Note: An update is estimated for the 4-5th September, including new Do's, Dont's and recommendations. An all new Tutorial for story writing is estimated for the 10-12th September
An upgraded version of the Do's and Dont's list, with more of each, some examples and a hefty list of great stories to aspire to and take inspiration from.
This "guide" may eventually develop into an actual guide like "Crommy's Guide to Story Writing"(which is excellent and well worth a read)
Please feel free to post, comment, suggest, discus etc. in the posts below, and i will do my best to update these top couple with the best bits, and where possible credit people.
This is also by no means a set of rules of things that must be done for a story to be good. These are guidelines to follow that will make the story better to follow and write.
Also sorry for the table layouts being a little strange
The Golden Rule
Always write because it is fun, and because you want to!
If you do not follow this rule then you will struggle to write, which decreases the quality, and soon enough the whole thing collapses into failure
There you go, 15 DO's and 15 DONT's for story writing. 30 guiding bits of advice to be followed or ignored at your discretion. Thanks to jseadog, maxime86 and lluuiiggii for suggesting some of them.
If you have any suggestions or examples for any of them, please post them below. There are countless more examples for many of them i could of added, but some points are just obvious.
Finally here is a list of stories i would recommend anyone and everyone reads (or re-reads). 18 stories from PCM2006 right up to now. I have limited it to one story per user, so please don't ask for another of their stories to be added. If you think one should be replaced with another of their stories please ask.
They are in no particular order
Monster Energy-Ford by dienblad
PCM2011. Started off with an overpowered team and messy style of posting, but has grown into the longest story on Daily. Fantastic style of reporting, great action, nice originality... In many peoples view the best story on the site
Tale of Two by Ian Butler
PCM2012. The story that launched a member. I won't mention the ones (yes there were a few) that came before. A, mostly, new idea to follow two riders. The key was its speed and crisp, personal reporting style. Not perfect by any stretch but it will always define the man
Salvatore Puccio by andy222c
PCM2012/2013. Died far far too young, twice. Not long but really one of the best ever. Fantastic graphics, fantastic races, fantastic reporting, fantastic personal touches. Just plain and simple fantastic from start to premature finish.
Spidertech-Cervelo by fernando97
PCM2012. I've gone for the 1st 2012 one. The best example of a "Your Rider Story". Great graphics and solid reports made this fun for everyone to read, and it too died too young, like all stories of the same type.
La Pomme by Pellizotti2
PCM2012/2013. Pelli has had a few other great stories but this current one is his best. The reports are well written drawing the reader into the world. Great team selection, tied into a perfect level of difficulty keeps things exciting. Fully deserving of its awards.
Auber93 - BigMat by rjc_43
PCM2007. Wow, just wow. Another great small team that lead to a brilliant story. Good reports and an engaging journey up the ranks. Just wow.
David Veilleux: The Next Canadian Legend by valverde321
PCM2010/2011. Entirely how one man made us fall in love with a Canadian nobody. Sheer class from start to finish. Long running, great development, nice personal touches. This story had more than just the racing and is perhaps the best One-Rider Story ever.
Dominic Nerz by cunego96
PCM2009/2011/2012. This story is just fantastic. Covered several seasons showing Dom's growth in a fun easy to follow story. The great reports were the strong foundation to this stories success, making each one a joy to read. This story really is special.
The Danish Punchuer by niconico
PCM2007. This story is just amazing. A fantastically well written story with brilliant reports and a brilliant personality. The journey it takes the read on is enjoyable and makes for great reading. Totally worth the time to read.
DFL Extreme by SportingNonsense
PCM2007. I bet you'd all forgotten about this one! Another small team (see a pattern?) and their journey upwards. The real challenge of Extreme could be seen through the racing, beautifully presented in good reports. The several season progression allowed it to develop and adapt to become the great it is.
The Columbia Sprint Train by alexkr00
PCM2008. Not many great stories on 08, making this that bit more special. Its well written, got good racing, and lasted the test of time and motivation. Its just a great story.
Fantasy Neutral Story by mpardo
PCM2009. Another example of something different. Safe to say there is nothing like this around. Pure focus on the racing, which is reported in clear depth, sucking you into the reports. Now into its 5th season it shows no signs of stopping, and no-one wants it to.
