Some of you may know by now that I'm writing an RPG book. I started on it two weeks ago. My plan was to learn how to use Scrivener, which I had bought a couple years ago and hadn't really used yet. It was just a matter of me thinking of something to write about.
For years, I wrote technical manuals. But never any fiction. In a way, RPGs are fiction. A month ago, my train of thought was to write an adventure module for Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition. Then I thought about writing or designing an RPG. That idea turned into writing a book on how to role-play.
Role-play for what though? Using what game system?
Well for starters, I wasn't sure if I could write in the style I wanted to using Scrivener. I looked at other writers RPG books to see what layouts and font styles I liked. I also looked at how chapters and sections were outlined and how the page numbering was shown.
Once I got the page design the way I wanted, I could then start on the actual writing of the book. That has been the fun part so far. In the back of my mind though, I'm not all that thrilled that I've chosen to use software that is primarily used for creating young adult fiction and romance novels. The very technical features of the software hinted that it could be used for creating very technical as well as prose writing. For now, I am just trying for my book to not look like a 15-year-old wrote it.
To that regard, I've given up fighting Scrivener to make it do the things it can't really do. I'll just have to KISS while writing my ideas in the chapters. In the end it will be very easy to read. While at the same time, the role-playing topics will seem very complicated to readers who already think of themselves as role-players.
