Sometimes Dungeon Masters need a little inspiration when creating one-shot sessions, or even multi-session campaigns. There are classic tropes and their variations that can be relied upon for ideas, they just need a new twist to make them interesting.
Other times you want something truly unique. Taking ideas from other sources and spinning them on their heads can help.
Here are some ideas to help spark your creativity. You can use these directly, modify them slightly to suit your tastes and the party’s situation, or make a 90 degree turn and somewhere entirely new. It’s up to you!
Rescue! One of the most common and old-school themes in fantasy adventuring is the rescue. The king’s daughter has been captured by foul enemies. The party is hired to infiltrate the baddie’s lair, find the princess, and get her out alive.
Twist: One of the party’s own has been captured and their comrades must rescue them.
Exploration. Some ruins have been discovered and the party explores it, either for their own effort to seek unreclaimed treasure, or because they’ve been hired by a powerful NPC to survey and map the situation. The location is where your creativity can really shine; make it someplace unusual, such as a mysterious keep or monastery that appears overnight, or a large abandoned ship that has washed ashore.
Twist: The party must explore a location with a time limit, because a prophecy or some other clue indicates it will disappear at a particular time in the near future.
Escape. One of the most exciting, challenging — and common — adventure ideas entails the party finding themselves held captive without weapons or armor, deep inside an unknown dungeon. They must escape their bounds, find their gear, and escape. The reason for their capture can be any number of things: they passed out at an inn and woke up in shackles (perhaps they were shanghaied and found themselves bound on board a pirate ship); they were infiltrating a Big Bad Evil Guy’s lair and were captured, etc.
Twist: An NPC in their party betrayed them and handed them over to the party’s enemy. Not only must they escape capture, but they also seek revenge against their betrayer.
Destruction of Evil. This may be the most common adventure trope yet, the destruction of an evil altar or temple. Don’t sell the idea short; it is used so often because of its versatility and applicability to the fantasy genre. The source of evil can have any number of variations, such a competing religious sect or a group of monsters that must be destroyed or driven out of an area. If it’s a place to be destroyed, it can be a variety of things, such as an altar, an entire temple, or a single artifact. The thing to be destroyed can, of course, be a person or particular monster.
Twist: For a longer, more challenging campaign, the evil can be a Thieves or Assassins guild that must be infiltrated from within. To put a spin on the more classic idea, the party must identify the source or location of evil first before they attempt to destroy it — or the source of evil keeps moving (a temple that magically changes location every week, etc.)
There be Dragons! Dragons are arguably the most iconic monster in fantasy adventure games. Ridding a village of a marauding dragon is a tried and true adventure hook. But don’t be afraid to throw some new angle on it. Perhaps the dragon is actually of good ilk but has been possessed by a demon. Does the party kill the dragon outright, or try to exorcise its evil host? Sometimes the party must subdue or capture a dragon, but what if their intent is to retrieve dragon eggs or younglings without engaging the parent (who would most likely wipe them out if confronted directly)?
Twist: In one campaign, my party came upon a green dragon and a black dragon of relatively equal strength fighting each other in the air above them. I allowed the party to take on the two dragons and role-play the battle. Once that dragon duel was resolved and only one dragon remained, the party then had to fight the wounded and weakened beast that remained. Another idea is for the party to discover a dragon in a compromising position, such as a wyrm in chains or weakened because of a prior battle. Another variation is for the party to meet an intelligent, speaking dragon and convince it to do something against its nature.
Gather Ye Weapons. Like the Marvel Universe storyline, the party must gather a particular set of artifacts, each with its own set of challenges, to create a new weapon that is used to counter some Big Bad Evil. A complication you can add to this is some evil person or group is also seeking the artifacts, motivating the party to act quickly. The classic AD&D module, White Plume Mountain, is a great example of this adventure type.
Twist: The party must replace a rare and heavily guarded item or weapon with a fake without being detected. Or, the party is hired by a powerful NPC to retrieve an item, but along the way they discover their benefactor intends to use the item for evil, so they find a way to thwart the NPC instead.
Out There Ideas
These ideas deviate dramatically from the common tropes and themes listed above. One of the best things about fantasy table-top role-playing games — or any genre, really — is the fun is limited only by your imagination. Sometimes it’s fun to let it run wild.
Some of these ideas are straightforward, while others are truly ‘out there.’
Infection. The party has been infected by a curse that will turn them into vampires within a fixed number of days. They must retrieve a magic item or reagent used for a potion to effect a cure.
Post-Death. The party has been slain and they find themselves in the land of the dead. Magic works very differently, or not at all, and many other things are turned on their heads. They must achieve some goal in order to return themselves to the living.
