What Roleplaying Games Taught Me About Writing

Lessons From Roleplaying: Collaborative, Playful Storytelling

[A previous version of this craft article was originally posted in the Retreat West Community, during my time as Community Writer-in-Residence.]

Even if you know nothing about roleplaying games, you've probably heard of Dungeons & Dragons, but what you may not know is that there's more to roleplaying than just D&D.

I've been a roleplayer for more than 20 years. I started on tabletop games, where a group of friends play out a story and (usually) roll multi-sided dice to determine the outcome of actions, and later moved to live action roleplay (LARP) events, in which you get dressed up as your character and act out the scenarios.

LARP events range in size and duration from a few hours for small groups, up to weekend or week-long 'fest-style' gatherings for hundreds or even thousands of people. Both tabletop and LARP games come in many genres; fantasy, science fiction, horror, historical, and more.

Over the years, I've learnt a lot about what makes a good story in roleplaying, and I think much of this can be applied to writing too. I've written this article with writers who may not have any experience of roleplaying in mind, but I hope roleplayers with an interest in writing may also find it useful!

Telling Old Stories in New Ways

Writing Retellings of Fairy Tales and Myths

[A previous version of this craft article was originally posted in the Retreat West Community, during my time as Community Writer-in-Residence.]

Retellings of old or traditional stories are extremely popular; you can find them in the form of novels, TV shows, movies, and also in the world of short/flash fiction. In a Reader’s Digest article titled 'Why do we love retellings of old stories?' (sadly no longer available online), journalist Kate Townshend speculated as to why:

There’s an argument that says the best stories, the ones that take root in our imaginations, lend themselves to retellings as we turn them over in our minds, digging deeper and deeper in order to reach the underlying “truth” of a tale. Perhaps this is why fairytales have long been a genre particularly ripe for retellings.

But what makes a good retelling, and how can you approach writing one? For me there are two key elements; having a good knowledge and understanding of the story you want to retell, and finding an approach that means your version of that story says something new.

Advent Story 2023 - Bianca's Tale

In December I decided to write a story day-by-day on social media (posted on Bluesky, Instagram, and Facebook each day), for advent. Having completed the tale on Christmas Eve, I'm collating the whole thing here - and it starts like this...

It was winter, and the naked trees reached for the cold sky with twisted fingers. Bianca had wrapped up warm but the chill crept in around the edges of her clothes and worried at her skin. She knew it would get worse before it got better, for the night was only just beginning.

Lit Mag Advent A-Z: The Full List

So I had an idea for a series of Twitter advent posts of stories/poems I love from different online lit mags, and for an added challenge I figured is could be an A-Z (so would actually end on Boxing Day). They are all on Twitter under the hashtag #LitMagAdventAtoZ, but if you missed any of them they are all listed here as well, for completeness.

I dug back into stories I had bookmarked in the past, so they are not all from 2022, although some of them are. Quite impressed I managed the whole alphabet, considering I didn't have a full list prepped when I started. And some letters had more choices that others, so the number of pieces/lit mags featured each day ranged from 1 to 5.

Anyway, without further ado, here they all are...

September-November Reading Round-Up

Still playing catch up from the end of 2020 here, so you get three months' worth of online bookmarked loveliness for the price of one. Lucky you!

(I started reading several new books over this period, but didn't actually finish any of them. There'll be one in my post about December though, coming soon...)

Anyway, here's what I do have to share with you:

August Reading Round-Up

Can't believe it's nearly 2021! And here I am backtracking all the way to August... but in August I did a lot of reading 😊 I finished three whole actual books, and bookmarked a whole bunch of great stuff I found online!

First, the books...

July Reading Round-Up

Playing catch up again, because life has got away from me a bit recently... No books in July, but I can tell you there will *definitely* be finished books in my August post! And yes, that's books - plural 😃📚

Anyway, here's what I read and bookmarked online in July: