47 thoughts on “it helps you to imagine”

1. Meh. The ones we “should probably skip” are usually some of the best ones, so deal.
   Hrm. One will never, EVER catch me doing something like dancing to something..anywhere. Unless Im alone. I have this thing about staying in complete control of myself (as much as possible, anyway) at all times. The closest Ill ever get might be at a Loreena McKennittt concert.
   Gah. The more you talk about RPGs, the more I wonder what else I missed these past…um, forever. 😛

2. Would the official dance when you are boss of the world be Footloose or The Safety Dance?

3. Wil,
   I appreciate that you write, just to write sometimes. There all kinds of things in my head that I want to write about, but I rarely do (and the election is one of them.)
   I’m taking inspiration in watching you write just to write.
   One question: How do you know when you should stop writing just to write and make yourself get back to writing whatever it is you’re “supposed” to be writing?
   I think that might be a rhetorical question.

4. “should probably skip”? You made my day. Hearing that you liked the World of Darkness stuff that’s coming out just made me feel fantastic.
   Have you checked out Changeling, or Hunter?

5. I don’t know if I can say this without coming off as a total lameass, but there’s something very Richard-Dreyfuss-at-the-end-of-Stand-By-Me about this post. Very introspective, but not navel gazing.

6. 1) I absolutely love that so many of those activities that seemed kind of silly or not terribly worthwhile by the time I got into my 20s have become so much a part of my creative process now that I’m, well, not in my 20s anymore (thank you, Whoever).
   2) also, I am fully prepared for your leadership as I practice grocery store dancing with a certain disturbing level of regularity. Usually to “Walking on Sunshine” or “Life is a Highway” or, well, anything that I know even half of the words to.
   3) Good Luck on the Goth Xmas-ness. (is that a valid holiday wish yet?)
   Thanks for the post, I enjoyed it much.

7. I think it’s really easy, the older you get, to become jaded. You’ve heard this song a billion times now, it doesn’t pull on your feet the way it used to. Oh look, another valley full of trees that looks just like all the others I’ve seen. Yep… some balloons… great.
   I used to work in child care (in college) and one of the most important things those kids (2 months to 2 years) taught me was to remember joy. There is a sense of wonder and happiness that is, I think, relatively easy to obtain and so much bigger than anything a person normally feels. It comes from looking at things as if it were the first time you saw them (this takes some doing and practice).
   I dunno… I feel like that woman in the Whole Foods sometimes. I’ll see something with five other adults and something about it will surprise me. When I laugh with joy, they all (generally) look at me funny. Every so often, someone, rarely, will have seen what I did and know what the heck I’m laughing about.
   So… yeah. I have no concluding paragraph. Thuh. End.

8. The only thing better than unselfconscious dancing in grocery stores is doing it when your children are there to be completely embarrassed by you.

9. Say Wil, Your comment about the (the election is driving me to distraction) ME TOO. I turned off the news a little over a week ago. ahhh relax. No internets news, newspaper or TV news. I asked my friends to respect my news fast. Its a lot harder then it might seem. They meaning the news pushers are very good at slipping the news everywhere. Still the more I step back the more everything seems more clear. doing without makes you have to think for YOURSELF a little more. Give it a try. I feel a little better. I heard something about lipstick on a pig and a bad hurricane in Texas, but that’s about it.
   Sé you on Saturday Ta….

10. For God’s sake, Wil, go *game*. You being you, I know you must get 20 invitations a week to area RPG groups. Find one that plays as often as your commitment allows, and go roll some dice.
    (Sorry if I sound exasperated. It’s just that I’ve never understood why anybody talks about !RPGing when they can go RPGing whenever they want.)

11. If I’m writing about myself or utilizing something that happened to me personally I tend to write best about events that happened fifteen years ago.
    I read somewhere that “old” is whatever age you are now and adding fifteen to it.
    If so, constantly remembering what you were like fifteen years ago is like an attempt to recapture your youth. I find it also provides enough distance where you finally view your choices from that time period with some perspective and experience to truly understand the ramifications and importance of every little thing you did back then.
    Maybe that’s everyone’s happy place, a time we can go back to and really diagnose with some clarity and really relish with the miracle of hindsight.

12. Terrific post, Wil, and I know exactly what you’re talking about. It’s just started turning autumnal where I am, and autumn weather always makes me feel “unstuck in time,” like my inner 8-10 year old (when I was at my least self-conscious, writing & drawing my own crude superhero comics, loving “Star Wars” and “Superman: the Movie” with sincere ardor) is bursting to get out. Listening to music from the ’70s and ’80s really heightens that, too. I would love it if everyone could find that “happy place,” find the games in life that help them imagine.
    If unselfconscious dancing in public is part of your platform, you have my vote for Boss of the World.

