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WRITING STORIES: HOW TO EVEN GO ABOUT IT?
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watermystic277
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CloseThanks to constantly starting and stopping projects with different ideas, I've more or less figured out the system of actually making games, cutscenes and basic mechanics but I can never really figure out the 'story creation'.
Maybe if I apply the same thing to my game making I can eventually figure out how to craft a story.
Maybe if I apply the same thing to my game making I can eventually figure out how to craft a story.
I usually start with characters: who they are, and what they do. Maybe define a personality quirk that can come to the surface when interacting with them. Physical characteristics are generally not terribly important to me, but, that could be a Your Mileage May Vary situation.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if there is nothing out of the ordinary happening, there is no story to tell. Something extraordinary is happening. What that "something" is will highly vary, but, it can be anywhere between "the world's gone to hell, and only the Chosen One can save it" to "this is the event/moment where I met my betrothed". Or, whatever, really.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if there is nothing out of the ordinary happening, there is no story to tell. Something extraordinary is happening. What that "something" is will highly vary, but, it can be anywhere between "the world's gone to hell, and only the Chosen One can save it" to "this is the event/moment where I met my betrothed". Or, whatever, really.
MadJak91
30
There are tons of advice on this but asking is important. Every person can offer what helped them personally.
Yep! I would also begin with characters! Think about them and define them. Even if you will not use everything, it will help you build the world around them and how they should be interacting.
Once you can say: "Hey! I like these weirdos!" you can start thinking about what they do and where. Again, you might not use every detail but for world building inside your head it helps!
I would not dismiss overdone stories completely. As building blogs and training. Controversial opinion perhaps but... It seems to me that people who immediately jump on "I am doing this differently!" get burned.
Starting with stories (even unreleased) which were told multiple times gives you some perspective on the whole concept.
I take them as solid foundation. They are overdone by now because they are or were easy to tell with relatively less room to screw up. Simple but reliable foundation.
Maybe take something standard, put it into your own perspective and then start thinking about YOUR vision. Instead of diving right into it.
And... Play with your strengths. If you enjoy post-apocalyptic stories and are confident with those then definitely try to incorporate your strengths to some degree.
There is an audience for almost everything but that is a whole other topic :D
Opinion of a random scrub!
Yep! I would also begin with characters! Think about them and define them. Even if you will not use everything, it will help you build the world around them and how they should be interacting.
Once you can say: "Hey! I like these weirdos!" you can start thinking about what they do and where. Again, you might not use every detail but for world building inside your head it helps!
I would not dismiss overdone stories completely. As building blogs and training. Controversial opinion perhaps but... It seems to me that people who immediately jump on "I am doing this differently!" get burned.
Starting with stories (even unreleased) which were told multiple times gives you some perspective on the whole concept.
I take them as solid foundation. They are overdone by now because they are or were easy to tell with relatively less room to screw up. Simple but reliable foundation.
Maybe take something standard, put it into your own perspective and then start thinking about YOUR vision. Instead of diving right into it.
And... Play with your strengths. If you enjoy post-apocalyptic stories and are confident with those then definitely try to incorporate your strengths to some degree.
There is an audience for almost everything but that is a whole other topic :D
Opinion of a random scrub!
Pancaek
1307
For me, I tend to start with the world. I think about what type of world I want my game to take place in. Once you've figured that out, it's pretty easy to understand what type of people would live there, and from there you make your characters. Once you have your characters and world made, the story tends to write it'self.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
There are tons and tons of ways to tell a story, and it really depends on what kind of story you want to tell. Do you want a character-driven story where the cause of conflict can be an external or internal force, such as a character's desire to resolve a past flaw? A plot-driven one where the main cause of conflict is an external force (an evil empire, for example, that the character's struggle to overthrow)? Or are you just interested in a loose connection of plot simply to give context to the game? These are all just examples of different ways to tell a story.
Either way, you aren't gonna get far if you can't find your own personal muse. Unfortunately, that's a task you're going to have to do yourself, as it's unique to every writer ever. Personally, I'm more drawn towards the character-driven, psychological stories that deconstruct the typical hero trope where each member of the cast explores and/or confronts different flaws within themselves with varying outcomes. So whenever I sit down to write a story, that is at the forefront of my process.
I like developing characters, so I like to imagine each character's attitudes at the beginning of the story vs. the end. I then write a plot that grinds each character's psyche down and then builds them up to the kind of people they will be at the end. If there are unique gameplay elements (such as a certain power that a character has), I incorporate them into the story as best as I can. There's a lot to draw from if you're including the gameplay in the pool of inspiration.
And then comes the question of how to tell this story. Do you want it explained in every detail through dialogue and lengthy cutscenes? Do you want it mostly left up to interpretation via hints dropped throughout the game? There's a sea of possibilities to choose from, and you'll need to look through them all before deciding on a method.
Either way, you aren't gonna get far if you can't find your own personal muse. Unfortunately, that's a task you're going to have to do yourself, as it's unique to every writer ever. Personally, I'm more drawn towards the character-driven, psychological stories that deconstruct the typical hero trope where each member of the cast explores and/or confronts different flaws within themselves with varying outcomes. So whenever I sit down to write a story, that is at the forefront of my process.
