Writing a LitRPG novel – where to start?
Ok, so you want to write a LitRPG novel. Where and how do you start?
Like a lot of authors in the genre, I stumbled across LitRPG books fairly late in life. I had already written a lot of other things, including the beginning of a historical fantasy series.
But LitRPG seemed perfect — the right mix of fantasy, gaming, and stats.
For me, after finding out about the existence of LitRPG, the next step was to read a lot in the genre, and I’d certainly recommend that you do that too. It’s important preparation for any author.
However, there is a catch – some of the most high-profile novels in the genre were written some years ago, and this is a fast-moving field with a lot of sub-genres and trends. So as well as reading the classics, I’d recommend finding out about what’s hot right now — what has been released in the last 6 months. and what is being discussed on Reddit, Discord and Facebook.
After that, you really need to think about what kind of LitRPG novel you want to write. Yeah – I did say ‘want’! Because ultimately, you’re going to need to be motivated to keep going, even if you aren’t successful straight away. That doesn’t mean that you should ignore the market, but you should think about what niche you want to be known for. For example:
- Sci-fi
- VR-based fantasy
- System breakdown urban fantasy
- Child- or YA-focused writing
There are more, too, plus each of the above has its own sub-types.
Now, about the market… You might be thinking, “hey, I’m going to write something that nobody has done before.” Well, I think that’s a mistake, for two reasons. One: there is very little that hasn’t been tried! And two: it is much harder to market and sell something unrecognisable. People tend to want more of the same.
Instead, you want to put your own unique spin on things. Think about a movie you have enjoyed, for example. The chances are that it fits in a particular genre, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t cool and interesting and new, right?
In short, you want to explore your own ideas without being so unique that nobody really gets what you are doing.
Next, what about the system, and stats?
Most LitRPG novels I’ve read are in some way similar to tabletop roleplaying games, or video games. Think D&D, Skyrim, and the like. The novels often (though not always) feature hit points and experience points, and most have a series of quests.
At the same time, most authors develop their own unique system(s). You can’t lift everything directly from D&D – it could even breach copyright to do so – but you can certainly borrow heavily from the concepts and mechanics that are popular in RPGs, adding your own twists.
And so, this is part of the creative process. I’d certainly recommend that you give your own system a lot of thought, and work out kinks in advance. It’s honestly a pain in the ass to change things after you’ve written half a novel! Try a chapter or so for practice, get some feedback, and change things if they are proving difficult to manage.
For example, in my web-novel ‘The Tooth and Claw Guild’, I found that the main character was racking up quests, and it was hard to keep track of them. In the end, I numbered the quests, but even then, it was a job to make sure I was being consistent! In hindsight, perhaps I should have done what some video games do, and forced the player to cancel one quest before they start another.
Keeping track of stats is tricky too, and for my historical fantasy LitRPG series Sparta Online I use an online spreadsheet, with formulae helping me to update the hit points and other data each chapter.
Finally, a lot of writers ask about target length, so let’s be clear – LitRPG novels are generally pretty long.
Many mystery novels clock in at around 50,000 words, but it’s not uncommon for a LitRPG novel to be 2–3 times as long. Yes, many are 150,000 words or over! And in fact, if you go too short, you’ll lose sales.
I’d recommend 80,000 as an absolute minimum.
One last thing — don’t feel that you need to write the entire novel (or series) before you share your writing with anyone. It can really help to have a team of readers to give you feedback, while posting a chapter at a time on sites like Royal Road can help to build an audience (and possibly earn you money!).
I hope that helps. Good luck with your writing!
J. F. Danskin is an author of LitRPG and historical fantasy. His series ‘The Tooth and Claw Guild’ is in many ways a classic LitRPG, but with some real twists the further you go. ‘Sparta Online’ is an ebook series based on ancient Greek wars and myths, and it ties into the same overall world. He has also written VR-based fantasy novels and stories set around a game called ‘Shadow Kingdoms’.
