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Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
As stated in the contest thread, I'm encouraging each team to post a plot synopsis of their story and character bios for their main characters in here by September 30th. This isn't a requirement, so if you want to keep the entirety of your story a secret, that's okay. But hopefully this will get people to think deeper about their stories and set everyone up for a good start to the writing process.

If you would like, feel free to utilize this space to share additional details, teasers, and excerpts from your story. Or just use this space to keep updates and tallies on your progress.

While I hope each team works together to solve the vast majority of their questions and problems, if both team members are stumped or desperately desire outside input on something of great import, this would probably be a good place to ask for additional opinions.

We probably don't need 10+ motivational threads clogging up the Writing Workshop and burying threads from non-contest site members. So let's try and stay confined to this thread out of respect to others.

Good luck everyone.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
@eshspoyeofdoom ; @Charaxes

@Seto ; @IronPanther

@Steve24833 ; @Malkalack

@ShadowHills (Slasher) ; @Melliapop

@WouldntItBeNice ; @Lancelot

@Beardon ; @Tim36D

@Breezy134 ; @TheNewIAP

@ISentinelPenguinI ; @MasonJarGuzzi

@Ford ; @betaband

@DrPhoenix ; @TheMonitor

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

I like how you tagged teams together.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Ow, Jesus Christ, I'm thousands of miles away conversing over a computer, and the superlative aggressiveness in that still hurts me.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
* @DrkPhoenix

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

The Fallen Grave, a story about a young girl bullied to death and she tries to get revenge on the people who ticked her off.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

And that's not even the real, full story. 

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

The basics of the story as to not spoil anything: The main character is being hunted - you - and needs to protect himself and his family from someone in his parents' past. They are out to kill all you love. Good luck and Don't Forget.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
@Chris113022 ; @digit

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Our story's about a guy in a bar.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
a bar of what?

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

*ba-dum-crash*

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

That's for we to know, and you to find out.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
ooo...very ominous.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

A young, third-generation human is faced with the basic task of survival after the mysterious fog that protects his village vanishes, allowing the gods' first creations, monsters, to invade. Guided only by his will to survive, his friends and family, and a vision of a mysterious spear wielded by a goddess, he must discover the true reason for why the deities have forsaken his species.

Characters

Gran: A young, impressionable seventeen-year old boy. He works the farms to help support his baker mother and retired grandmother while occasionally going to visit his childhood friend and crush, Liliana. Despite being physically average and terrified of fighting, he's one of the smartest men in the village and one of the few survivors of the massacre that occurs after the fog vanishes. Throughout his journey, he's plagued by visions of a goddess, a glowing spear, and color.

Liliana: The local blacksmith's daughter, Liliana is a skilled fighter who takes great passion in following her father's footsteps. She first met Gran after breaking his nose. Depending on your choices and route, she can end up as a romance option. I just realized I never described how she looks. Esh and I should probably do that. I did describe her father though, so at least people can guess she shares the orange hair color her father has. Which she does.

Siga: The local blacksmith. Siga wears a blacksmith apron... and nothing else. Whether it's forging a weapon, threatening Gran with a number of gruesome deaths if he goes anywhere near his daughter, or running for village leader, Siga is mad scary and probably one of the few villages who can take on a monster in open combat.

Gran's Unnamed Mother Whom I Need to Name: Gran's mother. She bakes things and is famous for her darinberry pie. Since color doesn't really exist, all her pies are stark grey. Even the filling. Even the crust.

Gram-Grams/Gran's Unnamed Grandmother Whom I Need to Name: She's a first generation human who loves to tell Gran stories about the first generation, and how there once was no fog.

Progress!
Chapter 1 is almost entirely done! Woo! It'll be around thirty pages or so but boy is it interesting to read! I was kind of reluctant about Esh for a while there but he's pulling his weight quite nicely. laugh

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Bucky, who's story synopsis sounds coolest so far?

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Pffffhahaha!

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

The annoyance is very frustrating.....

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

w-what's so funny?

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Good question.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

I wonder why. Sentinel, why are you discriminating this young lad?

 

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

What is with you and calling me male? Lass. Not lad.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Oh, bless him, Mason. She's happy the way she is! Leave her be! The less she improves or changes, the more we win.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

I know.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

I... I'm really confused. Do you not like my story synopsis? What's wrong with it?

