Hello Darkness my Old Friend

> Have killer idea for a setting
> you just blew your own mind
> ideas and concepts develop naturally
> the world you imagine grows
> try to write some stuff down for a campaign/story
> Realise you write like a second grader with a larger vocabulary
> now that you wrote this stuff down it doesn't seem so great anymore
> decide to leave writing to the professionals
All By My Seeeeeelf

Every
Fucking
Time

I know that feel, but apply it to an actual film script. The screenplay itself isn't the problem as it's very technical with a set format but the treatment? Write the story as if you're reading a book. Very prose-y.

>Tfw I keep writing in short, matter of fact sentences with lots of fucking commas.

Bump for sadness

...

Everything is saved in editing.
Get your ideas on paper or word processor.
Edit later.
Boom.

I saw this thread while experiencing this very situation and damn I want to fucking die

I know this feel so much.

I have several folders filled with (what I think is) great world building and atrocious writing.

fuck you very much for posting this faggot :^(((((

O OP, Turkish devil and damned devil's kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are you, that can't slay a hedgehog with your naked arse? The devil excretes, and your army eats. You will not, you son of a bitch, make subjects of Christian sons; we've no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, fuck your mother.

You Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-fucker of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, pig of Armenia, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our dick. Pig's snout, mare's arse, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow, screw your own mother!

So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won't even be herding pigs for the Christians. Now we'll conclude, for we don't know the date and don't own a calendar; the moon's in the sky, the year with the Lord, the day's the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our arse!

I was like that for years. Eventually I stopped caring because I realized 90% of people were like that. Just finishing my sheet and making it look pretty with photoshop compensated for the bad writing. Then it turns out, after the third finished 'splatbook', I didn't write badly. I was just over critical to my own work.

Oh

you had one job, you forgot the picture

My solution is to never write anything down. I keep it all in my head where I can perfectly imagine it with the right tone of voice,
and when I'm alone with no chance of anyone hearing me I talk to myself, some of my best ideas have come from talking to myself.

>be me
>always working on something Veeky Forums related
>produce massive quantities of absolute shit garbage settings, trpg systems, headcanon fluff, homebrew rules and more
>write hundreds of documents in poor, boring, and sometimes extremely pedantic english
>but slowly, almost imperceptibly improve
>suddenly bits and bobs of decent writing and rules start appearing before my eyes
>sometimes even Veeky Forums approves
It takes 10 000 hours to master a skill user.

Write it down anyway. Even second graders can have amazing ideas.

Why kind of sick fuck makes a thread like this?

Artists impression

>Have a bunch of awesome ideas.
>Start writing it out.
>Realize you can't come up with a way to sting them together into a campaign without it feeling like a Michael Bay film.

>Make a setting
>people call it a heartbreaker

How is Heartbreaker used in context of a setting?

Its a cool idea but it tackles nothing new I thought

> Turns out the lesbian catgirls had the contraband t-shirts this whole time!
OH SHIT
> it's in Von Wallenstiens haunted wine cellar!
DAMN NIGGA
> Only the abandoned Russian nuclear sub can get us there before nightfall
WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?

> Come up with an interesting pantheon of a dying world
> the gods are suffering as the earth suffers
> Realize that no matter how I try it probably won't fit in my light-hearted underwater adventure setting
This is a real thing that happened

> Write up a kind of overview for a setting, stay on it for a week or two, get shit done
> Accomplish a good bit, get really into it
> Slowly my drive melts away, and the passion fades
> Either switch to a different setting to let it ferment, or look back on it and scrap the setting entirely because it feels bland and uninteresting
> Repeat until death
So many ideas, gone and wasted. I could not begin to tell you how much time I have sat around and wrote up shit for settings I will never ever use and think about again.

I'm in one of those slumps now. My fantasy setting is so shit, it's generic and bland but I also really want to do a fantasy setting still because it's the one thing I can write well. Sitting in the dark here trying to dream up a premise for something new so I can grow to hate that shit too later I guess.

Dude no, don't share this shit
The pain is too real

ITT people whine instead of putting in the work to get better and a few brave anons to tell people to get their heads out of their asses

> probably won't fit
>probably

What the fuck is with your whining? You even admit to yourself there is a chance it will fit. Are you seriously this much of a fucking baby?

