Step 6: Roll dice and write about it
It's 11 pm and I'm going to work on the novels till I fall asleep, but otherwise truthfully I ran a game of Dungeons and Dragons for my regular group and below's a story set in that world. It was a nine-hour session. I do that.
I love it.
Matt Mercer of Critical Role has given DnD a lot of positive exposure. That's cool man.
Why is this relevant?
I'm writing a fantasy novel in my own made up world. That's one of the three novels, Children of the Pantheon. I'm debating whether to put up the prologue/first chapter. Running DnD games is excellent training for a fantasy novel. Many popular ones were written about campaigns the writers actually ran. This is what I'm telling myself. Though Children of the Pantheon is set in an entirely new world I'm developing.
Fantasy's for fantasy lovers, so check out the story below only if fantasy's your speed. It's a sort of piece you'd find in an appendix, truth be told. Not so much plot, more of an encounter.
The story below is set in my DnD campaign. The wiki I've made for the campaign is...extensive. Dozens of cities, towns, ruins, hundreds of characters- crazy, crazy shit, built over years. Treatises on law, culture, random poems...I want to bring the same level of detail to the fantasy novel. So I've been working on the wiki for that for a while.
The story below is about someone investigating what a "fire elemental" might be. They sought out an expert on the subject, of sorts- a shaman on a remote mountaintop. You don't really need to know anything in advance. The names are of obscure gods. That said, if you are familiar with the standard DnD milieu you might catch a lot of references
It's day 6, and the blog is 80% complete. Tomorrow I hope to get it fully online. Til then write every day, all day. Write on, write on.
(2500 words 8-11 mins)