in the topic entitled: Building a Better GM: A Challenge
I interject my thoughts about the base assumption by pointing to a separation of technique and creative force, which seemingly has been lumped into one facet of a "How To?" process. My response is posted there and is quoted below.
You are confusing technique with creative force. There is no "How to" to CF, that is bred at birth, greatly expanded (or not) during childhood, intuitively practiced in later years (or not) and thereafter grown and sustained (or not) by each and every individual.
It is like asking, "How best is it to write?" as I have knowledge of the techniques of writing. The best answer to mastering any such hands-on subject is to do it and therein find your own creative form. This addresses "form" vs "formula" the latter which seems so prevalent in this medium.
Each DM's form will also differ according to the range of material being presented "in each moment," just as different types of stories have varying weights applied to them at different times by the author creating these.Also note the last question of my [recent] interview as this is a better starting point, mastering story, for any GM as far as techniques go, and this too cannot be tricked into being.
Also, this question is being asked in a vacuum. It addresses current DMs (i.e. largely considered as a whole, "veteran DMs") and their thoughts on this as culled from experience but does not, as far as I can see within it, address fledgling DMs, that is, newcomers to the art. While exclusionary, it paints a definite process which was not true for those veterans when newcomers themselves.
The process of learning to DM/story-telling is best discovered in the trenches by creating our own dungeons/locales. This personalizes the experience 100% and builds in layers of confidence, objectivity and other enhancements of a greater type not found in running pre-made adventures. The difference between creating your own story and reading it aloud rather than reading aloud another's.
For the most part many of us were weaned in "Fun House" climes; but whatever the "adventure" environment, one learns rudiments and essentials and these thereafter take root and grow according to the prevailing creative force in every individual as expressed through personal understanding and application, and in differing degrees.
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