Melbourne, Australia. Winner of the First Trek Survivor Trivia Show, and Bearer of the Steve Long Pink Elephant Stamp of Learning. :)
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HELP! (or: How do you cope with Writer's Block?)
I'm going to be running my Trek game in the near future (like, next week). I have the premise for the next adventure, I have an idea of what's going to happen to start the adventure off, but I can't work our how to tie things up and finish it. (I never claimed to be a good Narrator... )
What do you guys do when this happens? How do you beat Writer's Block?
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A couple of comments to throw in times of stress to that person who's really annoying you...
"Oohhh. Did I just step on your itty-bitty ego?"
"How many times do I have to flush before you go away?"
The best way, of course, is talking to someone. Like here.
I had the same sort of problem recently. I'be been working on a "SliderTrek" adventure, but I needed not only a good way to START my crew's adventure, but that start had to also contain the means of stopping it.
Fortunately, I am possessed of an extremely rare and precious resource... a girlfriend who is a Trek fan. And who is also (Holmesian semi-bragging) my equal in creativity and intelligence. She found me a way, in an astonishingly short amount of time. Thank God she isn't one of my players!
NOW, I've got to find a way to get my normally-cautious crew out and adventuring unstead of staying right next to the anomaly as soon as they come out of it.
I get writer's block sometimes as well. It's tough to come up with a new adventure each time.
I've been thinking lately since I have two new players I might reuse some of my old adventures and see how these PCs would handle the mission. I'm wondering if the outcome would be the same.
I guess I'm Un-Canadian: No Beer, No Hockey, No Paul Martin!
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656
When ever I suffer the writer's block problem I usually start with music. It is surprising the volume of stuff I have written listening to Enya.
With music playing I move to the visuals. For example, I'm now into a story sequence involving the Kzinti. It all started when someone e-mailed me a pic that I had previously scanned for a friend. The Kzin do not exist in my game universe but the Man-Kzin Wars novels are fairly popular with my group. It had to happen. Looking through pictures that I have collected can often give the idea of either the hook or conclusion of the episode. Spacewreck and Starcraft 2000 to 2100 AD have given me at least 3-5 episodes.
The next thing that I have come to use over the last while are ideas from this board. Whether or not I agree with what is posted it usually creates a spark of an idea. AslanC's campaign, which has caused me some difficulties because of a certain lurker, gave me the how I was going to bring in the Kzinti. Of course because of the bizarre way my mind works, no one will see the connection.
Reading! I have been inspired to create stories from something as small as a passage from related or unrelated books. The infamous Caius Ostorius Rufus came from a very intense scene in a book where I wondered how it would be different if an undisciplined, irreverent rogue was present.
For me, music sets the mood. Visuals, pictures or text spark the idea.
Game-Writer's block. Hmmm, I go to the gaming bookshelves and pull something at random off of them. (The advantage of having 6 7'x4' bookshelves with gaming product on them ) I'll think, "How could I change this to fit?" And then, after a while, I'll end up thinking either, "I can do better than this", and make something up or, "Cool, let's run with it."
I also like using music to spark the initial idea, my personal faves are Megadeth (if you're aiming for something combat oriented), Peter Gabriel (political,social) and Parliament/Funkadelic/P-Funk/George Clinton (just because I like them )
If I feel I'm able, I'll ask for help. My wife is a player, so I can only discuss in vague details. I'd probably post something on a couple of boards I lurk on and see if someone else can help.
If I can't come up with a good idea for an adventure I usually just wait until one of those "creative particles" hits me that zipp around the universe all the time. No serious: For me it works best when I don't try to break a "writers-block". I just try not to think about it and get my head free. After a time the thoughts start to flow again and I can come up with something usefull.
I'd say the second best thing is to talk to someone. I seldom use other peoples ideas as they are for my adventures, but it helps to get you back on track.
In the end I guess you just have to find out what works best for you by trying out some of the options mentioned in the above posts.
Oh, by the way: I'm in the same situation right now. Got to run an adventure tomorrow and I know precisely what's gonna happen, but I have no idea why these things happen in the adventure, ie what's causing them.
I'll just start the game with the situation I want to tell and then see what theories about the "why?" and "how?" my players come up with. I'm sure they will think of something I can work into the adventure
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"To seek, to strive, to find and not to yield" - Alfred Tennyson
Writer's block is pretty easy to overcome. The solution? Keep writing. I've been running a Deep Space 9 game for over 8 months now. We play each Saturday. Usually, I have a general idea on what I want to do. That morning, I sit down and just start to write down thoughts for the game and things that could happen. Those thoughts turn into plots and NPCs. Sometimes I will throw in some last minute improv into a game if I think of something that would work well.
Seriously, the key is to keep writing. If you write a little everyday, it will probably help you out in the long run.
I know this is gonna sound bizarre, but I find the best thing I can do if I get writer's block is to take a long, hot shower.
Don't put music on, don't sing - just have a shower and spend a lot of time standing there with the water on you - I have a pseudoscientific explanation that the hot water causes vasodilation, increasing the blood supply to my brain!
For whatever reason, it works wonders with me! Might be worth a try!
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"May I find you with peace, and leave you with hope."
One of the 'tried and true' methods for any writer is involving yourself in mundane and/or repetative tasks.
A long drive usually does the trick for me; albeit, it gives me problems with retention since I obvioulsy can't write down my ideas as they come to me! I suppose I shall have to break down and buy a hand-held recorder someday...
Some of my other writer friends use stationary bicycles, weight lifting, yard work, and knitting to inspire; but I must admit to bing to lazy for most of those.
A second technique that has been useful to me is doing 'morning writings;' but they are more of a disciplinary/preventative nature, and the technique isn't always able to provide you with the immediate results you might need.
Morning Writing is done the *very*first*thing* when you get up. you must write continuously, without pause, for a set period of time, generally 2-4 minutes, filling as many pages as it takes. It is a free-associative excercise that is designed to force you to deal with the issues that block your creativity first thing in the day. It works very well, espescially if you do it over a period of weeks or months. Occaisionally, you will get flashes of inspiration in doing this; but you'll be surprised that, more often than not, your day-to-day issues come pouring out, directly and indirectly.
Having dealt with those issues, your mind is free to create.
In a similar vein, how do you all go about actually writing an adventure ?
Do you have to have everything written or typed out precisely, organised like a published adventure, or do you write bits down on scraps of paper and work from there. Personally, I used to spend weeks writing everything out, but I never used to get anything done, so now I've started using the adventure template idea from the DS9 core book. So far it's worked great, and cuts down on the paperwork I need to hand to run a game.
HELP! (or: How do you cope with Writer's Block?)
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