The Circus. The party has been captured by a low-level demon and placed in a zoo or circus on one of the planes of the Abyss. They must escape and return to the prime material plane.
Run Away! By chance, the party finds themselves face to face with a group of monsters in the wilderness that is substantially more powerful than themselves. They must flee enemy territory and survive long enough to cross a border or land feature such as a river or mountain range without being killed or captured.
Another Body. Because of a freak magical accident, the party finds themselves inhabiting the bodies of hobgoblin soldiers in a war party’s camp preparing to attack a nearby keep. The party learns a powerful cleric inside the keep has the ability to exorcise them and restore them to their original bodies. They must reach the cleric, explain their true identities, and convince them to help them before they all get killed in the attack.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons has been around since the late 1970s (with previous forerunning versions dating back to the early 70s). I began playing in the spring of 1980. In fact, the very first game I ever played was on a camping trip in May 1980, right as Mt. St. Helens was erupting just 60 miles to the north. I was playing a dwarven fighter with an axe, and there was an orc standing in my way.
Thinking back to the decades I’ve been playing the game, I’ve met a lot of wonderful people with whom I’ve had the joy of sharing a gaming table. Over time, I’ve recognized there can be certain characteristics common among some players, so I am making a lighthearted and humorous attempt at describing them.
What type of D&D gamer are you?
The Highlander
“There can be only one!” Stuck on a particular version of D&D (1e, 2nd edition, 5e, etc.) and absolutely refuses to play any other edition. Probably more common with earlier editions than newer ones.
The Grognard
It’s gotta be old school 1st edition or nothing at all. A variation of The Highlander in that they are particular to just one edition, but that edition must be old. There’s a 99% chance the Grognard is a middle-aged white guy with a beard who first played D&D in middle school somewhere between 1978 and 1981.
The Collector
They’re more about the stuff than the game, and have rows and rows of sagging bookshelves to prove it. If it exists, it is their quest to possess it. They’ll own three different copies of The Village of Hommlet, at least two of which are in plastic, but have never actually run the module as a DM or played it as a player.
The Pan-gamer
They’ll play any RPG regardless of brand, genre, or style. They approach The Collector status in that they’ll be the first to purchase core rule books for every game that comes out the day it hits the market, but unlike a Collector, for them it’s more about the acquisition than the possession (once they get it, they move onto the next squirrel, I mean game, that comes out).
The Poser
They talk about gaming and are quick to refer to themselves as a gamer in their copious posts to social media. They wear all the coolest branded t-shirts and hoodies and have lots of pristine-looking D&D merch stylishly placed and overtly visible on the LED-lit shelving behind them in their numerous YouTube videos. But could they tell you the difference between a 1st edition and 5th edition dragon? Not if their life depended on it.
The Funkmaster
They love the game, every book and folio they own is legitimately and genuinely dog-eared and worn down, their dice have been rolled more times than Jenna Jameson, and they can quote rules and stats and game errata like a walking encyclopedia, but the one thing they possess more than anything else is body odor that would give a starving gnoll the dry heaves.
There are no doubt other gamer types, and some folks are blends of several. Over all, despite these tongue-in-cheek and well-meaning classifications, D&D gamers can be some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, some of whom can become life-long friends.
Solo motorcycle travel has been a part of my life since 2007. I began writing my first fantasy novel in 2011-ish and published it in 2013. (I’ve been writing fiction since I was in junior high school.) The overlap of these two activities is not coincidental. Travel, especially solo, has always been an inspirational activity to me, even as a kid.
Seeing new scenery, from the topography and way the land flows up and down and along rivers and shorelines, to the flora of an area be it sparse and blanched or lush and green, to even the weather as it changes as you crest a hill or as the sun rises or sets, has been a constant source of creative thoughts and ideas.
I can look at a wooded hillside and imagine a troupe of orcs living in a cave amidst the trees, or I can see in my mind’s eye a dragon perched atop a rocky vista surveying its hunting grounds. Hiking trails inspire thoughts of a fierce battle to the death between a man and the beast that pounced upon him from behind a tree.
If you read my books, you may notice that weather and terrain get a little extra descriptive boost amidst the text. The lay of the land and the foliage as well as the skies above are almost another character unto themselves, playing out their impact on the activities — or even survival — of my characters.
It’s surprising that when I travel and meet new people, they have a minimal impact on my creative muse. Sometimes I’ll hear a line of dialogue between people sitting near me in a small town cafe, or I’ll catch a glimpse of someone’s face as they struggle through a personal trial or endeavor. Or occasionally a stranger-that-becomes-a-friend lends inspiration in the unusual spelling of their name.
