Young Writers Society

You wanna delve into the worlds of fantasies, where you slew dragons, go on amazing quests, and defeat mighty foes. Or how about fly gravity defying ships, meet new alien races, explore interesting new planets. If any of this intriques then step in further and we shall begin.

The lessons shall be split into eight easy to understand points. I recommend you read thoroughly as I am here to help newbies or anyone who constantly get's abuse for their storybook posts.

1. Grammar: Believe it or not, this can really irritate people, I admit when it comes to grammar I pretty much fall down flail, but eventually you get a good hang of it, so it's at least legible. That includes correct paragraphing, no walls of text. Wall of text kill minds. Please note that.

2. Godmodding: Storybook 101 states this is the worse offence one can commit. it entails ripping someone character from them and forcing them to do things they wouldn't do, things they wouldn't say. The worse offenders are those who manipulate a group of characters to make theirs look the best. It's hard to not in some cases, it's why I make sure I talk to people and work on how conversations would go according to their character profile. In some cases this isn't possible so instead I suggest read their profile thoroughly, and then check with them in pm's or in chat if the post okay.

3. Mary Sues and Gary Sues: There is no easy way to say this, but people despise this. Characters who built like tanks with attacks that seem impossible to miss, have no weaknesses (or the weaknesses are so generic) essentially seem like Gods, normally have powers that make no sense. Or characters who are so perfect, have no flaws and are basically boring.

An example:



See what she does is presents flaws which she counteracts in Good Points.

Essentially Mary Sues are perfect character.

4.Character Development: Subtly is what it comes down to, you want to develop character but want to make it slowly and intrigue the others, so stuff needs to be dragged out, and come across as another layer to character, not some haphazard detail piled on, it takes certain practice to do this well, my best advice is this, work with other writers in this case, as you construct really fascinating stories, whether love, friendship or many more things.

In Necropolis a storybook by Buscador!, my character was just out of prison for hacking ATMs for money, he meets up with his girlfriend again, and slowly they grow close, while his friend and shadow Derrick is attacked by zombie and becomes infected, rather than abandon him, Dave brings him along despite all this, his friend dies and it really changes how he sees things, now wanting to expose this to the powers, whereas at first he was just wanting to escape. His friend slowly dying changes his mind, thus character development.

5.Show don't tell: Often you will hear this in fiction and poetry, but in storybooking which is a form of Roleplaying it's also important, because if you show us instead screaming out everything, it makes for a better written post, a certainly more fascinating character and finally it really helps your own case.

6.One liners: We despise them, the short posts are okay if they add something but the ones that add nothing and don't really add to the plot we hate. In a storybook you share a story, don't be afraid of making posts too, you shouldn't be. Instead be afraid of not writing enough. If that isn't motivation then what is? One liners grate on people nerves and they're pointless as it makes it harder for the next person to continue.

7.Commitment! : This is mandatory, storybooks require teamwork, and if people claim they're going to post, or post profiles then nothing else, it can kill a storybook, it's why the case now is, that many of the more practices storybookers have began to do storybooks which are 'Invite Only' it's also why I'm doing this, as I feel the problem is people don't understand how much Commitment you should have for a storybook, it's not something you should join, unless your sure you will meet the requirement and post often enough.

8.Discuss: Another problem that often occurs is when some person bored of pace of storybooks, chooses to speed it up with some stupid event, which seems convenient and makes the storybook seem contrived, this can often kill a storybook too, which goes without saying. But honestly if you're bored of pace of storybook plan another side plot with someone, don't hijack the plot, and if you insist, discuss it! That's why so many storybooks require DTs and even Character Threads, you should be willing to discuss the storybook and not rush about like a mad lunatic.

I hope this helps, and really makes people better at the storybooks. There are of course many ways to improve, join a Role-playing site, read often and also concentrate on character development. Otherwise, for now this will do, if you've any further questions pm me or any of other active storybookers.