WHEN WRITING IS MORE LIKE A DUNGEONS & DRAGONS GAME IN REVERSE

Writing a novel sometimes feels like running a Dungeons & Dragons game in reverse. In D&D, your characters start small and become heroes (or villains). They gain levels, better gear, more confidence (more scars), and enough power to take on dragons.

Writing is the opposite.

Your protagonist begins the story convinced they know who they are. Even after the inciting incident flips their world upside down. Then chapter by chapter, you, the author, strip it all away.

Take away their certainty.
Take away their safety.
Take away the people they rely on.
Take away their beliefs and convictions.
Take away the plans that always worked.

Until they’re standing in the smoldering ruins of the person they used to be.

Only then do does the character earn the right to become someone new.
​
That’s the writer’s job, not just to build a hero, but to break one and do it carefully enough that readers believe in the person who stands up (or falls) at the end.