People rarely inspire me, though, but the places I go and see when I travel never fail to juice my muse to new heights.
Take a look at this photo of an abandoned church I took during a recent road trip. What does it inspire in you? Who utilizes that structure in your creative mind? What role does it play in your story’s possible evolution?
There’s a saying that if you didn’t write it down, it didn’t happen. I think that maxim was created by astronomers, but it’s likely someone came up with the idea long before scientists started looking at the stars.
In my case, I began carrying a journal on my first motorcycle trip back in February 2007. I took it along on a solo weekend trip to visit my sister. The inspiration for journaling my motorcycle adventures came from reading Neil Peart’s autobiography, Ghost Rider.
It’s amazing how much comes back to me when reading over my old journal entries. I can recall the scenery, people I met, places I ate, things I saw, even smells. Sometimes I can even recall the song I was listening to in my earphones as I went around a particular curve on a specific trip.
I no longer own a motorcycle and have stopped riding as a result. Although I don’t regret getting out of motorcycling, I still miss it. I get a lot of enjoyment thinking of the memories of the many roads I’ve traveled and adventures I survived.
Motorcycling isn’t for everyone, but many people enjoy various forms of travel, whether it be on foot along a local hiking trail, or via jet plane or sailing vessel to distant lands across continents or oceans. I suggest to those who do like to travel to get into the habit of journaling their adventures. A handwritten notebook is subjectively ideal. Don’t rely on just the photos you take with a cell phone. Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but a few hundred — or even a few dozen — words can convey far more than a photo viewed out of context at a later date ever could.
During the winter months, it’s unpleasant to ride my bicycle outdoors. 38 degrees and raining is non-fun, despite having outdoor cycling gear. To maintain the fitness gains I’ve made over the summer, I recently set up a Wahoo KICKR Core smart trainer and a Zwift account. This allows me to ride my own bike (Trek Domane AL 5), which has been custom fitted to me, in the comfort of my own home and out of the weather.
Zwifting with Wahoo KICKR Core, Domane AL 5 (attached); Domane AL 4 (wall rack)
I used to have a spin bike but sold that on craigslist. It worked, but wasn’t fitted, wasn’t very adjustable, and was just an unpleasant experience.
This new system is very slick and seems to efficiently mimic the workout I get riding outside with some added benefits. It is more intense than the Springwater Trail (an old railroad grade converted into a paved walking and cycling path) but not quite as intense as the local hills (everywhere you go in my town is uphill both ways).
The system works like this:
Remove your back wheel and place the frame on the Wahoo KICKR Core, draping the chain over the sprocket cassette (sold separately).
Load the Zwift app on a laptop and connect it to a TV for larger viewing.
Turn on a fan, select a route, and start pedaling.
The Wahoo dynamically changes the resistance based on the simulated riding conditions in Zwift. If I’m climbing up a hill in Zwift’s virtual world, the Wahoo is harder to pedal. Going downhill, it gets easier … you get the point. Since I’m using my own bike, the ergonomics is 100% fitted to my body and parameters.
When starting Zwift, you can choose which route you want to ride. These give you a huge variety of challenge levels, based on distance and elevation change. Once the ride starts, you can dynamically choose to take different routes as you pedal along. It’s very slick.
Many other people from around the world are pedaling in your virtual Zwift world (called ‘Watopia’) with you. I have found that I am pedaling harder because of a weird sense of competition and of being watched. If someone is pedaling behind me, Zwift tells me how many meters and seconds they are trailing behind. I can see that gap close, and it makes me want to ride faster — I don’t want someone passing me.
Apparently you can organize group rides with friends and ride together within Watopia.
I like this competitive aspect of Zwift and feel that I am getting a better cycling workout because of it. I also like the route variety, as it sends me up and down hills that I don’t experience when riding the trail. That variety keeps it from getting boring, too.
The hills near my home are somewhat brutal. They aren’t overly long but they are very steep, some well above 10% grade, and there is no shoulder. In Zwift, I’m not going to get sent to the ICU by a soccer mom checking her Facebook status on her smart phone as she plows into me at 45 mph. That’s a huge benefit.
The downside?
None, if you own one bike or all your bikes use the same speed rear cassette. But, my wife has a bike, too (Domane AL 4), and unfortunately the rear cassette on her bike (10 speed) is different than mine (11 speed). This means every time one of us wants to ride on Zwift, we have to change sprocket cassettes on the Wahoo. This is not a quick process. It takes about 8-10 minutes to do a full swap out (remove one cassette and install another). Once the correct cassette is on the Wahoo, it only takes about 60 seconds to mount the bike and cinch it down (we already have the back wheels removed and set aside).
