Nice Things About Writing Fiction

Working on Echo of the Dreamers and putting together Stars, Specters, and Super-Powers brought to mind several things I had forgotten. There's really a lot to love about writing fiction as opposed to writing RPG stuff.

• I get to create characters, throw them together, and bring them to life. I can include NPCs in an RPG scenario, but the stars of the show are the players, and I don't even get to meet them. (Of course, if we're talking about playing games, that's a whole different deal.) 
• I might still need a cover artist and maybe, maybe someone to dress up a map, but that's all I have to ask anybody else for, and I can get by without even those. Oh, and I guess I should pretend to need an editor. I hear that's all the rage with people who talk about being writers. Still, for the most part, I can do the job myself without having to muck about with humanity. 
• There's no pressure to descend into the hell-pit of crowd-funding. While role-playing game enthusiasts are increasingly expecting frills that only piles of cash can provide, a novel is still all about the words. Throwing money at it might give you some advantages, but that's more about promotion than quality.
• Graphic design is waaayy less complicated, and there's no need for cross-referencing, sidebars, or anything like that. The only person who needs to understand my notes is me.
• Once I get going, fiction writing has a current that I can get swept up in. Sure, I have to plan it out in advance, but that plan gets revised constantly as I go along. In a lot of ways, I get to experience the same thrill of discovery that the reader (hopefully) will. I may know how it ends in general terms but, like Merlin says, "until you've tasted it, what do you really know?" 
• RPG stuff is completely meaningless to non-gamers. Anyone can read a story. Well, almost anyone.

But still, glurb glarg rargh blargh. I hate conclusions.