This one is adapted from Wenninger. He posits that you don't want to create more right now than you have to; don't lock in details or specifics of your setting until you really need them in place. I tend to think of this as 'breathing room'. Leave room in your worldbuilding for new ideas to have a place to find their way in. When I teach writing, I tell students that they need to intentionally create some time and space between one draft and another. Give it a few days. Take a nap between. Eat a meal. Print out a copy and work on it in a different media. Read it out loud. Do something to see and hear it differently, but (even more important) insert some time between your initial ideas and when you start to lock things down.
I have trained my subconscious to write when I'm not writing. I have learned to go to bed and give my subconscious a task to do: 'okay, I need to figure out that Commonwealth thing'. Then I go to bed, and I don't actively think about it. I just let my subconscious do its thing in its little laboratory.
For example, I've left my understandings of how the Commonwealth is set up pretty loose. I know that they are a police state of sorts, and that they are aggressively colonizing. But, beyond that, I didn't have much. I started noodling a drawing of a dude with a pistol and jet pack just for some spot art, but as I drew, the design started to get me thinking of the Mandalorian, Storm Troopers, and Judge Dredd, and suddenly I had a fit. My subconscious timer dinged, and revealed what it had been working on.
Out in the Pale, the Commonwealth dispatches Centurions who are independent judges, able to enforce the law. They have considerable latitude and power. So, back to yesterday - they are ripe with corruption.
Consequently, we've got poor Lieutenant Vex Kalar, who signed up because he wanted to make a difference in the Pale, and who wants to make sure that justice is served and that people see why the ways of the Commonwealth are the best ways to live. But, he is surrounded by a bunch of jerks who wear the same uniform, but who use their badges and titles to get rich and live lives of excess. Will he be able to change his ranks from within? Will he leave the Centurions? Will he be arrested for treason when he refuses to do the wrong thing? Will he lead a rebellion? Something else entirely?
I have no idea. I'm confident my subconscious will let me know when it figures it out.
Have you ever read Starship Troopers - not the movie which was campy 90210 in Space - but Heinleins book. I think you would find it very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI have not. Thanks for sharing!
DeleteIt's an interesting book. I read it as a teen and enjoyed the action. I read it when I was older and found his political discussion/worldbuilding interesting.
DeleteAs I get older, I like reading things that maybe disagree with or challenge my political beliefs a bit. I am curious how 'the other side' thinks through some things. I listened to the first five minutes of the audio book yesterday, and already like it. I've never read any Heinlein, but we have a similar cadence to our language. He approaches things like I do. Or, since he is the more accomplished writer, I guess I should say I approach things like he does. :)
DeleteLt. Kalar faces an interesting conundrum.
ReplyDeleteI've used this as a hook in the core rules. He's going to be an NPC that the PCs can run into - he is friends (maybe more) with the guild master who is the default patron for the PCs, so he could send missions their way on the down low that he either cannot or should not personally intervene with. In my solo play, he's just going to go ahead and take some risks (otherwise, no story for me), but I'm going to also adapt his adventures for game materials. At least, that's the plan for now.
DeleteSounds great. I look forward to seeing it, if that's what you end up doing.
DeleteAnd out of all of this subconscious bubbling toil and roiling trouble was born: a really intriguing protagonist with a compelling inner conflict! Nice!
ReplyDeleteI find that solo play is akin to a group of actors using improv to workshop a play idea, or a band riffing for ten minutes live to try out a new song idea. It's a spontaneous way to generate ideas that more traditional 'sit down and write this out' won't always give me.
Delete