13. Proper use of “Mavis Beacon” in a blog post: Geek cred = Geek cred + 1.

14. Reading? I re-read Steinbeck when I have writing problems – start with Cannery Row, it’s all about character and has no plot, best solution to the whole “what does the character want” questions in one’s writing….

15. You know , back when I was in school , I loved Star Trek TNG , Drawing , and not much else . Algebra , meh . Writing , fuggehttaboutit . Cut to February of 2007 . Still loves Star Trek and now has collected a ton of Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant music . (Remember this portion it will be on the test later. ) So I was bored and signed up to myspace , trying to make friends and find people who share my interests . I seen there we’re alot of people doing free-form , Star Trek RPGs through comments, mostly based off canon characters . So I watched them and chatted with them for awhile , then I became interested in trying my hand at it so I just jumped into an RP blindly with some dude RPing as Captain Riker *Which I now realize was very rude to just jump into it without discussing it with im first ….but I digress* Any way I started off as Ensign Zachary *originality thy name is wayne! LOL* Using some old shot of my from a few years back . The more I RPed as this esign the more bore I got, decided upon the advice of other RPers to make him a Captain of his own ship with his on NPC crew members , which meant I was gonna need to come up with some stories for them to go on , So I wrote a few short story RP blogs where I spoke for all the characters , they were kinda weak and lame to be perfectly honest . so after I while I decided that I was going to need to make a captain with a bit more umph . So Captain Wayne Zachary disappeared , and Captain Kor’Tar was born . The first Klingon to raise to the rank of Captain in Starfleet . I role-played with him through comments , some times blogs , but mostly I just hung out with him. I started noticing friends requests from ships Valiant, Enterprise E , and Titan to name a few . and there the RPG groups would play out their story lines in blogs , which i got caught up in reading, even taking a part in a few at times . After a while this got me to thinking , I should get a page created for Kor’Tar’s ship . So I asked my awesome woman to help me create one , the U.S.S. Kahless NCC-76108 (Sovereign Class) , and I created an original cast of characters to fill the roles for the crew . Then i had to recruit role players to fill these roles and come up with a plot , which got inspired by listening to my ipod while doing the dishes after supper one night . Robert Plant’s “Ship of Fools” came on and in the chorus it says “Crazy as a ship of fools….” so I figured surely that phrase has to come from something historical , so I asked google and it pointed me over to wikipedia ,a nd i read up on what ships of fools were . They were ship filled with mentally ill or other wise unstable people from the 1600s launched with out pilots and crew back in the Medieval and Renaissance ages . So I pondered ….
    What if an alien civilization did that to their insane and we found their ship adrift then go back to their homeworld and confront the government leaders about it?
    So I kept on playing with the idea my and more and finally we started our RP , I gave all of the players involved the basic outline like I have here , and it is now 271 comments long and still going strongly and quite successfully I might add . Everyday , I try to listen to a bit of music , Watch a bit of Star Trek on DVD and read the sites I enjoy online , that helps me get into the right mind set , then i just let the creative juices flow. They seem to flow best in the middle of the night, I think it is all the silence , it makes my brain need and want to create things that keep me entertained . Sorry for no paragraphs but it’s late and all I can do is type some free flowing thoughts right now . Oh BTW please feel free to check out my Kahless blog *shameless plug*
    http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=394657775&blogID=418370216

16. Great post, Wil 🙂
    If you are a King fan, you owe it to yourself to check out the author Joe Hill. Joe Hill has a collection of short stories, 20th Century Ghosts, that rival some of King’s best work in the form. His first novel, Heart Shaped Box, is a helluva horror roller coaster ride.
    Joe Hill also just finished publishing a 6 issue comic mini-series, Locke & Key, that was gorgeous and lots of tense fun to read.
    Also, his full name is Joe Hill King, he just didn’t want to get started in his writing career by skating on his dad’s name.
    Seriously, you owe yourself.

17. Wil: “D&D. This is a game that is fun. It helps you to imagine.”
    this is what’s missing in so many modern pursuits.
    imagination exercise…mind flexing!

18. Re about distractions when you work at home: I feel your pain. I work at home, and it’s hard to not do stuff that you know needs to be done. Although it’s nice to have the cats be able to come in and say hi from time to time.
    Please don’t feel the need to not write posts like this. So much of written prose is, by definition, edited English (or whatever language), and I think that part of the charm of blogging in general and your blog in particular is that everything ISN’T edited to death. That’s kind of cool.

