I attended my first board game creation class last night.

It offers a different way of looking at making something from scratch.

And I realized there is considerable crossover between this process and fiction writing.

I also thought of ways to incorporate game creation into my middle grade novel. I think I’ll have the teacher ask kids to write a story and, as they’re writing it, thinking of ways to turn it into a board game. The teacher will hope that it will amp up her writers’  visualization skills and add interesting plot twists and memorable characters with engaging personalities.

I then decided I should try this same approach for my own fiction projects.

This wouldn’t always apply, of course, but for some stories, I might ask myself the following questions:

1. How would my current story play out in game format?

2. Are my characters doing enough to earn a role in this game? [i.e. or are they so boring that I wouldn’t want to include them?]

3. Would my game/story not only provide characters with clear goals, but enough obstacles to make people want to keep playing/reading?

Okay, thanks for reading. I’m always interested to hear if some of these ideas resonate with you.

Ready! Pen in hand? Go!