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As you're surely already aware, this is the 7th anniversary issue of Collector Times. Despite knowing Sheryl for several years prior to CT starting, and being a writer much longer than that, I didn't start writing for CT until it had been around for a year or two. Even so, I've been here for a while and I'm proud to see it pass another milestone.
It's funny to think, but 7 years ago, I really didn't have any tabletop gaming experience. I think I had played one session of Rifts, in which I found myself very confused, and one sort of kind of maybe D&D session. The rest of my roleplaying experience was limited to free form, diceless roleplay. And now here I am writing a column and pretending I know something about all of this roleplaying stuff.
While we're on the subject of anniversaries, I'd just like to say that my husband (on again, off again CT contributor Chris Reid) and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary in March. He's still as wonderful as the day I met him, and still as much fun to RP with. May we live to see ten times as many anniversaries!
All sentimentality aside, I'm here to write a column, so I'd better get cracking.
The other day, I was doing dishes. Now, dishes are far from my favorite thing to do, but there is one nice thing about such inane household chores - my mind is free to wander while my body is occupied with the work. Inspiration strikes at the oddest times, and as my mind was wandering, it wandered straight into a fully-realized book concept. Well, actually, in all fairness, it stumbled across an old story one of my bardically-inclined characters had told in-game years ago, and I realized "Hey, I could turn that into a book."
It was all I could do not to rush over to the computer and start out-lining it right away. I had too many other things on the burner at that point to tackle another writing project. I'm in the middle of a humongous proof-reading project, and I'm 100-something pages into the current story I've been writing for the past year. Oh, plus I have this editor with a bullwhip waiting for columns. Still, the story is there in the back of my mind, tempting me to blow off my column until tomorrow and stay up until 4am setting it up. For that matter, I may yet get started on it before I go to bed tonight (ok, this morning. It's already almost 1am).
This time, I'm determined to do things right. In the past, I've popped open the word processor with nothing more than a fit of frenzied inspiration. I've plopped down a chapter or two, envisioned scenes later in the book - and then wrote myself into a corner. I never take the time to do the important stuff, like character outlines, plot line, oh, and sadly enough, developing the world the story will be set in. And that is why I have a dozen unfinished stories floating around my hard drive.
Thankfully, this new story demands little from its world. In fact, it and the other novel I'm wanting to eventually write can easily be set in the same world. I like that idea, as it allows them to be slightly inter-connected, without either one being a sequel to the other. The idea also has the benefit of meaning that I only need to outline one world, and the less time I spend outlining the world, the more time I can spend writing the story itself. As much as I love world development, I enjoy character development and dialog so much more.
In a way, setting up a world for a book seems like it'll be easier than setting up one for a roleplaying game - I don't need enough challenges for campaign after campaign, just enough for a couple of books. I only need to seriously develop the parts of the world that the stories take place in - since I control the protagonists, I know they're not going to randomly decide to travel to some part of the world that I haven't finished yet.
On the other hand, a roleplaying campaign for half a dozen friends is more forgiving than a novel written for an audience of countless strangers. My world needs to be able to support a story, to stand up to possible critics, to draw in readers. If that isn't pressure, I don't know what is. That ought to kick my perfectionist tendencies into overdrive!
Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to it. All of my recent writing projects (aside from CT columns!) have been background stories set in existing game worlds. While I enjoy writing them, as it helps me develop my characters and my writing skills, I don't like the restrictions of the game canon. The freedom to fit my world to the story, rather than the other way around, is a wonderful thing.
Now if I could just finish up this endless background story, I could feel free to actually start this new project . . .
Tune in next month, when I should honestly be developing a world again! *gasp*
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