[Meta] What Influences Your Story Hour Writing Style?

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'm not trying to wow anyone with my writing skills; the writing style of my own Story Hour (obligatory plug: link in sig) tends to be to-the-point, I think.

My big influences in fantasy in general are Tolkien, CS Lewis, Michael Moorcock, and Fritz Leiber. My writing style is nothing at all like the first three, but does bear some vague resemblence to certain Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories. I'm not very good at Tolkienesque descriptions, I like to get to the crux of things.

I took a lot of guidance from the other story hours in terms of certain writing conventions and so on; should I capitalize spell names, or italicize them? Should I drop in some DM comments, or write as if it's purely a novel? Should I avoid all metagame info, or include a little here and there?

The nice thing is that if I ever get the hankering to do the Great American Novel, I know that I've written almost 200 pages of text since last August. I'll never be able to say I couldn't write that much, that's for sure.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I have a terrible time remembering and recording dialogue. The recent confrontation between Malachite and Saint Aleax was very challenging for me to write. I am pleased that it reads a lot like it played out.

That is the single toughest thing I find as well. My players can be extremely funny at times, and each has their own distinctive "voice" that I try to capture. I've thought of buying one of those digital recorders that record 60 minutes or so to record major NPC interactions in order to make sure I get things just right, but I don't want to do something just to make the Story Hour better, rather than make the game better.

I jot down good quotes as I run the game, but I do most of my writing during downtime at work, where it's not easy for me to take my notes and write the quotes in. Luckily, just the act of writing them down makes them stick in my head, so I don't miss too many of the good ones.

 

[Old One]

Lots o' Folks...

Greetings All!

I think you could actually break this up into who influenced content (ie, plot, dramatic effect, chacterization) and who influenced writing style (ie, narrative vs. dialogue vs. tense vs. person).

PLOT

Tolkein
Orson Scott Card
David Eddings (earlier stuff)
Steven Brust
Jack Whyte (The Camulod Chronicles)
George R. R. Martin
Michael Moorcock

STYLE

R.E. Howard
Glen Cook
Karl Edward Wagner
Steven Brust
Fritz Leiber

I also read many story hours and glean them for style elements (and sometimes plot elements) that I like. I have settled into a "3/4 Narrative - 1/4 Dialogue, 3rd Person, Past Tense" Style. My biggest problem is switching tenses from past to present and I actually went back and rewrote most of my earlier story hours to correct the issue.

I haven't tried a story hour from a 1st person perspective, but would probably only do that as a player.

~ Old One

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Re: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

I never ever meant to compare my own writing that's here to writing done by any of the writers mentioned. they are the reason I'm here and into fantasy.

I'm just a tourist, man.

If that's posted in response to mine, please be assured I wasn't taking you to task. In fact our posts crossed in the posting; I was writing mine as you posted yours.

I didn't think that Moorcock and Lieber would come up as often as they have.

As for Tolkien... I can't dispute his place at the top of the list, at least as far as his importance to the genre goes, but I don't find that his style is easy to define, let alone capture. I couldn't honestly say he's been an influence on me in that respect although I remain a huge fan.

Well, although, I'd be lying if I didn't say Gimli was an inspiration to a certain character...

Wulf

 

[Paka]

No, Wulf, I didn't think you were taking me to task. I was taking me to task.

I just don't want y'all to think that I am putting this stuff on their level.

But if the name of my Story Hour doesn't tell people that I'm humble about the "new" ground I'm breaking than I don't know what will.

No, I didn't think you were trolling or flaming or a flaming troll or a trolling flame.

No blood, no foul...

 

[el-remmen]

Well, saying that you are inspired or influenced by all the great writers mentioned here doesn't mean that you are saying you are on par with them. . . (though honestly, there are quite a few "hack" fantasy writers that I can't help but feel I surpass )

As for dialogue, I use a lot of it - luckily one of my players keeps a "quote log" for each session - it is an invaluable asset.

 

[Carnifex]

Well, in terms of how my style of writing, as opposed to my plots and ideas, are influenced, I'd say its largely other story hours, and the mood I'm in. Occasionally I feel a bit rushed, or moody, or under the weather, and I think that I then tend to write a perhaps more rushed , more functional and less descriptive story hour when I feel like that. I'd like to think that most of my story hour is written in a fairly readable style though.

 

[Rune]

As for dialogue, I use a lot of it - luckily one of my players keeps a "quote log" for each session - it is an invaluable asset.

Consider this idea officially *YOINKED*

 

[Dinkeldog]

Wulf gets to play, so dialogue is easier for him. He actually has time to take notes during the game, which the DM story hour writers don't have.

When I was writing mine, I think I was less influenced by most of the bigger name writers. It was an attempt to go through the story through the eyes of the character, as a role-playing aid, actually. In that sense, my biggest influence was the Earthdawn game, where getting experience was tied to writing the story down. Additionally, I think Zelazny's Amber books helped, but there's precious little good fantasy told through the 1st person perspective.

Sorry, Wulf. I loathe Lieber. I struggled with Fafhrd for 5 years before I decided life was too short. Moorcock is good, but it's much more detached than your story hour is, coming from a 3rd person limited observer perspective. Another piece of irony is that the Wulf story hour/campaign are much grittier than your Lazy Days story hour, when you prefer gritty gaming much more than I do. It seems in Lazy Days, Jorie's biggest angst producer is figuring out how to keep from being the primary cause of the extinction of the dire badger/wolverine populations through Animal Friendship.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Grit is where the players find it. The DM can set the mood, but unless the players buy into the genre, it doesn't work. Both in your game and mine, there is a tendency for the adventurers to have a sort of blasé attitude about darkness, danger, fear, oppression.

The usual response isn't angst or fear, it's vengeance... and the higher level the characters get, the worse it becomes. The PCs cease acting out of desperate necessity as they increasingly gain the ability to influence their world.

I think a really gritty world requires a certain cap on fantastic abilities. There must arbitrarily be some threat that is beyond the adventurers to deal with. In your game, for example, we've had a few enemies who have been beyond us, but the only constant oppressive force from Wulf's point of view is the gods-- and he's pretty much made up that persecution complex from his own selfish and skewed perspective. (As if the gods have nothing better to do than keep an eye constantly on Wulf and foil his every aspiration?)

Grit is inversely proportional to the power of the characters, and the burden of sustaining that mood shifts gradually from the DM to the players. I think this is true of both games we're involved in (as player and DM and vice versa).


Wulf