19. Stephen King: “you can’t be a writer if you’re not a reader”.
    Wil Wheaton: “you can’t be a writer if don’t *imagine*”.
    I like yours better.

20. I really enjoyed this post. I don’t game or write enough (I do get to read a lot at work, though). It’s nice to get the perspective of someone else caught up in the same mire from time to time.
    And you said to skip it. pshaw! (or however you make onomatopoeia of the old Victorian gentleman’s word of dismissal)

21. My hubby and I haven’t been able to game in a while. But I’ll still come across him rolling up characters sometimes, just for the heck of it. I don’t mind a bit.

22. Hey Wil,
    This comment isn’t so much in theme with this post (which is much more about the imagination aspect of roleplaying rather than the social side, a topic you’ve talked about a lot) but I wanted to leave it anyway.
    At the end of summer my girlfriend and I decided to put a 4th Ed. game together because it had been a few years since we had gamed and thought it was time. Partly in honor of Gary G., partly to try out the new system and partly. . . well, who doesn’t want to play D&D?
    I decided that it was going to be short, self contained adventured. Games would last an hour and a half to two hours. Just enough time for a little bit of story roleplaying, puzzle solving and a fight or two. Players could come in and out of the game, miss a game and it’s all cool (though now everyone’s envious of my girlfriend cause she’s kinda obligated to be there so her Halfling Ranger levels faster than other characters).
    When putting the game together I asked a friend of mine if he’d like to play, knowing that he would both love the game and never in a million years play. While he’s not anti-geek, he’s not exactly part of the fold either. But he’d been going through some real hard times, had just gotten through a hard divorce and needed some socialization. So I pushed the issue, saying he needed to play one game at least.
    He did and now is in absolute love with the game. He’s bought his own players handbook, is getting way into hist character, counts the days until the next game.
    We were sitting down on the porch a few nights ago talking about what it is that hooked him so much. At one point he turned to me and said, “It’s hanging out with friends and. . . imagining. You get to hang out and imagine with friends. How frickin cool is that?”
    I’m going to have to direct him to this blog.

23. Hehehehehe.
    I pissed off a co-worker once because I continued to type even as I turned to talk to him. He called me a bastard and left my office. I considered that the highest compliment he ever gave me.
    Best part, I made a mistake, hit the back space, and corrected it, even as I continued to talk to him. I figured that was the tipping point for him.

24. While I realize that this is only a pale shadow of the visceral thrill one gets from table top gaming (the feel and sound of the dice, the pencil scribbles on a piece of paper to which we become inexplicably attached over the hours and levels, the shared tension of eye contact… player to player and back to the eyes glowering over the DM screen… the feel, the look, even the aroma of our beloved if battered gaming tomes…), there is a stop-gap treatment for gaming withdrawals. Check out http://www.rpol.net and look for a game to join. I run and play in a few games there, and have found it to be (if everyone will pardon the slightly crass metaphor) psychological methadone for my gaming addiction.

25. Courtesy of this fellow: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5517480247669555286&postID=4294953135251126655&page=1
    10 Unknown Facts about Wil Wheaton:
    1. The more Cthulu learns about Wil Wheaton, the more insane he becomes.
    2. Wil Wheaton won Gary Gygax’s lucky 20 sider when the D&D (co)creator bet him he couldn’t fit an entire 3rd edition Monster’s Manuel (vol.1) in his mouth. Wil fit the first four volumes.
    3. Wil Wheaton knows whether or not the Johns Linnell and Flansburgh are, in fact, giants.
    4. Contrary to the Trekkie popular belief, Wil Wheaton cannot travel around time. However, when he desires it, time will travel around him.
    5. Wil Wheaton started a real AADA, but had to disband it after simultaneously defeating all five other co-founders with nothing but a Radio Flyer wagon and a single flaming oil jet. (To be fair to his competitors, I must point out that it was an HD flaming oil jet.)
    6. Accurately depicted in GURPS, Wil Wheaton as a character would cost 413 points.
    7. Wil Wheaton has access to seventh level disciplines.
    8. Wil Wheaton once visited the eighth dimension using his own home-made oscilation overthruster.
    9. Wil Wheaton is the Kwisatz Haderach.
    10. Wil Wheaton is Three Laws Safe!
    11. Wil Wheaton is Security Clearance ULTRAVIOLET. You have been informed. FNORD
    12. Wil has banged more hot chicks in costumes than you will ever meet.
    13. The current Wil Wheaton is actually from the Mirror Universe, as evidenced by his Goatee of Doom.
    14. Whenever a webcomic features Wil Wheaton, the artist must pay a fee of $1,000 or perform fellatio on Li’l Wil. To date, Wil has appeared in over 9,000 webcomics, but hasn’t made a dime.
    15. Wil saved the universe for the first time when he was making STAND BY ME, by single-handedly stopping an alien invasion. Since Wil was too humble to accept public fame for this, the President of the United States personally instructed the ST:TNG writers to include reference to Wil’s contributions within the context of the show, under Executive Order 80-RG-FA-1-L.
    16. Wil wrote the original version of WORLD OF WARCRAFT over a weekend. On a yellow legal pad, while at the beach.
    17. Wil Wheaton was the original co-host of G4’s X-Play opposite Morgan Webb, but he was replaced for making her look too ugly.
    18. Wil Wheaton is the only DM able to comprehend Chuck Norris’ D&D stats.
    19. Chuck Norris no longer plays D&D because Wil Wheaton caught him cheating, and tore up his sheet.
    20. Wil Wheaton goes out for target practice with fellow sniper Dr Ruth Westheimer. He always outshoots her, then gives her tips on her sex life.
    21. Wil played Portal once. He actually got cake. With his name on it.

