stories

The time my mind is most active is right before sleep. The joy of my head hitting the pillow at night is undeniable, but the flash of images and ideas that fly through at that moment is enough to keep anyone awake. How do I navigate this? Well, I don’t really.

I let those thoughts just play out. Perhaps there is a good story to be written, or another plot hook to throw at my players. Sometimes my thoughts turn into mini-movies that play out in my imagination, while others just nag until I get up and write them down. As these go flying about, I do my best to discern which can be used for novels versus those used for a campaign.

Often the characters (PCs and NPCs) take center stage in these ideas. Watching a plot unfold before me, I gain a deeper understanding of my own, make-believe world. I am able to plan out where they may go and what may happen, usually over a couple different options (of course, there is always the possible third option only a player will come up with…nothing is foolproof). Anything they don’t encounter gets put in the tool box for later.

When other characters are involved, this takes on a whole other level. I can usually glean from this a new protagonist for my story, and an antagonist to go with it. Plots and schemes run rampant about how internal and external issues could be resolved. This is the imagination where a novel is born.

If you find yourself thinking about characters, plots, locations, or even aspects of these, consider writing them down. Who knows, you may also come up with a novel. Or, perhaps, gain more confidence in running a homebrew world yourself.