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
Our story is about ghosts and shit

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
An epic in the making.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

A good plot summary that stays to the point but gives just enough details to whet the reader's appetite is hard to write. @Axiom, do you care to share your wisdom on this with the children?

Also, I'd like to summon @EndMaster, to place his divine protection over this thread and rain fierce punishments from above on any derailers or shitposters. Someone always has to wind up destroying Bucky's threads, and even though I'm not currently able to commit to this, I'm following with interest and would really, just once, like the site to have a nice thing that doesn't end in a shameful spectacle of retardation.

 

edit: And I see it's already beginning... :|

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

A good synopsis has the following things:

- The main conflict of the story, which is what the story is about. This is different from the premise. It's not "a story about someone in a haunted house," it's "a story about someone who's being stalked through a haunted house by a ghost and must banish it in order to survive."

- The protagonist. Who is this person and why should we care about them? What do they need to learn emotionally from the story? You should identify their main character conflict if possible.

- Stakes. What happens if the protagonist fails? If it doesn't sound interesting, you need to increase the stakes.

- Irony is a nice bonus. If your premise sounds unexpected somehow, your story will be more interesting. Something like, I dunno, a priest having to go to a brothel. If your synopsis doesn't have any irony, your story probably doesn't have any, which could be something to add.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

All stories should be about rain on a wedding day, and the good advice that they just didn't take. Duly noted.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
My synopsis basically included everything except the irony.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Project Wangus

By Sentinel and MasonJar

You're a guy in a bar.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
Oh man, Esh is so much fun to write with!

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Thanks!

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

@eshspoyeofdoom

This is directed toward everyone but I tagged Esh in specific because I want him to participate more in this thread.

Which is scarier? Spending a night in an abandoned cave, or spending a night in a dark forest?

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Why don't you PM him?

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Because the question was directed toward everyone, not just him.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

......this is not the thread for that. Didn't Mizal talk about not derailing it?

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

"While I hope each team works together to solve the vast majority of their questions and problems, if both team members are stumped or desperately desire outside input on something of great import, this would probably be a good place to ask for additional opinions. " - Bucky

so ya, dis da thread.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

So the question "is a cave or dark forest scarier" a very important question that has a great effect on this thread? I think not.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

... it's great importance to the plot of the story. sad

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Wait, are you asking people what the setting of your story should be? Correct me if I'm mistaken.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Kind of. A major chapter of the story takes place in either a dark forest, or a cavern system. I'm trying to decide which one is scarier, because a large chunk of the game will take place in this environment.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Both are pretty standard settings. Like any situation, it depends on how the scene is written. The fact you're leaving it to others to decide implies the cave or forest are both more or less window dressing that don't significantly effect how the plot plays out.

If you're really undecided, why not make taking either path an option for the player?

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

hmm, okay.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

I'm surprised I didn't think of that.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

And the reason I didn't just make yet another writing workshop thread is because I've already made like three, and Bucky said:

"We probably don't need 10+ motivational threads clogging up the Writing Workshop and burying threads from non-contest site members. So let's try and stay confined to this thread out of respect to others. "

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
caves are shit because they have walls to be up against and like, 1 opening so it's easy to defend and feel safe. forests ain't got shit besides thin ass trees and a canopy. bugs, snakes, and poisonous things all over the ground along with being surrounded by darkness with not so much besides sound to go off of. whispering trees are fucking real - I've been in a forest at night and it's creepy as fuck even though I know I'm alone it totally doesn't feel like it.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Some caves are massive things you could get lost in till you starve in darkness so complete you can't see your hand in front of your face. They're easy to become disoriented in and there are sudden drop offs, eerie echoes, deep water with weird eyeless fish... 

If just spending the night in a small one, yeah that's not too scary on it's own, but a good writer can make any place fit a horror story.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

^ A good Horror Writer can make Rural Maine, party balloons, and fucking corn-tentacles fit a horror story.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Alrighty then

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Leave me! I'm going through a sixth life crisis!

I dunno... I mean I get pretty scared when things get generally dark, but I would feel more...protected from the elements... in a cave. 

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Makes sense, despite my very small fear of the dark, and my extreme fear of heights.

 

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
Untitled
By: Breezy134 and TheNewIAP

You and two friends get stuck babysitting on Halloween night. What a bummer. Especially as most of your classmates are enjoying a massive Halloween party without you. The group of children you are watching grow bored of trick or treating within the first hour. They decide to play a prank. They suddenly stop walking and count to three, before taking off running in all directions. You must find them before it's too late. After all, it's Halloween night, when all the monsters and boogymen come out to play...