Discovery Channel by Squire
PCM2009. Any story where lluuiiggii says its the best, probably is. This story is so damn close to perfect. Just go and enjoy it, please.
Team HTC-Columbia by Batista15
PCM2009. Running out of ways to say really really good. So this one is... well, really really good.
Exxon-Duke by baggieboys32
PCM2010. Partly here so BB doesn't get angry. But it was a really well written story with outstanding reports and development.
Team Dark Dog by tsmoha
PCM2010/2011. The graphics in this story are the best of any. They are amazing! The racing is exciting, and of course has well written reports. Perfect difficulty, great progression. In my opinion this is the best Team Story on Daily.
Garmin by roturn
PCM2010/2011. Ok i think i am actually out of ways to say good story. Sooo.... good story, go read now!
Movistar Extreme by baia
PCM2011. A great example of who difficulty can make for a great story. And of course good reports etc. etc.
Andy Schleck: Quest for History by Mresuperstar
PCM2011. That challenge. That Vuelta. That stage. That attack!
If you do not know, the goo read, now! Seriously, go... go go go right now!!! NOW GO READ IT NOW NOW NOW!
Colnago - CSF Inox by Tuco the Ugly
PCM2011. It took a few tries but this story shows how you improve every time. Good team choice with a clear plan and some great non-team specific pieces really make this stand out.
Nordic Cycling by Atlantius
PCM2011. Started off a bit shaky, but hey it was a first story. Proving that you have to pick something close to your heart and that you enjoy is the key. Also first ever Story of the Month Winner. It's developed into something very special indeed.
Team Bunzl-Centrica Video Story by brewers90
PCM2013. The first PCM13 story to make it onto the list! A great example of a "Your Rider" story, the best. Well made, regular videos. Hampered by game issues, which caused it's death. A great way to introduce PCM13.
Naturally there are loads more out there, so do suggest more for people to read. There will be no bad example list for obvious reasons.
And i made it through all this without advertising my own story Karl Hammarling... oh there it is!Edited by TheManxMissile on 17-01-2014 11:41
Obviously in the above section are the general guides to follow which will help create a good story that lots of people will read. This section will become my Story Writing Tutorial. Many of my tips and ideas come from personal experience, but equally i have taken from other peoples comments and guides, as well as Crommys Guide (link above). This will be released in parts as i write them.
Part One: Idea Creation and Selection
Part Two: First Posts and Introductions
Part Three: Races and Screenshots
Part One: Idea Creation and Selection
Spoiler
This first part i will focus on the basis of all stories; the idea. Every story has a fundamental basic set up and this can, for 95% of stories, be put into one of two categories: Team story and Rider story. Of course there are other things around which are harder to categorize, and then naturally each story has it's own twists and originality.
So let's go right to the beginning, picking the idea. This process will be different for everyone, so i'll try and be general but mostly this will be based upon how i come up with ideas.
Team or Rider? Both are incredibly different and require different skills and approaches. Team stories are obviously focused around the whole squad and all the races, whilst Rider stories are orientated upon the individual and his experiences and races.
There are a lot more Team stories than Rider stories, i'd guess at a 4:1 ratio, if not more. But there are equal numbers or great stories from both categories. But if you are writing to win site awards and become a great, you should probably stop right now, because that will never work. You should only write is you are motivated and because it is fun. Without this basic enjoyment the final product will be poor quality and will die out without anyone really noticing or caring.
Anyway, enough rambling. Idea Creation and Selection. I'll start off with Team stories.
Firstly, are there any teams you love? Is there a team you always play with on PCM? Do you play multiple seasons with this team?
The team you pick is key, make a poor choice and it's over very quickly. Basically a team that you will want to play with for a while. Normally this will lead you to a PCT or CT team, which you can build up over time. Which brings me to an important points.
A big part of this process is thinking about goals and the future. What do you want to achieve with the team? Create a 3+ season plan. This should include a couple of big goals for each season, such as Win x Race(s) and/or Gain Promotion, that sort of thing. This will carry over into your season planning as well.
Rider stories are not too different. The first step though is real or fake? Do you pick a real rider or a fake rider? There are a lot more fake rider stories than real riders, but both can work.
If it's a real rider then it has to be a rider you really really love. You will become the rider writing from his perspective. Which is why most of these are younger riders, as most of us are younger people.
