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I've been unable to complete anything, and it's really starting to bum me out. I keep getting too ambitious and it all falls apart because of my lack of skill. I need to post my first real story on this website or I will never get anything done. I had an idea for a relatively short storygame for me to get out there so it can exist and be criticized and I can improve and make something I actually want to write. It seems simple enough, but I don't want it to become something I overcomplicate and expand until it falls apart. Do you think this is basic enough for someone who overcomplicates things to actually complete in a week or two?

 

You are the younger twin from a family born of high status. Your elder sister had the brains, while you held the brawn. Or that's how the image goes, at least. You believe you have a fair head on your shoulders, but you know better than to be telling people that. It goes against your family’s image. 

Now, she is soon to be reelected as the Ruler of the kingdom, and you’ve gotten yourself a comfortable position as her bodyguard. She has been kidnaped by the Grox King. Again. And it’s up to you to take off once more to lead the rescue party. This time, after the stunt is pulled, she will call the army to get rid of the Grox menace for good. Your image as a hero and her image as a capable leader will be cemented into realty. That was the plan, at least.

You and your sister have invented a little code. It was just for fun while you were younger, but it has proven quite useful in your young adulthood. It came very useful now. This wasn’t a part of the image. Her life may be in real danger.

Absolutely worth writing.

Here's an idea. Do a 2k word story and focus on making it a solid 2k.  If you like it, write some more in the next one. Set a limit to see if that helps you manage it. 

Two weeks is actually a really short timeframe for a storygame, so I second the 2k wordlimit as a first goal; you can always overshoot and expand it later.

There's also a dormant Tiny 'topias Jam (clickable) looking for its next entry. I get you already have a plot in mind, but I feel that plot could fit 20k words instead. It really has a lot of potential to go epic.

Right now, my best feedback and advice would be to just write what you enjoy. In the end this site's a hobby and if you're enjoying writing it, it has served its purpose.

Except if you're in a contest. In that case, your enjoyment doesn't matter and all is subservient to escaping the dooming pit of shame.

Thank you for showing me the Tiny 'topias thing. I may actually be able to do that one simply. 

And oh no. "Potential" is what makes me never finish anything. If I aimed for 20K it would turn into a mess.

Oh, I missed this whole thing. 

 

I do like tiny stories...

Do you think this is basic enough for someone who overcomplicates things to actually complete in a week or two?

Honestly? No, not really. It sounds like a pretty involved plot, unless everything in the description will just be background exposition not shown in the story, and the story itself is just a short lead up to a couple of fight scenes. Which may just wind up feeling like a waste of a good setting and idea.

I would guess you're aiming at 10-15k word count for this, in which case you need a plot that's scaled way, way back. You'd have about 30 pages to work with and that just doesn't allow for a whole lot of branching.

Thanks for being honest.  Do you have any tips on creating a simple story? Even when I'm trying to be simple I manage to go overboard. 

Stories typically get out of control because it is easier to write beginnings then ends. It is fairly easy to start a million fascinating threads, but much harder to bring them back together in a meaningful way. The common advice to writers is to start with short stories and the shorter the better.

Now the key to writing a short story is to start with the end. You start by thinking about the last paragraph and work backwards from there. What's the major twist / climax that gets you to the end that you want to have. Then you think about the narrative arc that takes you to the end you want. (I should write a longer post about this some time).

In your exposé several important parts are missing and that shows that your thinking is not quite in the place where you want it to be when you start writing. If I were a literary agent the first question I would ask is who is your protagonist?

Now this seems extremely silly in a storygame where you naturally assume the protagonist is the point of view character. However, let me define what I mean by protagonist: The protagonist is the character that undergoes the most significant change in the story.

So in your example this could be the point of view character or it could be his sister. In a more complex story multiple characters can undergo significant change, but suppose we want to keep things simple. Who changes and in what way. Here are some examples:

• The POV character could be a bit rash in the beginning, endangering others by reckless behavior, but he learns to control his emotions and that saves the day.
• The sister is a bitch in the beginning always putting herself first because she will rule after all. However, in the story she will change discovering that a good ruler must feel compassion for her subjects.
• If you want to go noir the POV character could be a drunk not much interested in the affairs of state, but once the sister gets abducted he is suddenly in charge and needs to get serious.

Have you got a plan like that?

In this style of story the protagonist is almost always the same as the POV character, if only because you want the most interesting things happening to that guy and the most agency in order to keep the choices coming.

But the fact that it's not the case by default isn't something many people ever seem aware of. It seemed much more common in older novels especially though to have the story told from the point of view of a friend or observer of the actual protagonist.

Also, I was assuming the main character described was also female, but looking back I guess it was never specified.

Maybe you could write up an article about that style of plotting, although the working backwards from the twist thing only really ever worked for me with regular short stories. Everybody seems to have a different method that clicks for them though.

Its an interesting question. Somehow a POV protagonist seems to be a default choice, but it does have drawbacks. Since the player associates with the POV character it means that the change has to happen to the player. For classical plots where the protagonist overcomes his problems, the POV character needs to start with those problems and that may be tough on the player. For shorter games non-POV protagonists might work nicely.

Yeah, I always find myself trying to make the POV character relatable, but that only makes the bland. That's one of the reasons I didn't specify the gender of the protagonist in the idea. 

I'd recommend making the POV character understandable, moreso than relatable.  Define (explicitly or implicitly) the motivations, backgrounds, and intentions of the character and the reader will do the rest.

Relatable, in my opinion, is better when trying to put the reader as the POV (I mean this in a loose sense).

Don't start with relatable, start with the turning point, what is the change that happens that turns things around. Thinking of who your protagonist is (i.e. which of your characters) helps with this.

Go for it.