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Month: February 2015

Writers Use Character Sheets, Too: Tracking The Present State

Writers Use Character Sheets, Too: Tracking The Present State

You may need a few… hundred of these… Anyone familiar with pen-and-paper roleplaying games (RPGs) has spent a few hours, and plowed through a few packs of cookies and soda, to set up character sheets. Character sheets define the starting state of a character, and allow a player to track how that state changes throughout the roleplaying campaign. Most character sheets are daunting to the first-time player, because there’s so much to track. What does the character look like? What…

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Create Tension With Obstacles

Create Tension With Obstacles

What is tension, exactly? Tension is the heightening of stakes in some way. I like to think of it as a dangling carrot in front of the protagonist. You never want to give them the carrot right away. They should reach, and strain, and work- even suffer- for it. Meanwhile, the audience watches with bated breath, and ideally roots for the protagonist to triumph. Obstacles must stand between the protagonist and what they want. If there are no obstacles, it’s…

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The Ups And Downs Of Deadlines

The Ups And Downs Of Deadlines

I mentioned word count goals a while back, the advantages and disadvantages of working with them. Now I’ll do the same with another go-to progress and motivation method: deadlines. Deadlines Are Great Deadlines can help you break down a huge, impossible-seeming goal- like novel-writing- into manageable chunks, and provide a timeframe for getting it done. They also give you that kick in the rear you need to stop procrastinating and start writing. We tend to prioritize tasks with due dates…

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Create What YOU Love

Create What YOU Love

I learned something neat this week about the song Mother, by Danzig. If you don’t remember it, take a moment to refresh yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgSn0SbQJQI When Glenn Danzig released this song in 1988, it didn’t get much attention. It wasn’t until 6 years later that the song became a hit. In a 1994 interview, Danzig had this to say regarding Mother: It was the song I always wanted to write. … But I never wrote that song to make it a…

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