OOC Entry 62 - So what's happening with the stories?

I realized that it has been more than a month since I concluded my last story. After that I wrote my entry to the Pod and Planet Fiction Contest and added a more personal one after that.

It's not like I have been idle, I wrote an average of two posts per week, but I did not write any more regular story episodes.

I have reflected a bit on why that is.

To begin with, I obviously made a mistake. Instead of preparing myself mentally to come up with ideas of my own, I wanted to give readers the opportunity to throw me some. Nobody did and I realized I had not come up with anything myself at all. Just a few scenes, snippets of dialogue, ideas for character development, but no framework for a narrative at all.

The other thing was, I got very much caught up in reading other people's stories that were submitted to the Fiction Contest mentioned above. I found that there are way more people among the EVE players who have it in them to write fan-fiction than I would have considered possible. Unlike other MMOs - especially the ones based on existing works of fantasy or SciFi -  EVE is not so much about the lore as it is about the often lauded Emergent Content, i.e. the narrative created by the players themselves. Roleplayers and lore aficionados, who often form a large group in other MMOs, are mostly smiled at in a patronizing way by lots of players. Sort of like the Don Quixotes of New Eden who have their rational pragmatism clouded by romantic notions.

Well, this contest has produced 66 broader fiction entries and 35 pieces written about actual in-game personalities. What surprised me most was that Roc Wieler didn't write a piece, but maybe he was too busy working on his own personal narrative and spending time in the gym.

After the first two weeks or so, it looked like the personal stories might outnumber the other fiction pieces, but then suddenly there came an explosion that I am still trying to catch up with. I was considering to mention my personal favorites here, but after some time I decided that I couldn't do them justice. There is something in almost every story that I like, and I simply could not decide which ones I should feature.

I really do not envy the jury. They have a lot of hard work ahead of them.

Don't get me wrong though. Not every single story is great. Some are really engaging from the first sentence to the last. Others are a bit tedious but still contain nice ideas. Yet others are great but suffer from poor execution. I'm not saying I am that great. I puts in much speling and languag mistaks into my pieces, but there are definitely people who could at least have done a bit more work on spelling correction and proofreading.

There are definitely amazing pieces in that lineup. Some are full of action, many are dark and chilling (which I like), but there are funny ones too. Some chose to write about capsuleers, others about normal people and now I just have to mention Seismic Stan who wrote a story about the least spectacular thing you could possibly be doing in EVE - Planetary Interaction - and it was one of the most riveting pieces in the whole list.

If I were on the jury I would suggest him for a price most definitely.

I can only thank Telegram Sam again for setting up this contest. For me it was never about winning but about the opportunity to read great stories by others and share mine with them. That has worked out just as I had hoped.

In that spirit, I can tell you, my dedication has been rekindled. I will sit down to actually begin my 20th story this very weekend (barring unexpected circumstances). If you read this and still want to toss me ideas, put them in a comment, I'm still open for it, but even without that, there are many loose ends to tie up, new adventures to be imagined and more depth that can be given to the characters.

I'm back on track (or would that be back in my pod) and ready to go.

See you on the other side.