Story Idea of the Day

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

In EUOL's defense, EUOLogies were originally written for THIS site, and were then cross listed to his site later. He stopped doing them so he'd have the time to focus on writing more directly related to making money.

[Shrain]

In EUOL's defense, EUOLogies were originally written for THIS site, and were then cross listed to his site later. He stopped doing them so he'd have the time to focus on writing more directly related to making money.

Yeah, the money part makes sense, of course. I also know how the EUOLogies were part of TWG originally. Still, they're a good "draw," you know, on his web site for those who want to know more about him as a writer and a person. That's all. Can't resist wanting more of a good thing, I guess.

[Lanternpost]

The idea of posting stories is great (something everyone else has said already), but you never know when you might need some of them for minor elements in your stories.  And you might not care if you use something you've already given away, either, as long as its not often.  I would be a bit nervous about giving so much away.  Of course that's just me.   I do enjoy reading them, though.

As for additional content, does anyone here read Neil Gaiman's blog?  I read his blog every chance I get and find it very interesting.  And something like that, EUOL, with your story ideas, your blog would still retain a strong element of uniqueness.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

But EUOL wants something he doesn't have to expend any effort on at all.

[Chimera]

Probably. But little effort equals little return.

I don't think he should do something huge everyday. And the annotations are a pretty big thing. I just suggested the EUOLogies because I knew that the Tolkien one had created a stir in the online community and something like that every so often would build EUOL's web presence.

[stacer]

Part of the problem sounds like it's the balance of marketing time vs. writing time. You don't want to have to expend too much energy on blogging every day, but you do need to have something interesting to sell your site and your book to potential readers.

I think the story ideas are just a beginning. I rarely look at BS.com, because nothing ever changes there. The story idea posts are a start, but I think more needs to update on a regular basis.

Blogging funny little happenings in your life, or commentary on writing, or whatever, would be more interesting, I think. That's why I read friends' blogs--to keep in touch with them. Of course a professional blog has a different purpose, but it's the same feeling--people go there to find something curious, new, interesting, and yet slightly personal (nothing deep and dark, that's for sure).

[42]

I agree that BS.com needs more content.

I liked the EUOLogies. Story ideas would be good too.

I don't you can just do one thing everyday and have it be a hit. It would be better to have three or four weekly articles that show some variety.

I like the idea of you just writing about something that happened to yout that day or that week. It could be more interesting if you severely exagerated that event. Thus allowing you to show off your creative side.

[CtrlZed]

I've been checking out the site more often since EUOL's been posting the story idea of the day.  Ideas are cheap.  I think any two professional writers could take the same idea and come up with their own original takes on it, and both stories would sell.  So, there's no need to fear "infringement."

I agree with Entropy that an occassional inside peak of how EUOL would turn a certain idea into a story would be pretty cool.

[Lightning Eater]

I think they're really a good idea. Though, I'm not sure if they should be every day because then your blog will seem more like some kind of story-idea dispenser, I'd do it more like every third day or so, only you'd have to do three at a time because I don't wan't to miss out on cool story ideas.

[Shrain]

But EUOL wants something he doesn't have to expend any effort on at all.

Uh-huh, I think Ookla's onto something here.... haha.

So... perhaps we ought to do some R&D to develop a revolutionary, just-add-water blog formula for successful authors with a proclivity for letting their web sites languish. We could call it Blogquick [tm] or InstaBlog [tm] and we'd make trillions! Trillions, I say! Who's with me?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Remember when we did that Nations thing? There were like, 50 nations run by board members. We had our own continent. etc. Then the questions started repeating. Everyone stopped.

ie, new content is necessary for repeat visits. a one liner isn't enough for me to spend the time int he browser that I could use to write my own three or four sentences.

[Entsuropi]

Ahh, Procrastania.

[Chimera]

Wow. EUOL actually updated the welcome on bs.com. Maybe all our ragging on him for not having new content helped.  

He deserves one of OneEyedGreenPerson's cookies!  

[Patriotic Kaz]

I have a magic system or two in my head let me share them here...

"input-name"- is based on using your shadow in 3-D as a landscape..kinda..where your shadow is you have complete dominion and the laws of physics are what you make them... your shadow's landscape would start out extremely small ( large enough to be about the size of a volleyball but you could wrap in around a blade to more or less tear this dimesion and anything in it with another one..your shadows) and by absorbing dieing peoples shadows grow.

Another one is more sci-fi and not really magic its genetically altered super-humans (most are failures and die) who are anemic or some other blood disorder and must take others blood into their blood-stream via injection as cardiovasucular system isn't your digestive system. And their hunters who are themselves ex-vampires or what have you who have weapons of biological tissue and their blood is poison to vampires...lets call them with-hunters

well i can't give all my ideas away but hey whats your thoughts?

[firstRainbowRose]

Just to let you know, this isn't the correct place for something like this.  We actually have an entire area for writers to post this type of thing and get feedback.  I'd copy everything over there.