This interview follows yesterday’s guest piece of Keith Ryan Kappel talking about his work on Suns of Fortune.
– Tell us a little bit about your background as a writer. We know you created some fan made content for the older SW RPG systems and worked on fandomcomics.com. How did you make the leap from writing as a hobby to writing professionally for FFG?
Right, so I didn’t know that writing was a viable option for me as a kid, I had a sister that was always considered “the writer” in the family. When I was in my teens, my dream was to own a comic book store. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out economically (thanks, dot.com bubble burst!). I had always been into Star Wars, and my friend Ryan Brooks and myself had previously run this weird chat-room based Star Wars RPG game of our own design that had some MMO elements to it. When that was over, we needed a new way to geek out on Star Wars, so we created FandomComics.com together, a site that created Star Wars fan comics. Ryan had the programming skills, which meant it was going to fall to me to write the actual comics. I had read tens of thousands of comics growing up (and still do!), so I knew what a good comic was supposed to sound like. We found an artist, and away we went. Unfortunately, as it turns out, artists work a lot slower than we expected, especially when there’s no money involved. So Ryan and I decided the site needed something else to add content, something he and I could produce on our own, and we came up with Star Wars RPG supplements to complement the comics, and that eventually turned into the Saga Edition Clone Wars Fan Sourcebook, some 500 pages of original RPG content.
We did Fandom Comics from about 2005-2012 actively producing content. Somewhere toward the end of that I decided that writing is pretty fun. After a broken leg put me out of commission at work, and cost me a bartending job, I needed a new way to pay bills. Fortunately, I had served in the United States Navy for a few years, and I discovered I could go back to college and get paid by the Navy enough to cover rent. Since I was kind of only in school to pay bills (weirdest sentence ever?), I decided I should go for something I’d enjoy doing. I ended up going to Columbia College Chicago’s Fiction Department for a BA In Fiction Writing. They were the only school in the area whose fiction department offered writing classes that focused on fantasy, sci-fi, and comic book scripting.
Soon after I graduated, I heard FFG had acquired the Star Wars RPG license, and that they were doing an open call for freelance writers. Back when WOTC had the license, I was always inspired by Rodney Thompson’s story of going from the webmaster at swrpgnetwork.com to writing on the WOTC Star Wars RPG. I felt like this was a chance for me and Ryan to do the same thing. So I talked with Ryan, we got our submissions together, and we took our best shot. We didn’t hear anything after a year, and products were starting to get announced, and we basically forgot we had even applied. I think it was 18 months almost to the day, and I think it was the next morning after I was celebrating my birthday, actually, when I got the email from Sam Stewart asking if I’d still like to write some Star Wars. That was the Suns of Fortune job.
– What is your writing process like when given an assignment?
One of the editors at FFG will usually offer me a spot on a book to see if I’m interested, and if I have a month or so to dedicate to a job, and how big the job is. Once I agree to that, I get more information about the job as well as the contract, and then we’re off to the races. Once I know specifically what is expected of me, I usually have a few ideas right away, but I keep an open mind and assemble a research list first. For Centerpoint Station, for example, I went right to Wookieepedia and copied the source list. I’m fortunate to have a pretty complete collection of Star Wars Legends lore, so I’ll just assemble the stack of books, comics, and old RPG and reference books, and re-read all the Centerpoint Station parts, taking notes all the while. Notes might be something that spurs a story idea or adventure seed in my head, or a more concrete element of that place or species or whatever that I just need to make sure I mention or get right in the entry.
Once I kind of know what I want to do with a section, I’ll send an outline of my notes to my editor, and get some feedback to make sure I’m headed in a direction that is consistent with the rest of the book, and what the book is trying to accomplish. There might be some back and forth, or we might be on the same exact wavelength, but either way, we come to some sort of consensus, and then I get to start writing. When I start my actual writing, I’ll usually take a blank document, and start building headers and sidebars, basically I’ll format the entire document, with placeholder names and outline text for every section I’m working on. This helps me keep my pacing on track, so I don’t overwrite one section and leave myself with no room for another. This also makes sure my formatting is correct for my editors. And one other sort of weird thing it does, is mess up the page. A lot of aspiring writers are intimidated by the blank page. I don’t usually have that issue, but I think it still helps to have SOMETHING on the page already when you sit down to start writing.
