My Survivor Stories

Hey everyone, I just wanted to post this and ask a question for people regarding my survivor stories that I used to write.

I stopped writing cause no one was reading them (not even my family would read them). I really want to write them again so I'd like to get some feedback on how I could write them better so that they are easier to read. I have four of my stories posted on livejournal or something like that, I'll have to look up the link for it for anyone who may be interested. Anyways, the stories were part of a series, each season's cast were based on people I knew from certain points in my life.

Here is an idea of how it went with the 10 seasons I wrote (never shared half of them)

1 ~ Panama - Exile Island *was based on when I was around 12-13 years old and the friends I had at that time, including an ex, some of her friends and siblings of some of my other friends. It was fun to write but reading it now it is horrendous lol.

2 ~ Cook Islands *this season was based off of the online world, featuring people like Mandie, Trevor, Niki, and others who I played games with, I believe characters were based on Morris, Sadie and Donna but would have to look up to be sure.

3 ~ Marquesas *this season I started writing in the fall of 2006, during my first semester of college and the characters in this story are based on people within my classes then, though due to the amount of women that I knew compared to guys (very few guys in my classes) I ended up putting in a few made up characters, none of which did particularly well.

4 ~ China *this is posted in Orbital Moods, was based on my first semester at the college I transferred to after one semester at the community college the previous season was based upon. I'm still friends with a few people from this story on facebook, and they knew about this story when I wrote it.

5 ~ All Stars *I brought back 18 people from the first four seasons and had a lot of fun keeping rivalries, making new rivalries, redeeming people, while also turning heroes into villains, villains into heroes. It was a fun story, have never shared this one though, in fact I believe I've only shared the first four stories so far.

6 ~ Second Chance *basically this was like All Stars but featured only people eliminated prior to the final 10. It was a struggle to write this one as I wrote this season second to last out of the 10 seasons.

7 ~ Transylvania *this season featured my family. It was fun but I also rushed through this season so it isn't that good, however I had a really cool twist that I thought was fun to write that I'd like to bring back. Don't know if I want to write another story based on my family though lol

8 ~ Australian Outback *based on from 7th to 11th grade, the friends and some enemies I had from then. I think this was one of the worst seasons I wrote, along with Transylvania.

9 ~ Thailand *this season was sort of part three of my college experience, a couple of friends who were featured in Marquesas were in this season as new characters. I really liked this season, I think it was the most unpredictable season if I'm remembering correctly.

10 ~ Philippines *this season didn't specifically stick with any certain time period of my life, it featured people from a few different jobs I'd had, including bosses and co-workers I didn't like, plus my last college roommate and his girlfriend. It was a fun season to write and I think it came out good as well.

I came close to writing season 11 as a fans vs favorites type of story which I had spoken to Michael about earlier this year, maybe end of last year and the fans were gonna be based on people from here. I just never got to it cause I didn't feel that anyone would be interested in reading it. I've had family read most of the seasons but the last 3-4 that I wrote (Seasons 6, 8, 9 + 10) were the ones that have not been read by anyone.

So the reason I'm bringing this up is because I really want to write these stories again, I liked looking back at specific times in my life and thinking of people and their impact on my life and how I perceived them as people and used that to create the characters. I had up to season 20 planned out but that never happened.

Instead of trying to continue this series and try and get the motivation to post them, I was thinking of rewriting some of them, forgetting some of them and starting the series over. However I may keep a few seasons as is that I feel were done decently and just edit them.

I want to know what, if anything, would get people interested in reading these? I used to write them mainly in script style which made it very difficult to read and I'm not the greatest at dialogue so I figured in rewriting these I could write them as stories more than as dialogue.

Please let me know, I want to re-write the first story first as that was the funnest to write and I wrote that almost five years ago. I'd also like to write one based on people from here eventually if everyone would be cool with that.

I'd like the link to read your stories It's a cool concept using real life experiences for survivor characters and games. That's a very creative way to kind of put your life into perspective, or decompress and just get some thoughts out there.

The first three seasons are posted at the following link. China is in Orbital Moods. Those are the only ones posted. Let me know what you think.

http://www.blogger.com/profile/01949323295478216827

Just read season 1: episode 1. Kellie tricked them into voting her out?

The story is very basic in it's structure, but it's kind of appealing that way. "I like you." "I don't like you", etc. Makes for a quick but engaging read.

thanks for the feedback. One thing that I did was worked to make the story more complex with each season and I think I may have went overboard on that in some seasons lol. One season had 27 people (Season 3) Won't ever do that again, but in re-writing the first season I want to get a chance to explain things a little clearer, plus change some things that I feel didn't work out so well. The boot-list would change a little if I did do this but not completely. I don't know yet honestly.

People don't like having a bunch of names thrown at them.

It is absolutely necessary that you provide pictures of your cast. Even if you just grab them from Google Images.

Post some 'pre-show interviews', and allow your audience to engage in the characters before they begin reading.

