to keep me on track im going to document my progress on here. I would be thrilled if others would join me.
pages completed: 30
mostly all of these pages are at least a good paragraph if not more. im allso working on the disctiption which i will consinder posting tonight.
Eh? Well, I stopped working on my story since the 9th of this month. As far as the contest progress: 0
0 pages
HAHAHA, 3J you have no reason to hurry.
This isn't mostly done but it's a good base line for the scope of the story. Each box is a major plot decision.
my doesnt branch heavely to early on, i wanted some time to develop the character.
it should be read vertically :)
Those map you have is nuts. So much detail, is it for your book or is it the world where all your stories take place?
pages: 11
i would have more, but they're detailed. probably most i've ever done. There's a major decision to do in my story, right off. it results in 3 seperate chapters where you have a perspective on this guy (he's good, neutral, or annoying/bad)
there are a great deal of ways to get trough my first chapter which is not but mabe a fourth completed, they all spit you out in the same basic location, but there is a differences on how you can interact in those chapters depending on how you went through the first. it changes the perspective you get, and even what side of the feild you play on.
I can't even see this at a high enough resolution to read it. Weird. Nice planning. I usually just freak out and start writing and that gets confusing. I was writing something on some tablets sort of like that, and I did that for Blink, too. Of course, Blink's papers got lost and never finished. Maybe I should use the computer.
What program did you use for this?
And story progress...uh, well I have a basic outline so far. I'll be off on Monday so hopefully I can crank a few chapters out then.
0 pages, and so far no planning done. Having a mental block right now. I was planning on writing a more psychological game that either messes with your head or was similar to Sethaniel's Snow but in a fantasy plotline, but I figured I might not be able to pull that off (I tend to be very repetitive when I write like that) so I'm probably going to write a straightforward fantasy story instead. Might be able to come second if I'm lucky.
so long as your the one that comes in first 3J? :)
I wouldn't be so quick to judge, there is incentive now compared to just your every go around. If we consider that there are 18 entrees and everyone is serious or else they wouldn't have enrolled in the first place, this will cut out to be a very stiff competition. It is anyone's game. Honestly, I'm more worried about the new members than I am of 3J currently, they're like a really erratic fastball.
thrown by someone who has absolutly no idea what there doing. imagine what 3J can do in a month if he puts all his energy into it, its just not right. there is no need to fear the draw when the best cards are allready on the feild. that being said, im in no way saying new guys dont have a shot, infact i consider myself a new guy. im just not worried about, new guys. for two reasons, they dont have experience with the editor, and im in it for fun so im not even worried about 3J. im not worried about anything. its just a bunch of people preparing to have fun. i honestly would be surprised if we got 10 stories in by the way. i'll be proud of myself if i get me story in.
ug, so many typos in that paragraph... :p
im impressed with that number. make sure they are of quality and you have a great upcoming story on your hands.
ha, sounds fun. Mine is always grammatically weird, especially with tenses. I have someone read it every so often to check for grammar mishaps.
Mokarran that sounds hilariouse i hope you finish it, i want to read it. :)
That's a very interesting idea, crackterific!
Why was it from Photobucket?
Also, here's an update on my story:
chapters: 1 complete
pages: 12
yes, a short chapter, but it's mostly background and the lead up to the big mystery (the prophecy in the story).
Alright, I am working with something new here (for me anyway). I prefer the "feel" of the story over the system, so the system will be designed to cater to the "feel".
Its okay to be confused.
Anyway, I have a question:
Can it be Gothic Horror Fantasy?
And also, what about urban fantasy?
thats questionable, the theme is high fantasy, lord of the rings stuff. not modern but its not up to me.
Let me be more specific.
My story synopsis is basically this.
Main Character encounters a bunch of monsters that came into our world, he follows them through a portal into their own world to retrieve something they took.
That's the plan. Is this acceptable? The world will be High Fantasy, but there is a background mythological/mystery connection to ours.
Yes, because he goes into another world. Same as 3j said . . . sorta. but yeah, legit.
I am going to spam yet another question, what about Chinese High Fantasy.
According to TV tropes, Chinese Heroic or High Fantasy is Wuxia.
I am very familiar with Wuxia, unfortunately its usually seen by westerners as something of the martial arts genre.
Examples of Wuxia:
Naruto, Dragonball, 9 Dragons (MMORPG), etc. That's Wuxia, there are even ones set in modern times: Urban Wuxia, the East's analogue of Urban Fantasy.