Once I have the page set up, I just start filling in sections. I can usually just go top to bottom, but some days, if I’m feeling one section in particular, I might jump ahead to it. Sometimes I’ll save certain sections that are treats for me, and use that as a reward once I finish some of the sections that feel like more of a chore. I write anywhere from 500-3,000 words a day. I’ve even had some 6,000 word days. Once I finish the draft, I’ll usually do a single editing pass of my own, just to punch everything up. I usually make some kind of change to something like a third to two thirds of the sentences on that pass. Then I’ll send it off to Ryan Brooks, who gives it a deep look, and usually necessitates rewriting about a third of the sentences in the document. We repeat that process 2-10 more times, depending on how we feel about the material. At some point during that process, my FFG editor gets a sneak peek at the material as well, usually just to make sure I’m on track, and to keep me on course tonally or mechanically if I stray too far from what they’re looking for. Eventually, we all come to a consensus that it’s “good,” and I send it in to my editors.
Throughout that process, I’ll swing from loving everything about what I’ve written to hating it all, to hating writing, to loving writing, its all a very manic sort of experience. That last week before a deadline makes me a little crazy, and I’m sometimes working 22 hour days, or 2-3 days without sleep to make sure the draft is finished and its all the absolute best I can make it. I mostly survive on 5 Hour Energy and Coke Zero during those periods of time. I think that’s all pretty normal for most professional writers, but I think it’s your ability to mitigate those lows and take advantage of those highs, and to no matter what, keep putting words on the page, even bad ones, that separates the people who remain professional writers and those who leave the industry.
– Changing between one and two thirds of your sentences between two and ten times? What kind of changes happen during this phase? How different does the final piece look from what you started with?
I mean, it really can vary. Entire sentences might vanish. As it happens, when I’m just drafting, I have a tendency to drive certain ideas home too much, or leave seeds that are too vague and don’t offer enough. Sometimes a sentence just has a few filler words that don’t add anything to the meaning of the sentence, where there’s another way to say exactly the same way with 12 words instead of 16. I typically overwrite my word count by 20-30%, and then through edits, Ryan and I find ways to trim it down to fit within the expected word count. For me, its mostly a process of cutting away the fat and making sentences pull double and triple duty as often as I can, as far as conveying information.
My final drafts, to me, anyway, are completely unrecognizable from my first drafts. There is a very distinct difference. It’s mostly about turning in a very tight manuscript with as few filler words as possible. I want to make sure that the fans paying for these books are getting the absolute most bang for their buck when it comes to my sections. I want to make sure they are getting the most information in as dense and economical a way as possible, while still being entertaining to read.
– How vague or specific are the instructions you’re given, and how does that influence your process?
FFG definitely does a great job of giving us freelance writers room to work, while still giving us a framework to work in. For instance, on Centerpoint Station, I knew I had X number of words to write about Centerpoint, and I knew I had to present a traditional, planet-style stat block page, as well as cover some various points of interest, NPCs, and basic history. That sentence is about all of the initial instruction I got, though Sam and I discussed a few specific details once I had some stuff written. So really, like I said before, it allows me to get right into the research of the thing.
– You wrote the content in Suns of Fortune for Centerpoint Station. How much research did you do on it before you started? Was there any specific existing aspect of the setting that inspired you to expand upon?
Well, the Suns of Fortune job was my first, so I had a very small section in that book, basically a try-out from FFG so they could figure out if I could actually perform to their standards or not. So with a full six weeks or so to only write such a small section, I had a lot of time for research. Centerpoint Station is a pretty narrow subject, so I was actually able to re-read first-hand every appearance of Centerpoint in fiction, as well as all its sourcebook appearances to cover everything, and everything merited expansion. Since I was writing about Centerpoint long before its true purpose was discovered in the EU, I wanted to talk about this farming community in Hollowtown, and the conicals at either end. But a lot of other stuff got expanded on. I went so far as to discuss some of the space regions of the system detailed in the Star Wars Galaxies video game, like the Rayless Lantern, Rubicund Eye, and the Void.
– How much freedom did you have to create new information about Centerpoint Station? Which original aspect are you most proud of creating?
I actually had every bit of freedom, which was surprising. I expected to be reined in quite a bit, but FFG pretty much lets me get away with 98% or so of the ideas I have in general. I don’t remember anything specific to Centerpoint Station getting cut at all. As for content I created about Centerpoint, we knew there was a strong criminal element on the station, but the Corellian trilogy never really goes into detail about it. So creating Baron Kaldo, Gustip, and the lawless shantytown known as Null Town was great fun. I’m also really psyched the Rorax Falken sidebar made it through, as he was a fun, minor character in the X-Wing comics from Dark Horse. There was also zero information about the uninhabited planets of Crollia and Soronia in the Corellian system, so I was the first to discuss them in any detail.