For fake riders, start of with the basics: Name, Age, Nationality and Specialization. Then from there grow them up and out. Build up a back story of how they got to their starting team. Create a bit more personality until the rider is a genuine person.
Like with Teams, it's best to come up with a basic 3+season plan or overall goals and aims. As you'll see in my stories i post these ideas as "Long Term" goals, usually 5 years or more down the road. It helps keep me motivated and targeted.
I'm going to cover the third type, everything else, in a different Part so i'll move on a bit.
Now you have picked a Team or Rider. You've got a general idea of who you want things to progress over a few seasons. Now, STOP! Go away! Do not do anything else with your idea, at all!
Leave it all to one side. Write everything down in Word or something and put it away. You should leave it there, out the way, for at least 2 weeks, if not longer.
This is going to sound odd, but trust me. If it was a bad idea or an idea you didn't really connect with you'll either forget about it, or not really want to pick it up again, meaning you won't start. If it was a decent idea, you'll pick it up and away you go. If it was a great idea that you really loved, you won't be able to stop adding to it and building it up. So after a couple of weeks come back to it. This is a basic test of motivation and will show you if it's a good idea to start up.
Perhaps you can create a number of different ideas, then after the break one will stand out, and pick that one. You'll know if it's really something you want to do after this period. If you want to keep going, then it will be time to move to the next step, First Posts and Introductions!
Part Two: First Posts and Introductions
Spoiler
Last time i took you through a process of selecting a team/rider for your story. We've established the basics of making a general long term plan, and ensuring that you have the correct sort of motivation to start up. Now lets move on to actually starting your story!
Some people say that it's a good idea to play in advance and have a few reports built up. Personally i don't do this, at all. Playing a stage, writing reports etc. take time and thats obvious. If you don't want to put in the time don't start, which is why i'm moving straight on to the posts.
We'll begin with the title. Basically this should tell anyone what your story will be about. If it's a team, include the team name, and if it's a rider then the riders name. You'll see various other titles around that don't do this. And that is equally ok, as long as it relates to the content. You can edit the title at any time so use this, and keep the title fresh by adding/changing/removing words from it as you go through. The standard thing is to include the latest race in the title.
Now the first post. Basics to include are the DB used and your difficulty level. You can also include attribute development, random potentials and patch. Now from here things get more creative. The first post can include pretty much anything, so i'll talk more generally about first posts.
You'll see that writers reserve multiple posts when they start. It's a handy way to break things up and allow you to easily edit and update as your story progresses. However there are often some seriously unnecessary reserves at times. A team story should only need 2 reserves, maybe 3. A rider story should only need 3 reserves maybe 4.
Have one post for the Team. Include the squad, a stats screen is best, team goals, calendar and results. Layout is up to you, try and be creative. It's ok to take inspiration from other stories, but don't just straight copy, it's boring. You can also include some history about the team and what staff it has.
If it's a Rider story then add another reserve for the Rider. This must include the basic information about the rider. Name, Age, Nationality and stats or some indicator of ability/specialization. Also best to add in some history and background about the rider, start to build him up.
At this point you'll have 2 or 3 posts. You can add another post as long as it has a real purpose. This could be to organize links to major events and news from the story. It could include reader interaction ideas. Again it's a chance to be creative and original. But please don't have another post, just for the sake of having another post. Give it a real meaning and reason.
And there you go! Your first posts are down, as well as a good introduction to the story. Nice and easy. So lets go over the first few real posts. This is where i can't give great advice as it's now real content, which of course is personal and varied. You can jump straight into racing or build up some more back story elements. Just make sure that what ever you post is important! If it does not help the story move forward, it's not worth posting.
Cool, first posts and introductions covered. Now we are into the depths of the story, the Races and Development!
Part Three: Races and Screenshots
Spoiler
So part number three. This is going to be probably the most important part, as i'll cover everything needed to know about posting your races and developing your story over time. As we move on we've built up an idea then taken it from our heads and put it on the site.
Naturally the first step here is to open the race. Make a note of the race and/or stage number and of the squad you are sending. This can be done via a screenshot or by writing it down, depends on the approach you will take towards reporting.