26. Weird… I just threw together a mix tape (on CD) of old 80s stuff that makes me happy and Oingo Boingo make up 1/3 of the songs. It’s strange how remembering the 80s through the music is SO much more pleasant than living through it was.
    “It’s a dead mans party, who could ask for more?” Who indeed?

27. dont u dare “blahlete” this kind of stuff. its my favorite kind. so good.

28. Ah the joys and frustrations of writing. Trying to put worthwhile words down on the page. Actually King has a lot of good advice about writing, On Writing is a goldmine and a must read for any professional or dabbler. Love the Mavis Beacon comment! For years my father tried to get me trained with various typing programs, never worked because i hated them all and wouldn’t stick with it. I high school I realized that I could actually type pretty fast, not touch type but still a good 40+ wpm. Got it from typing in page after page from various splatbooks from TSR.
    Remembering out childhoods, our “happy place”. Back when we were younger, slimmer and had more hair and a lot more free time. When the days were unnumbered and the summers seemed to last forever. No responsibilities other than our own entertainment, no kids, no jobs, no bills, no mortgages, and no stress. When you could game 2 or 3 times a week. We’ll always yearn for those halcyon days of yore.
    A note, Joe Hill’s middle name is actually Hillstrom.

29. I should be writing, as well. While running errands this morning I was bit by a creative bug and am now full of ideas on how to make a past project better. But I’m going nuts because I have homework to do and I can’t spend my day writing 🙁 Why can’t the creative bugs bite us on Sundays when we’re sitting around looking for something to do?

30. I love that you find such joy in these things….it makes the rest of us feel like we are not alone.
    When you are boss of the world(and I FULLY support this notion) can unselfconscious singing in grocery stores be mandatory as well? Because then I won’t feel so weird.

31. I empathize with the frustration of making changes to your home. I dread that but it will probably come up sooner rather than later as my home is post-wwII home. I think this is why when in the book store I find myself drawn towards the self home improvement aisle. I know I have no talent in that regards yet it’s hard to get this fantasy out of my head that if only I would teach myself to start cutting 2x4s and get a nail gun…perhaps I could solve my own home problems/additions and not have to deal with the cost craziness, mess, and delays of contractors. I guess that’s why I admire my grandfather’s generation and those before them when it comes to “handy-man” skills. Some of them bought those Sears Kits and built their own homes! Others like my grandfather, made furniture in the garage as opposed to buying it. Those skills were mostly not passed on. Most of us don’t have time to try to learn these old-fashioned skills…which is probably why MAKE magazine is so popular among those of us who say, “If only I had more free time…”

32. When I’m boss of the world, unselfconscious dancing in grocery stores will be mandatory
    And oxymoronic.

33. And I, for one, welcome our new dance requiring overlord.

34. This is one of those rambling I-should-probably-just-bahleet-it-but-I’m-writing-it-because-I-need-to-even-though-I’m-not-sure-why posts.
    Heck, you’ve just described everything Jack Kerouac ever wrote.

