[PUBLIC POST] What's a non-writing skill useful for writing?

[ljwrites]

A lot of us spend time working on the practice and theory of fiction-writing. But are there skills that don't have to do directly with fiction writing that are nontheless helpful? I've heard of art being useful to writers, for instance, and a musician I know is guided by her musical skills and inspirations when writing. I know another writer who's also an actor, and have heard anecdotally of actors making good writers. Andrew Robinson, who played Garak in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, wrote the novel A Stitch in Time about his character's background that I found wonderfully moving and evocative, not to mention great world-building of Cardassia. I can see a direct connection there between the two skillsets since acting is about expressing characters, like much of writing is.

While I am not an actor, I found my experience playing and running roleplaying games highly useful for understanding characters and keeping track of storylines in my writing projects. Roleplaying has also given me a perspective of stories not as something that comes from me but from the characters' own motivations and interests. When it comes down to it I have to inhabit these characters and play them, an ethos that I apply to writing as well.

Are there non-writing skills or experiences that you find useful for writing? Have you observed others using different skillsets when writing?

Comments

[ljwrites]

That's really interesting, I think the two sort of blended together for me without much thought about how they might be different. I also wrote a lot of fiction for current or past roleplaying campaigns where I'd novelize sessions, or write out what happened in the gaps between the sessions, develop character backgrounds and so forth. It was a way to build player interest and engagement, and maybe the way I was doing fiction and roleplaying concurrently helped knit them together in my mind.

I'm also amused that this thread has quickly become dominated by the subject of roleplaying. I do remember someone saying that roleplayers were by and large either tech nerds or would-be writers. XD

[lookingforoctober]

Well, like inkdust pointed out, there's a difference between taking something that isn't written to writing, and writing with different purposes. It sounds like maybe your roleplaying fiction had a similar purpose to just plain fiction, since it wasn't directly interactive or interactive during the writing process itself, if I understand correctly?

I suppose I could see that. At least for tabletop, with all the numbers for the tech inclined to use (and abuse).

[ljwrites]

*nod* That makes sense. The writing was very much standard fiction writing other than being a spin-off to a tabletop campaign. Looking back I was looking for an outlet to write fiction and not finding roleplaying quite enough to scratch the itch.