Practice Storytelling by Going to an Escape Room

Instead of just locking your mind in a state of unrest and procrastination, step out of the house and pay a puppet master whose job is to to lock your entire physical being in a themed puzzle room for 60 minutes and watch you squirm.

In a fully licensed and approved by the fire marshal way.

Escape serial killers by pulling fingers out of garbage disposals.

Find a magical monkey that will help you escape a jungle by yelling at your fellow prisoners to press the “yellow first, then red, then green AND THEN BLUE, Kyle! Can you get it this time?”

Get out of your head and into an alien spaceship where you have to count the ammunition that a fleet brought against the human race and use the numbers to solve a puzzle in the next two minutes. OR ELSE!

Here are three of my favorite puzzles to look out for in your next escape room experience:

Sound Puzzle: 

A puzzle that involves listening to and interpreting sounds to find a solution.

Example:

A sequence of tones or sounds played from a device, with a note indicating that "The key is in the melody."

To solve, one must identify the pattern in the sounds (e.g., Morse code, musical notes) to reveal a code or clue.

Book Cipher Puzzle:  Players must use a book or a specific text to decode a hidden message.

Example:

A note with a series of numbers like "3-14-2," and a hint that mentions a specific book in the room.

The solution is to use the book to find the third word on the 14th line of the second page, and continue to decode the entire message using the provided numbers.

Interactive Story Puzzle: 

Players must complete a short interactive story by making the right choices to find the correct path to the solution.

Example:

A booklet with a choose-your-own-adventure story. Each choice leads to a different page and outcome.

To get the answer, follow the correct path in the story to find a code or key hidden within the narrative

So that's all fun and games for the average consumer. But, when it comes to being an author trying to beat writer’s block, nothing is more effective than becoming an interactive character in a sadistic gamemaster’s saga.

Escape Rooms: immersive, stress-inducing writer’s solutions.

"You're kidding me with this, right?" you ask.

I mean it! You can use your experience in an escape room to practice your own storytelling!

Allow me to explain.

But first, let me take your phone, give you a safety briefing, and lock you inside of the room. Oh, the storyline for this room? You'll figure it out soon enough.

1. Understand the Story Behind the Escape Room

Every escape room has a theme, a backstory, and, now that you and your friends are here to suffer, a set of characters. The puzzle master, long before the room you're standing in was ever built, came up with a concept that would get you and hundreds of other people to subject themselves to stress for 60 minutes.

Similar to being a writer, yeah? Okay, stay with me.

The puzzle master considers themes first: mystery, horror, adventure, or historical. This theme must resonate with the potential players of the room: families, friends, corporate teams, enthusiasts, couples, etc. Don't those sound like genres? Doesn't that sound like a target audience?

Then, the puzzle master must think about what environment would best enhance the theme. I've been to rooms set up like Dracula's haunted mansion, an ancient Egyptian temple, and uninhabited jungles, among others.

What do you see around you in this room? A secret laboratory? Oh great, the puzzlemaster is getting gory—and your time has begun!

Before diving into the puzzles, take a moment to soak in the narrative. What’s the premise? Who are the characters involved? Why is this scenario set-up in the way that it is?

Does this sound similar to those 2am manic episodes where you jot down the premise and the characters before they escape your mind? Uh huh, that was the puzzle master months ago. He's thought it all out, just like you have with your story, and now the reader gets to put together the pieces.

That's it! I am encouraging you to think like a reader. The entirety of this escape room is to figure out why the puzzlemaster/author did what they did to set you up for where you are now. You're in the reader's shoes, and you only have 52 minutes left.

Start looking for those clues! There are handcuffs in the desk drawer? There's a broken lightbulb that flashes? The beakers have scratched out letters?

Why would the puzzlemaster put them there? Why would you the author put those specific elements into their story? It can't be obvious, but it can't be so stressful that your readers are left circling around the room with no clue as to where this plot is supposed to take them.

But you're not getting it. Why is the bulb flashing like that? Are you supposed to handcuff somebody? Are the beakers just old? You have to reach out to your fellow prisoners for help.

2. Collaborate and Communicate

Escape rooms require teamwork. You have to work with others to solve puzzles. You’re not just collaborating; you’re also sharing and building a narrative together. Each person brings their perspective, creating a richer experience.

This collaboration mirrors how characters in a story interact and influence one another.

Authors and puzzlemasters must practice clear communication. When telling a story, it's essential to convey your ideas effectively. When your characters interact, they must convey their motivations regarding the plot effectively.

