Abe's Guide to Writing Dynasties

[Abe Sargent]

Hey folks! As one of the most prolific dynasty writers on the board, I'm saddened by the paucity of dynasties in the last year of so. We need more dynasties! We have some good ones going on, but MORE DYNASTIES PLEASE!!!


To encourage your dynasty-ness, I have made a quick guide to writing them. Here are some tips and tricks to writing dynasties that I will enjoy reading.




1). Images are your friend. Posting various images really helps to make your dynasty something special. Screenshots help a lot. If you don't have a game where screenies are that useful, find other images. Post data so we can see it. Get us involved as readers with images.


2. Don;t be afraid of real life dynasties. Lots of great real life dynasties have occurred right here on FOFC. If you have something interesting happening in your life, why not dynasty it? Not only will you get some help and support, but it could help others as well! Feel free to put in your job searching, your different diets, or whatever. Dynasty away!


3. Don;t be afraid to dynasty an unusual game Lots of people here have picked up a game only after seeing it in a dynasty. If there is a game you feel would make a good dynasty, then write it up! There's nothing wrong with something a little outside of the ordinary.



4. Don't be afraid to repeat a game We are a board dedicated to FOFC specifically and sports text sims generally and any text sim even more generically. Lots of text sims have dynasties, but we love it! If you want to do a TCY, FM, OOTB, FOF, or anything else dynasty, go ahead! Let's see it!


5. Commit to the project - Everybody has life stuff that happens, and if you have to end a dynasty early, we get it. But there are way too many dynasties that get ten to fifteen posts and then end. What I like to do it write up the beginning of my dynasty in a word doc. Then I play and write it up. After a season or two, or a couple of days of play, if I'm really into it, then I go ahead and begin posting while I keep writing and playing. that way I'm not selling you a bill of goods. It sucks when I see a great idea for a dynasty, and then a month later, it's over and it never got started. So I recommend starting privately, and if you've got it, then move publicly.


6. Encourage readers - I personally don;t do this enough, but you should encourage and talk with your readers. Ask them questions and take feedback. Readers are why you post a dynasty after all.


7. Try Writing Differently - One of my favorite dynasties I ever did was a Madden one, where every single post of mine was a document of some sort - an article, an e-mail, an interview, a news conference, etc. Lots of fun! On the other hand, I tried an FM dynasty with mp3s, and it didn;t work. It was worth the experiment, but it didn;t click. That's the way things go. Don;t be afraid to break out of that shell!



I hope that you find something here to use or abuse. Thanks for writing your dynasties! You folks are awesome!



Abe

[Grover]

+1 Great post, thanks Abe.

[Kodos]

I'm doing my part! :) See my sig!

[sterlingice]

From the other side of the house, prolific dynasty reader, I'll throw in some thoughts as well. I was originally pointed to the dynasties before venturing out into the rest of the world at FOFC. Also, I read a crapload of dynasties, prepping for the last Golden Scribes, so I guess I have some experience in this matter (oh, and I like to type long things).

I think 5 and 6 are most important for different reasons. Abe's totally right- the number of good dynasties that barely get off the ground is pretty substantial. I would guess that less than 1 in 5 dynasties get past the 1 month mark. I've only written a couple and I've found that writing a dynasty isn't necessarily hard work but it takes a bit of commitment. That said, you have to be willing to pace yourself. If the game is something you want to play the instant it comes out and beat it in the first couple of weeks, this is not a good dynasty topic as you'll be fighting the urge to play with the urge to write about it. Second and third playthroughs are better as you have some knowledge of a game and can better craft a narrative. You know what's better to emphasize or even throw in some foreshadowing.

Try to set up a schedule. When I was writing a hattrick dynasty, there are games Sunday and Wednesday so I tried to block out about an hour on Monday or Tuesday and then another on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. I wasn't always successful as real life intervenes. However, it's easy to push it off and a lot of times you'll never go back. The problem with this, of course, is that it makes the writing seem more like a chore and that's another reason why so many dynasties die. If you're not enjoying writing about it, it can suck the fun out of playing.

