The DM's Notebook: Using D&D for Creative Writing: ~Publishing and Skill DCs~

So I've been thinking for a while about the way the Dungeons and Dragons RPG, in its trappings and mechanics, has some really useful applications for Creative Writing.  The Dungeon Master's Notebook is a series of  to organize such thoughts. 

Dungeon Master's Notebook: Publishing and Skill DCs

This week over in Literary Citizenship we’re writing Query Letters, and in Screenwriting we’re discussing genre.  Near as I can suss it, it's easier to get things published when your story has less Stuff.  Stuff, here defined as ‘things that deviate from the norm,’ includes Superpowers, Aliens, Different Time Periods, GLBT Romance, and many other things.  Getting something published with Stuff is much harder than a work without Stuff.  It’s a bit like a skill’s DC.

DC, in Dungeons and Dragons, means the Difficulty Challenge.  There's a different DC for every Skill.  (Climbing, Crafting Potions, Linguistics, etc) and a player must roll¹ to surpass the challenge.  Say it’s a Perception Challenge.  A character rolls to see if they can hear a bow being drawn in the forest.  The DC is 25.  Two players roll, add skill ranks, and get a 27 and a 31.  The third only gets a 17, and fails to hear the bow. 

Conditional Modifiers	DC
Through a closed door	+5
Roaring Tempest	+2
Target is invisible	+20
Creature making the check is asleep	+10

Now, DC 25 is under normal conditions.  Say that there’s a battle raging.  The DC goes up by +1 per 10 feet away.   It goes up by +10 for every foot of Wall in the way.  That seems to be how it works in publishing, the more Stuff, the more the DC goes up.

Say you’re submitting your story to QuirkyUnafiliatedIndependentPress (QUIP) and SeriousLiteraryUniversallyRespectedPress (SLURP).  Now, QUIP likes a lot of stuff, but they’re not well known.  The base DC is only about 14.  Any sufficiently mid-level writer can make that DC.   But SLURP is harder to get into, because they’re very prestigious.  That DC is 25, fairly high.  You’d have to roll well AND be pretty high level.   But wait!

Let’s say your story is about a man in a polyamorous triad who dies and comes back as a ghost to take care of the child his girlfriend is having while helping his girlfriend and boyfriend fix their relationship.²  The DC goes up, because your story has the following Stuff.

Stuff	DC
Heavy GLBT themes	+1
Polyamory	+2
Ghosts	+5

Now the DCs are 22 for QUIP and a rather high 33 for SLURP.  However, QUIP likes weird, genre-queer stories.  The DC only goes up by half for the Ghost, and doesn’t change at all because QUIP is run by sufficiently advanced liberals.  The DC to get your story into QUIP is only 18.  A good cover letter and writing talent and boom, they publish your ghost story.³

The trick to getting published is finding somewhere with a baseline DC you think you can beat and giving them something that doesn’t raise the DC too much.  (Although, it still has to be a good story. That's probably the most important thing for writing.  You have to be able to write.)

Previous Notes: Ability Scores, Random Encounter Tables

7 Things to Bring when Trying to Get Published

This week my Literary Citizenship class is talking about Publishing A Book, and our challenge is to write what we've learned from our homework. A bunch of it is in the links over here on Literary Citizenship.com, under Publishing a Book 101. Also, check out some of my classmates blogs: Sarah's, Kayla's, John Carter's, Mike's, Kiley's, and Lindsey's.  

I keep thinking of the author as a traveler, with different tools in their bag that will help them along the way.  As far as I understand, these are such tools as an Author needs:

1 - The Manuscript and Errata
Your manuscript is important.  Don't send it out until it's ready to be published.  But have offerings for the Agents.  A Proposal, with a synopsis, a query letter, a perfectly polished chapter.  Pluck is great, preparation is better.  Make sure the Agent knows the book's genre and cool factor, how it would appeal to people, who those people are, and be ready to tell an Agent how it ends.

2 - The Grappling Hook

When talking to an Agent, you're not going to get picked at first.  It's like a grappling hook, you can throw it but if you don't find a niche for it to grab it won't hold. That's cool.  Pull it down, aim somewhere else, and throw again.  Eventually you'll find some way to scramble up the cliff face.  It helps if you have something (like the Bishop's Ring, or The Leg) under your belt.

3 - The Bishop's Ring

No matter how good you are as a writer (or in this metaphor, an intrepid detective), it helps to have something to get noticed.  In ye olden days you could show  the bishop's signet ring to someone to make them sit up and take notice.  Nowadays, it's a Namedrop, but it works the same way.  Being able to namedrop someone of note to the Agent will mean you're connected in the web.  The Agent takes interest, you get five more minutes.

4 - The Leg
An Agent wants to be seduced by a proposal.  Show a little leg, just enough to entice.  A paragraph.  Half a page. The less you show, the more the the author will want to know.  As long as it looks good, the rest must be good, and now there is so much more to discover!  Give an Agent too much and they won't have time for it.

5 - Self Awareness
In one of our readings there was an exhaustive Author Questionnaire from Simon and Schuster covering everything from basics (Author's name, address) to inquisitive (religion, business affiliations) to oddly specific (do you shop at Costco's, Sam's, or BJ's?)  I took from this that it's important to know yourself and to be willing to share  your biography.  Also, if you want to publish, now would be a good time to be the sort of person who gets published.

6 - Thy Friends
In my notes I keep writing the reminder, "You are Not Alone."  Not only do you have help publishing (From agents, editors, the various people who work at the publishing house who have the job of advertising) but the people you've known or helped along the way.  Other authors you've supported, fellow students, old friends with connections at that local library.  These are people who can point you to the places you need to go, and can help tell people about your book once it's in the pipeline, or yammer about it on Goodreads.  Related, Goodreads Explained.

7 - The Clouds

Just as a vagabond knows how to watch the clouds for rain, or strong winds, someone getting published should watch The Cloud for trends, emerging markets, new players, lightning flashes that might draw people from all around, where you can share directions, news, helpful herbs.  Right now two big thunderheads are rolling in:  Small Press and Independent Publishing.  Both will blast trees to pieces with a thunderclap, both will enrich the soil and new things will grow, whether or not we want them to.

There's a lot more a person needs. Time, Tenacity, Ingenuity, money helps too.  And as I learned at In-Print last week, the road to publication is rarely straight, there are bound to be lots of twists and curves.  It's more about keeping up with the journey.