Oh! Your friend Brenda knows morse code because she's a veteran. The lightbulb is flashing a code! M-A-R-T-I-A-N

Like an alien? Like the planet?

Like the prop electrical box recently serviced by Martian Electric: Our Service is Out of This World.

And now, with collaboration and effective communication, the storyline continues!

3. Embrace Conflict and Resolution

a. Time Pressure and High Stakes (External Conflict)

When the clock is ticking down, and your team is racing to solve the final puzzle, every second feels crucial. The adrenaline rush as you watch the time wind down creates natural tension.

You can see how players react:

Are they panicked? Do they freeze up?

Or do they find unexpected clarity in the chaos?

In your stories, using a literal or metaphorical ticking clock raises the stakes and forces characters into action. Ever seen this in heist plots, disaster stories, or romantic subplots where a character must confess their feelings before it’s too late?

The pressure forces characters to make snap decisions, showing their true nature/calling and revealing their priorities. The tighter the deadline, the deeper the conflict and the more satisfying the resolution when they succeed (or the heartbreak when they fail...)

b. Interpersonal Conflicts and Team Dynamics (Character Development)

Leaders emerge from this tension, champions prevail over conflicts, true strategists arise, and, sometimes, disagreements slow down progress. You may see players get frustrated with each other or step back to let someone else take charge.

Pay attention to these things unfolding before you!

Stories usually thrive on interpersonal conflict. Characters’ differing motivations, temperaments, and goals are bound to collide. By putting characters in high-pressure situations where they must cooperate (or fail), you can explore how personalities clash and bond.

Who will stick their hand into the garbage disposal to get the fingers with numbers carved into them? Who will get the team to snap it together and lead the call out to rotate the organ donor crates for the secret key? Who's the "Debbie Downer" keeping everybody held up?

The resolution might be characters learning to trust one another or discovering hidden strengths. Whatever makes the final victory more rewarding!

c. The Unexpected Twist (Plot Development)

Imagine solving a series of puzzles only to realize the team missed a crucial clue that changes everything, forcing you all to pivot strategies. You have to rethink the ENTIRE approach, but hey, you paid for the experience, and this twist creates new layers of conflict.

We like to get a conflict bang out of our buck, yeah?

Incorporating twists in your narrative—like a sudden betrayal, a hidden secret, or a new threat—keeps readers engaged and forces your characters to adapt.

The mad scientist in your escape room starts an intercom conversation—he's been watching you all this entire time! You didn't know that--what has he seen? Your teammates begin to panic as the mad scientist claims only three out of the five of you can be saved.

What will it be?

Twists shouldn’t be arbitrary; they should feel like a natural progression of the story. This will shift the stakes or reveal new somethings about the plot or characters.

d. Environmental Obstacles and Adaptability (Building Suspense)

Environmental challenges like sudden darkness, hidden doors, or malfunctioning equipment create unexpected hurdles. Players must adapt on the fly and turn frustration into creative problem-solving.

The lights shut off in your escape room. Who did it? None of your team mates did!

And...is that the sound of water?

Are they flooding this room? Was that in the waver?

Placing your characters in an environment that works against them—like a jungle filled with deadly traps, a sinking ship, or even a mad scientists seemingly flooding laboratory—forces them to think on their feet. This builds suspense and showcases their adaptability, resilience, or even their breaking point. It also provides a rich backdrop for exploring the theme of man vs. nature or man vs. technology.

In this case, it's man vs self because the light are off, but it's only the sound of water, as your team mate claims from being close to a speaker.

Another teammate remembers that there was a light switch in the beginning of the maze, but it hadn't worked before!

Two team mates volunteer to retrace their steps—in the dark—to find this switch. The ones staying behind count as there are merely minutes left in this puzzle.

The lights switch back on! The key is found in the combination lock you were working on before the lights went out.

You, honored by the rest of your team to do the honors, put the key in the door to escape.

AND IT WORKS

Y'ALL ARE FREE

And your writing can benefit from all of this!

In Conclusion

Escape rooms are more than just a fun way to spend an afternoon; they are a playground for storytellers. By immersing yourself in a narrative-rich environment, you can sharpen your storytelling skills in a very out-of-the-box way.

At the very least, you now know that you should stay observant for odd looking light switches and you can trust your best friend to take one or the team with the garbage disposal.

So gather your friends, dive into an escape room, and do your writing a favor! Happy escaping!

Not quick to escape my own mind palace,

Katherine Arkady