Storyline Dynasties

[BraedenG33]

I am starting this thread as a discussion on how to write storyline based dynasties. There are many things that go in to a good dynasty, as well as a good story, and everyone has their own style, so I along with Trekfan and Beast10, two well-respected storyline dynasty writers on OS, and anyone else who has different ideas on how to write stories, will post different ideas on what goes into making a good storyline dynasty.

For those of you who are new to ht OS forums or just have not read a storyline dynasty, the basic premise is that a Dynasty is a Franchise or Career mode played out and the results are posted on these forums. Typically a regular dynasty will simply post game results and sports news, similar to an ESPN.com reporting style. There is the difference between a storyline dynasty and a regular dynasty. A storyline dynasty typically has a main character (or characters) and is centered around him/her/them. It tells the story (which is why its called a storyline dynasty) of that characters career, typically involving his life on and off the field. While it will still tell people what happened in the sport, and have plenty of sports website-style reports, that is more of a complement to the story, to build the world around it, and the story is the main focus.

To me there are three key elements to a good story, OS dynasty or otherwise.

Characters

One of the most important characteristics of a good story is to have well thought out and well developed characters. This goes for your main protagonist to the antagonist to even the most insignificant supporting character. There are a few things that go in to a good character, but they vary based on their role. The main character should be relatable, realistic, and flawed. The first to are common sense, I mean you want people to feel for your character, and he needs to be someone that people could believe existed to at least some extent. Flawed however, is another thing entirely. "Why would you want your main character to be flawed?" You might ask. Well the answer is, because flawless characters are boring, unchanging characters. A character needs to have flaws and weaknesses to make him who he is. It makes for a more interesting story, as he tries to compensate for these flaws, and he it makes the character more rounded. He can't be perfect, or he'll never run into any problems, and if he never runs into any problems there's really no story there, just a guy doing a bunch of things perfectly.

If you feel like you need practice making up characters, I put some images below. Take one of the high school football/basketball players on there and give him a backstory, a personality, make him into someone and not just a picture.

HIGHSCHOOLBALLER.jpgHIGHSCHOOLDB.jpgFRESHQB1.jpg

Storyline

The second thing that is crucial to a good story is, well, the story itself. This may seem obvious but what actually happens in the story is important. Now I'm not saying you have to plan out everything that will ever happen from the beginning, in fact I do just the opposite because if you plan it all out from the beginning you restrict how creative you can get as you go. But it is a good idea to have a general idea of the story. The central plotline of the story. For example, in my story "Defying the Odds", it is about a high school football player who pushes past injury, physical limitations, and the pressures high school entails, along with some crazy bad luck, and his father leaving his mom before he was old enough to remember him, and achieve his ultimate dream of playing running back in the NFL. Now obviously that is specific enough to give me a basis, but its general enough to allow me to get creative as I go.

Setting/Surroundings

The third key aspect of a good story is what is going on in your story and where your story is. Since these are sports based stories, it is important to keep people updated on what is going on in that sport (for example,as story about a college football coach would have to tell you what is going in in college football for context). Also, in stories, as in real estate, its all about location, location, location. if you want a passionate fan base where the team matters dearly to the town or city, than pick a team with a big following or a geographic area that is known to follow that sport closely. If you have a high school football player, and you want the town to be passionate, put him in a small Texas town or somewhere else known for high school football so it makes sense when your players is idolized at his best and when he slips up he is ridiculed by his peers. This goes beyond the on the court impact of his life based on where he lives. If you want him to be in a lower class home, then put him in a lower class area. A Manhattan-based basketball player with no money doesn't live in the Lower East Side, he lives in Harlem. Where he is and what goes on around him that isn't directly a part of the story has a big impact. It is a fictional world that he lives in, and for people to understand the story, they need to know what's going on in that world.

OutdoorFieldNight4_0.jpg

That is my take on the most important parts of a Story for a Storyline Dynasty. Feel free to ask questions or to contribute with your own ideas. Maybe stories aren't your forte, but there's more to the storyline dynasty than just a story, it is still a sports dynasty and if you think you have tips on how to do the sports news parts, the non-storyline parts of the dynasty, then feel free to add that.

Trek and Beast10 will add there ideas when it becomes available and will also be there to answer questions.

[AdamJones113]

hobbies-leisure-great_american_novel-writer-novelist-novel-author-trhn240l.png

Have in mind a starting point for your story, or base it on a real life event.

[BraedenG33]

Quote: Originally Posted by AdamJones113

Attachment 77481 Have in mind a starting point for your story, or base it on a real life event.

I like the picture as well as the advice

[AdamJones113]

TEOS.jpg

Remember, this is a video game site. Sure, make the story key, but don't make it bigger than what the thread is ostensibly here for. That's why there are no story dynasties in the Hockey Dynasty forum.

You want to write a short story connected to sports, fine, do it for English class or to show your buddies at work. You want to write a creative sports story? That's what this is here for.

