I have a vice which keeps me from writing as much as perhaps I should – my beloved Xbox and my two weekly tabletop game nights.
Right now my two main addictions are Terraria, and Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. That’s on top of my weekly Dungeons and Dragons (5e) session and my weekly Pathfinder session. I like my games, that’s for sure.
Each of those four games I mentioned – to varying degrees – brings me back round to writing. These games – all of which have a story based role play element tot hem leave me thinking about character, and character evolution. That, in turn, gets me thinking about the way I craft my own characters.
Is it a vice then, really?
Yes. Yes it is.
Like most things in life, when there is a good balance games are good for you. When they take up whole days… not so much.
I have yet to find a way to truly make this work for me, but I tend to work obsessively on whatever I am doing in the moment to the exclusion of everything else. When I write, I write like that. When I play, I play like that too.
This week, for example, most of my writing has been the backstory for a Dragonborn paladin. A story that might, at best, be shared with the nine other people I play with. Before you say anything, yes that is a very big party.
All storytelling is good practice for a writer. But so is self-discipline. I struggle with that. Always have. Maybe always will.
Please make me feel better and tell me about your vices and distractions. What is keeping you from writing?
Facebook is a massive time thief for me. That and my Xbox. To an extent I am also a bit of a workaholic, I could write in my lunch hours but I tend to work through a lot of them!
Tell me about it. Once I start working on something, I hate stopping just because I need food. Unfortunately, working on something often includes defeating the next boss.