How It Came To Be
“At least it can’t be worse than ’50 Shades of Gray’ or ‘Twilight,’” I thought, and that was the beginning of the project.
Whenever my wife and I watch a TV show or movie, I’m usually the first to figure out “whodunnit.” I often figure it out before the end of the first episode based on the ‘Chekov’s Gun’ rule1.
After the umpteenth time I ruined the movie in the first 10 minutes, my wife said, “You should write stories.”
At first I had zero interest. I never thought about myself as a creative writer. Plus, all the worst grades I got in high school and college were from any class that required writing.
But the idea had taken root.
Eventually I thought, “If I did write something, what would it be like?”
The genre was obvious: cyberpunk. I love the world of cybernetics, integrated neural circuitry, the wizard-like powers of hacking and net-diving.
There was just one issue: narrative.
While I might be able to guess someone else’s story ends, I’m absolute garbage at making a narrative that’s anywhere near interesting.
Enter TTRPGs
Then I found solo rpgs.
I made a video about my discovery, and how it rekindled a love I had for rpgs that I first experienced in college.
Before long I had a flash of insight: every tool that helps you plan an interesting campaign can also help an author programmatically develop a storyline.
This solved everything.
Now, all I have to do is “play” the story into existence. Set up the initial conditions2 and set the whole thing in motion.
From that point, it’s relatively easy to see it all unfold. The main creative exercise for me, then, is making sense out of all the craziness and chaos that happens in the early parts of the adventure.
Narrative structure, meaning-making, and story design is a topic for another day.
Hopefully this helps you appreciate the project a bit better; looking forward to having you along for the ride!