Encouraging readers can help with this. And I'm not talking about making every dynasty interactive. But maybe give your audience a chance to make a choice every once in a while. You have to give up control but, frankly, if they're seeing what you're seeing, they'll likely pick the choice you wanted anyways. Interactive dynasties are a good way to guarantee some readership as if you name your characters after readers or whatnot, it's going to keep most of those people coming back. Also, keep in mind that even if you don't get comments in the first couple of weeks, it doesn't mean people aren't reading but a lot of them just haven't found something to comment about yet. Nowadays, I try to post in most dynasties I read now because I know it encourages me to write more and I'm sure it helps others do the same.

To the other points:

Presentation definitely is important. No one wants to read a giant block of text. That's why you stopped reading this entry three paragraphs ago, just like most of my posts. For those of you who made it this far, here's your free pony (http://theoatmeal.com/story/eat_horses)! However, this doesn't mean you need to go nuts and make it completely visual. Even something as simple as making the formatting easier to read with well placed bold text, underlines, and bullet points goes a long way to helping out the reader and keep interest. If we can't visualize, then it's not much of a story. That said, as a writer, the more formatting, the longer it takes to write so there's a delicate balance of creating your format so it's easier to read and adding 20 minutes to each entry of coloring all the text or whatnot. But keep the reader in mind, use a spell check (most will forgive a typo but not a typo every other sentence), and make it legible.

I bet Real Life Dynasties are the most popular right now in terms of readership. Of the dynasties on the front page with over 1000 views, 10 of them are Real Life dynasties. There's been everything from looking for a police job to owning a race horse to Subby failing to stop his bad habits (see section about about quitting a dynasty!!).

Lastly, there's the three about content. You can write about anything. I think a good way to get your feet wet in the dynasty writing world is to actually write about a game that's been done before. Start doing an FOF or FM dynasty. Sure there are dozens out there but you'll also be able to see what you like best from people who have done it before and then you can bring your own style. Think about some of the most popular dynasties ever: The Bill Gates Challenge or Nebraska Blizzards were "just" FOF dynasties. But some of the other most popular ones are of games you rarely see like the classic X-Com dynasty. Honestly, I've considered doing Pokemon but I just haven't found the story I want to write yet.

And that really just plays into the final point about "try writing differently". Don't be different to be different- just find your own voice. Think: what could I write about that I think other people would want to read. One of the ones I was disappointed to see end recently was the GWAL dynasty. It was just a basketball sim but it covered an entire conference rather than just a team. That's not even that strange once you think about it, but it hasn't been done that often.

There get to be some more complicated matters here like "don't just overwhelm the reader with details they probably don't want to hear". It's a classic newbie thing and I think almost all of us have done it: throwing every possible screen and text blurb up just to get some content to seem more bulky. Once you've written a couple, tho, you'll realize that the content will come- you just have to be patient and persistent. But I think I've gone too far already today and that's more like Dynasties 102 rather than 101. You know, someone could just start writing a dynasty about dynasties.

SI

[spleen1015]

#5 is where I always run into trouble.

Someone should tell SI that folks don't like to read giant blocks of text.

[Izulde]

I'm one of the most notorious dynasty flakeouts. For me, a dynasty has to personally hook me in and keep me invested to keep writing it. Which means I have to be thinking about it in my free time when I'm not writing it. That doesn't happen often and DDS:PB MP leagues and graduate school for creative writing have sapped a lot of time and energy for that sort of thing.

One of these days I'll get back to it. Maybe in May.

[bulletsponge]

Hmm. the new Fm is coming out real soon. if only i know how to take a screen shot of the game....

[CrimsonFox]

yeah when I started I had no idea what dynasties were and asked as such. People said "A Dynasty is anything". Okay :) They asked for it :)

So my dynasties are indeed odd. Whatever happens to be going on in my head at the time.

[Grover]

Hmm. the new Fm is coming out real soon. if only i know how to take a screen shot of the game....

I generally use the print screen button and then edit the picture out from the desktop in Paint.net

[Radii]

I generally use the print screen button and then edit the picture out from the desktop in Paint.net

This is what I do as well.

[StLee]

I would love to be a constant dynasty writer. Unfortunately life DOES get in the way: job, family, the need for a beer or seventeen every now and again. The other problem is the same as Izulde's: I sometimes start a dynasty and then just lose interest.

