art Archives · Joi Massat

Interview with David M. Donachie, Creator of Gamebooks and More

This author, illustrator, game designer and lover of mice agreed to chat with me about living a creative life.

Here are just a few of the things he’s had a hand in: a series of free Dragon Warriors modules with Red Ruin Publishing, a TTRPG where you pilot a spaceship made of dice, and the versatile GNAT System for gamebook adventures—which he used to write Heart of Keros, a free, excellent adventure and Merit Award winner from the 2023/2024 Lindenbaum Competition (which is where I first found his work).

I DO Have Irons in the Fire…u just cant see them yet >:( grrr

I feel like I’m working on fifty creative things but forty-nine of the things aren’t out yet!

Take a Break: Let Your Body Catch Up with Your Mind

If there’s “no good reason” why you should feel burned out, yet you feel burned out, consider a rest. After that, your feelings might go, “Wait, it doesn’t seem hard anymore. …Huh.”

It sounds fake when I put it that way, but it’s been true for me.

The Artist Who’s Never Been Driven At All?

Some artists have a “creative mania.” They work day in and day out, like motors that feed on air. To outsiders, their path to artistry is simple—in the same sense as the simplest way to break into a bank is to pull out the battering ram. Just work tirelessly. Hammer it out. And it may even seem to happen spontaneously, involuntarily.

For me, though, it would take not only passion to reach this state (and…drugs?), but a lot of stifling work.