A guide for would be Fan-Fiction Authors

[Atrocities]

Hello and welcome,

I don't know if you have read the story I am writing or not, but I figure that since I have written one I could offer some advice.

I started writing a while back first with the Cleansing stories, (Star Trek based) and later with the Once Upon The Starts (OUTS). I started OUTS after reading Sachmo's "Rise of the Remorhaz Society" and fell in love with his concept of using SEIV as a story base. Yes Sachmo inspired me as well to write.

I wanted to do something differant and make it the story more involved than just the standard 'we did this this turn' format. I wanted my story to more drama and suspense.

When I sit down to write I always have a basic concept of what it is I want to accomplish for the segment or chapter. After that its all comes out as I type. The story seems to take on a life of its own, sometimes it can be exciting, other times a bit boring, but in the end, it is all good. (Or so I hope)

I do what many writers do with a lot of characters, I have a seprate information page. Each character, item, place, etc is listed on this information page and with it a brief description or back story.

I write because I enjoy it, and even though my work is appreciated by a few people, according to the recent pole, I keep writing because it is enjoyable.

If I had one peace of advice to give it would be to just write and not think so much about what it is your writing, let your imagination do the work and you sit back and enjoy the ride. Good luck and I do look forward to reading your work.

[ June 18, 2003, 20:06: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

[Erax]

OK, I told you how I decided to sit down and write a story, now I'll tell you the choices I made before I started typing away.

I knew I was going to write a turn-report kind of story, because I liked ROTRS so much. But it also had to offer something different, something the other stories hadn't touched on before. I had been playing around with the Crossover mod some time before and I love Star Wars, so I decided to start a game as the Star Wars Empire and give every other race standard SEIV tech. I believed conflict and interaction between the different tech trees would be fascinating (and it is, but I've discovered it takes second place to role-playing the Empire).

In my special case, I knew my tech tree would be a challenge in itself (small ships initially, expensive weapons research, few opportunities to steal alien tech), so I set the AI at an easy level - medium difficulty and no bonus.

As for the story format itself, I wanted it to be different too. I got the idea for the 'war diary' format from Dracula (of all things). It is a challenge to write the battle scenes in this format but it makes the standard 'we did this and this happened' part much easier.

The initial Posts were actually quite easy, they practically wrote themselves. I checked my thread and discovered I did 13 story Posts in the first three days. After that things started slowing down, the game and the story became more complex and I eventually settled down to a routine of one post a day, five or six a week (although this week I've missed two days already and I am angry at myself for it).

More about how I write up each 'diary entry' later.

[Ragnarok]

Ok, well I'm going to put in my over-rated 2 cents worth.

Oh, and I will also jump on the bandwagon that Sachmo's story inspired me to write. His along with Atrocities and also the first History of the Galaxy thread.

But I just as everyone else have another word document with all information I need. Names of my characters, what their position is, names of ships/bases. Sometime I'll have planet names there too whenever my story develops some colonies.
As far as how I write and wether I have the plot line laid out. Right now I am only 3 turns into my game and I have a few chapters out. It takes me a few chapters before I can advance the game another turn. So I play and write at the same time really. I do as Sachmo does and use alt-tab alot back and forth. When I start writing a chapter I just have a general idea of what I want to do with that particular chapter. Then as I go along things just keep coming and I add to the chapter to get the end result.

As for how I play the game. I usually play it close to how I normally would but the game story that I am writing now calls for me not to. The people I write about (Hevordians) did not believe in other planets or anything other then their single planet inside this nebula, they do not think there are any other races out there either. They are a highly research devoted people and so I am playing the game at this point by not developing any weapons until I meet another race. Which will be awhile as its a medium galaxy. So I'll be behind as far as weapon technology goes but that will only add to the story and make things more interesting.

But I just suggest you find what works best for you and stick with it. We all have different writing styles and that's what makes all of our stories unique.

I certainly look forward to your future work. Oh, and welcome!

[Atrocities]

For OUTS, I had the whole concept already planned out in my mind before I started writing. I did make some changes along the way, and added and subtracted things.

I was targetting about 75k in words for the first full segment of the story, I.E. everything prior to 2400.0.

The segment, originally intended as one chapter, tells the back story and provides hints of other stories that I have tried to intertwind with the over all story. You know, to add a bit of drama and mystery to the story.

In retrospect, I wish I would have started the story off differantly and filled in some of the technobable a bit more carefully and explaining things more clearly, but what the hell, live and learn I guess. I can always rewrite the beginning.

It is a rewarding experience to read peoples thought and comments on your work. I am an amature and my grammer and spelling skills are not all that great so writing is also a learning experience for me.

I guess the point to writing is just to write and let your thoughts flow. It can be a lot of fun, but typing for hours on end can be a bit much at times.

I do most of my writing in the morning from midnight to about 5 am.

