story writing...some thoughts on preparation

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by dogscoff:
-Get everyone's interest, then stop writing for 2 or 3 months. Lol! Actually I don't recommend that, do what I say and not what I do! Once you post and ppl start to get into your story, it does become a serious commitment.

It's a good thing you put that in there D, cause I was going to ask you about it if you didn't.

[sachmo]

Have fun. If it starts to become a chore, then you will avoid it. I only write when I'm curious about what is going to happen next. That happens a lot.

[Jmenschenfresser]

I think there are two ways to go about it.

-Either write the story while you play.
-Or play and then come up with a story to suit.

The first choice I think makes better stories. However sometimes when real life rears its ugly head, the second choice takes over. Happened to me a lot in the History Story. I'd play five or ten turns without thinking about the story and then I'd have to make up reasons why they happened later. Takes the fun out of it.

If it's a single player. Play the game slowly. A few turns and then write. Develop a mess of characters you can keep coming back to.

[capnq]

The first pieces I wrote were just short vignettes inspired by gameplay; they're in the Game Stories {link} thread.

Later, I had a solo game with an interesting starting position, so I started writing a history of events. That .txt file is up to 11K now, but it's coming out really dry, so I'll need to edit it a bit before I put it on public display.

I've got another one planned, where I've already written a scene after the First Contact, with placeholders for the race involved and alternate Versions for friendly or hostile contact. I've also got a separate file for that one with a list of all the characters I've used, to keep track of who they are as the story develops.

[sachmo]

So capn, you have a seperate file with all of your characters in it? Does that work for you? I tried it, but I found that alt-tabing from the game to the story was enough, and with a third doc open, my brain was overloaded, so I added my character list to the end of my story, where lookup was seemingly easier.

[dogscoff]

Something I've done for O & C is to keep a timeline. Very handy...

[MythicalMino]

do you guys suggest that i write my first story using a human race? i have a custom alien race...but not sure though