[Spinner]

I think its odd no one’s made a topic on this yet, since it seems to be something a lot of people in OW try to do, but a handful are really successful at. The internet generally sucks as a medium of critique, since no one eh—seems to be any good at reading on the screen. Yet some writers on here seem to have overcome that barrier and have put up some pretty stunning and gripping stuff. Over the last week I’ve been glancing over some works (two of them, my favorites, are in my sig) and trying to see what some of these guys did so I can put together a guide for y’all. This is what I came up with.

First, here are the guys who’ve managed to hold popular stories in the OW throughout 2008 and 2009: UltraBrisingr, Emily (Saphira_Gal27), Lady G, awesomebrunette12, DwarvesRule, Yeerk Slayer and Ultima Valenhart.

Gratz to you guys. Your stuff rocks!

Now, here are some tips I’ve found reading over these stories about how these guys did it:

The Writing:
1). Keep your updates short. The rough maximum of words you should be pouring out per post is 1,700. Generally, any more than 1,200 is reaching it, and 1,500 should be where you go “okay, time to stop.” If your chapters go over 1,700, cut down. Stat.

2). Don’t over-indulge. Things like infodumps, massive passages of description and the like simply do not fly in these pieces. You also might want to avoid interior monologues, and 5000 word sentences.

3). Strike a style and way you can get into, and that you can stick with. Also, make sure it won’t alienate the peeps reading it. I have seen waaaay too many people trying to hold stories in stuff that looks like Olde English. Does not work. Get a degree in it, then try =)

4). Don’t post anything you want to publish.


The Updating/Pimping:
1). Sigs are the second best way to get attention. You don’t need to be like, “OMFG READ MY BOOK,” because people will think you are a n00b, and proceed to kick the shist out of you. Just write something simple like, “Read X in OW,” then add a tagline, or what the story’s about. Userbars and actual sig images can be nice, too (DwarvesRule has gone far with this).

2). Topic descriptions are the BEST way to get attention. Ideally, you should have two pieces of information here—a tagline, or what the story’s about, and when it updated last. If users see you update on a semi-frequent basis—much less that you’re STICKING TO IT, they’ll be more liable to come in and scope out the scene.

3). Update semi-frequently. Updating more than three times a week is highly inadvisable. Writing on forums is similar to writing in the real world. There is no instant gratification, and the longer your story gets, the longer it’ll take for people to catch up. Sometimes people won’t even comment at all and chime in at a later point (I learned this first hand with Cloudnigh). As a collary to this, do NOT adapt a “if people comment, I’ll update” attitude, as this is childish, and you may actually learn from writing on your own than a bunch of people showering you with praise.

4). Sort of more polite than anything—have a table-of-contents in your first post.

5). The first month is the most important time for your story. It’s the time where you ESTABLISH and LAUNCH what you’re working with. This is where you need to establish your relationship with your readers, and make sure you actually want to write what you’re writing. Early on, it isn’t recommended you keep a large back log (like, don’t write 50 pages and THEN post—that’s for when you actually have readers).

6). Sort of the most important—do not try to tell the readers what you expect of them, or what you want from them. They’ll give you whatever they damn-well feel like giving you—and as long as it remains polite and helpful, its acceptable. Do NOT allow people to get away with flame and slamming in your threads. It’s self-serving, immature, and worthy of a warn.


Remember, it will probably take a bunch of tries to get something off the ground. Don’t get discouraged. Remember—this isn’t the real world, it’s the internet, and your doing this for fun—and fun is the most important thing to keep close when you are in the real world, pending you want to make a living from this. Start off by writing short pieces and work your way up. And don’t ever stop liking it.

Feel free to discuss and offer tips of your own. Maybe we can get together a pinned thread for this.

Ben

[Kari]

Excellent Ben. XD This helps a lot, even if I haven't put up an OW as of late.

EDIT: Could you elaborate on no. 4? Table of contents of what chapters we've put up?

This post has been edited by Kari&Gatomon: 27 October 2009 - 03:48 PM

[Spinner]

Oh yeah--sorry. I meant links to chapters you've put up. It's pretty easy to do. In the top right corner of every post, there's a number (this ought to be post #3). Copy the link, and use that. That way, the link will go right to your chapter, making each update easy to find.

Ben

[SergantMajorJefforson]

Hm. Reading this makes me want to attempt writing again.

[Behave Yourself]

Bookmarked for level of awesome.

---

Yeah. I'll be posting my NaNoWriMo here as I write it, so this is good advice for me to take.

James

[Go for Gin]

A signature really does help. I have to thank Kim (who, sadly, no longer frequents the forums) for that, though. I asked her to make a sig, and though it looks pretty simple, it's eyecatching and way better than I imagined.

I've had a bit of success in the OW department, yes, but that was primarily because of my own drive and not because of my fans. Part of the reason I got less response than I would have liked was because, even though I broke updates down, they'd still be x1.5 to x2 times the length you recommended. Also, the chapter system is a very good system--it keeps people from falling behind and doesn't alienate new readers. I'm probably going to take my work down/stop posting for a while just to write, but when my work goes back up and gets revived, you can bet I'll be taking this advice to heart.

That being said, I know that much of my writing/posting on here is for pretty selfish reasons. When it goes back up, that changes.

[potter573]

This is a good guide, Ben.

Posting large pieces at a single time makes it difficult to read and critique. I will usually not try to read an OW if it has long chapters. It also makes it difficult to critique.

Another thing I have noticed is that people write paragraphs upon paragraphs that have nothing to do with the story. This really puts me off.

[FlameTongue]

Great thread, Ben. I'll have to put up a table of contents, especially because it just looks snazzy.

[UltraBrisingr]

Heh. I didn`t realise that my writing was classed as popular . From my experience, I can honestly say that this guide is spot on.

I would really like to know how to make a contents section.

Also I highly reccomend that you at least have a peek at the stories mentioned in the first post (cloudnigh is definitely a must-read too)!

EDIT: The main reason why I mentioned my story in my sig the way I did was because. 1) I thought I may aswell get it out there so that people may (or may not) associate it with me. And 2) I said "if you want" because I remember seeing someone advertise their own story and it was all like "READ MY STORY X CRIT IS NEEDED!" and I just thought... No.

This post has been edited by UltraBrisingr: 31 October 2009 - 09:07 AM

[Burgoo King]

Thanks, I'll take some of your advice and have another attempt at writing... Project Scythe.

Because 4 times isn't enough.

[Julius]

That's a very nicely written guide, Ben! It has loads of useful information that have definitely helped me out with my OW.

Julius

This post has been edited by Julius: 14 November 2009 - 08:40 AM

[Spinner]

Dude, Julius, frickin PROPS with The Cleaner. Keep going with that stuff, man

Ben

[Julius]

Dude, Julius, frickin PROPS with The Cleaner. Keep going with that stuff, man

Ben

Thanks, Ben. I really apreciate that.

Julius

[shadowcaster0]

Hi,
Saw this and thought I should read, and glad I did.
One question though...
Spinner, how do you change the topic description so as to say when it's been updated last?
I've tried to find it, since I've seen most others with the update description, but don't know where exactly to look.
Cheers,
Shadowcaster0

[Spinner]

Spinner, how do you change the topic description so as to say when it's been updated last?

Left click and hold down the topic description (in forum view, not thread view), and when you let go, it should let you edit it. Alternatively, you can just edit your first post and it'll let you change it. =)

Ben