Sometimes I think the hardest thing about designing a hack or new World book is naming the moves. I want them to be named like moves, clear, and ideally emulate the genres or tone of the hack itself.
Sometimes I think the hardest thing about designing a hack or new World book is naming the moves.
Sometimes I think the hardest thing about designing a hack or new World book is naming the moves.
One thing to try is to write a bunch of phrases that sound setting appropriate and then design moves around those.
Not the designing the moves part, just the naming.
I think that’s the genius in Tim’s suggestion. Start with the name, and work from there. Generating a list of names should help you get in the right mindset for the genre. On top of that, the names may provoke the idea of moves you weren’t thinking of originally. Finally, while you’re working through names, and thinking up the moves, your juices should be flowing and any move concept that you haven’t named yet should be easier to come up with.
Basically, you’re describing writer’s block. That’s generally a function of self-editing – you are trying to say the perfect thing, and failing that you’re writing nothing at all.
Instead, write everything! Don’t get frustrated and stop writing, just quit editing, quit searching for the “right phrase” and put out content. When you get done with the creative aspect, start paring it down and improving it with subsequent editing.
For me, I start with what I want to see, then I think about what that might be called, then I break it down as a move, then I adjust the name as needed.if the name and how the move works don’t mesh well, I keep working on both parts until they do.