Roleplaying In Public

One of the great joys about working on a new novel (#6!) is getting to know the new characters. It’s also one of the biggest hurdles to clear before the prose will come together. Until you bond with these imaginary people, writing feels like putting words in their mouths. They say the lines, but after delivering each one they look over at you to see what’s supposed to happen next.

Kent and Jen have a few tricks they use to speed up the getting-acquainted stage with a new cast. Of course there’s tons of discussion and note-taking, filling out character sheets, learning the facts of their backstories. But facts can be dry and uninspiring. To get a richer feel for these characters, Rune Skelley likes roleplaying.

The other night, two characters from Rune’s upcoming sixth book strolled into iHop. Sure they looked like Jen and Kent, but rest assured that’s not who they were. Something even less obvious to casual observers was the temporal distortion bubble: the two individuals conversing across the booth were younger versions of themselves. A phase when they were closer, compared to the present-day events of the novel. When they could relax around each other, just chillin’ and being fictitious at a pancake joint.

Jen and Kent use roleplaying quite a lot. Another new character is a killer with a particular technique, which needed to be, um, road-tested. (A little.) It’s also useful for debugging dialogue and validating motivation, things that can come up in later stages of the writing.

Both Kent and Jen have a bit of theater background, and spent years playing Dungeons & Dragons and other FRPGs. Adopting another persona might be a bit easier because of that experience, but it’s just a matter of practice to get comfortable with it.

A solo author could of course make like Travis Bickle and role play in a mirror, but having a writing partner means you always have a costar on hand to make you feel less ridiculous.

Do you use roleplaying as part of your writing process?