Story Ideas & Discussion Thread

[Terk]

It's been mention (by Peacemaker7) of late that we could do with a thread to keep together discussion of new ideas and advice for new storytellers.

So, here we are. If you have any questions to ask or want any advice on your story, ask here, we'll only make fun of you a little bit :p

[Terk]

by Uzee:

Hi

I have never created a FM story yet, i plan to as soon as i start playing FM 2008.

The only idea i have so far is that i start the story off by saying that i have been on a 2 year break from football, last club i managed was Osasuna in 2005, i briefly mention how i performed at this club, how my squad looked like, what my league position was etc.

Then i start telling story of my present club, which will be in FM 2008.

Please give me advice on writing a FM story. I will basicly write my thoughts and decisions that i have made etc. But i have noticed that most of you add extra sort of attractive imaginative stuff, like "a meeting with a club for an available job, at a 5 star hotel, where you observe sheets of paper containing squad and other info, while drinking a fancy drink" etc.

I was thinking of doing this type of creative stuff too, what you think???

Any advice/tips are welcome.

[Terk]

by Peacemaker7:

Good wee tip, it's I not i.

[Terk]

by Amaroq (blatantly fishing for FMSer of the year votes):

Uzee, there's plenty of different styles to work with.

Some people do just their match results and a one-paragraph write-up of them .. while at the other end you have people who try to evoke every ounce of emotion a real match endures.

Some people do very detailed stories, and oh there happens to be some football in it, while other people do nothing but the football.

I'd say, pick what's going to interest you to keep writing it .. don't bite off more than you can chew, by which I mean, don't set yourself an extremely high standard if you're not likely to follow it with equal.

For a story to have any life, its got to entertain the author first.

Beyond that, if its well written, it'll find an audience, and don't worry so much if the audience is different from another writer's; Faramir and flipsix3, for example, both have 15,000+ views on their top active story, and their styles are very different.

Two things I would advise from a mechanics perspective:

1. Write in Word, Wordpad, or Notebook, not in the little pop-up "post" window on the website. Then cut-and-paste in when you're ready to post. (That lets you spellcheck, edit, save, etc, and prevents accidental "oops posted before I was ready" mistakes)

2. Don't "postflood" - if you drop 20 pages worth of posts one after the other, its going to be intimidating and offputting to new readers. Post a bit, leave a cliffhanger or two, and engage your readers that way.

3. Get ahead - goes hand in hand with that. If you play-and-write a bit ahead of your posting, it gives you a couple advantages. One, you'll have days where you don't feel like writing or playing, and you'll have some material saved to post then. Two, you can "foreshadow" events yet to come. Three, you may observe that something which happened a week or two earlier was more important than you thought it would be at the time.

Oh, one other thing.. when the "annual awards" nominations are posted - should be in a couple days - take the time to read several of the award nominees: if you're serious about writing your story, you can learn something from each of those authors whether their style matches yours or not - even if its a "what not to do" lesson

[glamdring]

Best piece of advice I could give, especially for a first story, is just to make sure you write in a style that you are totally comfortable with and enjoy. If you try to get too ambitious with a style you aren't that comfortable with you'll probably lose interest in it yourself too soon ( that is very much from experience! ).

My first story was a mish-mash of styles which probably didn't flow as well as others as a result, but I wanted to try out a few different angles - e.g. diary style, newspaper reports, narrator style and even bits of commentary or conversational interludes thrown in. I really enjoyed writing it and got a decent number of readers, probably largely because the fact I was enjoying writing it showed, even though the quality was variable.

[Peacemaker7]

One of the best pieces of advice anyone can give, particularly to a newer writer is, do not be afraid to fail.

So you start your story, write it a couple of days and then think oh crap, this is not working as I expected. Don't worry. Remember there is a 7 day posting rule in this forum, you cannot post new stories more than once a week so take that time to decide what you want to do before chucking it in. But also, if you are battering along with a story and you feel it's really getting tedious to write, don't force it. No-one will think any less of you for walking away from something that isn't working out.

[Peacemaker7]

Punctuation and grammar IS important. (See what I did there huh :p)

Many people have come on here and posted something totally unintelligible,

i woz maniging arsenil wot & we wun 2-0 & we wus gud 2.

Whilst that may be accepted in other forums these days, it is not accepted in here. For a start, no-one is going to take the time to read such bull crap anyway.

Always remember to capitalize 'I' this is one of the most annoying thing some lazy writers do. There is not excuse for it and I personally will not take the time to read a story in which the writer cannot be bothered with the basics.

Remember paragraphs. And the spacebar. So many new writers come along in their enthusiasm and post a huge long post which could be the greatest piece of writing ever, but it's all one huge chunk of text and is very painful to read.

Also remember that each portion of direct speech is a new paragraph so give

it

room to

breath.


Listen to people who offer advice and don't go taking the huff. We actually want new writers on here but stop and think for a moment, why are you writing here?

Writing is primarily for your own enjoyment, but we also write for others to read. If no-one else reads what you write, it is a bit depressing. So if people offer advice, it is because they are trying to help and listening to that advice will go a long way to ensuring that people DO read what you write and post nice comments like, wow this is really good PM7, welcome back PM7 (for the millionth bloody time), we luv you PM7!

And thats another thing. Take time to actually read other people's stories and take time to offer them praise - and advice - where appropriate. However, do not just post KUTGW in random stories in the hope that people will read yours. Reading other people's stuff is a good way to learn, and can sometimes inspire us to new ideas.

Heaven knows HD's & Terk have stolen enough of mine :p

[Peacemaker7]

HD's, you mean there's more than one

[HD]

Heh, I think reciprocal theiving is a factor, to be honest.

[Peacemaker7]

Absolutely