writing steadily is to not finish a section (paragraph, whatever) even if the sentences are screaming to come out. When I know my current sitting is coming to a close and I know what the next few sentences are, I stop. Next time I sit down to write, I go back and read a few paragraphs and then start typing where I left off (because I already know what I was going to write.) This little routine really helps.

Another bit of advice, if you come up to a section and you just can't find any words, skit it, skip it without a second thought, and move on to something you already have the words for. You can always go back.

 

[Stormprince]

I don't really seem to always hit the "block," but then again, I tend to write out of order. I won't write from beginning straight through to the end, instead I tend to work on whichever section I happen to be "inspired" to write at that particular moment. Both of my adventures for Monkey God Enterprises, Song of Storms and Edge of Dreams, were written completely out of order. I can also tell you that the Dragonlance Campaign Setting was not written in order, not the first draft anyways.

I work from my outline, which should be the start for any project. As I was told once, and I agree whole-heartedly, is that the outline is only there to get your thoughts into some semblance of order. After that, feel free to play around with your outline, don't feel straight-jacketed by it.

Granted, this tends to work better for adventures and sourcebooks than for novels and short stories, but that wasn't the question

As was also mentioned, it's sometimes good to have multiple projects going, that way if you do hit a roadblock with one project, you can jump over to another. Just whatever you do, don't overbook yourself! Don't promise five different companies five different projects all due at the same time, if you cannot deliever! Your "reptuation" as a writer can suffer. Do good work, do it in a timely manner, and don't be afraid to think outside the box!

- Christopher Coyle

 

[Ace]

Hello, everybody...
I'm currently working on my first d20 book for publication, though I can't get more specific than that. I was wondering if any of the published authors and other creative people in here could help me out.

I'm recovering from an inexplicable loss of inspirado. I'm quite passionate about my subject matter, but I've found myself having trouble concentrating on my project. Part of it was that I'm a little overwhelmed by the sea of words this is becoming, and another is anxiety about how it will be received when it's finished. Add a twist of self-doubt, and you have the recipe for what I've been going through. It seems to have lifted, somewhat, but how do I prevent it from happening again? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I am not a professional writer (I only have one published D20 credit) but what I do is write what I would like to see.

This way no matter what happens I have something cool for my own uses

 

[astralpwka]

For me to keep going, I usually try to document some of my daydreaming, since I do a lot of it. Since I'm usually daydreaming about whatever I'm thinking is fun (At the time), its easier to keep going.

 

[Napftor]

I'm going to again emphasize the keep going mindset (although I don't do this as often as I should) as well as keeping with some inspirational music. And if you do decide to take a walk, for god's sake, do it somewhere there's a lot of people. The mall, for instance. Public places can be a virtually unlimited source of inspirational material. The way some girl wears her hair ("ooh! I'll so that with an NPC") or the sound a bus makes ("hmm...maybe this dragon should have a sonic attack") are just the tiny tip of the many things waiting for you to steal--er, extrapolate from.

I might be out on a limb here, but I'd say "the block" (tm) stems not from lack of inspiration, but perhaps from the way you've been approaching that material. There's your outline that you've been working by faithfully, but now you're stumped. Something doesn't feel right. Step back and ask yourself just what the problem is. Work the problem from different angles, but DO NOT LET IT GO. Once the solution is found to whatever eccentricity is blocking you (big or small), the flow of brain juices into your fingers becomes that much more easy and satisfying.

 

[RSKennan]

Thank you everyone! I've already been doing a lot of these things, such as working from an outline, listening to music, skipping around (not flamboyantly though ), even smoking. I call them "thinkin' sticks", and they do seem to help. You guys have reinforced for me that taking a break is not the best way to get words on the paper. I don't have any partners to bounce ideas off of, so I've got to buckle down.


One last thing. Sorry megamania, I'm not in charge of art, but if my publisher reads this, maybe they'll approach you.

Back to work!

 

[Larry Fitz]

RS,

You say you don't have partners to bounce ideas off of, but surely the company you are working for has assigned an Editor to the project you are working on? At the very least there should be someone at the publisher in a management position for you to bounce your ideas off of? Or your SigOth (that's Lazyspeak for Significant Other)? Or a favorite pet? I find talking out the basic ideas, developing a thesis and creating an outline the best aides in writing. The thesis should be a statement of purpose for the work you are creating. Like good theme writing if what you are writing cannot be successfully related back to the thesis, it's probably superfluous and may need to be tossed. Other than that all I can say is follow the road map of your outline, so that you know what to write even when you don't feel like writing. Sometimes a good way to get re-inspired is to read some of what you've been writing and try to tweak it before moving on... of course sometimes you just gotta down some serious caffeine, a few jelly donuts (the kind with crystallized sugar, not powdered) and crank the Violent Femmes as loud as you can without attracting the police and start writing baby... start writing.....