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[Fantasy] How to write Dungeon-crawling.
Do you write temple exploration scenes?
I'm attempting that at the moment, and it's difficult. How do you do so without making it monotonous? Constant mini-skirmishes, or cuts to external action and unrelated passages?
Somewhat connected: do you create your own conreligions as well? Which real life belief systems promote your creativity the most? Or do you take inspiration from other works of fiction?
Personally, I'm creating my own interpretation of Discordianism, adding a few Lovecraftian elements, and adapting that into the temple's architecture.




Constant mini-skirmishes would read to me like a novelization of someone's D&D game. If that's the goal, then go for it.
If your character is in some kind of creepy religious temple, I'd work on building tension and awe. Describe things that look huge, old, otherworldly, obscene, and dangerous. Give the sense that the character has gone to a place they Should Not Be. Constant mini-skirmishes they keep winning says the opposite, that's how a game tells you you're exactly where you should be. Horror is built on the idea of boundary violation--something from Outside getting Inside, crossing a line one shouldn't, breaking a rule, the state of being "unnatural."
Your explanation is excellent, @Aiffe .
The only thing I have to add, @AppleOfDiscord , is that you can certainly cut to external action if you have subplots to visit and want to extend the scenes for drama...but that won't save the temple scenes from being boring if they aren't enough to stand on their own.
If you have multiple characters exploring, they can converse and respond to the sights or collapses and near-deaths, or reveal conflicting goals during the adventure. If not, your solitary character can still interact with their environment. Maybe inject a little more myth or discovery into it, change things up--what are the chances that they expect everything they'll see anyway? They can be shocked and horrified and in awe of something they encounter that strays from their expectations. Good luck!
What are you trying to accomplish with the temple exploration scenes? To show how scary the ruined temple is? Then you'll want to make sure your descriptions build tension -- maybe the art in the temple is going from "this is archaeologically interesting" to "this is downright strange" to "OH DEAR GOD WHY." If your characters are facing a series of enemies, escalating the level of threat to the characters with each encounter works better than a series of fights of equal intensity.
Alternately, if you just need to cover "they explored the ruined temple, and they found X" for plot purposes, either don't spend a lot of time on it at all -- just sum it up in exposition and maybe describe the creepiest/most dangerous part -- or use this time to do something else. Maybe that's characterization: can you put your characters in conflict with one another, or use the danger they're in to reveal something important about them, or to get them to bond? Maybe it's something else. But every scene should be load-bearing; if these scenes aren't accomplishing anything useful for you, they need to come out of your story.
why are they exploring? what do they want? what is keeping them from getting it? what are the good parts of the expedition? only write those bits.
So basically the same way you'd keep any other scene from getting monotonous?
IMO the key is always to strike a balance between character, setting and plot. You can probably afford to be more lush with scenery description in a setting like this however. Just keep in mind that the reader won't want to stand there and gawk/contemplate forever.
Unless it's supposed to be a D&D style story, I would honestly skip if it feels monotonous to you because then I guarantee your reader will also be bored.
I would say skip what can be skipped, punch up what can't be, and blur through things with a little bit of exposition-type commentary. "Two days, three ruined pairs of boots later, they stumbled out of the swamp". There, done, without having to write out how exactly the boots got ruined. Or you could, if it was funny, but if it was just "ugh, fell into a sinkhole for the nth time", might as well cut cut cut.
I'm a weirdo where I just skim over setting/travel descrip/fight scenes unless there's lots of interpersonal conflict/banter/snark, so take my comment with that bag of salt. (yes, I love talking heads, I cannot lie)
and...I realized I didn't answer the question, haha. Yeah, I do write fantasy things involving exploring and I tend to gloss the hell over it. I ...tweak things from existing religions, but I haven't made anything up from scratch yet.