And of course as soon as I start outlining and drafting scenes, the characters and the city come to life and I am again buzzed by my own story. I guess all those weeks of angst and self doubt were wasted……
Month: May 2014
And so it — drafting — begins
I have the opening to Barbarian in the City outlined: The cast list has also grown: OLD DOCK GANG Madok – Leader. DINDRAYN – Girl Thief. Blonde. RM calls her “little sister” and treats her as a Sword Triber. Catigern…
That stupid De Niro quote on writers
The stupid De Niro quote about writers is doing the rounds of Facebook: This kind of thing makes me cross. Some of the greatest writers in my pond seem utterly angst free. For example, the serene Terry Pratchett and Stephen…
Posted in Writing Life
Barbarian in the City
While I’m waiting for the next contract — and in between catching up on admin — I’ve started writing Barbarian in the City, the example novel I outlined in Storyteller Tales. Here’s what the outline looks like in Scrivener: If…
FAQ: Won’t using your tools drown out my “voice”?
Voice is one of the things aspiring writers angst over. However, the genre reader mostly doesn’t care about your voice as long as it’s competent and reflects the point-of-view character; they want to be immersed in the story and carried forward…
Beowulf Pitfight! Michael Morpurgo Versus Rosemary Sutcliff
Some of my teacher friends get cross with me when I use the term “Cattle Poo Chronicles” to refer to the books Kurtzhau regularly has to endure from school. My complaint is not that these books don’t pass his blood-and-thunder…
FAQ: How I do Conflict Diagrams for Impending Doom stories?
I had a nice email from reader HM (who gave me permission to use this here): I’ve read Storyteller’s Tools a couple of times now and have had several epiphanies about how stories work and are constructed. Thanks for those!…
10-year-old-gamer uses my Conflict Diagrams
DeeM is using our kitchen table to prep an adventure while Kurtzhau finishes off some homework. (He started GMing Maelstrom Doomsday after his excellent experience at Conpulsion, but has being the running red box D&D for nearly a year now.) As I…
11th Century English Feudal England explained for a young gamer
(Kurtzhau’s friend DeeM is planning to GM Maelstrom Doomesday, a game set in 11th century England. This is in answer to some of his questions.) Suppose your setting is a village or – more likely – group of little…
Posted in Roleplaying
Teaching Creative Outlining at Conpulsion 2014
When I mentioned to my sword-buddy Tiggs that I was writing up my creative process her eyes lit up. “You must come and teach it at Conpulsion.” Conpulsion, if you have just tuned in, is Edinburgh’s yearly gaming convention run…
Posted in Storyteller Tools
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