The original planned topic for tonight was “World Building — Festivals, Holidays, and Cultural Touchstones” but I feel like I covered that fairly well just a few nights ago with Celebrations. I might be able to cite more examples in popular stories, but I think it would be more fun to talk about one of my favorite inspirations for stories: gaming.

It is no secret that The Repossessed Ghost is ultimately inspired by a roleplaying game I played in over twenty years ago. My character was Mel, and while he’s a bit different in the book from that game, his voice and attitude are relatively close to what I remember from when I first started playing him.

During the game, I wrote a couple of short stories starring Mel. They weren’t particularly interesting, but it proved to me early on that I could craft a narrative with Mel in the starring role. Long after the game died, Mel remained in my head, begging to be put into his own story. Then with NaNoWriMo 2013, I let him loose. I de-aged him a little and took him back to the very beginning. He did not disappoint me.

So far, Mel is the only character I’ve fully translated from a game to a book, but there are other characters rattling around in my head. There is a trilogy of fantasy stories I would like to write that will feature some of my favorite characters I’ve ever played. It will be a while before I work on that story again, but I trust those voices to be ready when I call for them.

Gaming allows the writer to test out characters in a fun, low-risk way. In the game I was playing earlier today, I’m testing out someone named Connor Smith, a gay blacksmith turned pirate after falling in love with a man that swept him off his feet and whisked him away on adventure. Connor lost his one true love to sirens, and has now found himself the captain of another ship, sailing the Caribbean and trying to avoid dragons. I’m not sure Connor will make it into any of my stories, but I’m having fun with him, and his voice becomes more clear to me every time we get together to play.

Most of my gaming experience is as a player. As a player, I narrow my focus to the narratives, motivations, and voice of a particular character. At the same time, I practice “yes, and” with the other players at the table, while we share the spotlight and create stories together. When running a game, the writer can practice world building and narrative structures, building frameworks that allow the characters to make interesting decisions and drive the plot. These are all skills a writer should hone, whether they play roleplaying games or not.

Gaming does not have to be used to practice writing skills. Writers are going to do that on their own, and the games involved don’t have to be traditional tabletop roleplaying games. I found out this last weekend that my publisher used to play City of Heroes the way I did. Running around in Paragon City, he and his friends would get inspired to write short stories for their characters.

Writers can be inspired by anything, but I find that gaming is particularly good at inspiring narratives, especially when the game leaves you room to fill in the gaps with your own stories.

Michael Gallowglas reminded me recently of the best writing advice he received, which is to live an interesting life so you have things to write about. I believe gaming is a part of that. It’s hard to go out in real life and pull off a heist, or ride a dragon, or slay an evil monarch, or learn to use your psychic abilities to save the world, but that’s the bread and butter of games. And though the events in a game are not real, the emotions those games generate are real, which can make your writing that much more authentic.