Granted, this takes less time than to put the rack on the back of our car, mount the bikes to the rack, and drive to the trailhead for an outdoor ride.
When we asked the bike shop people what they recommended to overcome this hassle, they all said, “Get a second Wahoo.”
We were able to purchase our Wahoo KICKR Core at our local Trek bike shop ($899) and the two sprocket cassettes, one for each bike. Those kind of components are in short supply right now, however, so you may have to shop around and get one on the internet. Zwift costs $14.99 per month per person.
And, of course, you need a decent laptop. I tried to run Zwift on a 2015 Macbook Air with an i5 processor and 4 GB of RAM. Nope. I had to use my 2016 Macbook Pro with an i7 and 16 GB of RAM (you can use Windows if that’s your thing). Oh, and you need a stand of some kind for the laptop to put it within reach as you pedal. I got one that looks similar to a music stand from Amazon for about $35.
Oh, and don’t forget a powerful fan. You’ll sweat. A lot.
Do you have Steve Miller stuck in your head now? Sorry.
I look at the calendar and see that it’s October 14th and feel blown away by how quickly the last two months have gone by. I think September only had 17 days in it.
Since August I have spent most afternoons practicing guitar, keyboard, bass and drums. I’m learning all four instruments with the goal of writing music inspired by my first novel, Ohlen’s Arrow. That is going well but except for savants, learning to play and compose music is not an overnight endeavor. I’ve played all these instruments in the past, so fortunately I’m not starting from ground zero, but I still have a long way to go.
I’ve also been thinking about continuing my Taesia series of novels. The next step would be to write book 5. I already have the bulk of the plot figured out, but haven’t formally nailed down the outline. An avid reader of mine recently shared their view that I really need to keep writing and continue the story. We’ll see.
Currently I’m reading Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy. Although it’s a real page turner, I’m struck by how expository Clancy is. The old maxim, “Show me, don’t tell me” is one Clancy apparently never heard. Unlike popular belief, rules are not made to be broken but you certainly can if you know about them and have a good reason. In Clancy’s case, this book wouldn’t work without all the ‘tell me’ expository text.
In the cycling part of my life, I recently purchased a Wahoo KICKR Core smart trainer. I previously had a traditional spin bike but sold it as it was uncomfortable and had very poor ergonomics. The smart trainer will be hooked up to Zwift for a virtual riding experience. I may write a review after I’ve used it a bit. It will be nice to train on my own bike (Trek Domane AL5) rather than a rigid and poor substitution like a spin bike.
Ever since I was a little kid and saw Animal on The Muppet Show, I’ve wanted to play drums. I tried to get a slot as a drummer in school band when I was in grade school and middle school, but we already had two drummers on the squad and the band teacher insisted I play trombone instead.
Jump ahead to my late 20s and early 30s. I bought an inexpensive electronic kit (Roland TD-7) and messed around with recording a few songs on my PC. I even played drums in a Creed cover band in 2001. It was fun to experiment with the drums as well as electric guitar, another instrument I’ve dabbled in since my 20s. For a while I had an Alesis QS6 synthesizer and used that in my recording.
I eventually sold the TD-7 and upgraded to an acoustic drum set — I’d use that to wake up the neighbors every afternoon. For personal reasons (divorce), I got rid of all my music gear in 2014.
Jump ahead to today (August 2021). The music bug is back in my brain (it never left, it’s just been suppressed) so I sold my motorcycle and used the money to get a new suite of gear. I’ve reconfigured my home office to be a combination work area and music studio.
So far my gear includes:
Alesis Strike Pro SE electronic drum set
Epiphone Les Paul Vintage Edition electric guitar
Ibanez Gio GSR200PW bass guitar
Luna Henna Oasis acoustic-electric guitar
M-Audio Oxygen 61 MKV MIDI keyboard controller
Alesis Strike Pro SE electronic drum kit
Epiphone Les Paul Special Vintage Edition
Ibanez Gio GSR200PW bass guitar
M-Audio Oxygen 61 MKV
PreSonus AudioBox 2×2 USB audio interface
DigiTech BP355 bass effects pedal
DigiTech RP360 guitar effects pedal
Mackie 1202 VLZ3 analog mixer
Luna Henna Oasis acoustic-electric guitar
My gear — so far
All of this is connected to a Macbook Pro running GarageBand via a Presonus Audiobox 2×2 USB96 audio interface. I use a Mackie 1202 VLZ3 mixer to connect the instruments in one place (the guitars are connected to Digitech multi-effects pedals).
Although I’ve played guitar, drums and keyboards in the past, I’m very rusty so I’m spending the next few months building up my basic skills and competencies. I also intend to study music theory and may even learn to read music.
