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Magic Dice
Posted by: morel
So you started out the month strong. You knew where the story was going. Everything was in order. Then it hits and some one in the story asks your MC "What are we going to now?" and the only response you have is "How am I suppose to know?"
If you’re like me it’s probably because you didn’t plan the whole story all the way to the end before you started. You get to the end of what you’ve planned and all you have after that is a blank white screen. To tell you the truth that’s the only way I’ve ever written any kind of long story. I like planing the beginning and the very very end, everything else I come up with as I go. I’ve tried all kinds of tools to help me fill in the gaping holes in my story. Anything from random plot generators online to picking up a book and reading the first sentence I come across to decide where to take the story from here, but the best I’ve found by far are my Magic Dice.
Yes, Magic Dice. I have two of them. One blue, one purple, both ten sided. Why ten sided? Because they look cool (any two dice of equal number would work though). If I come to a place in my story where I need to add a scene, but don’t quite know what to do in it, I pull out my Magic Dice.
The best way to explain how to use a pair of Magic Dice is to give an example: For my last NaNoWriMo novel (all the stories I write are fantasy or sci-fi, by the way) I had a MC that needed to travel from one point on my map to another, a trip that would take several weeks. I wanted something to happen to him on the way down, so I pulled out my Dice.
First roll I asked the Dice whether he should travel by land or by sea. If the blue dice rolled a higher number than he would go by sea, if the purple than by land. To my surprise both dice rolled the same number. So in his journey he has to travel by both land and sea. Next roll I ask if he would run into danger on both (the blue dice) or just one (the purple). The blue dice rolled higher, so I knew he had to run into trouble on both the land and the sea. Then I asked if the danger he ran into was solders of the bad guy or some other creature. The Dice told me that it was another creature.
A magical creature? If blue rolled higher that would mean yes, purple no. Purple rolled higher, so no, it’s not magical.
Attack by land or by air? By air. Bird like creature or something else? Bird like. Are they evil? Yes. Were they sent by the bad guy or were they just living there? The dice told me that these bird creatures just lived there.
So in just a few rolls of my magic dice I knew that my MC was going to pass through a land inhabited by great bird like creatures that like to attack and kill people traveling along the road, but they were not sent by the bad guy. I also figured out that the place he is going to is an island, the only way to fit in the traveling by both land and sea (this actually worked out very well later in the story). I could have asked further and gotten more details from my Dice, but by this time my inspiration was back up and running again so I didn’t really need to.
The only trick to using the Magic Dice is you have to give it two questions that would both work. Don’t ask then if you should kill off a character or not if you really don’t want that character to die. Pick two things you would be willing to write.
And start simple. If you have absolutely no idea what you want to happen then just ask whether your character will be helped or harmed by the next scene. Then explore your way down whichever path comes up.
Even if you decide to toss out most of what you come up with using Magic Dice, it can still get your imagination moving again and keep your word count flowing freely.
Labels: dice generator magic random
14 Jun 2007 16:31:35
Comments
On 14 Jun 2007 16:43:19 Travis said:
I am very much in that situation at the moment. I don't have an ending yet either, since I have no clue how the characters are going to get out of a tough set of circumstances.
Might just take those dice out of the bottom drawer of my desk and give it a go.
On 14 Jun 2007 18:40:11 Andy Chilton said:
Yeah, that sounds like a great way to 'fill-in' and in fact, create an integral part of your story.
I know how mine will end, I'm just not sure of all the bits in between. This sounds like just the ticket.
On 15 Jun 2007 06:42:28 Jessi said:
Sounds great! Now only if I can find my die...(or is it di? I don't even know!)