Sourcing Inspiration

I recently talked about creativity, now for inspiration. Inspiration is, “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.” (oxforddictionaries.com).

In a previous post I stated, “The point of this is to relay that you already are creative, just like K. is.” (Townsley). Everyone is the sum of their experiences, even the greatest of fiction makers spliced things together. J. R. R. Tolkien defined what we now call the high-fantasy genre. He didn’t make everything up though.  Drawing off a documentary series called Clash of the Gods, Tolkeien took inspiration from ancient mythologies, his religious upbringing, and from his experience in the trenches of WW1. (Tolkien's Monsters). Mixing ideas together doesn’t make a piece unoriginal; it is a crucial aspect of creativity.

How do you become inspired? Simple, take out a pencil, some paper, and jot the first few things that come to your mind. Deceptively easy? Not really, we’re focusing on the first step, which is getting ideas down. It is normal to view the first step with trepidation. This hesitation is known as writer's block. Everyone has their own ritual to get past it, but mine is to simply start vomiting words onto a page and edit later. Chances are you aren’t looking to become the next Tolkien, Pratchett, Lewis, or Martin for a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) gaming session. For now, let us work together on inspiring ourselves to become accustomed to the act of inspiration.

With me, inspiration is a slug, slimy and slow. What I do is keep my phone’s memo app on standby at all times. Once an explosion of ideas hit me, I can contain the conflagration where the heat of creativity cannot escape. Fanciful words aside, any form of journal or record keeping helps. Before switching to the memo, I would throw ideas in texts at my girlfriend. Not just for D&D but anything worth writing or making.

Figure 1: Ideas and Inspiration

The above figure should show that what is written doesn’t have to be elaborate. It should also indicate where one can look for inspiration, anywhere. Want a villain? Why not have them be like your favorite one from a book, or base them off a person you don’t like? Need a setting? What about a world other than D&D's Faerûn?

Speaking of, should you have the Dungeon Master’s Manuel for D&D, you will be delighted by their numerous charts to assist in world and adventure creation, chapter 3 on page 71. I didn't use those aids for my homebrew [custom] world Akura, but I have glanced through the parts on adventures for sidequests to keep my players distracted.

Figure 1: The Dungeons Master’s Guide. Charts from page 73.

My Saturday group mainly cares about killing things rather than story, which allows me to guide them down a linear path without them feeling restricted, so long as fights are plenty and hard. The campaign I’ve started with my friend K. is far more free form. It’s what we in general gamer jargon call a ‘sandbox,’ which means there I no clear goal or path. Maybe minor goals but most are set by the player. That leaves a lot more open, but I did it to get her used to certain other aspects of the game. Specifically, that she has dice to roll, when to roll, and with dice can try anything.

As K. played, I had a journal where I tacked down what she had done and who she met. For instance Thursday 11/24/2016 she ran into a Dryad. K.'s character, Chandra, actually spoke that creature's language. They ended up having a conversation where I made up a personality and an easy quest. I wrote down the highlights of the session incase Chandra was in the area again. The reason was both so I don’t forget, but to work that into an actual narrative later.

I've digressed toward the end with those examples of note taking but let us recap. Inspiration is to be mentally stimulated; more so, gaining it takes some practice. It also helps you gather individual puzzle pieces from past experiences and personal knowledge which can be used to create something later.

Inspiration takes practice; take notes whenever you get an idea.

Works Cited

Crawford, Jeremy, et al. Dungeon Master's Guide. USA: Wizards of the Coast, 2014. Print.

Oxforddictionaries.com. Oxford University Press. 2016. Web. <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/inspiration>. Accessed 11/25/2016.

“Tolkien’s Monsters.” Clash of the Gods: Episode 9. written by Christopher Cassel and Ted Poole. directed by Christopher Cassel. History Channel. 2009.

Townsley, Geoffrey. “Intro to Creativity”. Evitable Boredom. Blogspot, November 19, 2016. Web. <http://evitableboredom.blogspot.com/2016/11/intro-to-creativity.html>. Accessed 11/22/2016.