My long-term goal is to compose a series of songs that are inspired by my first novel, Ohlen’s Arrow. The finished works would function like a soundtrack to my book. We’ll see how that goes.
I just sold my 2007 Suzuki V-Strom 650. This means I no longer own a motorcycle. Does that mean I am no longer a motorcyclist?
2007 Suzuki V-Strom 650, “The Grey Mule”
I don’t think so. Motorcycling has been a part of my adult life since late 2006, and I’ve ridden all over the west coast of the United States and Canada. Some of my life’s fondest memories are of times spent on two wheels. That will always be a part of me.
The fact that I don’t currently have a motorcycle doesn’t mean I’m not still a motorcyclist. It’s in my blood in many ways, and definitely in my mind.
You may be wondering why I sold my bike, “The Grey Mule.” It’s a bit of a long story, but ultimately it came down to a shift in priorities. I am moving back into music and composing, which isn’t an inexpensive hobby, and I needed a way to pay for it. I also needed to shift some things around in my home to make room, and by freeing up space in the garage, it freed up space within the house for my new gear.
Stay tuned for the new musical chapter of my life.
I took a day ride on my 2007 Suzuki V-Strom 650 to Kinzua, Oregon (pronounced ‘kin-zoo’). Kinzua is an abandoned lumber community southeast of Fossil, Oregon. I used to hunt deer in the area with my father back in the early 1980s and wanted to go back to the area and explore around.
My intention was to ride the Kinzua Road (NF21) east from highway 19 to where it connects to highway 207. The maps and online resources said it connected and was open, and even the gas station attendant in Fossil said it was likely open. I rode east on NF21 to the location of where the community and mill site of Kinzua used to be, and spotted a small sign on the side of the road saying that access to hwy. 207 was unavailable.
No access to highway 207 from Kinzua, NF21, Wheeler County
I turned around and backtracked the 8 miles to highway 19, then headed south a few miles to have lunch at the Bear Hollow county campground (Wheeler County). The park was deserted, so I had it all to myself. After getting filled up with a lunch of dehydrated “breakfast skillet”, I backtracked my way westward to home.
Bear Hollow CG, Wheeler County, on hwy 19 south of Fossil, Oregon
Just west of Shaniko and riding northwest along Bakeoven Road, I noticed wildfire smoke in the distance to the west. I had just ridden from that direction that morning, and although I could smell a bit of wildfire smoke when passing through Maupin, I only saw a bit of smoke haze to the south, near Warm Springs. This fire was new since I had just passed that way a few hours before.
As I approached along highway 216 toward the community of Pine Grove, I could see that the fire was burning very close to the road. There were no roadblocks and I there were cars coming from the west, so I assumed the road itself was still open.
S-503 fire, along highway 216 approaching Pine Grove, Sat. June 19, 2021
Just west of Pine Grove, I stopped to get a photo and some video of the fire. I couldn’t see the flames but could see how they colored the smoke a deep orange. The fire seemed to be burning about a half-mile from the highway. I continued westward uninhibited and made it home after riding 360 miles for the day.
The news labeled it the S-503 fire, and said it had ignited Friday night. It had burned 4,000 acres as of this writing and was only 2% contained. The fire incident map shows it burning to the southeast into the Warm Springs Reservation. The town of Pine Grove is on a level 3 evacuation alert. If the wind shifts and blows to the northeast, that small community would be in its direct path.
This article describes the methods I use and the steps I follow that have proven to be very effective at avoiding writer’s block and at meeting deadlines. This process is efficient, methodical, and productive. If you follow this approach, it is very reasonable to expect that you can write an 80,000-word fiction novel from concept to publication-ready in less than five months.
Prepare to be Creative
When the muse hits, be prepared. Keep a notebook or note-taking app handy (personal preference) at all times. Jot down even the smallest ideas that come to mind, whenever they happen — don’t rely on your memory alone.
I keep my notebook nearby when watching movies or listening to music. These activities give me ideas for character names or traits. I also find my muse when traveling. Seeing diverse scenery and meeting new people often provides inspiration for my biggest and best ideas.
Find your muse and keep your notebook handy for when creativity strikes.
Allow Creativity to Happen – Creative Place and Mindset
Find a place where you can focus on creativity without distractions. It’s not as important to find a particular day or time, as that is often out of your control. If you know that you only have an hour a day, or a few specific hours on a weekend, allocate that time and keep it sacred.
Get into your creative space and remove every distraction possible. Are you familiar with the way your brain says “Let’s talk!” as soon as you crawl into bed at night? That’s because your brain has your undivided attention. Use that technique to let your creativity be in charge. Simulate (metaphorically) that state of being under the covers, the lights off, comfortable — and free of distractions.
