A guide for would be Fan-Fiction Authors

[Ruatha]

My first story was a 256 systems map...
A grand epic saga! (NGC2)
I had help by the other co-authors, our stories influenced each others, our main characters interacting.
So sometimes I would put the words in the mouth of the other authors charachters and sometimes they would do the same with mine, real fun.

The story could suddenly take a whole new turn, to bad most of my characters died

[clark]

Thank you all for your input so far, but the interrogation, "She must continue!" (imagine a thick german accent)

I have downloaded the TDM mod, so I think I have quite a few races to work with, but are there certain ones that might make better opponents or foils for a story based SE4 game?

Do you play differently in terms of what you research in the game, or in other words, do you alter your strategy to fit into your developing storyline?

My main issue is I have a tech strategy that I consider optimal for my playing style, however, early introduction of certain weapons (like the phased polaron) can make for unbalanced tension in the story. Part of the draw to some of these fan fiction stories (for me) is the "impposible odds" as your race is confronted with Organic technology while all you have is a DUC.

In your opinion, am I better served trying to actualy role-play the game to the point where I determine stragey from the perspective of the characters and the universe?

IE- not really reserching weapons technology until you encounter a real need for weapons tech (like the Rage)?

[Suicide Junkie]

You could always have a militant or paranoid race...

With mine, I was bent on terraforming my universe to perfection, and stacked up 3000 mines to keep the AIs from bothering me while I did it.

All that research into planet improvement left me with a huge military deficit, and my LCs had to go on some tech raids against the ever-present dreadnoughts roaming the badlands beyond the minefields. And all with the minesweepers continually bashing away at the fields, providing that countdown to Doom.

[ June 18, 2003, 19:09: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[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.