Teaching storytellers: recipes, ingredients, how to cook

Posted on by Henry

How do you go from “Running a game of D&D sounds fun” to “I have some idea of what to do”?

You could do what I did: play enough RPGs at an early enough age that you don’t remember  feeling daunted by or awkward about the transition from playing to running games. I figured running games was just what you were supposed to do. I paid attention to how my siblings ran games, and I tried to replicate that.

That obviously won’t work for most people. They could try the adult version, playing lots of games run by other people until they have some idea of what to do themselves, but what if they don’t have a good play group? What if they want more tools?

What other entry points can we (the RPG community) offer? What resources and pitfalls should we and new storytellers be aware of?

When I think about resources and pitfalls here, I think of ingredients and recipes. Roleplaying game materials are strong on ingredients; RPG books often include lots of “what” and “who” and even “where” to use in your stories. But these materials are often weak on recipes, and they certainly don’t teach you how to cook; they don’t offer much “why” or even “how”.

Without understanding the “why” and “how,” what is a would-be storyteller to do? How can we help new storytellers learn the why’s and how’s of the art of storytelling?

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Why you tilt the camera, Spider-Noir, 6/4/26

Posted on by Henry

I’ve been enjoying watching Spider-Noir with Ley.

I was adamant that we should watch in black and white. Ley was willing to follow my lead. After finishing the first episode we spoke again about whether the show would look as good in color, and they said “No, it’s art.”

It’s not hard to find people who agree with this position online. I happen to think it’s the right one. I’d heard that the show was filmed with black and white in mind, and that seems obvious to me on watching it.

I wanted to be sure, though. I went through different scenes, rewatching them in color. I admit, the color version looks good too! Working in black and white obviously has a cost; I kind of like knowing that Robbie is wearing warm and punchy reddish hues in episode one, and I wouldn’t have known that without going back to check the color version.

But the black and white version sings. Yes, the color version looks good, but it’s a different kind of good—and I’d argue that the color version isn’t the right kind of good for this show. The team that made Spider-Noir knew what they were doing when they shot for black and white. 

That raises some questions though. Clearly, reality isn’t black and white. The filmmakers aren’t working with purely black and white source material. How then are they getting such incredible results?

Like Ley said, it’s art. It’s art, and a lesson in the importance of knowing one’s craft and intended genre. How can we apply that lesson beyond film?

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Spider-Noir, first impressions

Posted on by Henry

My literal first thoughts after finishing the first episode: mmm mm yes, that is FUN! I want more!

Spider-Noir is not a modern-styled piece. Spider-Noir is not trying to be a modern-styled piece. It is very obviously reaching for classic noir while holding onto its modern sensibilities. It isn’t a pitch perfect match for actual historical noir, but this loving homage feels right.

It also might throw you for a loop if you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. How recently have you seen classic noir?

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Middle Grade & Adventure Fiction, 5/21/26

Posted on by Henry

I received really helpful feedback last year alongside a rejection of Bury’em Deep. The agent said (I paraphrase) that she really liked the story, but wouldn’t represent me because she didn’t know an editor who was looking for it. She went on to say that middle grade was an exceptionally difficult market at present; acquiring editors were extremely picky, and she didn’t have the right contacts for upper middle grade space adventure.

I appreciated her candor. Frankly, I think her position is a good one—if she doesn’t know where or how to sell a work, she’s not the agent for that work. She remains the only agent (in over five years of on and off querying) who has given me such clarity in her response.

But all of that left me wondering: what the heck is ”upper middle grade” fiction? Have I been using the wrong term for my story this whole time?

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Pain, progress, & Truby, 5/14/26

Posted on by Henry

Success! Since my post last week, I’ve prioritized prep work during my writing time. It’s been good. I haven’t had that much writing time, and I haven’t answered all my questions. I definitely shouldn’t jump back to the story yet. But I have identified several problems that were eating at my subconscious, and I may have resolved one of them.

Unfortunately, that resolution could be painful.

This prep work hasn’t felt satisfying in the same way as putting words on the page. Something about the work has even felt a little hollow. It’s like I’m merely whetting my appetite, and now feel even hungrier for “the real deal.” And yes, I agree, that’s unhelpful terminology for reinforcing my prep work habits.

It doesn’t help that I’m spending a lot of time and effort looking at the holes in my hopes and plans. Realizing that something’s going wrong, that I need to cut or make big changes, isn’t precisely inspiring. But every so often, I get little insights—yes, they sometimes hurt, but I’m excited to try implementing them, to see whether they solve even bigger problems that I’d only barely glimpsed on the horizon.

Let me give you an example.

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Cooking, writing, prep work 5/7/26

Posted on by Henry

Here are two scenarios.

First, you’re in the kitchen. You need to make dinner—food for tonight, and leftovers for several days. You’re working from a recipe that you haven’t read before. You haven’t done any prep. You’re sure you have most of the ingredients you’ll need, but you haven’t even pulled any of them out of the cupboard.

