(ot) story hour advice and pimping

[seasong]

If you're looking at mine for guidance... ah, let's see, I've got good grammar, few spelling mistakes, and a good sense of the background culture. I wish more story hours had posts on the background interspersed . I like the way my individual posts flow, although my overall writing is sometimes a bit erratic because of the post-by-post format and the fact that I normally write from work.

If I had more time, I would spend some quality time with Dictionary.com while I was writing, so I could make sure I use precisely the right words; I'd also love to improve the pacing, which would require writing more of it ahead of time, instead of just composing it in my head and then typing furiously when I have a few minutes.

Two gems that illustrate very different approaches:

Greybar's story hour is overall very good, although he hasn't gotten very far with it yet, and has only done a little bit . He's also not pimping it much. I'd look to this as an example of how to set a scene, and structure your overall post.

Wulf Ratbane's old story hour demonstrates some good ways to hook a gaming audience, and he very nicely captures the feel of a lot of classic games. Where Greybar sets the scene, Wulf sets the characters. Avoid his passive voice, though .

There's a ton of good story hours, of course . I mean, PirateCat does an awesome job of portraying the process of adventuring, Sepulchrave has word use that I envy, Calibre has some cool, weird stuff... But a lot of what makes those good is hard to take lessons from, just specific case ideas.

 

[Angcuru]

.....and the fact that I normally write from work.

Does anyone on EN World actually work at their job?

 

[seasong]

Most of my story posts are less than a thousand words. That's about ten minutes typing, once I have it composed in my head.

I work a lot more than it looks like, I promise. It's just that my work happens in 5-30 minute bursts all day long, with time in between.

 

[Silver Moon]

Good advice so far, especially the comments about giving detailed descriptions. I would recommend that each story begin with a description of the characters, either in the first post or in a linked Rogues Gallery thread. Keep good notes during the game and try to write the story prior to the next game, when the details will still be fresh on your mind. Also, keep each chapter to a reasonable length. My rule of thumb is each chapter equals approximately one hour of gaming.

You will want to decide early on if you want to write in the first or third person, and if you want to include DM's notes for the readers I do, but put them in italics to differentiate them from the rest of the story. Also decide if you will include any humorous out-of-character or out-of-game references. I have becuase my players enjoy reading them, but some Story Hour readers have commented that they find them annoying.

I currently have three Story Hours posted. Two are rather long, with a large number of characters, so I'd recommend that new "Silver Moon Stories" readers begin with the following short five-game module. It is set in the wild west, on an AD&D/Boot Hill hybrid world (and PirateCat enjoyed reading it).

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=843702

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Wulf Ratbane's old story hour demonstrates some good ways to hook a gaming audience, and he very nicely captures the feel of a lot of classic games. Where Greybar sets the scene, Wulf sets the characters. Avoid his passive voice, though .

The passive voice is not normally avoided in my writing.

 

[seasong]

The passive voice is not normally avoided in my writing.

You are a very bad man . Thank you .