Today I came across a Kickstarter campaign for a role playing game. The reason I found it was because someone had posted about its…uniqueness in one of the board game groups I’m apart of on Facebook. The RPG campaign is essentially shrouded in mystery, complete with pen-on-paper art drawings (from when the creator was apparently 12 years old), little to no information about the lore or gameplay, and an ego to fill a small moon (or space station). Every Kickstarter for tabletop games I’ve seen have had rules, game overview, characters, background, components, at least some actual artwork, and more. This one? Not even the game’s name was consistent on the Kickstarter title as on the project itself.
I honestly hope the campaign is a scam, because otherwise, I fear for the creator. While on that page, I cruised the comments section and felt a little bad for the guy for all the hate he was getting. But then he started attacking those people who were asking questions (not a good public relations strategy), so I didn’t feel as bad. But then I read one of his responses, and it got me thinking. Here’s what he said:
The thing that caught my attention in this response was that, “for a period of a few years [he] didn’t even watch any Sci-Fi or read.”
Now, whether this guy is trying to scam people or not is no longer relevant to this blog post. What I want to talk about it the “not reading for years” part. As a writer, it is imperative to read. Reading–whether within my genre or not–is research. I need to know the all-too-common tropes in order to avoid them. Or, I can find what nifty bit of writing worked well and learn from it. Ideas are limitless, and while I can understand this creator’s perspective, evading reading because he didn’t want his inspiration to be untarnished isn’t the most effective strategy. In fact, reading good books can help inspiration.
I don’t write this to poke fun at the guy (I even refrained from linking to the campaign or using his name), but I found it a relatively amusing lesson on how writers of genre fiction do research. I can’t go out and study dragons at my local zoo because they don’t exist! But seeing how others write about not just dragons, but monsters and creatures in general, can help inspire more creative beasts in my universe. In the end, it is difficult (although not impossible) to be an extraordinary writer without reading books.
Anyway, that was just a thought I had while perusing the comments section of that particular Kickstarter campaign. Tell me in the comments of some of your study methods for your writing!