[Twilight Time] Writers' Books for RPG Adventure and Plot Creation

[Heather Grove]

March 29, 2004 -- Writers' Books for RPG Adventure and Plot Creation
Volume 5, Issue 2

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Good afternoon!

I admit it--I'm addicted to writing books. Not because I think they 
contain the secrets of the universe. Not because I think they'll 
magically turn me into a great writer. And not because I'm insane.

Well, maybe because I'm insane.

Mostly, though, I just find them fascinating. I love seeing all of the 
different ways in which different writers approach their craft. I love 
weighing the ideas and seeing what I think of them. I simply enjoy 
reading them.

Most people either love or hate writing books--they either see them as 
wonderful or useless. I think they're potentially pretty useful, as 
long as you use them in certain ways. (We got a whole article once out 
of the pros and cons of using writing books.) You never want to read 
writing books as a way to procrastinate from doing actual writing, and 
you never want to trick yourself into thinking you can learn everything 
you need to know from books. But within those boundaries, there are 
books that can teach you a great deal.

Sometimes I even find things that I think apply pretty well to creating 
RPG plots, characters, and ideas. So in today's article I'm going to 
tell you about some nifty writing books and explain how they might just 
help your game.

Have a great day!
Heather



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Writers' Books for RPG Adventure and Plot Creation

Here's a handful of writing books that could improve your game, and 
why. Enjoy!

1. Just this morning I started reading a book called "No More 
Rejections: 50 secrets to writing a manuscript that sells," by Alice 
Orr. I know, it sounds horribly gimmicky. I think I got it mostly 
because I've never read one of these "secrets to getting published" 
books before (I prefer books on craft, creativity, and technique) and I 
was kind of curious.

As it turns out, it's mostly a book on craft, creativity, and 
technique, so I'm glad I got it after all. It's just written from the 
perspective of "what is your editor looking for?" and "how can you 
avoid screwing over your chances of getting published?" Because much of 
this boils down to "how can you make your story coherent and 
interesting?", some of it can definitely apply to tabletop roleplaying 
game (RPG) material. Use it to help you find holes in your plots, and 
to help you tighten up all those stray bits of material that tend to 
get frayed around the edges.

One of my favorite bits with respect to RPGs is a list of dramatic 
themes that serve as sources of conflict. These include betrayal, duty, 
cowardice, obsession, loss, devotion, hatred, disgrace, and revenge, 
among others. I think that if you were strapped for plot ideas you 
could easily run down the list and find something you could build on. I 
think you could also find out whether your latest plot was likely to 
have at least some emotional spark to it by running down the list and 
making sure one of the traits on it was present.

"No More Rejections: 50 secrets to writing a manuscript that sells"
by Alice Orr, ISBN #1582972850


2. Nancy Kress is absolutely amazing when it comes to writing advice. 
Her book "Dynamic Characters: how to create personalities that keep 
readers captivated" is so popular that it's often difficult to find. If 
you can find a copy, however, it's well worth the purchase. Not only 
does it have plenty of information on creating vivid and interesting 
characters, but it also has the most complete "character dossier" of 
questions I've ever seen. Kress also has a great sense of humor that 
keeps this book from being dry and boring.

"Dynamic Characters: how to create personalities that keep readers 
captivated"
by Nancy Kress, ISBN # 0898798159


3. Although I think that by and large Kress' book is better, Rachel 
Ballon's "Breathing Life into Your Characters: how to give your 
characters emotional and psychological depth" is probably more easily 
applied to roleplaying material--and it's certainly easier to find in a 
bookstore! It delves into fewer of the broader writing issues than 
Kress' book does, concentrating more on the psychology of your 
characters.

Ballan is a psychotherapist, and her approach is to have you delve into 
your own memories and psyche to help you better understand 
yourself--the better to understand your characters. One of my favorite 
bits of advice from her book is this:

"Don't ever say, 'My character would never steal,' or 'My character 
would never cheat.' Given enough desperation and faced with a harsh 
enough environment, your character can be motivated to steal, lie, 
cheat, or even die for something she wants or needs."

"Breathing Life into Your Characters" could help any GM to create 
better, more "real" non-player characters (NPCs). It could also help 
you to better figure out how to create moving, personalized plots for 
the player characters (PCs)!