When writing character names in the story, highlight them. When the player gives a confessional, colour their name. For instance:

Kelly walks to the beach.

"I walked to the beach." Kelly tells the camera.

This lets people know what tribe you are talking about.

Give your scenes names, not just the name of the tribe.

To engage the audience, don't write the fanfic as a script. Give some details.

(Apparently the highlight didn't work, but it did when I was writing in the box. I hope you know what I mean by highlighting.)

Pete, go for it,

I read a few seasons of yours and they were a decent read and something to look at on here.

You will get good responses with it

Virtuanno, I've tried getting photos for the contestants, actually have some photos that I put together for them, the pics are celebs and reality show people. I did that ages ago.

Also, regarding not writing it in script format, that is what I was saying in the first post that if I re-wrote the series I would write it as a story more so than as a script. (not sure if story is the right word but hopefully you know what I mean).

I'm going to re-write the first season. Panama - Exile Islands, it'll have the same cast and same tribe set-up but some things will be different. I am going to complete overhaul the way I write it, and come up with graphics for the contestants, will have a pre-show and a reunion.

Still want feedback, but thanks for the comments, I really appreciate them

I think you should write. It doesnt matter what other people think so much.... if you enjoyed writing them, then that is all that should matter dear.

thanks Mandie, its just I like to get feedback on them, it helps keep me motivated to write them. I've tried reposting stories I've already shared on other sites and just always forget about it so I want to re-write them and share them as I write them. Gonna give myself a schedule for them so that way it all gets done in a reasonable time, then I can work on the next one. I'm gonna continue setting up the first story and then post the pre-show and graphics shortly after that.

Question though, for the graphics do you think that it would be fine using actors and survivor contestants or should I look up models, or even drawings of characters for the pics?

I'm also going to look up graphics for the location. I really want people to follow and read these so I appreciate peoples thoughts on these. I love writing them and I like getting constructive criticism because it helps me become a better writer.
Thanks again

Here are the graphics I created for the cast of Panama - Exile Islands.
Let me know what you think.

so at this point I am half-way through re-writing Episode 1 of Season 1.

I want to set-up a schedule for this so that I can get the episodes released and give people plenty of time to read them. I think I'm going to post 2 episodes a week. One on Monday, and the other on Thursday. What do people think of this schedule?

I'm gonna plan for that schedule starting next week with the pre-show on Monday, and Episode 1 on Thursday. Hope you all read and enjoy it, thanks for all the help that everyone has given me as far as this goes.

I wanted to add that I hate writing challenges so I'm not gonna really re-write those too much, just change things that need to be to fit in with the changes I make within the story

Draft before release. Get someone to read it for you, so that they can go through and make sure that your story makes sense to someone other than you.

I just realized I didn't really write challenges for this season, I thought I had lol

Anyways, yeah I will have someone read them, thing is I'll have over a week to finish Episode one and I'm almost done with it as it is. So I'll have plenty of time to do edits and fix anything that needs fixing before then.

As for the Pre-show, that is basically just going to be a cast reveal, where you will learn about the cast, I will post the pics (which are above but for future seasons won't be released until the pre-show is released.) with a short bio, and a quote from them about their strategy going in. Not sure if there is anything more to it at this point but I'm gonna write it after Episode 1 is done and waiting on whoever I have read it gets back to me.

Episode 1 and the pre-show are done. I'm waiting to hear back from the person who agreed to proof-read episode 1.

I'm gonna post the pre-show tomorrow, instead of Episode 1, and then I'm going to post Episode 1 on Monday.

The pre-show isn't anything big, but I hope you enjoy it enough.

Pete, I am looking forward to seeing this!

Pete, if you do another season of this. You should put in the names of people here who volunteer to be written into your story.

well in my original series the second season was based on people from online, so that is what I'm gonna do when I do season 2, thing is I am changing the cast big time cause I don't remember who have the cast is so I will add people from here definitely.

ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME :D lol

Thian, definitely glad you would like to be in it haha

Anyways, the pre-show has been posted in Orbital Moods. It isn't much, wasn't really sure what else to include into it but didn't want to much as I didn't want to spoil the story but wanted to give an idea on who each person is and how they would play. Please comment and let me know your thoughts

There is gonna be some big cat fights on that older ladies tribe. Is it me or are they really going to show their coogar-ific ways.

LOL I love the discription. **out of shape** LMFAO on Crystal Malcolm

The hardest thing for me with this cast is everyone is based on people I knew when I was around 13 years old, so the people these characters were based on are were around the ages of 8-15, so choosing who was oldest and who was youngest was hard, but basically the older ones were the ones around 13-15, and the younger ones were based on the ones 12 and younger. Some were siblings of friends of mine and such.

One of the girls on the older ladies tribe is also an ex of mine lol, and I am on the older guys tribe, had to put myself in haha.

GO YOU!!!!!!!! LOL

and I noticed something. a harry potter picture??? what is this.... POTTAH!