I like developing characters, so I like to imagine each character's attitudes at the beginning of the story vs. the end. I then write a plot that grinds each character's psyche down and then builds them up to the kind of people they will be at the end. If there are unique gameplay elements (such as a certain power that a character has), I incorporate them into the story as best as I can. There's a lot to draw from if you're including the gameplay in the pool of inspiration.
And then comes the question of how to tell this story. Do you want it explained in every detail through dialogue and lengthy cutscenes? Do you want it mostly left up to interpretation via hints dropped throughout the game? There's a sea of possibilities to choose from, and you'll need to look through them all before deciding on a method.
Okay. This is going to depend on you. Before you write your story, it's going to have to be a complete thought. Telling stories isn't a skill; it's an art. It's the oldest art there is.
First and foremost; you don't have a story if you don't have a character. A character isn't someone you randomly draw and give a name and backstory to. Rolling a character sheet for your DnD profile is only the very first step to creating a character. When you make your character for an MMO, s/he begins as nothing more than pixels on a screen.
A character is nurtured, and cultivated. It's raised like a child. You don't just know what the character's likes, dislikes, and hobbies are. You know how s/he felt when s/he got the flu for the first time and couldn't stop throwing off. You know how frustrated s/he was when s/he thought s/he'd never learn how to ride a bike. You know how proud s/he was when s/he got that A on that big math test. Most importantly, you know what x/er goals are.
Knowing what s/he wants to accomplish is the most important thing to creating the conflict that will drive the story. You'll find that your ideal conflict occurs when your main character has to do something that goes against x/er goals. Your MC is usually your protagonist, but not necessarily. Your antagonist isn't necessarily the main villain, either. The antagonist is the character whose actions directly challenge your protagonist. Usually, this is a hero/villain relationship, something we always see in the Manichean way our culture likes to tell stories.
So, put your focus on the main character, and then determine the nature of the conflict s/he will face. This is a good time to start writing; take this opportunity to develop the needs and motivations of your characters. Is this enough for a story? It could be, but I suspect that you're still going to want a setting. If you've been taking the care and time to cultivate your character, the setting should have created itself by now. Location, home, and dwelling will be essential aspects of your character's personality, after all. Be a caring creator. Write down and note everything about your character as it comes to you.
Write every day: a sentence a day, a paragraph a day, a page a day; it doesn't matter, but write every single day. A story isn't just written. It has to be fed. Like a garden, it has to be watered. You don't have to write your story every day, but you have to write something each and every day. The more you write, the more your story will grow.
You will find that the more you cultivate your story, the more stories you will have to tell, the easier it will be to write them, and the higher quality they will be.
The game is merely a medium. Write your story first. How can you create a cutscene if you haven't thoroughly envisioned it, first? When I create a cutscene, I already know what's happening next. Before I start creating my cutscene, in my mind, it's already finished. I've already played it through to the end. The only remaining task, at that point, is to simply translate it to the maker. The biggest obstacle to creating a story is not knowing the story. The first step to overcoming that obstacle is recognizing that your story hasn't hasn't been fully realized.
First and foremost; you don't have a story if you don't have a character. A character isn't someone you randomly draw and give a name and backstory to. Rolling a character sheet for your DnD profile is only the very first step to creating a character. When you make your character for an MMO, s/he begins as nothing more than pixels on a screen.
A character is nurtured, and cultivated. It's raised like a child. You don't just know what the character's likes, dislikes, and hobbies are. You know how s/he felt when s/he got the flu for the first time and couldn't stop throwing off. You know how frustrated s/he was when s/he thought s/he'd never learn how to ride a bike. You know how proud s/he was when s/he got that A on that big math test. Most importantly, you know what x/er goals are.
Knowing what s/he wants to accomplish is the most important thing to creating the conflict that will drive the story. You'll find that your ideal conflict occurs when your main character has to do something that goes against x/er goals. Your MC is usually your protagonist, but not necessarily. Your antagonist isn't necessarily the main villain, either. The antagonist is the character whose actions directly challenge your protagonist. Usually, this is a hero/villain relationship, something we always see in the Manichean way our culture likes to tell stories.
So, put your focus on the main character, and then determine the nature of the conflict s/he will face. This is a good time to start writing; take this opportunity to develop the needs and motivations of your characters. Is this enough for a story? It could be, but I suspect that you're still going to want a setting. If you've been taking the care and time to cultivate your character, the setting should have created itself by now. Location, home, and dwelling will be essential aspects of your character's personality, after all. Be a caring creator. Write down and note everything about your character as it comes to you.
Write every day: a sentence a day, a paragraph a day, a page a day; it doesn't matter, but write every single day. A story isn't just written. It has to be fed. Like a garden, it has to be watered. You don't have to write your story every day, but you have to write something each and every day. The more you write, the more your story will grow.
You will find that the more you cultivate your story, the more stories you will have to tell, the easier it will be to write them, and the higher quality they will be.
