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Writing a Story

Level 19
Joined
Mar 16, 2009
Messages
3,681
Hello everybody! I thought it would be handy if I would make a tutorial about storywriting! So, here it is!

We're going to discuss a few things in this tutorial.

1. Inspiration.
2. Describing
3. Grammar & Spelling
4. Plotline
5. Custom Map Stories

Chapter I: The Inspiration.

Inspiration is often gained from your own fantasy, but there are also other ways! For those who don't possess a rich fantasy, they could go read books. Books can give you ideas and inspiration where to write about. However, becareful there! You can't go rip things off from a book!
Except for books and using your fantasy, you can also use people you know as characters and as inspiration for a character.
If you don't know what to write about, take a look at the things that were done in history, for example, wars, achievements and such.

Chapter II: Describing

Describing is something every writer must do. Simply sentences won't do in a real story. It gives depth to a story, it makes it more pleasant to read. Things will get more clear and tell things about the character, happenings or actions. For example;
1. ''Yes.'' he said.
The action isn't well explained.
2. ''Yes..'' he mumbled with a soft voice, deep and dark.
Now, what is more pleasant to read?
Also, a variation of words makes the story better, and as example, if you keep writing ''And then'', then the story will be repetive and boring. Keep in mind, there are extremely much synonyms to words! A few examples of synonyms on the term ''said''
Shouted
Mumbled
Murmured
Screamed
Using other words makes, as already said, the situation more clear and leaves a good impression on the reader what you had in mind for the story and wanted to say.

Chapter III: Grammar & Spelling

Grammar has a great effect on the reader's opinion of your story.
Is your grammar and spelling bad and do you use 'u', ''i kno'', then it will be hard to understand, and this can cause confusion of what is happening. Also, it isn't very pleasant to read stories full of 1337 speak. A minor issue with spelling would be writing 'I' as 'i', but most people don't seem to care much about that issue. I recommend that you write it as 'I'.
If your spelling isn't very well, nor your grammar, pay attention to English classes or go read an English book. Interaction with Internet users would also help a lot.
Or, you can take a look at the tutorial about the English Language!
Click here!

Chapter IV: Plotline

This is probably the most important aspect in the story; the plotline. What is happening? What is going to happen? If your storyline makes people curious to the next part of the story, then that's very good!
At the end of stories, you can use Cliffhangers to make the reader more curious. Now, what is a Cliffhanger?
A Cliffhanger an open end, which leaves possibilities for your own imagination to fill in the rest of the story.
For example; a man hangs at a cliff.
Will he fall?
Or will he get up?
That's a Cliffhanger.
Futhermore, keep your plotline as original as possible. Readers don't want a remade Lord of the Rings.

Chapter V: Custom Map Stories

Except for a normal story, you also got stories for Custom Maps. These cannot be equally compared with a normal story as these are supposed to be short. In this type of story you must be able to explain what the background of the game is, in short. Long stories will only bore the player and will have no use, just summarize the main events in a story for a custom map. This gives people knowdledge what it's about.
An example;

''Once upon a while, the rabbits lived in peace and prosperty.. however, suddenly the hated sheep came upon them and declared war! The rabbits prepared themself, and so began the war between the two races...''

There is no need for a big description.

Storylines for RPGs are completely different, though. The player is to play the game and later get intergrated into the storyline due to quests and such things. Here counts the rule; don't wait too long for the player to get into the storyline. Before that, you can have a lot of quests for the player.
A storyline of a RPG is mainly about the person him/herself, where adventurers play a big role in the events that happen.



Anyways, this was my tutorial, I hope it gets approved! :wink:
 
Last edited:
Level 28
Joined
Jan 26, 2007
Messages
4,789
A bit short, but I like it. Maybe add more sections like Choosing of Words?
It's shortly being pointed out in "Describing", but could use some more content indeed (he replaced "said" with "mumbled", which is a better choice).
Having a synonym dictionary while writing is also something I would really advice: some synonyms just express a lot more feelings and have another connotation than others, choosing which word to use can be a frustating job on it's own.
Apart from the different connotation, it will also help you with preventing you to be too repetitive (a real horror in a story is when words are constantly being repeated).

If you would search synonyms for "dead" for example, you'll find quite a lot of them, though each one has a slightly different meaning behind it.
Saying "He's dead" is obviously different than saying "He's no more", the first one makes the speaker look indifferent (or 'apathetic' to say it differently :D), though there's a slight sense of grief in the second one.
(And this is something else than just describing the situation in a different way, I just used another word to express the same thing, yet create another atmosphere :p).

Useful tutorial though, a bit short, but good nonetheless.
 
If you want it to be approved then it has to relate in some way to wc3. (Or at least this forum)

I think it would be more appropriately placed in this forum.

Unless you would like to add something about wc3 and perhaps extend it a bit. ;) It may not be a little clear (or at least it wasn't clear for me before), but the tutorials in "miscellaneous" should be somehow related to wc3/this forum. (By this forum, I mean info. about this forum as a whole [which generally is frowned upon since there is a FAQ])

Sorry. =( However, you can still feel free to update it if you want it to be approved.
 
just an advise.....no bad intend though

i liked your idea of putting down a step-by-step how-2-make a good story with wc3.....i guess you wanted 2 make with this a tutorial of how-2-make-a-good-campaign storyline. i would just advised you not 2 post about things of history like the holocaust (though and i RLY LIKE it that u tried 2 keep this example quite neutral).....anyway i would rather use something from mythology as an example (like the lege/myth of King Arthur). this is also a bit more warcraft-kind as a whole plot (Arthas is something like a paralel 2 king arthur). but what i liked most in ur tutorial was that u r teaching with it a step-by-step campaign-story creation like they would do it @ hollywood. u also made a VERY FINE structuring (intro,....etc). and btw i think r the first 1 who brings up something like story-line-guidlines which is a fantastic idea of u! :thumbs_up:
greetings,
Markos!
 
Level 2
Joined
Oct 27, 2010
Messages
14
Мужик - ты рулишь =))) Отлично объяснил! + Оч приятно встретить хорошо говорящего.. кхем comrade xD:ogre_hurrhurr:
 
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