Instead of Orcs, they typically use Mongolian Hordes that threaten to invade.
Instead of magi, fighters, and thieves, they have Qi-Gong masters, Martial Artists, and Assassins.
Instead of secret magical tomes, they have secret kung-fu manuals.
Instead of magical weapons/armours, they have legendary weapons/armours.
Instead of magical creatures, they have everything from animal spirits to Condors.
Instead of racial or national divisions, they have one country (China) with many Clans, cults, factions, religions, etc. (I.E. Wudang Clan, Shaolin Clan, Ming Cult, etc) vying for power.
Instead of some ultimate evil, they would have a ultimate manipualtive villain.
Is the Wuxia Genre considered "high fantasy" then for the purpose of this Contest?
this thread is for talking about your progress on contest stories go to the thread on news and info to ask questions.
Im right there with you as of now Zikara. I was making good progress on "Heros of the Jagged Coast", but i decided to stop working on it and start a new story for the contest. The new story is called "Armor of the Dragon". Basically its gonna be a high fantasy story but the story will center around giant mechs called armors. The wizards use magi, the sorce of life and magic, to power the armors. I have the outline pretty much sketched out on paper and I'm gonna try to get some work done on it today.
sounds very cool, not my style, but i like the idea. its creative, looking forward to it.
Story progress: 68 pages. aproximate percent complete 13.6%
considering posting the description to see what you guys think, anyone interested?
ooops... disregaurd this one.
I've got something deep in my belly that I feel like expelling. It's coming on. Unfortunately, it's not high fantasy, and it doesn't need to be a CYOA. There's no escape from the path, so can't be webs. Hmm, I'll try to use that.
are you saying something like the old greek tales where no matter how hard the hero trys to avoid the outcome of some profesy it still comes true?
I am considering posting the description to see what you guys think, anyone interested?
This is so frustrating, I haven't even started writing yet. There's way too many plotholes already with the story - why is the protagonist being chosen to do this job, how did these all-powerful entities allow themselves to be stripped of this power without realising it? There's tonnes more, I think I might try and come up with an entirely different story altogether.
Need help?
I'd prefer to work on my story on my own, but thank you for the offer :)
Exactly, if it doesn't seem plausible I don't want to compromise the story by including it. It's one of the worst things that can happen when beginning a story. Luckily I only had very basic planning done so I haven't been set back too far progress-wise (better than me realising this five chapters in or something haha).
Hey Mizal, just reply to the OP or the last post! It's a problem with the forum system here.
Heh, yeah, I noticed that after I posted, this is kind of a weird forum.
Anyway, I was just asking what program you used to make that story map you posted.
Whew. Okay, seven pages done. Which is kind of embarrassing considering there's a guy with 98 (?!) and another story already completed, but still, this is the most writing I've done in a single sitting in a long long time. And I've got the first chapter all wrapped up now, which is basically the setup for the launching point of all the major branches.
...which there are now twice as many of as what I originally planned. (kill me)
Also that website 3J linked is rad (do people still say rad?) and everyone should use it.
go outside or something, jeez
Sounds good already, looking forward to playing it. How large are you planning on making it?
I had less time to write durring my normal day, then i did during my vacation.
2 chapters done. yipee. 6-8 to go.
What is it about prequels? This happens to me a lot when it comes to fantasy, I start a story and then at some point decide the backstory is actually a lot more interesting and jump ship to write about that instead. It's not a good thing to make a habit of though - nine times out of ten you wind up with two half-finished stories when sticking to the one and just pushing through might have been the best thing.
Artifact*
welp, 20+ pages and still chuggin along. Not the fastest progress but I'm happy with the way the story's shaping up so far and I guess that's the important thing. It's been way too long since I actually finished a project and I'm determined to see this one through to the end.
I'm kind of afraid I might have to kill myself if I pull out the actual storymap and do the math on how much is left though...
You've got another two months to work on it, if you stick to your current pace you can't lose (that is unless you're like 1% of the way through your story). Good luck!
I've finally got a basic idea of how my storygame's going to pan out. Like up until recently, all I'd done is made the map for the continent/islands on which the story takes place and decide it was going to be a smaller-scale story rather than the epics I'm always trying to write and getting two chapters into before being preoccupied with something else (by smaller-scale I'm talking plot-wise, like as in the story isn't one where the character's decisions ultimately save the entire world or something). In my life I've never finished a story, and I haven't written anything properly in years (honestly ever since I found out that $ITEMSTATE and $ITEMUSED had bugs I haven't written on CYS at all, I've either been lurking or posting on the forums), so I'm really excited as to how this will turn out.
