Question for you Story Hour Writers, need some Advice! :)

[RedSwan78]

Hey all you awesome Story Hour Writers!

I just recently started running my own game and I thought about posting it here as a Story Hour! Can any of the writers here post any Advice on how to go about writing up your gaming sessions as a Story Hour?

Such as, how do you remember all the details, who did exactly what in a combat, what exactly the PC's said, etc, etc..
Or, do you not use specifics, and just sort of write it from memory of the gaming session and just pretty much paraphrase what the PC's said at what times and such?

Any help/advice appreciated!

 

[gfunk]

If you are a DM, your job is somewhat easier as you have all of the NPCs at your fingertips. Also, you know where the story is going so it is easy to used foreshadowing and such. If you are not the DM, like me, then your job is somewhat more complicated.

Personally, I just write everything from memory and ask my DM for specifics if need be. Of course, the problem with this is that your SH can become somewhat one-sided towards your own PC.

As to combat, definitely don't go round by round -- this is very boring. Try to encapsulate the combat by a few of the most notable PC actions and embellish if necessary (as long as the outcome is the same).

Dialogue is particularly important and sometimes it has to be modified as long as it is in the spirit of the what the PC/NPC actually said. Try to provide an interesting-to-read account instead of a transcript.

 

[Iron Chef BBQ]

ScarredLands Story Writer

Hi! I'm a player in KidC's Scarredlands run, known on the boards as Piratecat's ScarredLands Story Hour, and I write the storyhour.

I take notes during the game. I especially note funny dialogue, and usually take round-by-round notes on fighting, but then I don't write the fights like that. I just highlight the key actions. I don’t find note-taking interferes with playing. Sometimes in combat we have to wait when it’s my turn while I finish writing, but it hasn’t really slowed us down. I manage to eat, write and lob magic missiles all at the same time. How’s that for multi-tasking!

PC and KidC give great descriptions of places and things, so that makes my job easier. I embellish a lot, and make some stuff up (like dialogue). I have to work hard to bring the other PC's to life and not dwell on my own. I might recommend if someone in your game will write for you that they try to write as their character. Writing would be out of character for my sorceress, but a bard is a likely chronicler.

Often when I write something more from memory than notes, I’ll email it to all the players to get feedback pre-posting.

Have fun! Looking forward to seeing your stuff.

 

[Cinerarium]

Twilight Paths story writer

I'm another player writing up his DM's campaign. We've found a few things that helped lots.

1. Getting "flavor text" direct from the DM. If you're a player and you don't remember exactly waht a room looked like, what an NPC's name was, etc. just ask the DM to copy and paste that stuff and send it to you. Other great stuff from the DM is stuff like back history on the world that your characters discover in their adventures that you can copy and paste.
2. Having some of the conversations online in between games. This has come up a number of times, when the group was deciding where to go next. This way there's already a written transcript that you can usually take, edit a bit to get it all into the same writing style, and use directly.
3. Whoever's writing up the story hour should definitely take notes, though they don't have to be too detailed, depending on your memory. I usually jot down the names of people we meet, just so I don't have to pester the DM as much later, and so that I remember for later in the session! I'll also write down some basic descriptions of where we went and what we did, in case I wind up not writing stuff up until a couple of weeks later. Any good quotes from any character I try to jot down, as well as anything I think my character (the author of the story hour) would notice.

One other thing that's worked well for us is to have me write up the story hour, and not the DM. Most of the story hours here are written by the DMs, but we found that the DM already had his hands full running the campaign, and that when the DM tried to keep a journal he had a hard time editing stuff the right amount to not give anything away. Piratecat and the rest of the DM storytellers do great jobs though. I suppose if you're the DM and are also writing the story hour, then as long as you wait a few sessions before you post, you probably won't give anything away.

One final thought... I'd start by writing up every session for several sessions before posting. This does two things. First, it gets you comfortable with your writing style and voice, giving a more consistent feel to your story. Second, it lets you post a ton of stuff up front, to get interest going, before getting into the two week waits in between writeups while you wait for the next game session.

... guess that's all I got.