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Oooh, that sounds incredibly generic and that just makes me terrified of what you two have concocted up. The specifics are probably terrifying. laugh

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
Trick or treat, Kids are sweet. They are so fun to torture and eat. If one happens across my lair, they will be in for quite a scare. I know I will make them scream, before I put their head on my ice cream. Oh please let just one wander into my sight, I cannot wait for Halloween night...

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

It Tastes Like Chicken

by Chris113022 and Digit.

A group of friends take a road trip, only for their car to break down. After searching for help, they come across a house and a seemingly normal family... Of cannibals, that is. A comedy horror full of references, deconstructions, and parodies.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Oh god this scene I wrote is... disgusting:

The balded, vaguely man-like beast snaps Grams' spine and tears it out with nothing but its teeth. Thankfully, your grandmother is long dead already.

Then, the beast turns its attention to you. One limb swings toward you but hits a chair instead, splitting it in two. Another limb flails into the wall, hooking into it and allowing the abomination to pull itself upright. Grams' corpse drops to the ground, a barely recognizable mass of flesh.

"G-get away!"

The beast shows no mercy, leaping toward you. In a last ditch effort to survive, you draw your dagger and plunge it upwards. It impales the creature and allows you to force it back, but the beast recomposes itself just after and makes another lunge.

Its jaws expand even further from the dangling strands of sinew and collide with your head. You try to scream, but the beast swallows your skull into its throat. All that can be heard are muffled cries.

The beast takes another gulp, and the upper half of your torso slips into the slimy interior of its mouth. Gulp. Your elbows. Gulp. Your entire upper half. Gulp. Your pelvis. At this point the beast needs to dislocate no further, and instead lifts its mouth into the air. The rest of your body slides down the well-lubricated throat of the creature and into its stomach.

You're alive the entire time. It feels like hours pass of you suffocating in its stomach, surviving only by the small amount of air you get anytime the creature breaths.

Gulp. A light shines from above but then darkens again. In that short glimpse of illumination... you see the head of a man, crying for help.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Whoops. See below.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Why do people keep responding to my posts with blank replies and/or just a period?

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Well, the other one was an editlock.

Tim's was an accident that needs mod cleanup :P
He didn't mean to reply to yours I think.

Also some are stuff with hidden text.

Like the one below xD

Boo. This is hidden text.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

U kno it bb

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Hidden text ftw

We should stop now xD

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Mine are more hidden than yours

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Yours might be more hidden >.> But mine are still kind of hidden. It's good enough for me.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

It was a mistake. I'm sorry.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago
My story with Beardon is about Creepy Campfire Stories With Two Original Plot Twists.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Me and IP want to keep ours secret...however, I want to ask one question:

Would drawing pictures for the important/all the scenes be a good addition or would it just be something that takes a lot of time and doesn't really provide much?

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Pictures can help compensate for poor descriptive skills.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

>.> Wow. I see how it is. Are you saying I have poor descriptive skills? XD

Fite me irl

I just feel like a picture of this would be good.

The scent of the air in this place is a mix of paint and polish, bits of old clay and dusty canvas. The floors and ceilings are pristine, clean white, but the walls and trappings are a complete riot of color. I love this museum. As much as I protest when my parents drag me here like a child who can't be left on her own, I can't help being drawn to the pictures, the sculptures, the evidence of artistic passion.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

U kno it bb

U got it bb

I do not care if you draw it or not, it just matters if you want it sooner or later.

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Time and place? Also, are futuristic weapons allowed or are we fighting fairly?

I guess I want to put some effort into this, and I think I can finish the writing in time...Hm...I will try and finish the story first, then draw some scenes if I have time left c:

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

December 16th, 1991

K den

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

Okay then. I will be waiting. You need a ride or do you have your own time machine? :P

Ok. I think it's a good plan xD

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

A NEW ANTAGONIST APPROACHES!!!

The Wailing Monster

A mysterious creature that appears at key locations throughout the game. It watches Gran from afar, before leaping thousands of feet into the sky.

Woo! We finally got a main antagonist!

Co-Author Spooky Contest: Story Development Thread

7 years ago

That's pretty cool... I guess.

Teamwork makes the dream work!