First I got the idea of the actual characters in the story, and some of the different paths in the story, but then I thought "hey, these guys can't just go and do a number of quests for no reason, this storygame has to have plot, I don't want it to be a sandbox" and literally in the past two hours I came up with an overarching plot which links various things together and I'm very excited. I really want to focus on character development and tension between characters (at the moment there are only three main characters). Unfortunately, as I haven't written properly since I was like fourteen (except for like short stories in English) I have no clue as to whether I can pull this off or not.
I'm going to write this using the Advanced Editor, purely because of the organisational benefits of having chapters, but I don't foresee the storygame using any variables/scripting.
I know everyone's super excited about my storygame judging by the multiple replies to my last post, so I thought I'd post to say it's an advanced editor game now. Variables and scripting will still hardly play a part in this game, I'm only using these features for an interactive map to choose where you want to go.
Yeah, can't wait for the master writers' works to be out into the world!
Haha you haven't seen my writing yet XD but I'm glad you think it will be good. (Really awkward if you weren't replying to me aha.) And thanks Zikara!
Good luck with your stories.
yeah, it's a good place to be. Still what? Three months left? You should be able to finish it. I'm about . . . I want to say 25%, but that's too much. More like 15% or so.
This is a really trivial question (open to anyone who wants to answer), but which name sounds better: The Apprentice or Apprentice?
Apprentice defininitely. "The Apprentice" just seems, not, well, exciting. Apprentice of what? is the question it's leading. Apprentice just makes me want to read, not quesiton!
I second this Apperentice sounds I lot cooler and I know cool.
Hence your name? Also, since we're on the topic of names, which sounds cooler to you guys:
Mozart or Betrayal
You already know my opinion on this matter Betrayal.
Yes, cool, but I need more than one opinion. October? 3j? zikara?
It really depends what the storygame is about. Does it have anything to do with the composer Mozart, or what-- like what's the relevance of Mozart in your contest story? It's hard to make a decision until we know the context, but just personally from the names alone Betrayal sounds a lot better than Mozart.
Apprentice is it then! Thanks for the feedback, I actually had it as Apprentice at first but was unsure about how it sounded so I put a "the" out the front but it still sounded a little weird.
Sounds like a TV show.
Probably doesn't help that the story description is "You're fired!".
I like the word, but for some reason I always associate it with a futuristic setting (probably because of Neo from the Matrix) so it just wouldn't feel right to me if I called it that. Good suggestion though.
sounds awsome man, keep up the good work.
That's a LOT OF PAGES!!! Insane! and only the 1st chapter? Sick!
I'm like 25 pages in, with about a 1000-2000 words per page, it varies quite a bit. I have several different paths in my story, and those paths have several paths, so expect to play mine through a few times to get the feel of it. I'm really excited to play everyones' stories. The contest commenting is going to be almost as fun as writing the story itself. You will see the grammar-whore in me!
Good! I love to give criticism and, as always, I love to read stores here.On FP, I'm the guy who reads everyones' shit and comments on it, then ONE person always comments on mine. No one else. I quit posting on there. I'm wanting to involve poetry in a story, though maybe not my contest story.
I'm really looking forward to reading the other entries too, I just hope we get plenty of time to do so. I mean, from the sound of it the size of some of these stories are getting a little insane, to 100% them is going to take awhile.
Mine is going to most likely be fairly short. Maybe 50 pages at most. So I hope the quality of the story will make up for the lack of quantity.
Definitely - as long as you comment and rate every entry you can vote.
Hope I'll have a whole day to rate . . . I'll need it!
Oh we'll need DAYS. My story is an easy 7. 3J's stories usually have depth and length. And even without those facts, there are a lot of entrants.
my story wont be as long as i thought it would be, but im going to dissapear from the sight for a while in order to start writing.
site*
it was a pun. sight as in you wouldnt see me on the site... eh forget it...