– I like how Baron Kaldo and Gustip are introduced in the Centerpoint Station section and then reappear later in the Corellian Shuffle. Speaking of which, the modular encounters you wrote for Suns of Fortune – Conical Six Summit and Corellian Shuffle – contained some interesting mechanics related to skill checks. How did you develop those mechanics? Did they change at all during play testing?
Man. So one thing to understand, is that when I wrote those two encounters, I had yet to play in a game of Edge of the Empire run by someone who really understood the system. I had a copy of the beta, which I read through and referenced as best I could. I think the Shuffle was the more ambitious of the two. We meet Han Solo while he’s bragging about his performance on the Kessel Run, and I wanted to create something similar for players so they could have that same feeling. The real strength of it, in terms of a modular encounter, is that a smuggling run can be run and re-run by a GM for the same party multiple times without immediately stretching logic, requiring reskinning, or boring the players. I think I gave some guidance for mixing it up for multiple runs. Either way, this idea about making it a timed thing immediately meant there was going to be some kind of timer mechanic. Timed events is something of a theme in my work for FFG, it seems, as I made another attempt at organizing time-keeping in the Age of Rebellion GM Kit adventure. Of course, my first attempt was a disaster. My playtest group gave me a lot of feedback. For starter characters out of the box, the checks were all far too difficult.
– The Corellian Shuffle definitely evoked some memories of the Kessel Run, so mission accomplished there! What is it like to actually build and create original content within the Star Wars universe? Has there been anything you wrote that was shot down for reasons related to not fitting with the overall vision of the brand?
Getting to add to Star Wars officially is really a dream come true for me, and the culmination of nearly a decade of very hard work. The fact that I get to share it in with my buddy Ryan Brooks, who has been working just as hard for just as long, alongside me makes it even more special. As for ideas that got shot down, I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say, since just because something got shot down now, doesn’t mean it won’t get picked back up later. But here’s one that probably won’t get me into too much trouble. In one product, which I won’t name, I tried to sneak in a few sentences about the Nuns of G’aav’aar’oon, a Gamorrean Force Sect first referenced in Challenge magazine, which has always been of dubious legitimacy as EU canon.
– Gamorrean nuns? Now that’s something I would have liked to see! Is there any advice you could give to hopeful writers?
I’m pretty new to the world of professional writing myself, so I’m still more on the seeking advice than giving advice side of things, but I’ll take a shot here. The most important thing is to write. The next most important thing is to edit what you write without ego, with the intention of getting better. The best way to go about this is to find a friend that can also commit to writing, and getting better at it. This partnership is a two way street, they have to be totally honest and absolutely shred every possible thing they can find wrong with your work. You have to be able to take those 1,000 painful cuts without getting defensive or offended, and use them as clues or hints where you need to improve. If you can’t take blunt criticism from a friend, you’ll be devastated by criticism from an editor, and they are often generous with it. So write with a focus toward improving, get a writing partner, and get better.
Read books on writing. Stephen King and Orson Scott Card both have good books on the subject. Read a lot. Read the stuff you want to write, read stuff totally unrelated to stuff you write. However, you can’t just read for pleasure, that is of limited help to improving as a writer. You need to read like a writer now. That means whenever you encounter a passage that you consider “bad,” you need to study it, and decide why it is bad. Then you need to ask yourself if you do that in your work, and keep it in mind during future self-editing. When you find something you like, or something an author is accomplishing that you don’t understand or don’t know how to do, like evoke a certain mood or tone, you need to dissect what that author is doing so you can learn it. This is just as important to improving as a writer as writing is.
Eventually, you’ll reach a certain level of proficiency where your best work is considered “publishable.” What this means is open to interpretation, and varies from market to market. The only sure way to find out, is to start submitting your work, or publishing it on your own, and see what editors or readers think about it. If you want to write for RPGs specifically, then I’d suggest monitoring the websites of various publishers, or their forums, and look for open calls for writers. This is done on a semi-regular basis by most RPG companies. When you see an opportunity, take great care to follow their rules very precisely, and take your shot.
– You certainly have had an interesting journey and your passion for Star Wars definitely comes through in your work. Thanks for your time and answers, and we look forward to seeing your next published work!
Thanks! FFG has already announced Age of Rebellion Strongholds of Resistance, and the Force & Destiny Core Rulebook, both of which I contributed large chunks to!
Steve "Jaspor" Orr