[BraedenG33]

Quote: Originally Posted by AdamJones113

Remember, this is a video game site. Sure, make the story key, but don't make it bigger than what the thread is ostensibly here for. That's why there are no story dynasties in the Hockey Dynasty forum. You want to write a short story connected to sports, fine, do it for English class or to show your buddies at work. You want to write a creative sports story? That's what this is here for.

Nice Graphic.

And that is a good point that I was going to get to this in a future post. While the focus of any storyline dynasty is the story, it is still a dynasty. Just like any other one make sure you, in some way or another, post the games and the activity in the league your in, as the is operationsports forums, the happenings in the video game can't be overlooked and are equally important to your dynasty as the audience is expecting both story posts and regular posts. Finding a good balance is key.

[trekfan]

Wanna let you guys know I got a post to stick in here later tonight: apologies for the long wait for my two cents.

[BraedenG33]

Quote: Originally Posted by trekfan

Wanna let you guys know I got a post to stick in here later tonight: apologies for the long wait for my two cents.

Great! Glad to have this thread up and running again and waiting with anticipation to see what you have to say.

[trekfan]

My thoughts below are strictly my opinions and aren't law. Feel free to disregard them if you'd like.

PART I: The Characters

A. Choose Your Characters

Much like in Mortal Kombat, choosing your characters are essentially in any story. A character is, believe or not, more than just words/traits/attributes on a piece of paper. They are a living, breathing thing ... at least in your mind and (hopefully) in the minds of your readers.

Every character has a story to tell. And you, as the author, also have a story to tell. But this is a partnership and though it sounds insane, you need to work together with your characters to establish the storyline.

Before we get to that, though, we need to choose our characters. Who has the story to tell? Who's the voice? This is vitally importantly in any story and, for the purposes here, any story-heavy dynasty. Anyone can follow a team throughout a season, post their stats, throw in some interesting quotes and call it a story. Technically, it is.

But if it were in a book, would you read it? The answer to that is likely "no."

As writers, particularly of the sports dynasty variety, we have a unique challenge. Sports are rife with "storylines" that are manufactured by the media (*cough*ESPN*cough*) that most of the time end up being just nothing. Now, if the Indiana Pacers are facing the Heat, you can be sure there's angst there and storylines. But if the Heat are facing the Bobcats? YAWN.

So, for our dynasties, in choosing our characters, we need to be careful not to choose characters that could easily fall into the ESPN zone -- essentially characters who are good for a few quotes, but have no depth to them. We don't want characters to give us quotes.

We want them to let us into their lives. The characters that want to talk about things other than sports, now those are the ones you should pay attention to (and aim to create). Sports culture is 24/7 now and we monitor our athletes everywhere, in every form of media. Having a character be three-dimensional is essential to any good story.

In choosing a character, these are the traits I like to look for:

Engaging: My character can interact with other characters (not main protagonist) in relateable and true-to-life ways. For example, if my main character is shooting hoops with his brother, he's gonna be talking trash (and so is his brother). Personal gripes from years past will be aired out, things will get a bit tense, and there will be fun wordplay.

Feeling: I want my character to feel. Not just after a crushing defeat, but when he experiences a trauma (say his wife is in a car accident) or he's just stressed and lashing out at those around him after a long day. I want to know how he feels about things. Not everything, mind you (we don't need to know how he feels after taking a crap in the bathroom -- probably relieved I hope) but as it comes to storyline/life stuff, we want to know his feelings.

Personality: I suppose this could also be under any of the other two, but I want my character to have a distinct personality. When he gets stressed, he should have a tick (like pacing or shuffling cards or something) because we all do when we get stressed. He should have a backstory that sheds light on some of these things, but not all (some mystery is always nice) and he should be able to express himself as he wants in a unique way.

We can have this cookie cutter stuff:

John stood from his chair and yelled, "I won't make the trade! You hear me!"

Or this:

John stood from his chair, his brow furrowed. There wasn't any way in hell he would give in to these demands. One hand under his desk, gripping at the underside for all his worth, he cracked his mouth open and said, "I won't make the trade. You hear me?"

In example A John was just a guy who was angry. In example B John was an angry guy, yeah, but he had a few quirks. In the small taste we got there we saw that his brow furrowed when he was mad. He felt strongly about it, so much so that he had to grip the underside of his desk just to keep somewhat stable. These little touches are what make character people and that's what you're aiming for.

I recommend to everyone to try out the various characters you have floating around in your head for your story to see which one actually is the main. You'd be surprised at how often you go into constructing a story thinking one character was the most important, only to find another telling you things that make them the most important.

Try things out. Write things down, always. Even if it's some stupid fleeting thought, write it down. Having it in a note file is always good for references in the future and possible uses.

Tomorrow, we'll hit up the next step in this part: Making History.

Thank you for your time.