35. I started writing again right after PAX, but then the passion dropped off and I put a pause in it. Didn’t delete it though, not this time. I might revisit. But what I keep facing is how boring my writing tends to end up. I guess I should try imagining more, and I think you’re right: RP’ing can really help with that. I’m supposed to play tonight, assuming the husband is feeling up to it (end of summer cold) so if we do I guess I’ll keep my mind free and open and see if any new ideas pop in. I’m worried I just don’t have that skill of great description…or dialog….or….ugh I could go on and on. My lack of self esteem in regards to writing really hinders any progress.
    Anyway, thanks for the post. 🙂

36. “listening to Boingo, Bow Wow Wow, The Smiths, and Depeche Mode puts me in an incredibly happy place”
    YES. Just… fucking yes.

37. I used to work an inventory job – one morning we were doing it at a food co-op in Sacramento while the employees were stocking the store for the day. I can’t remember what song came on over the radio they had blaring in the store, but by the end of the first verse, the entire crew was singing and dancing along with it. It was really cool to hear the song spread across the aisles of the store. 🙂 One of the oddest and yet most fun experiences I’ve ever had.

38. Wil,
    You really should check out the Savage Worlds RPG. The tagline is Fast, Furious, Fun.
    Its fanbase is largely 30+ year-old gamers with more family/job responsiblities than time to game.
    And it has the most friendly forum with daily input from the creators.
    http://www.peginc.com/

39. Boingo, Bow Wow Wow, The Smiths, and Depeche Mode
    Nice…throw in some Devo and we’re set.
    I haven’t been able to find a consistent gaming group in about a decade. Maybe I’m too picky or my friends are too busy.

40. Wil,
    This is why I am, and will continue to remain, a fan of yours. You have just put into words several things I have felt for a very long time.

41. Ah! Okay, I get it now. My husband is a HUGE RPG lover, yet he can’t seem to put into words the why of the love. So thank you for helping him out.

42. Allowing yourself to make mistakes while writing? Congratulations! You just earned 5000XP and gained a level in Fiction Writer.

43. Allowing yourself to make mistakes while writing? Congratulations! You just earned 5000XP and gained a level in Fiction Writer.

44. This is why I am, and will continue to remain, a fan of yours. You have just put into words several things I have felt for a very long time”
    I couldn’t have said it better.
    Thank you Will.
    Now for a few more WW facts.
    Wills dick is so big it takes a harnessed team of horses, 4 fat girls and a gallon of astroglide to help him beat off.
    Will created the internet, blackberry, zero point energy, snapple and geno’s pizza rolls.
    Will is so big, God asked for his autograph
    If you manage to capture Will. He’ll be forced to give you 3 wishes.
    After STNG ended Will spent a year on the streets of Sao Paolo as a male prostitute.

45. I love these posts. They make me feel like I’m not the only (no offense, Wil) bumbling writer in the universe. Last night, to keep my brain focused, I started a journal about what I wanted to do with my writing in a blank book – with a pic of my happy place on it: the beach. I’ve been writing too much about exciting new ideas, and not enough about the book I’m supposed to be working on. So I worked up basic synopses for the shiny new things, and thus far I’m not cured, but I am hopeful.

46. I’ve recently concluded that reading RPG books, playing hobby games, and listening to Boingo, Bow Wow Wow, The Smiths, and Depeche Mode puts me in an incredibly happy place, because that’s how I spent the bulk of my fifteenth and sixteenth years, when things weren’t that complicated, and the hardest thing in my life was some dickwad bitching me out at a Star Trek convention because he didn’t like my character. (Yes, this was hard at the time, but compared to other dickwads I’ve had to deal with in the last ten years, it’s not that big a deal by comparison.)
    This is the statement here that strikes me most, and in more than one way. I’m identifying really strongly with both that amazing, warm familiarity that can only be be invoked by these exact types of memories–those small, precise moments of pure happiness that we found in our childhood and adolescence, and also with the realization that difficulties and pain that we experienced then pale in comparison to what we run into as adults. I’m not being very coherent here but… yeah.

47. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a writer but when I do try to create “stuff” (usually written) I totally have a “happy place” I go to so I can focus on the work and not my current life. Yeah, mine brings me back to the ages between 13-15 when I had nothing to worry about and could spend all my time focusing on the things that made me happy and would eventually shape who I am today. I’ve wished for a long time that it involved RPGs because I love them and wish I was better at them but, alas, that wasn’t my thing back then. (It is now after college but I’m still a “newcomer”.)
    I have shelves of books I’ve never gotten around to. I keep saying it’s because I have no time to read but it’s really just that when I do have time I choose to do something else like play a video game or poke the internet for something interesting. I need to start reading more. Maybe an entire book a week or something.
    Thanks for this post. It reminds me that I need to start finding more things in my life that help me imagine.

Comments are closed.