Are you me? I started a notebook last month for my somewhat Dutch golden age fantasy setting that I want to use instead of having to keep putting up with Faerun. After I started writing everything down I realized that I am really not good at this.

Dude calm down.
What is the issue here?
I genuinely have read your post three times and still can't figure it out.
EDIT: 4 times

>tfw great writing skills, but want to draw
>tfw bad handwriting, cant draw worth a damn
Feels bad man, but at least your problems have motivated me to work on my shitty homebrew.

shit dude this sounds kickass

threadly reminder

Get new life experience and study history.

>Have great idea for a setting
>Keep thinking of key plot points and twists that are amazing
>Have the ability to write decently (I've made a couple hundred dollars writing porn for people)
>Severe depression
>Anxiety about whether anybody else will find it as interesting as me
>Motivation dies
>Become more anxious and depressed after realizing that my anxiety is keeping me from writing
>Lay in bed all day
>Only makes things worse
>Occasionally play video games for small periods of time
>Want to kill myself every day
>Refuse to kill myself because I don't want anybody to find the body
>Decide to leave writing to other people and never tell anybody about my setting ideas

Am I doing it right?

That's okay bro. With all likelihood your setting was neither interesting nor original in the first place.

uncritically apes dnd tropes but has real passion behind it

bullshit, you just need a decent editor

I'm considering taking a few community college classes to help my writing skills. My players tell me my pacing is good for gameplay, but I want to improve my storytelling and make them feel more immersed.

>How is Heartbreaker used in context of a setting?
when you publish a fantasy RPG, it needs to be really novel in some way (or have really good marketing power behind it) or it will fall flat as a product, breaking the author's heart.

>Got outline for a nice story
>Lots of ideas for characters and themes
>Can't write dialogues for shit
>No idea at which point it should start
>Keep making new documents and scrapping them after a few paragraphs
I focused on the pain the only thing that's real.

See a therapist dude

>Am I doing it right?

No, not once did you mention drowing yourself in Vodka so for a brief glorious moment you can feel whole.

You need to hade loveless sex as well.

Been there, done that. Don't do it any more.
I actually don't like drinking because I get sick before I get drunk. I end up just throwing up by the time I have a slight buzz.
Well, that happens but I didn't think it was important. The best part is, it's boring loveless sex with a social justice warrior who hates straight, white men, and constantly tells me it, even while my dick's in her mouth.

You need to feel like a used piece of meat after the sex. Otherwise you're doing it wrong.

I already do though, she reminds me constantly that she wouldn't fuck me if not for the size of my dick.

Implying you don't fucking love it.

Just get into BDSM at least then everyone involved is consenting to your degradation.

I am actually not a fan.

Carefully evaluate the pros and cons of your current arrangement vs masturbation in the shower or something. Either you realize it could be worse and feel better, or realize you need off that wild ride and change something in your life for the better. Win-win.

Just find the right group. Some players are totally down to do completely off the wall Michael Bay shit. Also, remember that you don't need to have immaculate prose describe everything.

At the tabletop, I have had as much success and fun with "she got da booty" as I have elaborately explaining the city the first time. Use what fits when it fits, players will fill in details by asking you to clarify. If an idea isn't what you have but could fit, go "yea! It has that!" and improv some cool shit. Had a whole story arc start from the players joining a crazy house party because a player said "surely sci-fi nobility know how to throw a house party with EDM!" and I was smitten with the idea.

>decide to start learning
>determined to bring masterpiece into the world if it takes twenty years
>look back on original concept after three years of practice
>wonder what you were ever thinking
>quietly drop it and work on something else

Then write more faggot. Practice makes passable. Or find someone else who can edit your stuff and build a setting with them.

>not constantly revising and improving your setting until it doesn't even resemble the original
The original concept is always shit. That's why you change things, and keep changing them as you learn more and suck less.

