[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

[lizbee]

I've never done it myself, but a friend developed her dialogue and plotting skills doing online text-based role play, mostly fandom based. It also taught her a lot about collaboration, with the result that she has a bunch of successful YA trilogies written with co-authors, but has yet to make her solo debut.

[ljwrites]

I don't have much experience with text-based roleplay and certainly not enough to learn plotting through it. From my experience with real-time roleplay, though, I did get used to collaborating and playing off of others. I can see how your friend got used to it, too. XD