If you get your best ideas lying in bed, keep your notebook nearby. It’s not uncommon for nocturnal ideas to disappear by morning; don’t rely on being able to remember them.
Write down what comes to mind. Don’t filter yourself. Don’t worry about punctuation or spelling or anything formal. Just get your thoughts down on paper. Use position on the page to your advantage if the juxtaposition between ideas means something to you. Draw doodles if that helps. The whole point is to get a raw capture of what’s in your brain without imposing the distractions of formality.
Tip: I prefer a quiet room with a paper notebook rather than a computer, because it’s too tempting to check email or social media.
Give Shape To Your Ideas
The next step is to go back into your creative space but be ready to be slightly more organized. This will be a bit more of a problem-solving session rather than a purely creative time.
Read over your captured ideas and start to think about these things:
Characters — Who is your protagonist and who is your antagonist?
Events — What are the key, high-level events that will happen to your main characters?
Locations — Where will these events occur?
Spend a bit more care writing down your ideas. Don’t be afraid to use short sentences or even paragraphs if the mood strikes, but avoid being completely random or needlessly verbose. The point of this session is to give your raw ideas some initial shape and flow.
The whole purpose of this phase is to flesh out your raw ideas, with the end goal of turning it into a plot event list (an outline).
Define your Characters
This phase of the process is reiterative. I will often spend a few sessions focusing just on character development. I want to really get to know my characters and will write 1-2 page biographies about them. These bios will include physical descriptions, noteworthy events from their history, and personality traits. I’ll define their fears, ambitions, passions, aversions, likes and dislikes, enemies and friends, relatives, etc. Any detail about my character that might come up in the story ahead is noted, as well as anything that will inform how I write them — their mannerisms, way of speaking, etc. This character development is much like an actor getting into the head of the role they will portray. The only difference is you are creating that character from scratch, not mimicking an existing person.
Location, location, location!
Locations are like characters. I write descriptions of where they are located in my world and any pertinent or likely facts that may come up, such as population, elevation, climate, and prominent historical facts. I also like to define the location’s character. Is it lawless or does it have authoritarian policing? Does it have the smell of nearby swamps or industry? Are the residents matter-of-fact or carefree and joyous? Great writers let the environment their characters dwell within have a personality of its own, taking on its own character. It’s like the seasoning you add to a dish to make it taste that much better.
What Happens to Whom
Events are the things that happen to your characters as they move about in your environment. It also represents the order of things as they occur. Not every story is linear in how events are presented, so pay attention to the order of events as they actually happened. It’s okay to reveal events in a non-sequential order if you have a reason for it — does it serve the story? See the Tarantino film, “Pulp Fiction” for an example of non-linear storytelling.
Continue to flesh out your characters, locations, and events until you have an adequate amount of detail for your story.
Plot Event List
The purpose of this phase is to create a plot event list. It is a series of statements that describe each scene of your book, listed in the order they will appear in your manuscript.
Review your notes from the previous phase, paying special attention to your events. Write each event as a single sentence with a brief supporting paragraph to provide a little extra detail.
These sentences and paragraphs will become your scenes. You will write your book one scene at a time, helping focus your mind on what is at hand without being distracted or intimidated by the overall scale of your story.
Each scene statement and supporting paragraph should contain enough information to get your brain focused on what needs to be written. The scenes you write can end up being as short as a few paragraphs or many pages. The point is to keep each scene self-contained and about a single event as much as possible. It is reasonable to have between three and eight scenes per chapter, but don’t sweat it too much if you intentionally go above or below that number if it makes sense to do so.
The primary purpose of scenes is to break the book into manageable chunks as an aid to writing.
The final step is to organize your scenes into chapters. Although you may not have a specific number of words or pages per scene, try to accomplish these two objectives:
Keep chapters at roughly the same length.
Phrase or arrange your scenes in the order that makes the most sense for the story.
Primary Composition
Once you have your plot event list completed and organized into chapters, it’s now time to start writing the book itself. You should already have bios written for each of your main characters, your locations are well laid out and adequately described, and you know all the key events that will occur and the order they will happen — and the order they will appear in your story.
Start with your first scene. Read your scene statement (single sentence) and supporting paragraph. Read the bios of the characters that will be acting in this scene and review them. Like an actor preparing for a scene, get into the mindset of the characters and understand their motivations.
Without trying to edit on the fly, begin writing the scene. Don’t worry too much about the overall story — you already have that figured out.
A great tip is to compose the first scene of the book to be something that is short, snappy, and catches the reader’s attention without being overly informative. Raise questions but provide no answers, only hints. Give the reader a reason to read the next scene.
