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Some thoughts on gaming and writing
Jun. 30th, 2004 05:37 pmI think I've figured out the solutions to a couple of problems that I've been having.
On Gaming
º Don't play a character just because you feel like you have to. I've been having this problem recently - not only does it seem declassé to duplicate another character, but most of the people I play with have been gaming long enough, that they "know what a party needs"1, so I've been feeling shoehorned - especially when other players have had a chance to come up with complete character concepts before I even realized that I was supposed to be thinking about it.
Because of this, I often feel like I'm playing "the <whatever>" - "the fighter", "the cleric", "the human", et cetera. The problem with this is that I occasionally end up with characters I don't like, or at least character types that I hadn't intended to play. The solution is to replace "the" with "a" - "a fighter", "a cleric", "a human" - and to come up with a character that I enjoy, rather than a character Who Fits. (Of course, it's always nice to fit in with the party together. If I feel like playing an antisocial murderous psychopath, and the rest of the characters are Care Bears, I might just be playing the wrong game.) And that leads to the next point...
º Play a character, not a collection of statistics. This isn't an argument for spending your points in a way that fits your character; this is an argument for figuring out your character before you ever open the book. Yes, you might be disappointed when you find out you can't do everything you want from the get-go; that's what XP is for. But I have a feeling that it's much more fun to start with "this is the character I want to play, will the system let me do that?" than to start with "the system will let me do these cool things, so that's the kind of character I want to play". The first is more time-consuming than the second, but probably worth it.
On Writing
º Slow down. I'm always in a hurry when I write. I've managed to learn that words-per-hour is the most important thing, and so I gloss, or skim, or just leave things out, and it makes for worse writing. I need to slow down, take my time, and do it right.
º Rising action is your friend. I've tended to make chapters in long work into little self-contained short stories, and I don't think that's the way to do things. (I'm not sure what the way to do things is, but I'm pretty sure that's not it.) Each chapter should not only contribute to the plot but have its own mini-rising-action, as a microcosm of the larger action. (In fact, I almost called this point "Chaos theory in writing.") Further, it occurs to me that maybe the beginning of each chapter should be the end of the rising action of the last chapter, but I'm not sure about that.
Thoughts are welcome.
1. Quote from nobody in particular; the marks are intended to denote supposition, rather than a direct quote.
The special characters used here, if anyone's curious, are:
º - º
< - <
> - >
On Gaming
º Don't play a character just because you feel like you have to. I've been having this problem recently - not only does it seem declassé to duplicate another character, but most of the people I play with have been gaming long enough, that they "know what a party needs"1, so I've been feeling shoehorned - especially when other players have had a chance to come up with complete character concepts before I even realized that I was supposed to be thinking about it.
Because of this, I often feel like I'm playing "the <whatever>" - "the fighter", "the cleric", "the human", et cetera. The problem with this is that I occasionally end up with characters I don't like, or at least character types that I hadn't intended to play. The solution is to replace "the" with "a" - "a fighter", "a cleric", "a human" - and to come up with a character that I enjoy, rather than a character Who Fits. (Of course, it's always nice to fit in with the party together. If I feel like playing an antisocial murderous psychopath, and the rest of the characters are Care Bears, I might just be playing the wrong game.) And that leads to the next point...
º Play a character, not a collection of statistics. This isn't an argument for spending your points in a way that fits your character; this is an argument for figuring out your character before you ever open the book. Yes, you might be disappointed when you find out you can't do everything you want from the get-go; that's what XP is for. But I have a feeling that it's much more fun to start with "this is the character I want to play, will the system let me do that?" than to start with "the system will let me do these cool things, so that's the kind of character I want to play". The first is more time-consuming than the second, but probably worth it.
On Writing
º Slow down. I'm always in a hurry when I write. I've managed to learn that words-per-hour is the most important thing, and so I gloss, or skim, or just leave things out, and it makes for worse writing. I need to slow down, take my time, and do it right.
º Rising action is your friend. I've tended to make chapters in long work into little self-contained short stories, and I don't think that's the way to do things. (I'm not sure what the way to do things is, but I'm pretty sure that's not it.) Each chapter should not only contribute to the plot but have its own mini-rising-action, as a microcosm of the larger action. (In fact, I almost called this point "Chaos theory in writing.") Further, it occurs to me that maybe the beginning of each chapter should be the end of the rising action of the last chapter, but I'm not sure about that.
Thoughts are welcome.
1. Quote from nobody in particular; the marks are intended to denote supposition, rather than a direct quote.
The special characters used here, if anyone's curious, are:
º - º
< - <
> - >
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