Which means i should go over the ways you can report. There is no standard way to report stages and again this is where you can stamp your own originality on a story. The basic points to include in any report though are: Breakaway members, major attacks, final kilometers and the winner and results. This is best illustrated by using screenshots. It breaks up the text and adds some color. I'll go through the process of screenshots in a little bit.
Obviously you'll somehow need to know who did what and when. Most writers will make notes during the stage. This can be done in Word, Notepad or even using a pen and paper. They'll write down pretty much everything that happens in the stage. Attacks, KoMs and ISs etc. After the stage they will translate this information into a report. Some will focus entirely on playing and make the notes off of the replay, and others will even write the report live as they play then edit it down in needed.
There is no set length for a report. But as in the lists above no-one will read a wall of text! Good punctuation, spelling, grammar and paragraphs will go a long way to gaining readers. This is where sliding in screens works well as it provides a natural break point. You can write in almost any format. Some people go for news style reports, others live tickers and others use mixes of the two, as long as you cover the key moments of the stage it doesn't matter. Assuming you've gone for a standard Team/Rider story the focus of the report will be shifted slightly more towards that team/rider. Non-standard stories will have different, more general focuses.
As i said, screens are very important so lets go over the basics of how to include them.
To take a screenshot in-game press Ctrl + T. This will take the current frame and save it to Documents > Pro Cycling Manager 2013 > Users > "username" > Screenshots, in a .PNG format.
You can make the screenshot neater by removing the user interface (all the buttons and maps etc you see). This is done by pressing Ctrl + U.
You can totally "clean" the image by removing the circles under the riders. This is done by pressing Ctrl + #.
Now you have a set of images. The next step is to convert the images from and .PNG format to a .JPG format. This can be done in several ways.
The first is using MS Paint, GIMP, Photoshop etc. Open the file then re-save it as the new format.
The second is using a converter. Most writers use these as you can do multiple images in one step. Download a converter (google search Picture Converter, the 9th result is a good one). They are all fairly obvious to use so i'll let you deal with that.
Now you have a set of .JPG's. Next step is to make a PhotoBucket account. It's a free cloud storage website, which most reporters use. It's not perfect but it's better than any others i've seen/tried.
Upload your images to PhotoBucket. One thing to do is go to User Settings > Albums > then untick the Link Back to Albums option. Trust me!
Now all your images are online, and ready to included in your reports. Simply Copy Image Location, then past the link to the site. Highlight the link and press the img button (the one that looks like a centered photo). The code will look like this -
Spilak23 wrote:
I feel like Tuco's Colnago story misses in your list of great stories. The reports just were a joy to read and it lasted over a season.
I agree. Atleast one of his stories anyway. I remember Androni was a good one too!
Spilak23 wrote:
I feel like Tuco's Colnago story misses in your list of great stories. The reports just were a joy to read and it lasted over a season.
I agree. Atleast one of his stories anyway. I remember Androni was a good one too!
I'll join the club as well. Might be my favourite story of all time.
I would add a guide as to how to format the text to look appealing to the eye.
Nice summary though!
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Good work TMM! I started to write today my next story on a Word doc and this is a good thing to have in hand while planning it. I'll try to add more pictures, images and formats but for now i'm just trying to improve my argument. Hope you have the tutorial ready when Daily db is ready
DON'T: Start too many stories in a short period of time , by Christopher Froome
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
@numbers
I'll never include that one, as i don't think starting a lot is a bad thing, if done correctly.
Included are things such as pre-write some stuff, run at least one season etc. but almost no-one hits it first time, and i am always interested in new ideas.
But yes, starting 4-5 stories in 1-2 weeks is not great.
@SSJ2
Again i disagree and wont include it. Sometimes it's the small changes that make you stick with it.
Two new Stories added to the list (and an updated advertisement). Nordic Cycling and Bunzl-Centrica make the grade. Nordic Cycling definitely earned it's place a while ago, and Bunzl will remain there provided it makes it to the end of season 1.
Both Guides/Tutorials/Things will still appear at some stage, when i find the time to finish writing them and then post them (no estimates anymore).
I will not add every Story of the Month Winner obviously, as this is for the Great not just the Good.
Still will always accept additions to the Do's and Dont's and the Story List (provided i agree).
And still hope this one day makes it to Sticky or Weekly News
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
Great one!