Keep your childish notes a gravely guarded secret and try to run it anyway

So read, expand your writing ability, and start again.
The realization of an idea is allways inferior to the idea as it presented itself: as long as it's in your brain it's a cloud of cool imagery and scenery; realizing it is the hard part and you did it.
Can you do better? Obviously, you can allways do better. Why do you think people change things between one edition of a book and the next?
However you'll also get to the point where something is good enought.
Take heart.

And tell me: do you ever finish anything working like this?
I ask because I do most of that shit too but in the end I either sit down and write my ideas in a comprehensible fashion or it all ends in another incomplete project.

I have faith that one day you'll be able to muster the willpower to finally kill yourself. I believe in you user

>The original concept is always shit. That's why you change things, and keep changing them as you learn more and suck less.
I kinda wish I hadn't deleted the original notes, just so I could see how much has changed. All I have are old maps and a couple sketches. Unfortunately whenever I look back on those I'm overcome with shame and an urge to destroy all traces of my embarrassment, then I remember why I deleted those notes
>tfw looking back on old work
Why does is always hurt so?

Because when you see it, you are hit with waves of regret. You remember that small glimmer of hope that naive, younger you had for tge old project.. Thinking it could be something great for which you could feel pride. When now, all you feel is a hollow embarrassment--lined with bittersweet nostalgia. Everything you do feels unoriginal, trite, or simply not good enough in your eyes to represent you. I get the feeling at least once a week, but mostly every day.

>Why does is always hurt so?
Because you've learnt more and gotten less shit since then. If you don't think your old stuff is garbage then you probably aren't improving.

One way to get around it is to constantly revise your stuff. I've had one setting that I've constantly been building since I was 13. It doesn't resemble the original in the slightest because I slowly changed small bits of stupid bullshit as I matured and realised how dumb they were, as opposed to leaving it alone for 3 years and coming back to an entire world full of stupid bullshit.

But I like my new stuff

>One way to get around it is to constantly revise your stuff. I've had one setting that I've constantly been building since I was 13.

I've done this. The oldest aspects of my setting that I still use, I developed when I was 11. I'm 33.

I've since used that setting for written fiction, a standalone rpg, and a tabletop game.

Before anyone asks, none are on the market. The rpg and ttg have both been playtested to satisfaction and the books approved of for publication by editors, but marketing and writing to deadlines will have to wait until I'm less busy; middle of elect. eng. degree.

I wonder how depopulated the world would become if everyone who whined about wanting to kill themselves actually did

Thanks, it means a lot.

What's your setting? Does it have space robots?

Nope. It's fantasy, with a somewhat low technology level. I used to describe it as 'dark fantasy,' but that isn't really correct. It's not grimdark or gothic.

But I pay a lot of attention to verisimilitude, which makes it real and gritty (like the actual ancient world). And I avoid emphasizing the unpleasant aspects for childish, diminishing shock value (looking at you, GRR Martin...). So there's slavery and rape and ethnic strife and disease and torture and sacrifice and so on, but it's all normal, not emphasized. The characters and organizations deal with them in normal, routine manners. Really helps with immersion.

In one scene, a main character witnesses the human sacrifice of a royal family he used to serve. He knows human sacrifice happens and is sanctioned by some religions, and isn't even especially upset by the idea that it happens. But when he sees it happen to people he knows? The tension there is deeper. It's not just a knee-jerk, modern response of 'human sacrifice is bad.' How boring is that?

I'm getting there. I have a major issue with perfectionism. I can't be satisfied until I'm certain the content I produce is made at the utmost capacity of my being.. More often than not, it creates an issue.
I'm happy for you, user.

What did he mean by this?

That example you have makes me wonder what sorts of cosmology would justify the regular human sacrifice besides 'sun goes out if we don't'.
Maybe in a setting with reincarnation humanity tried to kill a god in his sleep but he came back stronger, and humanity was cast from the heavens. Because he was rightfully pissed, the god demanded that humans ritually sacrifice people while they slept every so often so that humanity understands the pain of being betrayed by those they loved.
When they finally get everyone through reincarnation with enough trial and errror, he calls it off and humanity gets their magic back.

I'm beginning to realize I'm shit at writing settings but I'd be great at writing campaigns and DMing.

Too bad I can never find a group.

Smut is the most powerful motivator and the easiest to write tho.

...