Now that you’re started, you will discover how all the prep work and processes really help you become a productive writer.
Hone Your Process
Find specific days and times during the week when you can write. Be as consistent as possible. I personally write on weekend mornings before the rest of the household is awake. I am focused, not distracted or worried about things, the house is quiet, and I don’t run the risk of other events during the day ruining my schedule.
If you only have an hour to write every other Thursday evening, so be it. Do what works for you, but be consistent. Set that time aside and make sure everyone who might take you away from it knows that you are unavailable and not to be disturbed. Period. Non-negotiable.
Even though you are properly writing your book now, this phase is equal parts creativity and production. You’ve already done a great deal of the legwork on your story. You know what’s going to happen to whom and where it will take place. All you’re doing now is filling in the details.
Because you are only writing one scene at a time, you’ve taken a huge undertaking and broken it down into manageable, easy to chew tasks.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Avoid the urge to edit yourself as you go. It’s not uncommon for writers to spend a needless amount of time writing and rewriting their opening paragraphs over and over again, spending more time working the backspace key than any other. Don’t do that. It’s like driving with the emergency brake on.
Our brains work in different ways depending on the circumstance. You will learn — if you don’t already know — when you are most creative, when you are most productive (they aren’t always the same), and when you are the most critical. These can take place at completely different times of day or days of the week, or even in different locations. I like to take a notebook to pubs and jot down my brainstorming ideas, but would never take my laptop to the same place for primary composition or editing. It just wouldn’t work for me.
Write in one session, and set aside another session to go back and read what you’ve written and give it a brief edit. Make them separate efforts. I’ll usually spend Saturday morning writing, often 2,000-5,000 words, sometimes more. I’ll then spend Sunday morning reading over what I wrote the day before. Sometimes I’ll review and edit on weeknights, but not often and not usually for long periods of time, typically an hour or less.
The following writing session, skim over the previous scene or two just to get a sense for where you left off. Read your next scene’s statement and supporting paragraph, read your pertinent bios and location descriptions, and start writing.
This is a highly productive process and you’ll be amazed at how many words you can write per week. It can be easier to produce six scenes of 8,000 words total than a single chapter of the same length. It’s a psychological thing, where you get mini-rewards throughout your sessions rather than bigger but delayed gratification at some seemingly distant point on the future.
Editing and Post-production
You have an editor, right? You’re not editing your own work, are you? Sure, you’re reviewing your scenes as you go along and making changes, but that’s not what I mean by editing. An editor is another person who’s sole job is to help your writing be the best it can be. They don’t write for you, they refine you.
Editing is a different skill than writing. The best athletes don’t always make the best coaches, and the best coaches aren’t always the best athletes. Editors are similar to coaches in that regard. Writing the story is your job. Making sure your story is conveyed in the best way possible is your editor’s job.
There are different types of editors, and there are different ways to work with them.
I break down editors into two types, and yes, they can exist in the same person. I call them story editors and line editors. I’ve been fortunate to work with an editor that performs both functions remarkably well.
A story editor makes sure your character development maintains the best flow and pace, and they keep you from changing the rules without realizing it. For example, a good story editor might say something like, “In chapter 17, scene two, you have the main character wielding their sword in their left hand, yet back in chapter 3, they held it in their right. Are they right- or left-handed? Ambidextrous?” They keep you on track. (This may seem like a trivial detail, but readers pick up on little things like that and will ding you in reviews for it.)
Story editors will also let you know if you are being overly expository (you’re telling the reader what’s going on instead of showing them) or if you need to expand what’s happening in a scene. They have opinions about what’s lacking, what’s glaring, and areas that could use improvement, but they often leave it to you to figure out how to solve these problems. Remember, the story is your job, they’re just helping you make the expression of that story the best it can possibly be. You won’t always agree with your story editor, but never do or say anything that might discourage them from being able to be honest with you. You’re paying them for their honesty. Value it.
Quick note:Editors are people, too, and some people are jerks. There’s a difference between giving honest feedback and being an asshole. Make sure you get along with your editor and don’t compromise your emotional health over it, even if they’re technically good at what they do.
Line editors will review your grammar, sentence structure, spelling, and other mechanics of your words, but won’t get involved in story or plot or how things feel.
Now that I’ve described the two types of editors, and hoping that you can find both skillsets in the same person (it’s cheaper that way), how you work with your editor is important.
Writer+Editor Workflow
There are two main ways to work with your editor. You can work a few chapters at a time, or write the whole book before your editor sees a single word of it.
