The AAR Criteria By request and by before I do so, I , yet, I am, from onstant reader of ) criteria are.

volunteering, I have decided to write my "AAR Criteria". Yet, would like to declare that I am no official nor am I an expert what others have told me, a good reviewer of AARs and I am a c AARs, I have read well over a hundred AARs and I know what (my

Most AARs today have a very strong illness, either too little text and too many pictures or too little pictures and too much text, both of these illnesses have unwanted results; The readers who much prefer 'action' in their AAR, more fighti ng and less talking, would skip the AARs without pictures and the others, who pr efer plot over 'action', would much rather read the ones with more text. This fo rces most AAR readers and writers to find a very delicate balance between the tw o and with that offer little diversity at times. For me, the basic guidelines of an AAR should be proper grammar, a proper plot a nd some action, meaning that I would much rather to read an interesting plot tha n blankly stare at pictures of the game, instead of simply right clicking on its icon and playing it myself. The pros of an AAR with a plot is that it allows your imagination to flow and yo urself to 'lie' a bit, as my good friend once said in response to one of my olde st AARs. What I mean by this is that you can, instead of sticking directly to ga ming events, simply start inventing conversations between your characters, allow your imagination to take over battles as you inflate the deeds of your soldiers in combat just a tad bit, instead of simply sticking to the facts and... Basica lly, reporting after your action. The definition of the AAR is actually an "After Action Report", meaning you simp ly tell the story of what you have done, meaning that the AARs with more picture s and less text usually live up to this standard, yet, those with less pictures and more text would much better be counted as stories and tales instead of AARs, and there is nothing wrong with either of those. However, instead of picking one of these, most players would much rather find th e delicate balance between the two, and oftenly (Sadly), fail, causing in lack o f interest from both sides of the readers, both those who much rather a plot and those who much rather action, thus creating dead AARs by the dozens. I urge all AAR readers out there to not judge an AAR just by briefly looking at it, read it, look at the pictures, at least read two updates before deciding you r opinion, as I myself were surprised by an or two before which had very little text and an immense amount of pictures, however, was one of the funniest AARs I have ever read, or, no pictures and all text, which turned out to be one of the best stories I have ever read. This is why I urge you, do not judge a book by it s cover. I also urge all AAR writers, do not fear your style! Write what you feel is righ t and what you want to write, listening to popular demand and going against what you want to do/write will oftenly cause in you losing interest in your AAR and abandoning it, or a complete lack of interest by others as you do not seem to re ally be investing in said AAR. In addition, I will add that humorous AARs are probably the best and most succes sful AARs, however, there is also a delicate balance there between funny and dow nright apalling, most humorous AARs fail to find this balance and tend to fail, however, this doesn't mean you should give up! The more subtle the humor, the fu nnier the AAR will be, the more blunt and obvious the humor, the less successful the AAR will be, keep that in mind when writing your own.

I will say this, as my conclusion and final words: Writers - Do not give up and do not change your style, if the public demands you do, the public doesn't deser ve to read your style. Readers - Be a bit more patient, read the AAR, don't just look at it and decide randomly if it's good or not, this will discourage all th e writers and eventually you will see the downfall of the AAR community alltoget her if you do that. Those were my two cents of wisdom... Heed or disregard this, this is your choice indeed, however, I speak from experience, experience you just might find useful .

The Origin of Stories: The Evolution of AARs Some people would simply believe that writing an AAR is completely straightforwa rd. Come up with plot, story, characters etc, write, publish, done. Certainly I myself was almost so nave as this when I first began writing my first (and only) AAR, R Inse Ghall . But I was to find that, like other stories, it doesn t stay consis tent throughout the writing, and I end up writing several very different chapter s on the same plot let me explain. When I first began writing my AAR it was hesitant, not fluent, and many of my ph rases were very blunt, very simple and unpolished. As a result, I saw a story th at was alright, but certainly not very good. Still, at the time it was the best that I could do. However, I learned that your writing style changes as the AAR c ontinues. Certainly no AAR I have ever seen has changed for the worse over time in terms of a changing writing style, so it s fair to say that your author s abiliti es will always improve. This is easy enough to discern - as I said earlier, this happens in other stories. But I also want to demonstrate the other ways that AA Rs change and adapt to the requirements they must meet. Firstly, plot. No AARtist I have ever seen can hold their head high and truthful ly say that they thought of a plot, then wrote it down to the letter. I personal ly have rewritten my plot 3 times, and I have heard similar experiences from oth ers. A plot does not have to be faulty from the start, but other than greater de tail, people invent new features, often changing the direction of the AAR comple tely. Some are deliberately thought out, but others are spontaneous. That s the ma in paradox that I love about the way AARs evolve - you can try and plan as hard as you want, but the story will always have a life of its own. The audience is also a key factor. The main difference between an AAR and a book is that the AAR is released a chapter or so at a time. You have to wait for the next one, and not only does this increase suspense but more importantly it mean s that the readers can tell the author what they liked and didn t like about the l ast chapter. As a result, a lot of experimentation takes place within AARs, lead ing to secure and confident writers much more quickly than any standard author. The more simple features like layout/presentation etc. also change. Personally I have changed the font and colour of my work as well as centring it, making for a much easier read. Some people can even get away with a crap font (Antiochos, I m looking at you! ), but mostly people try different formats to see which one wor ks for their kind of story. I would like to cite the beginning of ReD_OcToBeR s Is htar Gate to Alexandria as a good example. At the beginning, he used large, brig

