# Would anyone like to give criticism as to why this Story Hour died?



## Kai Lord (Feb 24, 2003)

Was it because it was a solo adventure?  Told as a traditional story instead of including game notes and die rolls?  Was it too hard to jump into the story of a 10th level character without his entire history?  Anything in the concept of the setting?  Feel free to be blunt, I won't take it personally, but I am curious.

Here it is:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26155

Thanks in advance for any replies.

EDIT:  The reason I didn't further update the Story was because I took the absence of replies as indicative of a lack of interest.


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## Celtavian (Feb 24, 2003)

*Re*

I can't give you a good reason why you're story didn't catch on, but I can tell you why I read the stories I do.

I keep up on the following Story Hours:

1. The Knights of Spellforge Keep: That particular group of players plays D&D like my gaming group. I can relate to that particular style of D&D. Doc does a good of job of turning events that occur at the table into a readable story.

Doc also does a great job of ending his story on a cliffhanger. You just have to come back and read what happens next. That is definitely a good part of the appeal of the story.

One last thing, Doc includes some great art in his story. Art always helps a story. Ziona does the same thing in the Unusual Heroes. The use of art definitely enhances the story.

2. The Unusual Heroes: About the same reasons above since it is the same gaming group.

Ziona's writing style is different from Doc's, but no less entertaining. Xaltar, the DM for the group, inserts very interesting plot twists into the story such as having the heroes sold after being defeated by an archmage. That was a great twist.

3. Sepulchrave's Story Hour: Though I don't read this story consistently, Sepulchrave has moments of pure genius in his story.

The discussion between Eadric and Titivilius was some of the most interesting and entertaining dialogue I have ever read on this board. He includes ideas and words that you just don't see other story hour authors employ.

Sep's story is also very unique. It includes material familiar to D&D players, while at the same time developing a very unique world with its own gods, religion, countries, and all the other accoutrements of a world.

So you not only are reading a good story, but you are also learning about a different fantasy world when you read Sep's story.



Those are the reasons I follow the stories that I do. Maybe you can spice your own story up in such a way as to attract readers.


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## Corwyn (Feb 24, 2003)

I can give you a few reasons.

1 You gave up after 3 posts !!!! What do you expect ? Some authors post and post and post and get lucky and recieve a bump or an encouragment somewhere after their 9 post. 

Just keep them coming and after a while people will start to read it. As it is now, it's just a begining.

2 It's dragonlance....

But that's just personal


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## Piratecat (Feb 24, 2003)

I know that when I first started mine, I posted dozens of entries before I knew more than a couple of folks were interested in it.  We didn't have any views indicators back then, so other than replies it was hard to tell if anyone was reading the dang thing.*

The truth is, you probably shouldn't start a story hour if you're looking for fame and accolades. Campaign logs are ultimately something you write for yourself, that you then decide to share with others. If they like it, great - but you need to give it enough time to catch on.  Just a few entries isn't enough, especially with so many story hours on the boards. Look at Silvermoon (formerly Isaiah); he has a couple of really cool story hours here that are summaries of old campaigns. Less people have read it than probably should have. But when you are consistent and update regularly, you gain an audience and slowly grow it.

Personally, I find that writing game summaries has helped my DMing and game in a lot of ways - I'm more rigorous about encounter design, I now have a history to review, it helps remind players what happened, it's made me a better judge of what's an exciting encounter, that sort of thing. These are all decent reasons to write a story hour. Let's face it, writing is tough work; if it doesn't pay off in the game, I'm not sure if I'd do it.

Kai Lord, you've also got to remember that (for instance) when I read a book I don't necessarily judge how good the book is until I'm at page 50 or so. Trying to make a judgment after the first page and a half isn't possible for me. I think that readers are a lot more interested in the characters (and then maybe the story's plotting, and the author's enthusiasm) than anything else.  They don't usually care as much about the author's feelings. I'd say that if folks don't have an emotional connection with the characters then there's no real reason to read, even if the plot is brilliant and the DM is pleading.  No matter what you do, some people will like it while others just don't care for it.** Such is life. So write it for an audience of You, and hopefully you'll find people who like the same sort of thing you like.

*  Besides, I had to write it on a typewriter, while walking to school in six feet of snow all year round, uphill - both ways.

