• Hemmingway stops writing mid-sentence because he know how to end the sentence. Started a new sesion by finishing the sentence and carrying on--no blank page syndrome.
• Make multiple passes over material. Creative work improves on iteration.
• Stopping work sessions is important.
• Flexible deadlines can result in blowing all deadliens and never finishing.
• Don't try to be perfect on the first pass.
• Don't think about publication while writing.
• Article is for D&D but most settings can be metaphored to dungeon and town settings.
• Try not to patch a system and write. Either finish the mechanics, or write the story and patch the rules to support it in another pass.

Week 1

• Get a comfortable note platform
• 3-7 bullet points to pitch the campaign
• Choose 7 sources of inspiration
• Mood board: songs, text, and images to get a feel for the settings
• Practice your pitch

Week 2

• Get a hex map
• One large settlement
• Two smaller settlementsOne major, three hex terrain feature
• One mysterious location
• One dungeon entrance
• Give map hexes numbers and keep a list of coords to map features
• Decorate the map
• Create an encounter table

Week 3

• Pitch the dungeon under 10 words
• Create a loose map of room connectoins
• Do this for 3 floors
• d6+6 rooms per floor
• Incude multiple paths up and down
• Give each floor a theme
• Make iconic foes for this dungeon
• Seed landmarks in rooms of the dungeon
• Put 3 artifacts in the dungeon
• Final detail work
• Commit the map to an actual design, on graph paper

Week 4

• Obtain a city map
• Prepare item shops
• Seed city with details
• Political faction and rival
• Somewhere to lose all your money
• Somewhere to hear gossip
• Secret guild halls and their reputation
• Food and board
• Religious center and gods/cult
• Unique town feature
• 5 important NPCs
• Flavor: Hirelings, rumors, and building descriptions

Week 5

• Sketch out the continent
• Outline other places the players could go and how to get there
• Create the pantheon for the setting
• Create other prominent NPC and villains
• Create a calendar of events and festivals
• Rumors from other lands
• Create other artifacts for world and give them stories
• More encounter rolls for terrains
• Rival mercenaries the players will encounter
• Seed unusual features in the map

NPCs

D: distinguishing feature

N: needs

A: agenda, secrets