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So I've been on this site for almost two years now. Instead of choosing one story idea and rolling with it, I've been creating and deleting storygames and slacking by just lurking on the forums. So let's change that!

This is where I'll keep all my CYS projects. I may also occasionally post some concepts and "previews" of storygames, and see what you all think of them, as well as what can be improved.

Last update: 2/17/17.

OVERVIEW

Completed Stories: 0

Unfinished Stories: 2

Contest Entries: 0

War Drums

Synopsis: A Gaul turned Roman slave enters the cruel world of gladiatorial fighting in an attempt to earn his freedom and satisfy his thirst for bloodshed. primary

Deadline: currently not set; most likely to be set around mid-March

Page Count: 6/50

Word Count: 980

An Average Man's Odyssey

Synopsis: An unemployed, lazy asshole must gather the courage and motivation to do something productive in his life while maintaining his energy. secondary

Deadline: currently not set

Page Count: 4/50

Word Count: 652

All the best, but why are you starting with a 200 page target? Why not go for a compact 20-40 and have something out within a month? I can say from experience that starting with anything > 50 pages as a target for your first work is asking for trouble

200 is just a starting goal, and it's going to increase or decrease as I reach my desired deadline (most likely late December). Hell, it probably will end up being 50 pages maximum if I procrastinate or just decide that 200 is far too high a goal.

Again, I'd urge you to start small. For the contest entry I'd planned a four character multi-POV story extraordinaire. When there were two days left on the clock (after working for 10, I wasn't slacking), I put that behemoth off and made a work that would have been for all purposes a side story to a side story in the original work.

It was my best decision this year so far, I was able to get a story up and running for the contest, and learnt a ton of things on the way. For this story (The Devourer), I'd targeted 54 pages on Day 1, ended with 18 done by 2 AM. Woke up and realized that within another 24 hours I'm not going to be able to crunch out the remaining 36, so cut off a bunch of second half content, and scaled down to 40. Realized the circumstances would cause more endings than I'd planned, so went back up to 44. Did the work suffer a bit from the revisions? Frankly, yes. But did I complete a work I was able to share and get feedback from? Absolutely, and that's all that matters, not writing a 200 page novel. You will learn things you didn't know you didn't know when you make your first work, so keep it small.

Let me offer another angle, starting small helps readers figure out whether or not they like your style of writing, and whether they want to read more. Accordingly, that lets you find people who will be interested in and supportive of your later (better) works, and believe me they'll be more motivation than a thread can ever be. Offering a 200 page story to a first time reader is like offering a window shopper a five layered wedding cake with fireworks and dancers instead of a cupcake (and expecting them to sit in front of you and eat that massive cake because you spent so much time on it). It's overkill, and not in a useful way.

I wrote an article on how to start your first game, from my own experience, you could read that in case you'd like a structured approach. A primer on writing your first Storygame

Hope you don't mind me posting in your motivational thread. I'd also second the idea of making your story planned to be shorter. It will always be easier to add more. From what I've seen and read about on this board, one of the primary reasons people end up posting poor stories is because they got impatient with process and "wanted to publish something." This almost always ends up with a story that's incomplete, and everyone who reads it can tell its incomplete.

For example, look at nearly all the stories in a contest with limited time. In most cases, you can see where the authors had big plans but ended up shorting a section of the story. I'd suggest, especially for your first story that you will really want to publish, that you aim lower. Aim for a complete, detailed story, but one that isn't quite that long. Then, if you get bored part way through, you might be able to push through to the end. Or, if you decide you "just want to publish something," you won't be too far from actually completing the story.

On the other hand, if you manage to keep the story going, can be patient, and can see the story through; if you've only planned a short story, it can be easy to add a "few" pages here and there that can expand the story and actually make it much more enjoyable for everyone with new depths and descriptions that might not have made it into a story with a longer planned space and time.

Or, just ignore me and write away!

I don't mind at all! I've been taking the advice you and Stryker have given me and decided to push down the starting goal to a solid 50 pages, and the deadline around early March if possible.

What are your opinions on using scripts to change the looks of game pages? Would it matter to you, or would it feel bothersome and detract from the story? It wouldn't be anything completely absurd - changing some colors at best.

Check out my stories for the answer to that question! :)

IMO, though, keep dark text on a light background. People like black on white because they expect it and can read it. For me, there's nothing more distracting than different text colors when I'm trying to read, though.

Scripts to change the looks of game pages is ok, as long as it doesn't distract people too much from the story. (See Brad's stuff) The main focus should always be the story, though.