Some months ago I wrote a post about 10 Quick Unpretentious Tips for Writing RPG Material and promised to elaborate more on each tip. Well, I started doing that, so here it goes!
1. If you want to write RPG material, just do it! Don’t wait for inspiration!
Inspiration is fleeting. It comes and goes. You can, and should, write down every idea inspiration brings you, but that won’t be enough.
Set Goals
The most important thing is to sit down and write. Write everyday. Put goals for your writing. Star small. 200 words per day. 300 words. 500. A thousand! And keep at it. Make it a routine. A game. Everyday you clear your goal, mark an X on your calendar.
Physical Imagination
Writing, putting ideas on paper, will kickstart your imagination to have new ideas. The first words you write don't need to be great. They probably won’t be. That’s fine. Nobody’s first work is a best seller. As you write, as you put your writing muscles to use, they will kickstart your imagination. Maybe you will have to write 500 bad words to make 100 good ones. But this ration will get better with time.
Begin Boring
Some will say that if you’re not writing interesting content you shouldn’t even bother writing. Ignore these people. Don’t be afraid to begin boring. Have fun writing, even boring stuff. You have to like what you’re creating to make the best of it. Passion is contagious and it will appear on paper. If your work starts boring. Write over it and put a layer of less boring stuff over it. Then do it again. And again and again. But don’t look for perfection. Done is better than perfect. The next one will be better. Just keep writing.
Never Stop
Never be satisfied with one idea. One creation. We are never as original as we think we are. Always want more. To create more. Don’t worry if you are not a prodigious writer either. Not everyone can be a genius but everyone contributes to the community. Science isn’t made only by Einsteins. Neither RPGs.
Create What You Want to See Created
Above all else, create what you want to see created. Some people will tell you the world doesn’t need more RPGs of this sort or of that genre. This could very well be said 10 years ago, and great games were created since then. Create what YOU want to play! You will never please everybody, so make sure it pleases you. People that resonate with your style will find your material.
A last piece of advice. Creative people should focus more on having ambition, not expectations. Expectations make us feel we should be better. Ambition makes we want to be better.