Second, you’re in the kitchen again. You still need to make dinner—food for tonight, and leftovers for several days. This time you’re cooking a familiar dish; you know the recipe, you know the flavor palette you want, you know what you’re doing. You’ve already prepped all your ingredients. Each one is on hand, in a bowl or dish or whatever, ready to add when the time comes.

In the first case, you are going to be stressed, and frustrated, and the whole thing is going to take way too long. Forget improvising; you might make changes to the recipe but they’ll be by accident and you’re probably going to burn something.

In the second case you’re relaxed, you’re having fun. You have enough free time and spare brainpower to play around with a few ingredients you thought of as you were cooking. You know what you’re doing well enough that you can track the results of your improvising and experimentation as you go.

If I had a choice, I’d pick the second option every time.

So why do I keep picking the first option with my writing?

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Distractions, 4/30/26

Posted on by Henry

I’ve once more been waylaid by other things this week.

I’m excited to see my friend’s book coming together (she’s working on book three of three). I’ve enjoyed reading another friend’s current work in progress (they’re retelling Lady & the Tramp as lesbian werewolf romance, and it’s great). My own writing has suffered the usual fate of being sidelined by other life duties… and when I do have time to sit down for it, my mind runs off to chase the chores and tasks still undone.

That said, I am changing my current approach to a story I’ve had bouncing around my head for a year. I’m looking forward to ignoring the plot for a little bit, and instead simply focusing on world building and hashing out who some of the relevant powers-that-be are (and what they want). I realized that I’d been chasing story ideas that kept coming to me, without building the foundation that I usually need (and delight in making). I hope that switching approaches will gin up some excitement again and let me focus on the story and its world instead of being distracted by chores.

Well, I should say ‘instead of being distracted by chores when I have time to sit down and write.’ I do still need to do all the other work.

Fortunately, doodling out a few ideas regarding the schemes and motivations of NPCs for my Worlds Without Number game reminded me of just how much I enjoy that side of things. With any luck that enthusiasm will carry over to similar work for a different story. Honestly, I’ll probably use a few of Crawford’s generation tools for my creative process. I’m a little nervous, but I’m looking forward to it.

Collaborative worldbuilding #3, theme tags

Posted on by Henry

I mentioned ‘theme tags’ in Collab World Building pt2, but didn’t explain at all. They’re a simple concept tied to a character, place, or idea: e.g. noble or nobility, priesthood, gods, thieves, crime, trade, The Thousand Year Empress, ancient relics, treasure, corruption, etc. Each tag reminds me to connect or reference thematically linked elements. I find that tracking these tags works well in conjunction with the style of sandbox game prep that Kevin Crawford proselytizes in his RPGs.

Through the collaborative world building and character creation process of my Worlds Without Number game, I’ve collected a set of tags for each PC. I’ve also kept adding tags to the PCs any time they specify interest in a particular topic, or as their players articulate the PCs’ goals. This helps me in my setup for following sessions.

For example, one player has stated that their PC is interested in ‘humbling jerks.’ Now ‘jerks’ is a tag in my repertoire. But what does that mean? How do I use it? And how does it work with Kevin Crawford’s sandbox game tools?

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Squirrel Moon, 4/16/26

Posted on by Henry
From over a month ago

Today is a day for being behind.

Rotavirus, congested sinuses with modestly colorful snot, yet more interrupted sleep, being on sick-baby duty: not a few of my favorite things, but certainly a list of things I’m experiencing this week. The pictures on my phone are ever-more full of baby, and less and less full of flowers. Perhaps spring will change that balance a little bit. Maybe I’ll have pictures with both baby AND flowers.

There are no extended analyses for you today. Instead, I’ve got a few random thoughts.

First, I’ve crammed in a few episodes of Harley Quinn and I’m loving the show. It’s been a good thing to watch while slightly addled. I admire the ways in which the writers are layering on additional depth as the episodes progress and I’m excited to see where (and how far) they take it.

Second, I can’t help but continue to see the parallels (and diachronic threads) between the genres of classical questing fiction, portal fantasy, middle grade adventure, isekai, and now LitRPG. They’re not all the same thing, but… they kind of are all the same thing. At the very least, they’re playing Mad Libs with each other.

Third, I’m tired. I’m going to call it here and go rest my eyes or something until nap time is over.

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

Posted on by Henry

I’ve finally seen Kubo and the Two Strings, and I loved it.

Yes, the story’s themes are well-trodden classics. Yes, I could see the twists before they arrived. No, I didn’t care—Kubo and the Two Strings knew what it was setting out to do, and it delivered that with skillful and focused storytelling. Plus, it’s gorgeous, and its presentation is stylish as hell.

This is not a perfect movie. I feel a little weird about it. But it is an excellent reference for how to write a good all-ages adventure story with heart. That feels especially true when I compare it to the writing of K-Pop Demon Hunters.

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