Just about given up on Apprentice. I could definitely go through with it and publish it, but there's no way I could turn it into something that could compete with a couple of the contest entries that could possibly be published. I've got heaps of ideas for good storygames but none of them would be anywhere near the level of Necromancer/Death Song, and for my first storygame at least that's the benchmark I want to reach with my writing. Somehow I think the struggle is pointless XD
Change of heart (again). Mixed some ideas around and it's good. This has happened like fifteen times, and I'm sure it'll happen again. I still don't think it'll win the contest but I'll aim for that anyway.
thats very good advice.
Thirded. (Fourthed?) Much better to have a reasonably good story that's actually finished than to be one of those people (like me...) that gets all hung up on writing the Most Epic Story Ever and then runs out of steam only a fraction of the way through because they're trying to do the impossible.
Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated. I've nutted out a lot of the ideas I'm going to be using in the story, it's moreso just naming some of the species of wild beast found in the storygame, naming the places, coming up with backstories for towns and actually planning how the story will go (and eventually writing it, of course).
It's a very Mattias style game, with a little less emphasis on variables and stats and a little more emphasis on characters and multiple paths.
i think mattias needed more depth in its plot and characterazation. im looking forward to reading this.
I'm trying to add some pictures in mine and google can't find any that I want! What's with that?
try switching the key words around.
Progress report: 2 pages (1 complete) and 1 link. A slow start but I have a good feeling about this story.
Let's just assume it'll end up being 600 pages - that's just under ten pages a day you'll have to do on average in order to complete this by the deadline. You can do it! Just make sure you don't fall behind. I'm really excited to see what you come out with (especially the formatting/scripting you use).
If you can manage to make it to 500 or so then that's awesome, but look at the October's math there and make sure you can pace yourself properly. 10 chapters every single day might be a tall order depending on page length and the amount of free time you have, and the most important thing is not to let yourself burn out.
Of course, if I can do four in a day I'm patting myself on the back, so I might just be really, really slow and not the best person to be the judge of that. :D
I'll be surprised to hit 60 pages. Mine isn't all that long, but hopefully the quality of the work will help.
Anyway, don't put so much food on your plate, you won't finish it right away! Just pace yourself and the sandwich will disappear eventually. ;)
Hah, yes, I meant pages. ('pages' and 'chapters' gets used interchangably at other sites I've been on) If I was writing four chapters in a day I'd be done by now! :P
I'm at 36 pages at the moment, and I haven't even started on any of the main branches. And I agree, some of the stuff being posted does sound a little on the 'insanely ambitious' side. Still, that just makes it all the more amazing if it can actually be pulled off, though. (If I wanted to try and write ten pages every day I'd have to quit my job and...well, actually I probably wouldn't be able to manage it even then...)
The time frame of this contest is extremely convenient for me, as I've just finished uni for the semester (have a couple of assignments and a Japanese exam still to clear up but nothing huge) and I don't start next semester until August, so I've got the next two months with very little to do. The guitarist in my band is still in high school so that limits the time I'll be spending on music during that period, and I am in between jobs at the moment.
So honestly, I've got all the time in the world to work on my story. But I'm still not confident I'll get it finished haha, I'll find some way to screw it up and lose motivation halfway through.
Which reminds me, 3J, how is your story doing?
...and as active as this thread has been, it's mainly the same handful of people posting. Last I checked there were almost 30 entrants. I'm kind of curious how/if the rest of them are coming along.
most people are still planning. it wouldnt surprise me at all if 3J hadnt even started actaully writing yet.
JJJ started writing a while back.
cool, that means his story is going to be awsome. he's spending more time on it allready than OMS.
It's extremely ambitious, I'll just say that. If he manages to get it finished in the next two months it'll be a real contender.
have you seen it?!
I've talked to JJJ about it and seen it in its very early stages, yes. Regarding the main plot(s), I don't know what he's got planned.
That's fair enough. I'm excited to see what you come up with either way, I haven't read anything you've written before so yeah, curious is an understatement.
Good luck geting it done in time. Especially if you have to write a few hundred pages in the final few days. I couldn't do that. It's taken me like almost two weeks to write the first twelve pages of my story haha.
Apologies for stretching the page, but in case anyone was interested, this is the map of ideas that I've been doing for Apprentice.
22 pages, 30 links. Three chapters complete. Like I said, short and sweet. October, that's EXTREMELY complicated! Hope you can make sense of it. ;)
Its unlikely that i will finish in time, im going to scrap my story and start again, nothing about the theme of my story pleases me any more, with the exception of the very beginning. It all must be changed.
yeah, hope you'll finish.
