New to the Story Hours

[greyscale1]

I understand that this probably should be in the story hours section of the boards, however, I didn't want to clutter up that board anymore with anything other than an actual, ya know, STORY HOUR. If I really shouldn't have put it here, I'm sorry. So sincerely sorry. Forgive me. Everyone. I beg you. Please.

END DISCLAIMER



I am DMing a campaign right now and its feel'an pretty epic even these first 2 sessions in. I think I would be really interested to start a story hour regarding the campaign. However, although I have been told that I am a good writer (don't take the haphazard way I type posts without deleting color your opinion, ) I am not so confident in my abilities.


SO I ASK: (POINT INCOMING)


What are good resources to look at before I start scribing this tale? Should I even bother, or do most people just skip straight to established authors' Story Hours? Any great examples of Story Hours? Anything I should absolutely know or include before I begin?

Any advice and suggestions from people who read or write these things would be MAAAAASIVELY appreciated.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Best advice I can give you is to just post - even if it means you're doing it in small chunks. Don't worry too much about anything else - just post.

Once you've got into the habit of posting, make sure you're also reading a lot. Other story hours, other books, anything. The more you read, the better you'll become as a writer.

In terms of recommending Story Hours, I'd certainly recommend Piratecat, Sagiro, Sepulchrave II (although that's a long one, and very complicated!). I'm sure other posters can suggest more.

Plus, uh, there are two SH's in my sig you could, you know, take a look at...

 

[Gold Roger]

This is a pretty good thread on writing storyhours I keep bookmarked in case I ever give it another try.

 

[el-remmen]

This is a pretty good thread on writing storyhours I keep bookmarked in case I ever give it another try.

I was going to pimp my own thread, but Gold Roger came and did it for me. But seriously, check it out. I think it will be very helpful, if I do say so myself.

 

[LostSoul]

In my opinion, the best story hour ever is one of the first:

(contact)'s Temple of Elemental Evil 2. He keeps the focus on where it should be in a D&D story - the action. Even there he doesn't bog down in round-by-round accounts of battles, only describing the important moments. Every now and then you might get a small insight into a character's motivation, but it's short, sweet, and to the point. It adds to the focus instead of distracting from it.

Plus, it's funny.

So yeah, I'd read it if you kept it short and sweet and to the point. Any half-page internal monologues about what the PCs are feeling and I'm out.

 

[Rackhir]

The most important things to keep in mind if you are interested in doing a story hour are IME.

1) Write it for your self and your players. The hard cold fact is that like in any other area of fame and fortune, the odds are that what ever you do, no matter how good it is, will never attract any attention. If it happens to catch on and become popular that's great, but if you're doing it for praise and adulation you are almost certainly going to be disappointed. Shilsen's SH in my sig has been going for something like 5 yrs, has like 32k views and has only ever gotten a handful of comments from a handful of posters.

2) Frequent or at the very least regular updates maximize the chances that people will read your SH. A short update of a couple of paragraphs once a week is far more likely to attract an audience than something that gets a novel every 6-9 months.

3) Expect to spend a substantial amount of time doing this. A write up for a session can take a minimum of 3-6 hours of work.

4) Tell your story with a point of view, some personality. A dry recitation of round by round events will BORE YOUR AUDIENCE TO TEARS. The Chronicles of Burne in my sig is a good example of this IMHO.

 

[greyscale1]

Thanks everyone, epecially El-Remmen, your guide rocks.

I probably will be starting my Story Hour at some point in the future, but definatly after I've got some of it already under my belt.