"Breathing Life into Your Characters: how to give your characters 
emotional and psychological depth"
by Rachel Ballon, ISBN # 1582971811


4, 5, 6 and 7. Sometimes, in the middle of a game, you need a bit of 
inspiration. In other articles I've suggested doing things like pulling 
out a tarot card and seeing where it takes you. You can also use this 
same method to help you come up with yet another new and interesting 
NPC or plot point. Now I have four places you can take inspiration from 
that aren't tarot decks:

"The Pocket Muse" by Monica Wood, ISBN #1582971420

While sadly these bits of inspiration do not come on cards that you can 
shuffle, they are arranged similarly on the pages of the book. So you 
can open to a random page and see what comes up.

"Inner Outings" by Charlene Geiss and Claudia Jessup, ISBN #1577312201

These colorful, huge cards contain very simple phrases and words on 
them. Shuffle them, pull one out, and see how it inspires you.

"The Observation Deck" by Naomi Epel, ISBN #0811814815

Some of these cards are meant for content inspiration; many present 
ways to approach your writing. Use the former while coming up with 
ideas or running your game, and use the latter while coming up with 
plots, adventures, and characters.

"The Writer's Block" by Jason Rekulak, ISBN #0762409487

This one boast *786* bits of inspiration for your writing! Some of them 
apply specifically to writing (little tidbits about what has or hasn't 
worked for or happened to other writers), but most of them are usable 
for RPG-work as well (photos, phrases, single words).


8 and 9. Almost any creativity book (particularly those with prompts 
and exercises) can help you to come up with ideas. Here are a couple of 
my favorites:

"Pencil Dancing: new ways to free your creative spirit" by Mari Messer, 
ISBN #158297005X

This one is a broadly-applicable creativity book meant for anyone, not 
just writers. The exercises get a bit silly, but that's kind of the 
point--it's meant to force you to set aside the inner critic that's 
telling you your ideas are silly so that you can more freely use your 
creativity.

"The Writer's Idea Book" by Jack Heffron, ISBN #158297179X

This book contains a gazillion prompts, but they aren't really of the 
type that's useful for pulling out in the middle of a game. They're 
specifically meant to help you learn to pull ideas out of everyday 
life, so they'd be best for a game set in the modern world, or for a 
game with very personal-level plots. You could also use them to help 
you come up with the mundane details of your NPCs' lives.


10. Heffron's "The Writer's Idea Workshop" is a sequel to the idea 
book, meant to help you take those ideas from rough nugget to polished 
finished product. As with book suggestion #1, this means that a number 
of the suggestions won't apply to your roleplaying game. However, many 
of them will. This book will help you to figure out which ideas will 
work, which won't, and how to get the most out of them. If you're truly 
interested in turning a mediocre or good roleplaying game into a great 
game, I think this book could do a lot of good.

"The Writer's Idea Workshop"
Jack Heffron, ISBN #1582972796



If you're looking for a change, or a new way to gain inspiration, 
rejuvenate your sessions, or improve your NPCs and plots, one or more 
of these books may be able to help you. If you enjoy writing, then why 
not go for a book that will multitask? Enjoy!


SPECIAL REQUEST: If anyone has any other books that have particularly 
improved their ability to put together a good game, send 'em on in and 
I'll pass them on in the next issue. If there are enough of them I'll 
do a special issue! Include a brief (one-paragraph) explanation of how 
the book has helped you, the title, the author(s), and the ISBN number 
if possible.

PURCHASE LINK LIST: If you want an easy way to find most of these 
books, I've put together a page of purchase links to Barnes & Noble and 
Amazon. Our site is an affiliate site, so buying through those links 
helps to support us! Thank you:

http://www.burningvoid.com/rpg/2004/writbooks.php


What's Your Opinion?:

Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic 
requests? Drop me a line. If I pass any of your suggestions on (either 
through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them 
to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or 
comments!

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SITE UPDATE:

Burning Void: resources for roleplayers and writers
http://www.burningvoid.com/

http://www.burningvoid.com/rpg/2004/writbooks.php
Purchase links for the books listed in this article

We recently did a major overhaul to the site, and I'm still slowly 
working my way through converting individual articles.


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