I like the night because it is peaceful and relaxing. No phone calls, no unexpected visitors, no intruptions, and no noise.

SEIV is such a great platform for creative writing that Aaron should list is as one of the game features. I wish that all of the stories generated by this game could be polished up and put on the SE V CD for people to read.

In fact, it would be a great if some of us could write for SE V the game.

[Erax]

First, Erax, if my story inspired you to write yours, then my whole effort is truly worth it! Thanks for saying that...it made my day.

Sachmo, you are most welcome. I had never read good fan fiction before ROTRS, just some rather bland SW and ST stories. Because of your story, I went on to read excellent stuff by Atrocities and others, which I would have missed otherwise.

Now on to how I write. I always keep the game ahead of the story; sometimes it's a single turn ahead and sometimes as much as six. Unlike Sachmo and Rags, I use old-fashioned pen and paper for my notes. I try to put as much info as I can on characters, organizations, etc. on the thread itself so I have access to it whenever I am Online, but I am reaching the point where I too will need a separate 'fact sheet'.

The story adds many limitations to the game. One example : I can't simply raise units in a captured world, I have to import them from my loyal colonies. The game allows me to do it but there would be no reasonable way to explain it in the story.

I write from my notes directly into the 'post a reply' screen. I reread my entries two or three times, then hit 'add reply'. I always read the entry one Last time after it's been posted (and I often catch mistakes there, as you can see by the number of edits I do).

The hardest part for me is giving every character a unique 'voice'. I'm keeping the number of main characters down to a minimum because I am not fully satisfied with this aspect of the story yet.

There's something else I've been meaning to say for a while... writing turn reports is an easy way to start. The game tells you the what, when and where, so you only have to worry about who, how and why. Freestanding fiction - like Once Upon the Stars - is much more difficult.

[Escaflowne]

I admit, I have yet to read any of these stories. Mostly because I didn't want to read about yet *another* races introduction to the cosmos. But now that there's a thread about them I feel compelled to sit down and read one or two of them and see what it is that everyone is talking about.

*Goes off to sate his curiosity*

[clark]

These are some great tips, keep it up!

Anybody have experience, or insight into developing alien socieities? Or even as enemies?

Also, if anyone has this offhand, I know I could benefit from a galactic measuring stick for the game.

What is the distance of one space in the solar system view?

What is the distance of one sector between solar systems (a solar system is one sector big)

What is the distance of one movement in tactical?

Or does it matter?

[Erax]

To create good aliens, you might want to read stories by writers who make good alien races. I suggest Larry Niven, Hal Clement and James White. There's also an excellent book called 'The Alien Way', but I don't remember the author.

These are all oldies from my father's SF collection, but they're probably still in print.

Edit : The system maps in SEIV are not astronomically accurate. I suggest you make up your own units to describe them - Sectors, Standard Units, whatever works for you.

I see the quadrant map more as a representation of the warp paths between the systems, not as an indication of their physical location in space (although there is the issue of distance for warp point openers and such).

I personally try to avoid using 'north-south-east-west' for directions in space, these terms are meant to be used on a planet's surface.

[ June 19, 2003, 14:25: Message edited by: Chief Engineer Erax ]

[Suicide Junkie]

What is the distance of one space in the solar system view?
Variable. Using our solar system as a rough guide, each ring out from the star is twice as far as the next one in.

What is the distance of one sector between solar systems (a solar system is one sector big)
10 light-years, according to the warppoint opener components. And don't forget Pythagorus for diagonal trips.

What is the distance of one movement in tactical?
As far as you want it to be.

[ June 19, 2003, 14:21: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[dogscoff]

my 0.02:

Writing is great fun, just dive in and do it. If you find the idea of a whole game's worth a bit unnerving, start with some short stories (a few pages or so) and work your way up.

All my writing so far has been SE4 based, but not related to any actual game. I've just started some game-based writing and I have to say it's pretty daunting. I prefer the freedom of not being limited by game events, game maps etc.

Whether or not you're using an actual game as a guide though, I think the most important thing is to put some thought into your characters and their setting.
Always be asking "what would my character really do in this situation?" If you don't know, then you need to think harder about your character. It's a great way of building the characters up and avoiding unbelievable/ unrealistic scenarios.

If you have believable characters in an interesting universe (one with lots of scope for exploration, conflict and general scifi wierdery) then the story will simply write itself. Your head will fill up with great events and your only problem will catching them all on screen before they get forgotten again=-)

Finally, get as many ppl to read it as you can. Not just us lot here, but also your friends, family, colleagues... anyone who can give you an opinion and suggest improvement. Try the http://www.speculativevision.com/forum/ forum, it's a place dedicated to offereing constructive criticism to authors.

The wider the spectrum of readers, the broader your universe will become.

On that note:
Have you read Othaglot and Cane? Read it today! Just click the banner below for an interstellar tale of murder, betrayal, intrigue and a gratuitous alien shower scene.