With that said... though I haven't posted a single time on it yet in what I consider my ultimate dynasty, I have been working on a dynasty for ootp 13 for nearly a year now. Of course, most of the dynasty was pre-planning and the original ideas have changed a lot since that pre-planning and actual playing of the game. However, I still run into a problem with Abe Sergeant's #1 rule: though images are my friend in dynasty writing, my skill level is definitely deficient when it comes to a pretty, presentable dynasty. It was commented about in my RL softball dynasty that I need to include pictures. I will try, but I am afraid what happened to my previous OOTP and FOF dynasties will happen again: I will be so busy trying to secure the visuals that it takes away from my ability to immerse myself in the game.

What to do? What to do?

I do have some other ideas for some RL dynasties that I have just not "gotten around to writing." Mostly I have Thursday afternoons as my only writing time. Unfortunately, I have plunged straight into career development hell and now have become busy dealing with academic research, writing, and presenting. (Hmm.... sounds like a dynasty!) This weekend I'm giving a presentation in Seoul and have been putting much more time and energy into that presentation and subsequent paper than I would like to. I'd rather be writing creatively and playing text sims (and writing about them).

[sterlingice]

I generally use the print screen button and then edit the picture out from the desktop in Paint.net

I don't know if it's worth it solely for dynasties but as someone who has had to write a lot of technical documentation in the last 6 months, Snagit is invaluable.

I used to be a print screen resizer but this does that in 1 or 2 clicks as you're taking the shot rather than having to keep a bunch of windows open. It sounded silly but I'm completely sold on it.

SI

[johnnyshaka]

Snipping Tool in Windows 7 (not sure if it's been around older Windows revs or not) is fantastic as you can create various types of screen shots including a rectangle tool...highlight the area you want to capture, click save, voila.

[MIJB#19]

Looking back at my dynasty about my FOF MP team, the Maassluis Merchantmen of the IHOF, I think several of the aspects Abe pointed out, helped make it work.
Heck, reading this thread makes me wonder why the dynasty worked when it did and why in the part2 thread (thread 1 had become unbearably slow to load) I never got into the flow following a hiatus.



2. Don;t be afraid of real life dynasties.With the flow of MP, it felt like a real life dynasty pace. For me it was a double edged sword. I had to do very little to have new events arise, I just had to keep playing with the schedule of the league. At the same time, it was a trap for the dynasty, as it felt like it forced me to keep writing several times per week. After a couple of years I couldn't keep up anymore.

4. Don't be afraid to repeat a gameI think that's why it worked back in the day. We're talking about the FOF2004 days, we were all just getting into the new FOF iteration and FOF MP was new to us. People were able to relate to the basics.

5. Commit to the project -Crucial. Don't give up early. Don't want it to be perfect from the start, you can find the right format on your journey.

6. Encourage readersSure, that helps. What also helps is having readers that comment. For me it really helped keep writing, despite that I also tried to wrtie articals for IHOF over at the IHOF website, and still had the dynasty to go on and off about my own team.

7. Try Writing Differently I tried to alternate between various kinds of posts. I wrote recaps of games in a 'the Merchantmen played xxx', wrote little news items in the off-season, but also wrote stuff that I was doing or were thinking as the GM of the team. When I tried to pick it up again, I wanted to re-start with bird-view seasonal recaps, but those took quite some time to research and just doing that doesn't work for me.
As I wrote above, you don't have to find the right format right away, I think you need to grow into your dynasty as much as you do into whatever you write about.

What has been a trap for me is wanting to do too much stuff in the little time I can get my head to this. Don't want to do more than possible. It's been the biggest reason for me to keep myself from getting back on track with aforementioned dynasty. My planned route to get back into it heavily failed a couple of times because I wanted to do too much to get things back going. It's tough, because a dynasty seems to scream 'don't skip parts of the story', but if you have to do it, change the pace for a bit to stay attached and motivated.





To summarize, find a style that works for you, remember that you having fun is the most important thing, yet don't shy away from interactions with the readers.

[StLee]

Snipping Tool in Windows 7 (not sure if it's been around older Windows revs or not) is fantastic as you can create various types of screen shots including a rectangle tool...highlight the area you want to capture, click save, voila.

Thanks for this! I had no idea and playing around with this looks like it'll save a lot of time. I'm not a technological dummy, but I am lazy about learning about new things. I'm glad I know about it now, though, so I can use it for research and dynasty writing.

[Autumn]

I generally use the print screen button and then edit the picture out from the desktop in Paint.net

If you do Ctrl+print screen. It will include only the active window.