As I mentioned previously, I write on weekends. I compose on Saturday, then review and refine my work on Sunday. I then pass along to my story editor everything I’ve completed over that weekend. They have the week to review what I’ve written and give me feedback. They often will send me a Word document with annotations noted within either through Track Changes functionality, or color coding/highlighting. They don’t correct my spelling or grammar, unless I am using an odd spelling or capitalization for something, in which case they might ask if it’s deliberate.
I’ll either spend an evening late in the week making any changes based on their suggestions, or I’ll spend the first part of my Saturday morning on rewrites if their suggestion warrant it.
This often equates to one to three chapters being written, reviewed, edited, and revised per week.
There are some benefits to this stepped approach. If my story editor has strong feelings about where things are going with a character’s development, or a side character has a lot of unfulfilled promise, they’ll often point this out. It can make me stop and think about my original story idea, and based on their feedback, I may decide to alter the planned events or character development points. I’ve also dropped entire chapters before because, based on my story editor’s feedback, they either weren’t adding anything to the story, or they just didn’t make sense. Changing the order of events can come up, too.
It’s important to keep in mind that I don’t share my plot event list with my story editor ahead of time. I want to get their feedback as a reader of the story, with their opinion fresh and untainted by me spoiling the story ahead of time.
“I really look forward to seeing what happens between Jane and John in the next chapter,” is something you want to hear from your editor.
Remember, give your reader a reason to turn every page and see what happens next.
Final Editing
Congratulations! After repeating this process chapter by chapter, you have completed the first draft of your story. You should not anticipate any significant rewrites, only minor revisions that don’t affect the plot much, if at all.
Once I have iteratively worked with my story editor through all the chapters, I will often leave my book alone for a week or two and not look at it or touch it. This is to give myself a sense of fresh eyes. I will then begin reading through my completed draft from page one. If I see misspellings or weird grammar, I’ll fix it, but otherwise I’m trying to get a reader’s perspective of the story as a whole.
Pay attention to the song, not the notes. Does it make you tap your feet or want to dance?
I will make notes about character development and key events, and decide as I go along if I feel they are serving the overall story that I wanted to tell. Is the story eliciting the emotions I hoped to create in my reader? Is it boring me? During this read-through, you should get a sense for parts that drag or go too fast.
Sometimes removing something can be just as useful as adding something new.
Once I have read through the entire manuscript, and made any revisions that I felt were necessary, I’ll turn the book over to my story editor for their full read-through.
I’ll review their suggestions and make any changes I feel necessary, and will communicate any things I disagreed with and why. They often give suggestions or feedback that can help me find a better approach to further improve the story.
Once those changes are completed, I’ll hand the entire manuscript over to my line editor (or the same editor if it’s the same person). This is where they fix all the typos and grammar and make the story mechanically sound. They will not be giving advice about plot, character development, or anything like that. Unless you have a very specific and deliberate reason not to, accept their edits. It is their job to focus on the notes and make sure a B-flat sounds like a B-flat; they won’t be focusing on the overall song.
Publication
Converting your story into an eBook or formatting it for paperback publication is beyond the scope of this effort. But, I will remind you that once you’ve got your book into Kindle or Nook format, or get your first proof copy in paperback, give it another read. Pay the money to get your line editor to review it in those formats as well. Trust me, you’ll still find a typo or two, and you don’t want a stranger who paid to buy your book to let you know in their Goodreads or Amazon review.
Tip: Hire a cover designer. Unless you’re a graphic designer, don’t cheap out by designing your book cover yourself, even with those widgets offered by Amazon and the like. Cheap covers make readers think the book is unworthy of their time.
Summary
Using this process, I have written four novels between 65k and 105k words in four months, each. I spent roughly the same amount of time in the three phases of planning, composition, and editing/production. In one case, the primary composition phase was the shortest, taking only 30 days.
I want to point out that I am describing here the process that has worked best for me. Everyone is different and you should expect to find your own changes and tweaks to this process to make it work best for you. If you’re one of those people who write on a daily basis, you can expect to reach your goal of a completed manuscript in a shorter amount of time (depending on the availability of your editor, of course).
Be open to various ways of working, but ultimately do what works best for you. Find your own rhythm and path. Writing a book is hard. Selling a book is even harder, but that’s another topic for another day.
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About Steve
Like many fantasy authors, Steve Williamson was introduced to the genre when he played his first game of Dungeons & Dragons. It was during a family camping trip in May, 1980, and as he and two friends sat inside a travel trailer rolling dice and fighting orcs, the air outside became gritty and hard to breath. It was permeated with the fine gray ash spewing out of Mount St. Helens which was erupting just sixty miles away.
Steve now lives in Western Oregon in the shadow of another active volcano, Mount Hood.