What is to be redone will be done better; I will start now, and work hard. Rather or not I finish by the deadline is almost irrelevant to me, I do have one regret, and that is that I committed to this. I said i would do it, and now I will put great effort into completing it. To commit and not follow through is like being a rain cloud that passes over a droughted area, without giving any rain.
i feel as though a peice of my sould was just ripped from my chest, i spent an hour and a half on a page of great length, the introduction to my story. i then hit close and save changes, happily thinking about what a fine job a had done, only to have it tell me i broke it, and it was all lost. this is certainly the most discouraging thing i could imagine enduring in writing. to start over full of vigor, only to have it flattend back to its foundation in an instant. i should have forseen it, i knew that glitch could happen, but i did not prepair for it. why? blast it all.
soul*
That happens to me as well, you just have to right-click and select "Back" and everything's still there. Scared me a few times though, now I copy everything before closing every page just in case.
The pop-up window doesn't close for me. The error page shows up in the pop-up window (which is why I have to right click and select from a menu to go back instead of hitting the back button).
I hate the "you broke it" pop up. I lost one of my best pages with that!
unfortunatly it did not work, it was beyond my ability to recover, Ive put alot of thinking into it though, and i think i can do that page agian, but better.
Definitely. In my past experiences where I've lost large chunks of writing it usually ends up better the second time around anyway, so it ends up being a good thing (albeit annoying). Not the best of things to happen to you when you have a deadline though (paper due in, this contest etc). Let us know how it goes!
Ok, this is a completely different first page then the one i made before, this one is far shorter, and i feel that it is far better. for reference, Tycho, and Justania are large empires.
obviously nobody likes it, haha, thats fine actually, this story would be to linear sence the only choices the reader could make would be deciding what Felix does in the more important situations.
absolutly not, ive shown it to several people, and while no one has told me thats its by any means not good, the more i thought about ti, the more i relized this particular plot wont work, its to linear. Im looking through my notebook for a more appropriate plot line, it realy is not a lack of ideas that causes writers block, it is to many ideas.
I always, ALWAYS write in notepad and then copy and paste to the site just in case something like this were to happen. Anything I write for any site I'm going to want to have a backup copy of anyway.
i fully understand, and caution is now being taken.
Pages 110
Feels good man, feels good. if i keep up my current pace, i will finish in time. as far as chapters go, im about 5% done
Wow. 110.
I've been messing around with multiple ideas, but I finally settled on one. Now that exams are over I finally have time to relax and create.
Progress: 0 pages.
I'm almost 50 pages in, I don't have any idea how many i'll make it though. I find I tend to section off my plot and each section ends up as long as it needs to be.
I might be over my head with this though, I'm using item's for combat and although the main plot never changes, the character's decisions can take them to various places, which result in different outcomes. Add in the fact that I have 1 main and like 15ish supporting characters (4 of which you can have try to have a relationship with, which may or may not affect the plot depending on the character) and it's gonna get complicated once I get past this initial stage....
*Sigh*
Wish I started this a month or so ago....
Your story sounds like its going to be realy good man, I have faith in you, you already have a featured story to boot.
I started multiple fantasy stories with varying themes and genres, and now I don't think I'll make it.
Well I'm having a bit of a dilemma.
I hardly been able to touch my story in about a month due to various real life difficulties, and now I'm wondering if it might be best to just throw the towel in and submit what I have, even if it's just basically the intro. I got right up to the point where the three main storylines branched off before having to put it aside, they're all at decent enough stopping/transition points, and the more I think about it the better it seems to leave it at that for now rather than bash out the maybe twenty or so pages I calculate I can complete in the next week and having it abruptly end in the middle of the action.
I'm still going to finish the story, but this way I can do it at my own pace--I'm way to into the characters and the setting now and the last thing I want to do is sacrifice quality because I'm in a rush. :(
On second thought, it's occurred to me that I might be able to at least sort of salvage the situation if I'm willing to jettison the 'choose your' part of the site name. As in, by successfully reaching a certain point in the game, the reader 'unlocks' an entertaining short story as their reward. It's all in how you present things. (good God these smileys are hideous)
No idea how that idea would fly around here though.
I realy hate this, haha, I was about to sit down and start writing, because I realy feel like writing again, but the long growing desire to use another idea is all I can think about. I know whats going to happen, but I'm not going to make myself keep writing something if I dont want to do it, because it will show in my quality of writing.