ht titles, (size 16-20 fonts, etc.) and blocks of text, put together with pictur es in a single piece - thus the whole update was just on one big picture; as he said, like Sunbird Alkibijad s AAR , which is another good example. However, he quick ly changed this within the first few chapters, simply putting framed pictures be tween lumps of text I say lumps, which is an unworthy description of that text, b ut that s beside the point . Finally, the last way an AAR can renew itself is in terms of its goal, it s direct ion. there is always a summary or a finale to every plot, a grand climax that is, to every GOOD plot. However, I see sometimes that people realise that they have made errors in their planning. They might not have realised the potential of a character, or the positive effect that such and such event would have on the rea der, thus wanting to repeat it. So this does not change the story, but more poin ts the AARtist on a different heading, giving them a different goal to aim for. I think that the most important point here that you should not miss is that ther e is almost some kind of mind in the AAR itself it does have a will of it s own. I just talked about the AAR pointing the writer to a different goal - who s doing th e pointing? The story itself, that s what. AARs somehow gain a personality - in th eir layout and style, their gait, dress and accent are put on display. The way t hat they perfect themselves, learning and gaining experience is what sets AARs a part from other kinds of story. That s my observation.

Characterisation in AARs Introduction I hope that everyone would agree that interesting and believable characters are a vital part of AARs. You can write them without characters, and this is a perfe ctly valid form, but it does limit the viewpoint to just that of the player. In my experience even in this type of AAR authors often still find themselves start ing to refer to their generals as if they had a semi-independent existence. Making Characters A wonderful thing about Total War games is that they provide you with so much ma terial to fill out your characters in the form of pictures, abilities, ancillari es and traits. But this is a two-edged sword, as anyone who has tried to use tra its in an AAR can testify. Strict adherence to traits is just too constraining t o the story. You really need the freedom to create dynamic tension and have sati sfying conclusions to sub-plots. So I think the best approach is to treat this b ounty of traits and ancillaries from the game as a resource from which to pick o nly the ideas that fit the tale you are trying to weave. So, you want to write a character-based AAR? Well, those characters are going to have to be interesting otherwise your story will remain unloved by the fickle m asses of TWC. The first question is - which characters to include? Many writers don't even consider this. The games presents you with a faction leader and a fam ily tree. The family members will be leading your armies, so it is entirely natu ral to write a story consisting entirely of them, with a few bland interchangeab le subordinates, and a faceless mass of loyal soldiers ready to die for some as

yet undefined goal. Doing this creates a kind of frame that constrains the possi bilities for your story. It also creates practical difficulties, an army often h as only one family member (the commander), so there is no one interesting for hi m to talk to when describing battles. If you want to write something a bit different from the run-of-the-mill, then st rong characters are a good way to break free from just describing the gameplay. An AAR can either follow the campaign, or it can be a free-standing story using the game merely to provide illustrations. With this latter form, you are complet ely free to create whatever characters are required for the plot, but you also b ear the responsibility for creating a good plot in the first place. It would be wise to prepare your cast in advance by writing profiles for them. These people have to be interesting and distinct. They need motivation and goals. They need d ifferent relationships, fears, hopes. Making Characters Interesting I must admit that I haven't yet been brave enough to write in this way. I play t he campaign and meditate on what is going on under the covers . My own characters s tart simple and gradually acquire depth through my description of the campaign e vents and from the inspiration I get from my detective work. Try assigning roles to your characters to make writing easier: Hero, villain, pr otagonist, antagonist, family, rival. Also give them some primary emotion: jealo usy, love, loyalty, honour, weakness, obsession, nobility, duty. Creating a prof ile makes your character distinct and also helps to keep them consistent during the long period during which you are likely to be writing your AAR. There are two types of character: major and incidental. I think you would do wel l to have something in the game that represents each major character. They don't all have to be family members. They could be ancillaries or agents, or even tie d to particular military units (say a Centurian, or even a common soldier or cam p-follower). Incidental characters are created as needed to fill out an episode. They often appear only once and are never referred to again. I think that choosing the right characters is a great way to reduce the scope of your story from an epic world-spanning multi-volume history of the (ancient) wo rld, down to something of more human proportions. It is entirely possible to wri te a whole AAR focussing on a single army, while leaving the rest of the campaig n undescribed. Writing the whole campaign is a great temptation (one that I have succumbed to myself), but again it steers you into writing a standard AAR, much l ike many others already published. Point of View Having created some characters, you then have to decide how to write about them. There are three choices: First Person, Third Person, and Objective. First person narratives are incredibly useful. The reader gets strong identifica tion with the character. You can use this in several ways. The character can mak e unwise choices, raising tension as the reader wills them to do the right thing . The character can perform evil acts, making the reader angry at their unwillin g complicity in the crimes. Finally, the character can lie to the reader (or at least be mistaken). Revealing the lie later in the narrative can create great sc enes, the stuff of a famous AAR. If you want your viewpoint to skip around, then Third-Person is best. But why no t consider the Objective viewpoint, it is still Third-Person, but leaves out the thoughts of the character. This helps bring back some of the uncertainty you ca n get with First-Person. Your characters become enigmatic and you can spring plo t surprises when their true motivations are revealed.

