An Interview With DM, Host, & Writer Lava

We had the pleasure of interviewing Lava our DM & host all about his writing!

1. How long have you been writing?

In terms of story writing? I first started writing stories in high school. I was inspired by friends in my anime club to come up with a story for a manga, which never got published. Still, it was fun to write, and I’ve been doing it off and on since then.

2. Where do you find inspiration?

Inspiration can come from a variety of sources. For me it tends to be things I see in a show or read about, or sometimes a game I happen to be playing, but it can come from literally anywhere.

3. What have you been currently working on?

Currently I haven’t written anything storywise, unless you count a vague series of plots for a D&D game I run. I do have plans to get back on a project that’s started to collect dust soon, though.

4. How do you survive writer’s block?

Haha… I don’t? In all seriousness though, whenever I hit a block it’s usually because I’m too stressed to let everything flow, or I find a hitch in the plot that I can’t resolve. That usually means I need to step back, take some time to relax and think things through. If it persists, sometimes I just abandon what I was working on and start something new and fresh that interests me. Whatever works, right?

5. How do you come up with story ideas?

This ties back into the inspiration question. I see or read something and think, ‘that’s cool! I want to try writing something like that!’ and just go from there. Sounds simple, I know, but it’s worked for me so far.

6. Plans for 2022?

As far as writing goes? There’s the project I mentioned which hopefully I can pick off the ground and keep running with. Beyond that, I guess I’ll just keep fresh with D&D stories.

7. Advice you would give to new writers?

When it comes to writing fiction, it can sometimes feel a bit daunting to try and come up with something that feels new and unique. In high school I struggled with this because I felt like there was pressure to write a story that had never been done before. The thing is, there are all sorts of ideas out there that are gold mines for storytelling, and even if it’s not “original”, that doesn’t mean you can’t take it and spin it in a way that’s entirely your own. Just like how science is built on the shoulders of giants who came before, so too is the art of storytelling. Don’t be afraid to take an idea and run with it, even if the idea itself isn’t new. It’s putting your take forward and spinning it in a direction you want that counts.

8. Favorite part about writing?

The same thing I love about reading: immersing yourself in a story, placing yourself somewhere you’ve never been, experiencing things you might not otherwise get to from the narrator’s perspective. The difference is that you get to be the narrator and get to drive wherever your imagination takes you, and afterwards you can show people where you went with it.

9. Where can people find you on the internet!

I work on a podcast called Dice Sesh that’s on the same website this article’s probably going to show up on, and is also available on iTunes and Spotify. Check it out! We’re playing a game set in the plane of Theros from Magic: The Gathering, and it’s been really fun so far.

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