As a parent, I am amazed by the imagination my kids have. They can invent a game with sticks and rocks. The other day they used colored counters for homeschooling to do a rudimentary role-playing game. They had armies with weapons and they were rolling dice to determine if someone was hit or not.
I was impressed by their set-up. I hadn’t really explained role-playing games to them, and to see them coming up with one on their own was cool. I had thought about doing a Star Wars RPG with them when they were older, but they may well be ready.
As I write, my history of role-playing as a teenager has been a real benefit in creating my characters. I read writing books that talked about writing up a history for my characters, including a description and abilities. No problem! I almost wanted to pull out a character sheet and go to town.
The imagination used in role-playing is not too far from writing. The trick is that in a RPG game, there is a “gamemaster”, someone who knows the scenario and what should happen at certain times and places. As the players advance their characters into a dungeon, they may find a treasure chest filled with gold or booby-trapped with a spell that turns them into owls (Why owls? Why not?).
As a writer, I have an outline on paper or a basic plan of where I’m going with the plot and characters. However, I am acting as gamemaster and player. Sometimes I know where I’m going, and other times I surprise myself. One of my secondary characters is a missionary, and one day I stumbled onto the fact that he and his wife have some tension because he struggles with a “wandering eye.” Not a good thing for a missionary to have, but it makes him a deeper person with battles, not just a saint who never sins.
I’m not suggesting writers pick up Dungeons and Dragons to work on their writing (I’m not a fan of D&D myself – had some bad episodes playing). However, if we can think in a role-playing way, I think we’ll find more to our characters or plot than if we make them do what we want. Take away the outline for a minute, set a character in a circumstance, and then act as they would. If they come across the locked chest, are they going to run to it and bash the lock open without another thought, or are they going to give it a once-over before proceeding?
I wouldn’t recommend rolling dice for every plot twist, but I think you get the idea. Any other thoughts on this?
As a parent, I am amazed by the imagination my kids have. They can invent a game with sticks and rocks. The other day they used colored counters for homeschooling to do a rudimentary role-playing game. They had armies with weapons and they were rolling dice to determine if someone was hit or not.
I was impressed by their set-up. I hadn’t really explained role-playing games to them, and to see them coming up with one on their own was cool. I had thought about doing a Star Wars RPG with them when they were older, but they may well be ready.
As I write, my history of role-playing as a teenager has been a real benefit in creating my characters. I read writing books that talked about writing up a history for my characters, including a description and abilities. No problem! I almost wanted to pull out a character sheet and go to town.
The imagination used in role-playing is not too far from writing. The trick is that in a RPG game, there is a “gamemaster”, someone who knows the scenario and what should happen at certain times and places. As the players advance their characters into a dungeon, they may find a treasure chest filled with gold or booby-trapped with a spell that turns them into owls (Why owls? Why not?).
As a writer, I have an outline on paper or a basic plan of where I’m going with the plot and characters. However, I am acting as gamemaster and player. Sometimes I know where I’m going, and other times I surprise myself. One of my secondary characters is a missionary, and one day I stumbled onto the fact that he and his wife have some tension because he struggles with a “wandering eye.” Not a good thing for a missionary to have, but it makes him a deeper person with battles, not just a saint who never sins.
I’m not suggesting writers pick up Dungeons and Dragons to work on their writing (I’m not a fan of D&D myself – had some bad episodes playing). However, if we can think in a role-playing way, I think we’ll find more to our characters or plot than if we make them do what we want. Take away the outline for a minute, set a character in a circumstance, and then act as they would. If they come across the locked chest, are they going to run to it and bash the lock open without another thought, or are they going to give it a once-over before proceeding?
I wouldn’t recommend rolling dice for every plot twist, but I think you get the idea. Any other thoughts on this?
As if I didn’t have enough to do in life, I am now a guest columnist for the Post Register in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
They put out a call for local columnists a few weeks ago, so I threw my hat into the ring. Time went by and I almost forgot about it, but I finally got an email saying I had been chosen among seven others from a group of thirty-five. I was impressed that we had so many people wanting to try this out, and was pleasantly surprised to make the cut.
I found that writing a column for the newspaper is different from writing fiction and even blogging. The fiction bit is obvious, but blogging is still about my opinion on things. Since the audience is different, I do need to change things to catch their attention. My only guidelines were to try and focus on local items and “not get [the newspaper] sued.” That should be doable.
It is exciting and a little scary. Most of you in the blogosphere are far away. The people who read this paper are in my neighborhood. What will be the fallout from what I have to say?
My first column will be in print tomorrow [Actually moved to Sat, 10/8]. Unfortunately, it requires a subscription to view online, but for those who are suckers for punishment motivated, contact me for a work around. —
As if I didn’t have enough to do in life, I am now a guest columnist for the Post Register in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
They put out a call for local columnists a few weeks ago, so I threw my hat into the ring. Time went by and I almost forgot about it, but I finally got an email saying I had been chosen among seven others from a group of thirty-five. I was impressed that we had so many people wanting to try this out, and was pleasantly surprised to make the cut.
I found that writing a column for the newspaper is different from writing fiction and even blogging. The fiction bit is obvious, but blogging is still about my opinion on things. Since the audience is different, I do need to change things to catch their attention. My only guidelines were to try and focus on local items and “not get [the newspaper] sued.” That should be doable.
It is exciting and a little scary. Most of you in the blogosphere are far away. The people who read this paper are in my neighborhood. What will be the fallout from what I have to say?
My first column will be in print tomorrow [Actually moved to Sat, 10/8]. Unfortunately, it requires a subscription to view online, but for those who are suckers for punishment motivated, contact me for a work around. —
It is always a good idea to read critically, even if what you read is something very well researched.
Like the Bible.
This is a little different from my usual topics, but I wanted to share something I saw today. I was reading in Proverbs today in the New International Version (NIV) on Bible Gateway. This is what Proverbs 10:22 says: The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, without painful toil for it.
I did a double take at that. That sounded like a prosperity gospel verse. I had never noticed it before, but I wondered about the translation of it.
I checked some other translations at Bible Gateway (very easy to do, that’s why I recommend it), and this is what I got: It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, And He adds no sorrow to it. (NASB)
The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it. (NKJV)
The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. (NLT)
The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. (ESV – adds a note that an alternate reading is “and toil adds nothing to it”)
I think the other readings matching up suggests that the NIV isn’t the best reading in this instance. I don’t know Hebrew, but I wish I did so I could go to the original text. When we rely on translation, there is some interpretation involved by those doing the work. Every version is going to have verses where it the translation is skewed a little.
This doesn’t put doubt on the Bible. It is an issue of trying to convey thoughts in English (or whatever language) from Hebrew. What it tells us is that we need to read critically and realize that we shouldn’t rely on one translation when we study the Bible. The NIV version of 10:22 reads a lot differently to me than the others, and it didn’t match up with other parts of the Bible that speak of working hard. We don’t shut off our brains when we read anything, especially God’s Word. Yes, I believe in inspiration and the leading of the Holy Spirit, but He also gave us minds for a reason.
