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Working on an RP to book series project... and stuck.

Context: So some friends and I have been roleplaying in this fantasy world created by one of our group for a while and one day we decided, "Hey, let's turn all this into actual novels!" and for about a month now we've been cracking down on canonizing lore and other stuff as well as adapting our characters stories from the RP format of storytelling to one that fits books. My character's story has the most RP text to sort through since most of it is still canon, whereas my friends are having to start from almost nothing because of canon changes and lack of rp text material, and I've almost got it all sorted out.

Problem: In terms of pacing, I need more material for the book. I need more stuff for my character to do so the pacing isn't as fast-paced as it originally was in the RP. I have found myself a bit blank on ideas concerning this (and this doesn't happen often with my other projects, but this is an interesting case for me,) and so I'm wondering if you guys have any thoughts on this and methods that might help me out with this issue on this project?
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
Good luck with your project! There have been a lot of books published this way, and most of the time it's obvious to the reader because the character party looks shoehorned together. There's a good chance that'll be one of the bigger challenges you face.

As for the smaller, more intimate moments, the first thing to consider is your character's backgrounds and their more personal goals. Most people have others in their lives that they want to impress, or never see again, or wish they could reach out to but won't. People have hobbies, tell anecdotes, or hold on to keepsakes. People have "hidden traits" that only come out when they're stressed, and a strange list of things that stresses them out more than you'd expect. Any of those could be used to take time to slow down the plot and develop the characters.
 
Good luck with your project! There have been a lot of books published this way, and most of the time it's obvious to the reader because the character party looks shoehorned together. There's a good chance that'll be one of the bigger challenges you face.

As for the smaller, more intimate moments, the first thing to consider is your character's backgrounds and their more personal goals. Most people have others in their lives that they want to impress, or never see again, or wish they could reach out to but won't. People have hobbies, tell anecdotes, or hold on to keepsakes. People have "hidden traits" that only come out when they're stressed, and a strange list of things that stresses them out more than you'd expect. Any of those could be used to take time to slow down the plot and develop the characters.

Thank you! And actually, we've mostly bypassed the whole "group looks shoehorned together" thing by writing separate novels for each character (two books per character and there are three characters, one for each of us, and then one big final book ending the whole series) and they sometimes crossover but follow their own personal stories since they are a part of a different aspect of the story as a whole. Kinda like switching between characters in a single book, but with whole novels until the final book.

And this has the mental writing gears turning again so thank you, again, for this amazing advice!
 

summondice

Scribe
As an rper myself who was long in this same predicament... I'd suggest focusing on the story itself and its pacing first... Get your milestones down, and then work on getting your character from one point to the next. Once you get your milestones (look up the 11 stages of plot, something like that, and use that as a guide :)), then you can focus on *showing* how your character is getting from A to B to C. This is where your role playing background truly comes in handy.

If you take this approach, I think you might find that your questions and obstacles will be much more specific to situations than trying to come up with extraneous material that may or may not come into play at all.

Get the first drafts out, then see where you have consistency issues within the world - it's very easy for good projects to die because the authors get overwhelmed or lost in the world-building :)

Best of luck and may your group roll nat 20s throughout this process!
 
As an rper myself who was long in this same predicament... I'd suggest focusing on the story itself and its pacing first... Get your milestones down, and then work on getting your character from one point to the next. Once you get your milestones (look up the 11 stages of plot, something like that, and use that as a guide :)), then you can focus on *showing* how your character is getting from A to B to C. This is where your role playing background truly comes in handy.

If you take this approach, I think you might find that your questions and obstacles will be much more specific to situations than trying to come up with extraneous material that may or may not come into play at all.

Get the first drafts out, then see where you have consistency issues within the world - it's very easy for good projects to die because the authors get overwhelmed or lost in the world-building :)

Best of luck and may your group roll nat 20s throughout this process!
Thank you for advice on using the perspective of milestones instead of creating more material! I'll be sure to let me group know as it this will help us out quite a bit (especially the other two since they have far less material than I do ;) )

Again, thank you!
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
Pacing is a fascinating issue for anyone, and it can never be right for everybody. For Eve of Snows, I’ve heard too slow, too fast, perfect balance... in the framework of, “I was hooked from chapter 1” to “It took a third of the book to really get going” to “never got into it”. Not enough detail, too much detail... the list is endless, heh heh.

But pacing... I don’t know if it’ll help, but it certainly could: study structure. Take a look at 3-act structure and the heroe’s journey in general, then study up on The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne in particular. If you nail these three down, you are a long way toward a functioning book, and not just a mishmash.

Scene-Sequel: Most RP sessions I recall are light on sequel.
 
Pacing is a fascinating issue for anyone, and it can never be right for everybody. For Eve of Snows, I’ve heard too slow, too fast, perfect balance... in the framework of, “I was hooked from chapter 1” to “It took a third of the book to really get going” to “never got into it”. Not enough detail, too much detail... the list is endless, heh heh.

But pacing... I don’t know if it’ll help, but it certainly could: study structure. Take a look at 3-act structure and the heroe’s journey in general, then study up on The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne in particular. If you nail these three down, you are a long way toward a functioning book, and not just a mishmash.

Scene-Sequel: Most RP sessions I recall are light on sequel.
I am familiar with the three-act structure and the classic hero's journey, but I have never heard of The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne before now and so I shall certainly check it out!

Thank you for your help!
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
Which only makes me think of the line from Ratatouille... “One can get too familiar with the vegetables, you know.”

I am familiar with the three-act structure and the classic hero's journey, but I have never heard of The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne before now and so I shall certainly check it out!

Thank you for your help!
 
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