TSs, Chrons, and Cythera at Present
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So, this is a subject that's been raised and discussed before, but it's been awhile and we're short of new topics, so I figured why not?
It's pretty obvious there's not a lot of interest in the web board in general of late--most people, including myself being rather busy with a number of other things--but it's also clear that people have been more interested in chrons than TSs for some time. I'm curious as to people's thoughts on this trend and as to what ideas there might be that could improve the TSs.
Some random thoughts on these lines:
Should the current TS just be shifted over to chrons?
Should a new TS-verse with different versions of the current characters be started? (Something like this has been tried before and didn't really succeed.)
Is some kind of story outline needed before the story starts? -
I don't know about anyone else, but the main reason I find it hard to write in the TS is I wrote myself into a corner. My character is in a position where if you really stop to think about it, a number of events leading to that point should have played out differently, and so there's an insurmountable disconnect between what I want said character to be/how I want them to grow and where they are in the story. I also feel like I'm locked into a plot by myself that is workable, but built around the involvement of several other players' characters, and as they've all graduated from writing fanfic, carrying that burden alone gets exhausting. I can't really take that back without undoing well...pretty much most of that side-plot from the past TS and a half, which is too much for me to paper over and handwave away.
That being said, you know I hate leaving loose ends and I have tentative plans to touch on the outcome of DM in a future chron (at my typical pace, eta 2026?). Of course, this would be my interpretation of events and others are free to come up with their own interpretations (see what happened with Bell Tolls and the sequel chrons). It also is not likely to fill in many details and will skip to the aftermath, leaving what happened open to interpretation.
Since there really isn't anyone other than you left, I don't think there's a point continuing the story if you aren't motivated to do so. So if you have some way to wrap it up, go for it. (I'll still write my chron anyway and
rip-offincorporate elements that I think would fit.). If not, then maybe try someone else.I'm not likely to participate in any future TSes. The stories I want to tell have grown more complicated than I think the format supports. Something like a team chronicle series may be worth a try instead, or else perhaps return the TS format to more simpler free-form stories and have the complicated narratives fully shift to the chrons. (It should be easier to accomplish this since the long-form writers are all inactive in the TS now anyway.)
I don't know whether an outline will help. We have one for OoR and tried to keep an ad-hoc one going for DM, but it only works so long as everyone is on the same page. At the same time, an outline can be limiting and discourage new ideas or prevent someone from coming up with a better direction for the story.
In terms of setting, I don't know. But given the massive author/character turnover and dramatic changes in characters since the beginning, I think if you do try another TS, it should not conform to any existing fanfic continuity. That may also help draw back some of the people that could possibly be interested in a short-form TS. It also lets you revisit the game setting in a way that hasn't been heavily...uh...modified to accommodate a lot of ideas some of us shoehorned in half a lifetime ago.
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@troyen said in TSs, Chrons, and Cythera at Present:
I don't know about anyone else, but the main reason I find it hard to write in the TS is I wrote myself into a corner. My character is in a position where if you really stop to think about it, a number of events leading to that point should have played out differently, and so there's an insurmountable disconnect between what I want said character to be/how I want them to grow and where they are in the story. I also feel like I'm locked into a plot by myself that is workable, but built around the involvement of several other players' characters, and as they've all graduated from writing fanfic, carrying that burden alone gets exhausting. I can't really take that back without undoing well...pretty much most of that side-plot from the past TS and a half, which is too much for me to paper over and handwave away.
I’m running into a similar problem. My major issue is that there’s still a lot of story to write, and I’m having a great deal of trouble motivating myself to do it, even though (or perhaps because) I’ve ended up having pretty much total control over the plot in Cythera.
@troyen said in TSs, Chrons, and Cythera at Present:
Since there really isn't anyone other than you left, I don't think there's a point continuing the story if you aren't motivated to do so. So if you have some way to wrap it up, go for it. (I'll still write my chron anyway and
rip-offincorporate elements that I think would fit.). If not, then maybe try someone else.I have a rough idea of the ending, but it’d take a lot more writing than I’ve been able to convince myself to do. I could post a summary in the form of some kind of flashback, but I’ll to have to ruminate on how that might be done in a somewhat interesting fashion.
@troyen said in TSs, Chrons, and Cythera at Present:
I'm not likely to participate in any future TSes. The stories I want to tell have grown more complicated than I think the format supports. Something like a team chronicle series may be worth a try instead, or else perhaps return the TS format to more simpler free-form stories and have the complicated narratives fully shift to the chrons. (It should be easier to accomplish this since the long-form writers are all inactive in the TS now anyway.)
In terms of setting, I don't know. But given the massive author/character turnover and dramatic changes in characters since the beginning, I think if you do try another TS, it should not conform to any existing fanfic continuity. That may also help draw back some of the people that could possibly be interested in a short-form TS. It also lets you revisit the game setting in a way that hasn't been heavily...uh...modified to accommodate a lot of ideas some of us shoehorned in half a lifetime ago.
Our previous efforts to go back to a simpler format didn’t go very far. I’d like to try again, but I suspect the result would be the same. Team chronicle series may be the best way forward for the time being. I might try a chron challenge based around the idea of what the TS characters might look like in a more game-based setting and see if that stirs any interest.
