The Id DM recently invited me on his podcast, Ego Check, an interview podcast series hosted by a licensed psychologist, Michael Mallen, Ph.D. The podcast delves into a variety of game types (e.g., tabletop roleplaying games, boardgames, videogames) from a psychological perspective. Dr. Mallen has been interviewing members of the gaming community for articles on his blog, The Id DM, since 2011 and is now... 
Sometimes, our schedules are so hectic or weird—or we live so far away from other gamers with similar playstyles—that getting a good tabletop group together seems impossible. Other times, we are looking to roleplay in a specific kind of fantasy or sci-fi world, or within a TV/book/anime fandom that really inspires us. Perhaps writing a detailed character backstory is one of your favorite parts of the... 
Day 31: What’s your post-NaNoWriMo plan? Writing habits. Let’s assume that you can get through the next thirty days in once piece and make it to the finish line. When you finish, what is the next step for the manuscript? First things first, you should continue writing until you finish. Seriously. Do you think you’ll be able to continue at the same pace? If not, what adjustments do you plan to...
Day 30: Do you want to create a scene tracker? Story and setting. If an outline is the macro level of your plot, the scene tracker allows you to delve into greater detail on a scene-by-scene basis. Again, you may not need or want one, but you may find it useful to think of scenes in their component parts as you write your way through NaNo. You’ll want to have your outline handy for this, but you can...
Day 29: Do you want to write an outline? Story and setting. We’ve covered a lot of major topics in the last month, but how do we combine these disparate story ingredients into a recipe for a novel? For some people, the ingredients are enough on their own. They like the adventure of mixing them together on the fly to see what they come up with. By not defining everything beforehand, they have a lot... 