Making Modules Your Own

The Art of Distillation
As a referee running White Box, or any other system, I prefer to run my own material, my own adventures. I feel more comfortable with material I have created, because I know what I was going for when I created it. I know how I want to present it to get the proper feel and mood, and I know how it all fits into the milieu. The monsters I like to use are there and any novel creatures are familiar to me because I created them. When the players ask a question that I had not thought through, it is easier for me to improvise because I know the scene well and where it is leading and how it fits into the bigger picture, at least in general terms. I suppose it is the same for every referee.
The ability to handle session material spontaneously and put things into my own words rather than reading to my players seems to enhance their experience as well as mine. When I design a scenario, location, point of interest or encounter it is bare-bones - notes and stat blocks. One of the reasons I like White Box is the short list of monster stats. A longer sequence of events I write down in outline form. Rarely do I write anything out completely, just enough to jog my memory and allow for the at-table action to proceed without reference to the rule books. Sketch maps, outlines, notes and stat blocks, with that material in hand I feel comfortable running anything that's my creation.
I get ideas from many places and often a piece of art will suggest a story to me from which I can create an adventure, at least an encounter. Short stories, novels, comics, movies and TV episodes can be converted into material for any genre by applying a little imagination. I also read a lot of game - specific material (often not ODD) and borrow heavily from the printed works of others. Mining, in other words. Taking "nuggets" from one or more sources, mixing them with ideas of my own and thereby bringing them into my milieu. I seldom referee anything published "as written". There are exceptions. Occasionally I will run across something I think is so awesome, that fits so well with everything else in my game, that I desire to run it basically as written (or I am learning a new system and am using a published module to take it for a test run or have volunteered to run mod at a convention). In those instances, I find reverse engineering is a good model for me to imitate.
By reading and re-reading the module, I first familiarize myself with it, taking notes along the way. Those notes and the general understanding and impressions I have, forms the basis for re-creating the module in my own words. Printed maps and stat blocks for monsters and NPCs can be used "as is" (perhaps with annotations), but descriptions and conversations with NPCs I will paraphrase by referring to my notes rather than reading directly from the printed material. If the margins allow, I may write these notes next to the printed text. Any background material and the plot or intended flow of the module gets condensed into an outline, usually on a separate sheet where I can glance at that to make sure I have not left out anything important.
Reducing most of the module into an outline and notes, using my own words, facilitates the improvisational style of refereeing that I am most comfortable with. My familiarity and comfort with the material and enthusiasm for sharing it with my players, I believe, makes for a more enjoyable game session. Regardless of what an author originally has in mind, the real story in gaming is the one that happens at the table during play. Many are the times that something I conceived as referee has been played out very differently and often to my amusement. Players will frequently take things in unexpected directions and that can be one of the great joys of the hobby. I would hope that should an author ever witness my running of their module they will not be offended by my "making it my own". After-all, I am only using their work because I think it is really good and deserves to be played. The changes I make are not necessarily improvements, but just represent how I like to do things.