Pity the Low Roll

"Before he types a word, he rolls a pair of dice – one green, one gray – both eight-sided relics from pre-teen Dungeons and Dragons bouts." So begins the story of a blogger who's objective is to write a short story every day for a year. The length of the story however is dictated by the number rolled by the two dice. His year is almost up, but he still dreads the 11's.

I like to surf the net and dip my toes in the ocean of information pretty much most days. Now and again I come across a blog or a news article or a website that catches my attention, and Flash Fiction 365 is today's little gem. Other than the use of the dice to determine his story length this has nothing to do with gaming. But it did strike a cord with me, a blogger who finds the daily discipline of writing sometimes very very hard.

There's a bit of me that's saying, what a great idea...maybe I could do something like that. Then there's the other side of me screaming Noooooooo! in horror at the prospect. Whether I'm writing for this blog or writing a campaign there are days when the words flow easily (like today) and those when every syllable has to be painfully wrenched from my brain. I've written about writers block before because I think many GM's that embark upon a self created campaign setting have hit this particular brick wall at some time or another.

So next time you find the words don't flow, roll two d8's and be thankful you don't have to abide by the number you rolled.