**  Except for Sepulchrave and a handful of other folks, I think. He's _dreamy_ - and a darn good writer.


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## Forrester (Feb 24, 2003)

It's tough. Morrow has been cranking out Story Hours for about six sessions now for my campaign, and I think we have two whole fans. (He claims three, but besides Gez and psychognome, I don't think anyone else has posted). I think it takes awhile. 

I'm hoping that shameless pimping will help -- that is, posting a bunch in RPG and Rules and House Rules and putting a link to your Story Hour in your .sig (something I've started doing). Time will tell. 

Regardless if we get more fans, I have to say that I love it, especially of late. It's good to have an archive of a campaign, especially one that you think is going well.


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## Dr Midnight (Feb 24, 2003)

Too short. You have to pay your dues before you get the power, money, weemen. 

Celtavian, thanks for the pimp, brother.


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## megamania (Feb 24, 2003)

Keep at it.

I questioned the popularity of mine also but decided I wasn't doing it just for other's amusement.   If you are not doing this for yourself, then it will come across as a thing without love and care.

Don't      Give       Up


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## Lazybones (Feb 24, 2003)

What PCat and the others said. 

I got a few comment posts early on when I started writing _Travels through the Wild West_, but it took me literally about a hundred postings before I'd drawn a steady and regular audience.  I didn't start to attract some of the more "known" writers as readers until my post count got into the hundreds and my views into the thousands.  Even now, the view count in my current thread is less than 10k, putting it in the top 10 of active threads but nowhere near the readership of the current hot threads like PC's and Sep's.  

IMO, the best way to draw readers is to read SHs yourself, and post comments there (preferably not just "this is good," but real commentary and maybe even some constructive criticism).  And have a link to your SH in your sig.  There's sort of a "reciprocal honor" thing going on here, if you read someone story hour and take the time to make comments, often that person will be kind enough to read your work and return the favor (but don't think of it in terms of an obligation).  Many of the writers here are also the most eager readers, but there's just so much good stuff here that it's impossible to read even a choice sampling.  Personally I've posted to about 20 story hours since I started writing here, but there's no way I can stay current on all of them.  No one can, unless they're Horacio.


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## Sammael99 (Feb 24, 2003)

Piratecat said:
			
		

> *Personally, I find that writing game summaries has helped my DMing and game in a lot of ways - I'm more rigorous about encounter design, I now have a history to review, it helps remind players what happened, it's made me a better judge of what's an exciting encounter, that sort of thing. These are all decent reasons to write a story hour. Let's face it, writing is tough work; if it doesn't pay off in the game, I'm not sure if I'd do it.*




That sums up how beneficial it's been to me as well. Les Terres Anciennes is the size of a small novel by now (although nowhere near the wuality of a novel) and it's great fun to re-read chunks of it. And I'm doing it in French, so imagine how many readers *I* have !!!

Another thing is to reward your playters for writing some chunks of the SH.

All in all, I won't say I haven't grown discouraged at times, but then there's often a friendly bump that reminds you some people, however few, *are* reading the stuff.

And Horacio. He's reading every Story Hour out there.

Thanks Horacio !


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## seasong (Feb 24, 2003)

The following is based on a desire for fame and accolades. PirateCat may well be happy tottling along and writing his story hour without a single peep of encouragement or recognition, but some of us are more human, and greedy. Here is my advice for those of us who are not celestial beings .

*Rule 1*

Post regularly. This is true of webcomics, story hours, serial novels, half hour television shows, etc. It doesn't have to be daily, it just has to be fairly regular - your audience trusts you to bring the goods on a consistent schedule, and breaking that trust makes them question the effort of checking for updates.

This is particularly important for new readers. Many new readers will read all the way through the archive, but if they get the sense that it may be a long time before they see another update, they won't come back to check up again.

My guesstimate (not a fact ): For the story hours, a short post each weekday, or a long post twice a week, seems to be best for the update-checking rate for most readers (who tend to either check daily and obsessively, or every once in a while in the week). Again, that's NOT fact - it's just a guesstimate based on my own observations.

*Other rules*

Pimp yourself. This is pretty hard for me. I don't like tooting my horn, and I'm inclined to try to downplay people's expectations of me rather than pump them up... but that's a formula for failure, and so I pimp.

Pimp in a suitably non-jerk fashion. Putting a simple link (or tasteful image) in your sig is a decent way, but don't post in someone's thread without adding something OTHER than your sig .

Post for a while. Especially with a small core population like ENWorld, it's taken me a few months and some 30,000+ words to build up a "moderately successful" 30 or so regular readers.