Not very. There are a lot of people in the world.

If you think you write like second-grader, write more until you write like a third-grader. Rinse and repeat. There's nothing more to it.

Talent is mostly just a smokescreen used by the "talentless" to try to undermine the efforts of those who have worked hard for their art and their results show it.

I prefer to go with talent as an excuse for people to justify their whining and laziness

>Come up with fun and interesting setting
>Players are all plebs who completely disregard the lore and treat every single setting like generic JRPG land, even though you've explained the basics to them, are willing to answer questions any time and have more info written down in an accessible place if they want to know more

Fucking suffering. It's not wrong for them to want settings I consider shitty, but it just feels bad if they ignore work you as a DM have done because they can't be assed to comprehend any setting more complex than 'modern society but with a medieval veneer.'

I need to find a new group really.

This brings back memories

I once had a GM who wrote some of the most boring/generic lore ever when it came to politics and got upset whenever we forgot that King Aberhosen III had a trade dispute with the Duke or Yellowtown in the year 259 or some shit.

I'm not saying you do that, it just made me remember that.

I completely understand where you're coming from, man. My current group is basically like a crazy mirror universe version of that "legalizing gay marriage instead of fighting undead" copypasta. The world is incredibly detailed with complex political situations, incredibly deep lore, and tons of fun people to talk to and get quests from. Unfortunately the main plot is a race against time to stop (this world's version of) Sauron and the Nazgul from destroying the world. Because of this, nobody in the party gives a FUCK about the intricacies of the setting and they just want to beat the BBEG as quickly as possible. One of the players is a huge dick, actively avoiding sub-plots and paying no attention to NPCs unless they're directly related to the main plot.

I am that player.

Many famous authors have a lousy writing style.

Writing style is good, but it isn't everything. If your story and characters are good, then it doesn't matter if your writing sucks. Most people will be pretty forgiving.

I have found lore to be highly overrated.

It's more of a suggestion for the players and something to help guide the DM.

I literally make things up as I go along. I mean, I'll have an idea "okay, these guys in this land here worship the sky; this kingdom is basically in anarchy, etc." but when the players start asking questions it's like "Who's their god? Yeah... their god is a primordial raven who carries the souls of the dead to the afterlife" or "Why is there so much turmoil? Uh, the lords who make up the regency council have declared the only heir illegitimate, and each of them is trying to put their own favored candidate on the throne". Then you build a plot around that, and as the players ask more and more questions and keep probing, it gets deeper and deeper...

So it seems like it's this deep, persistent world with all this stuff happening, when it really only comes into existence when you look at it.

When I say lore, I don't even mean obscure background stuff like "Old Emperor Doogleswich destroyed this empire and that empire and killed this beast one thousand years ago and I expect you to remember this," and more just setting basics like "a knight is defined by X, magic can do Y, the time period is [year] so people tended to act like Z," - only to end up with someone playing a knight who's A, a magician repeatedly ask if magic can do T, F and P, and someone else acting in some lolrandumb way that doesn't fit the tone of the game regardless of the setting.

Again though this is as much a problem with my interests as a GM being diferent from those of the players. Neither of us are really at fault, I just need to find someone else to play with who's gets the same sort of enjoyment as I do out of a consistent setting, as opposed to players who prefer kitchensinkery.

Oh, a good way of putting it: it feels like my group just play random character ideas that have sprung to mind or they've had planned for a while, as opposed to actually coming up with something for the game I'm running.

Do you ask them for character ideas before play?

Every great storyteller in every medium has dealt with this, but instead of crying about it on Veeky Forums they pushed through the self doubt and kept working.

> great storyteller
I'm more of a mediocre shitposter myself

> I keep writing in short, matter of fact sentences
There's nothing wrong with that, there are plenty of writers who chose it as their style - Borges and Hemingway come to mind, as well as F.S. Fitzgerald. In fact, baroque writing that looks like it shat out a thesaurus is the lowest of all tiers.

>want to play any sort of pnp game
>search area, ask about, put up flyers, create online groups on facebook, etc.
>Not one person has responded in over a year of consistently doing this

You're always your biggest critic.

Shut the fuck up and let someone else cut you down.