The game is merely a medium. Write your story first. How can you create a cutscene if you haven't thoroughly envisioned it, first? When I create a cutscene, I already know what's happening next. Before I start creating my cutscene, in my mind, it's already finished. I've already played it through to the end. The only remaining task, at that point, is to simply translate it to the maker. The biggest obstacle to creating a story is not knowing the story. The first step to overcoming that obstacle is recognizing that your story hasn't hasn't been fully realized.
Here are my two cents on story writing.
First of all: create a world in a sentence. It will help you create the raw outlines of the genre, the limitations and possibilities of characters. In the beginning, the world was empty and void... Nah, don't go for history. Just describe the fictional world, for yourself. Remember, you are the writer, therefor you have the power to change the world at anytime you see fit.
Secondly - it will be more than often that you will refactor your story; your first try out will take at least some drafts; that's why I advise you go always back to creating that world in a sentence.
Stories have certain points, milestones. Like a game of chess, they start somewhere, the have midsection and the grand finale. Start with your story midsection; just a paragraph. You do not need to create the characters yet. Working back from the end, will block you in many ways and working from the very beginning will most likely make you write cliche archetypes. If you are writing a story for a game, you have to remember that such narrative is not similar like a movie or book plot.
Events will drive your story; things will happen. For designing events just answer the following: when, where, who, what, why. Don't write out the outcome, but the cause. Try to have only 3 to 5 major events in a whole story; and use plot devices to support those events, like subquests for a campaign. Once you have three to five larger goals, objectives will be far more easier to write.
Characters are story-centric, in order to develop, you have to only need an outline. A good start is not just focus on that old D&D character sheet, but like a facebook profile. How do they look like (appearance), where are they from (culture), what do they like (skills)? Give each character a five-line description that covers these things. The idea is that the player controls their development throughout the story; unless they are a plot-device. In that case you just list out what they will do in the game, when they will appear and if they will disappear.
Time to write the main character; just like all characters, but this time add their unique advantages or experience. Why would this character be able to overcome the obstacles thrown at him/her/it? Don't fill in too much details.
Now, once you have these setup - place your main character into your fictional created world and make them journey to reach the objectives in mid-section all the way to grand finale. Then you can edit your story and add detail or side threads.
When your character is moving through your plot, use emotional impressions from how you would look at the behavior of the character (good, evil, in between) and use that as a guidance to make characters inside that dialog respond.
Get inspired. Watch a movie or play a game now and again. Dedicate yourself to write two pages a day, until you reach page 100. Yes, I said it. A good story will cost you at least 50 days to create. And most likely, the double of that time. You could do it in less than a week if you use sitcom style and instead of a brainstorm team use a simple plot generator.
http://writingexercises.co.uk/plotgenerator.php
(or watch every episode of the Simpsons, and make notes)
Happy writing!
First of all: create a world in a sentence. It will help you create the raw outlines of the genre, the limitations and possibilities of characters. In the beginning, the world was empty and void... Nah, don't go for history. Just describe the fictional world, for yourself. Remember, you are the writer, therefor you have the power to change the world at anytime you see fit.
Secondly - it will be more than often that you will refactor your story; your first try out will take at least some drafts; that's why I advise you go always back to creating that world in a sentence.
Stories have certain points, milestones. Like a game of chess, they start somewhere, the have midsection and the grand finale. Start with your story midsection; just a paragraph. You do not need to create the characters yet. Working back from the end, will block you in many ways and working from the very beginning will most likely make you write cliche archetypes. If you are writing a story for a game, you have to remember that such narrative is not similar like a movie or book plot.
Events will drive your story; things will happen. For designing events just answer the following: when, where, who, what, why. Don't write out the outcome, but the cause. Try to have only 3 to 5 major events in a whole story; and use plot devices to support those events, like subquests for a campaign. Once you have three to five larger goals, objectives will be far more easier to write.
Characters are story-centric, in order to develop, you have to only need an outline. A good start is not just focus on that old D&D character sheet, but like a facebook profile. How do they look like (appearance), where are they from (culture), what do they like (skills)? Give each character a five-line description that covers these things. The idea is that the player controls their development throughout the story; unless they are a plot-device. In that case you just list out what they will do in the game, when they will appear and if they will disappear.
Time to write the main character; just like all characters, but this time add their unique advantages or experience. Why would this character be able to overcome the obstacles thrown at him/her/it? Don't fill in too much details.
Now, once you have these setup - place your main character into your fictional created world and make them journey to reach the objectives in mid-section all the way to grand finale. Then you can edit your story and add detail or side threads.
When your character is moving through your plot, use emotional impressions from how you would look at the behavior of the character (good, evil, in between) and use that as a guidance to make characters inside that dialog respond.
Get inspired. Watch a movie or play a game now and again. Dedicate yourself to write two pages a day, until you reach page 100. Yes, I said it. A good story will cost you at least 50 days to create. And most likely, the double of that time. You could do it in less than a week if you use sitcom style and instead of a brainstorm team use a simple plot generator.
http://writingexercises.co.uk/plotgenerator.php
(or watch every episode of the Simpsons, and make notes)
Happy writing!
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1
