Building the perfect story

[DrgnElectric]

For those who are not of high literary prowess, I have a great exercise to get those ideas rolling. Before I go any further, I want to note that this idea was originally my professor’s back in college; I’m just using it here to help the creative flow. Now that that’s out of the way here is your writing prompt:

Take fifteen minutes to write down an idea, story, whatever; what it’s about doesn’t matter as much as the actually act of writing.

Now put it away for a few days and forget about it. When you look at it again, you do so with fresh eyes; you can now proceed to mold your thoughts into a cohesive story.

Spend an hour or two (or even longer if you’re like me) to draw out your prompt; adding details and making changes along the way as necessary. Things like character backgrounds, settings and such begin to form.

After you have elongated your story, it’s time to organize your thoughts in the form of an Outline. Bullet everything significant, these are your plot points and will be used to flesh out your story and are usually centered on in forms of chapters in books, but here they’ll be main or story driven quests.

Take your outline and use it as the groundwork for your story, writing it from the beginning and plugging in any necessary details; like where side quests and stuff will be available and whatnot.

I’m going to leave it off here, as what comes next is turning your finish story into a story script used for camera work. I know it’s not the best transference of directions in the world; but this process provided me with an A+ “Twistedly Wicked” grade from said professor at the end of the semester. As well as fuel all my literary projects.

I hope that anyone in a bind might make use of these tips on how to flesh out a story so as all our games can have a more storied feel to them.

 

[Rise Evil]

That's good advices there. Thanks for sharing with us ^^

 

[DrgnElectric]

Why thank you. I've always been a sucker for a good story and I figured if I offer any advise/help I can, then the games that'll surely be populating MV will hopefully be story driving behemoths that we all can enjoy for the years to come.

 

[Rise Evil]

I always restart from scratch each time I don't like when I'm going xD
Always hard to write a good story, yet a decent one. Being hot headed can be an issue as well. I hope there will be great storylines as well :D

 

[punchybot]

When creating a story... Need to keep in mind that not everything can be awesome or epic. Highs and lows at a good balance will work in your favor.

 

[Companion Wulf]

That's some good, solid, sound advice. I use a similar method when writing (and more recently game plots). Plot outlines should be basic : Beginning, middle and end, as well as chapters and sub-chapters for things like ideas or sub-quests. I've found it's easier to break things down into this format when you start fleshing things out. Funny thing, though, as I discovered when translating Otherworld, a short story I wrote a while ago, to game format is that by default (for the game) I actually started writing it in a movie script format! Don't know why, it just turned out that way.

 

[DrgnElectric]

Funny thing, though, as I discovered when translating Otherworld, a short story I wrote a while ago, to game format is that by default (for the game) I actually started writing it in a movie script format! Don't know why, it just turned out that way.

That's how I write ALL my stories, envisioning them as 3-hour feature films. I've actually started on outlining my first MV project. Starting fresh...mostly because someone lost the flash drive backup i had of all my stories :(; including the linguistic project that i devised over four months :(

 

[Companion Wulf]

That's how I write ALL my stories, envisioning them as 3-hour feature films. I've actually started on outlining my first MV project. Starting fresh...mostly because someone lost the flash drive backup i had of all my stories :(; including the linguistic project that i devised over four months :(

Oh, man! I hear your pain! I wrote a novel years back that would have been perfect for an RMMV game! Developed an entire mythos, language and dialects, Tolkien- or Harry Potter-esque world...ALL of it! After relocating several times, most of the material I'd spent two years developing was lost!

 

[CM Games]

I think there's no such thing as "perfect" story..in games? A perfect game story for you as a developer may not be a perfect story for some players. I'm also really not using an outline in game story. Sometimes the story ideas popped-out in my mind were not always at the beginning, may be at the middle or at the end. I sometimes started my games at the end. Freedom in conceptualizing a game is important for me..but we all have our own ways and how's in life, don't we? CM.

 

[Storytailor]

Oh, man! I hear your pain! I wrote a novel years back that would have been perfect for an RMMV game! Developed an entire mythos, language and dialects, Tolkien- or Harry Potter-esque world...ALL of it! After relocating several times, most of the material I'd spent two years developing was lost!

How's your long-term memory? X3

I think there's no such thing as "perfect" story..in games? A perfect game story for you as a developer may not be a perfect story for some players. I'm also really not using an outline in game story. Sometimes the story ideas popped-out in my mind were not always at the beginning, may be at the middle or at the end. I sometimes started my games at the end. Freedom in conceptualizing a game is important for me..but we all have our own ways and how's in life, don't we? CM.

I agree that no story is perfect, however I think the main idea is helping to guide the average story-telling game maker through the process of developing a rich, entertaining plot. :D

 

[Zebestian]

Yes, there is indeed no such thing as the "perfect" story - the story that meets every single one of every person's requirements. That just not doable at all. But what I do think is doable is, creating a credible world with round characters that get you immersed into the medium. The story is only a little part of that. It's all about doing it the right way. :)

 

[Storytailor]

Yes, there is indeed no such thing as the "perfect" story - the story that meets every single one of every person's requirements. That just not doable at all. But what I do think is doable is, creating a credible world with round characters that get you immersed into the medium. The story is only a little part of that. It's all about doing it the right way. :)

I must admit, I usually hear "dynamic" characters as opposed to "flat" ones, but "round" makes much more sense as an opposite. :facepalm:

I'm not so sure I'd word the story's significance as a "little part", you know? Or maybe it's just semantics - to me, story is what defines and shapes the characters, so to have rounded characters requires a very interesting, believable and change-inducing story. I suppose I see characters as a subset of 'plot', meaning they're more dependent factors than the sense of character you adhere to (which I 100% respect! ^_^).

 

[Companion Wulf]

How's your long-term memory? X3

Long term memory is perfect! ;) So....Hmm...Yep!! :D

In its language it'd be called Re'eli Pona'akaer Tika'ahna (Saga of the Horse Warriors).
[doublepost=1446428947,1446189382][/doublepost]Character development is key to the story. Characters, especially the main (anti)heroes need to be believable so you become emotionally attached to them. You go through what they go through. I like characters in a story where their personalities are built up over time, so you familiarize yourself with them but at the same time learn something about them. Then, when they're put in situations they normally wouldn't be in, they do something unexpected, against their personalities.

The hardest part, I think, for a writer is putting himself into the same mindset as the characters; it's like an actor playing different roles. No exceptions in games. In Tryggr, I have to "think Troll", but a bit out the box so the trolls are anthropomorphized more. Haha!

 

[Wiskersthefif]

When I was still in school I would ask a friend to give me a writing prompt every single day. I would turn each of those prompts into a 1000 word minimum story, I found that these exercises really helped me learn how to properly handle continuity, different kinds of characters, applying thematic elements, and how to plow through writers block.

 

[CM Games]

hmm..have you guys tried doing an open-world kind of rpg game? Planning to do a simple open-world rpg right now where there's no main plot or central story. Your game experience will be determined by how or whom you interact with. NPCs can travel and change places and they can die permanently in the game. My game's focus is every choices you'll make can change the game completely. If you finished the game and play it again, you can still have a new and different experience playing the game. That's what I'm trying to work on now. CM

 

[DrgnElectric]

I have thought of a similar concept yes.