My Book Organization

[bryce0lynch]

I'm back to working on the POS albatross.

I don't know how to organize it.
1) It could be a collection of bullets. "Here are the 196 thesis that make up good writing"
2) It could be organized via dimensions. Ease of Use, Evocative, Interactivity (and a few misc chapters as well) The major topics then fit in to these as examples/principals of thoise major headings.
3) It could be organized by subject area. Read-aloud. NPC's. Villages. etc.

I'm leaning towards #3. But this means Evocative NPC's, Ease of use NPc's and Interactive NPC's could get three seperate write up. IE: NPC qualitylies are splot between three areas. I'm forcing that example a bit, but you get the idea.

I'm more taken by "how to write with usability in mind" than I am with "how to write NPCs"; it seems more natural that way even though it leads to some disconnect with regard to individual topics. IE: how to write an NPC. Hmmm, maybe a seperate chapter on Putting Things Together for those (few?) topics that work like that?

There's also a subheading relationship I'm not sure how to handle yet. Well, two at least.

Major Heading - Usability
Minor Heading - Scanabaility
Sub-Minor Heading - Terseness
Sub-Sub Minor Heading - Individual common use cases. This room is a , this appears to be ... (which is both padding and not evocative, another mixed case)

The next is getting a bit silly, I think?

Maybe major and minor headings and then a list of topics "the 193 thesiss os Usability-Scanability". Tis gets rid of the sub headings after that point.

idk.
I'm thinking out loud.

 

[bryce0lynch]

A bad man says I should use an index. And/or cross-references. That could help a lot. IE: write for one dimension but cross-refernce/tech tree to a different dimension also.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Maybe something like a "The #X Laws of Writing for Adventure Modules" - with each "law" being it's own chapter, which kinda sounds like what your #3 option is.

I mean, your writing style for this thing (from the posts I've seen anyway) looks less like referential material and more scholarly in nature, which means there's no real benefit to writing it so it "scans well".

 

[squeen]

Go with your premise of "many wrong ways" and don't try to say how a thing should be done, just what definitely sucks.
Include examples from your insanely huge collection---there's got to be some "fair use" standard that allows you to quote small passages.

Once you've got a pile of brainstormed "DON'Ts", only then try to apply an organizational scheme post-partum.

 

[Malrex]

I expect a sample dungeon with map.


I was joking, but actually...might be something to think about. Some people can read things and understand. Others need to see things. So do a 5 room cave complex...1 way--the 'wrong' way and 2. the 'right' way so you can give an example of what you are talking about.

I like #3, cross reference when it makes sense, and a index is a good idea.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

I expect a sample dungeon with map.

I feel personally cheated if there isn't example work provided with these sorts of "advice" books, and a map is certainly a fitting value-add.

 

[bryce0lynch]

Fair use doctrine.

Each section should have at least three examples, some positive and some negative, illustrating the points. And I'm going to include the map, text, etc, whatever is needed, from the product in order to illustrate the point.