Get a cheerleader! I lucked out with incognito, who was willing to post near daily encouragement while I was just getting started. Acquiring a cheerleader can be as simple as saying, "Could you browbeat me every time I don't update and yell encouragement occasionally?" Once you get a decent audience, you'll start getting additional cheerleaders.

End each post on a powerful note. It doesn't have to be a cliffhanger (although that is the standard, and easiest, tactic), it just needs to be something that fires the imagination and makes them ask "what's next?". For example, a passionate subplot ending, whether in tears, rapture or wrath, is good. Regardless, your ending has to always leave them wanting more of it.

Find your own style. A lot of my cheer leaders are drawn to the fact that I post interesting (and often very geeky) details about my setting's culture, religion, ecology, etc. That's just my style, and people of similar leanings are attracted to it, so I try to enhance and make that aspect more interesting. Figure out what's best about your story hour, and make it more prominent (then, and only then, shore up your weaknesses).


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## Sammael99 (Feb 24, 2003)

Great Advice, seasong !

In fact, I believe my new Fading Suns Story Hour has all the elements you mention !

Ooops...


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## MnM_UH (Feb 24, 2003)

As a new Story Hour writer, I thought I would throw in my two cents about what I've learned from the two months or so I've been involved.

A lot of people might be reading your Story Hour that never post anything.  I have maybe one or two that have posted to mine more than once, but every time I post a new scene, the views meter jumps by maybe 10 or 15.  Sure, some of those are me editing the post, but I would guess that I probably have 10 readers that have never posted.

Consider why you want to create a Story Hour thread.  My reason was that I really wanted to create a good superhero story, and I wanted to do it in a comic book format.  I'm using a new game system (Mutants & Masterminds), and I thought people new to the system might like to see how the mechanics work, so I threw them in as well.

Try to keep your thread on the first page.  I think that's key to attracting readers.  And don't just do this through self-bumps.  Add comments, scenes, or whatever to keep it going.  I don't think I attracted any readers until I had more than 10 or 15 of my own posts to get the story going.  My thread has been on the first page the whole time, though, because I keep at it, and every time someone posts, the thread goes to the top of the first page again.

My advice would be to consider what you're doing and why you're doing it, come up with something that's going to keep you interested and the reading public entertained, and keep posting to make sure you stay on the first page.

Good luck.


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## seasong (Feb 24, 2003)

Now that I've gotten the greed out of my system, some of the non-fame benefits I have personally derived from having a story hour.

1. I put up a website detailing my setting. My players read the front page, maybe follow one link on a deeper topic that they're interested in, and then never ever ever visit the website again. I write a story hour, occasionally posting detailed aspects of the setting. My players not only read it voraciously, but comment, ask questions, and _remember_ it.

2. I occasionally read through my story hour. It reminds me of things going on in the background. It reminds me of NPCs I haven't touched on or thought about in a while, and what they're doing right now. It keeps track of more details than I thought possible for a campaign.

3. Practicing the craft. I'm not a great writer, but I'm working on that. Writing some 500-1,500 words every day in a narrative format helps that. And this is the first story I've ever stuck to writing.

4. Campaign excitement litmus test. If it reads like it was exciting, that's a good sign. If it reads boring, I start thinking about what I'm doing, and ask myself if there's something I can do to make it more interesting.


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## Carnifex (Feb 24, 2003)

As another point, don't expect to get Piratecat-like success even after you *have* done dozens of posts and had thousands of views.

I just recently hit 5000 views on my SH, but very few people seem to read it from the amount of comments I get. I got some early on but sadly had a lapse where I didn't post much, so my two readers, theRuinedOne and the Sunderer, seem to have stopped reading. Brocci_Head, my one loyal reader/commenter since the beginning, is actually subscribed to the message board which I run the game on, so he doesn't even need to read the SH to know what's going on. Horacio is a great asset to any story hour, especially since after the reincarnation of my SH he has been regularly commenting etc . Add to that Mr Fidgit and Maldur, and that's basically my core of readers. I have problems pimping the damn thing even to my own players these days, despite their initial enthusiasm 

As such, I will now follow one of the rules Seasong out forwards and pimp my SH. Go and read it, link in my sig!


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## Kai Lord (Feb 24, 2003)

Thanks for the honest feedback everyone.  I might just go ahead and update the Story once this thread drops off the first page.

Compliments are nice, but really I just wanted to post them for the enjoyment of others, which I rightly or wrongly assumed was not happening.


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