Afterword I hope I have given you something to think about. Experiment with the different modes I have described above. It will help increase your arsenal of writing skil ls for tacking future projects. With writing, the more you learn, the more there is to learn. At every stage more possibilities become apparent, each one an opp ortunities for future study.

My Thoughts on AARs One of the things that I have learnt over the course of writing for the Critic's Quill is what a person needs to be a good reviewer. That was perhaps my main re asoning for asking for this series of articles, so that you, the reader, as well as the reviewers themselves, knew what it was that they wanted. A reviewer need s to know what they want. They need to be on the lookout for several things whic h they feel make a good AAR, or anything really. It is different for different p eople, that is why you may favour one reviewers opinion over the other. A review er cannot be like a child at Christmas, wanting everything (I want a bike, rolle r skates, PS3, puppy, etc.), so they have to know what is more important and wha t is less important. For me the most important thing is story and plot. Story and plot are similar, y et distinct. The plot is the series of events, which can be summarised without n eeding to refer to specifics. For example, the resurrection of the Roman Empire would be a plot. The story is the specific characters and events. So, a plot poi nt could be a battle, and the story could be how King Phillip won the battle by using his calvary to out flank his enemy. A strong plot is key for me, it gives the AAR a rhythm and intent which keeps it moving along, while also containing a strong sense of coherency. It isn't hard to come up with a plot, and stick to i t, so I find it almost unforgivable to see an AAR which is meandering and has no course. I find a story keeps the reader more interested. While a plot can exist without a story, 'Taking Europe back from the Timmy's' is an example, a story cannot exi st without a plot. A story holds a reader, it creates characters which we can re late to, either hating or liking. A good story needs investment, on both the rea der and writer's parts. I can, and will, read an AAR without a story, but it doe sn't grab me the same way a story does. Pictures aren't as important to me as they are to others. While I appreciate the m, and realise that they are a big draw for some people, a good AAR can exist, a t least for me, without pictures. If the writer decides to include them, I want to see interesting and informative pictures, which compliment the writing instea d of replacing it. Editing of pictures is a must. Seeing the whole campaign map, when the writer only wants you to focus on the character sheet, or seeing the b attle map and UI during a battle scene really breaks the immersion and the flow of an AAR for me. I like things to be different. One of the best recent AARs I have read was 'In H oc Signes Vinco', which I reviewed for the CQ in issue 8. It followed the Crusad er States as they tried to conquer Britain, it still is being written. What made it really interesting was that it started with the Crusaders already in an esta blished position, in Northern France, which was different from what you find at

the start of a regular game. This new starting situation, and what could result from it, was what really grabbed me, and kept me interested before TemplarLord d eveloped his story. Story and plot do not need to be excessively unique, but the y have to be different. There used to be a glut of Byzantine AARs, with each hav ing the same goal in mind. Though the writing may have been interesting, the cen tral premise made for boring reading. This was not the fault of any individual w riter, but was caused by the similarity of the AARs. AARs are different from regular short stories, or historical fiction. Though the y are primarily written to follow the rise, or fall, of a particular faction in a particular game, that does not mean that they should be limited to that. It se rves as a useful, and interesting, starting point that will certainly keep peopl e reading and win the writer some fans, but it can be used as a backdrop for an even more interesting story. My current AAR, 'The Kingdom', which I have written keeping in mind all the things I have learnt reviewing for the CQ, uses that as a central premise. Not to advertise it too much (I like to think I can be affor ded a small degree of self promotion), I have tried to stick to the things I hav e found which I like in AARs, while trying to eliminate those that bug me. Though AARs have a narrow scope, they are constrained by the game after all, the y do allow for some great stories. It is those writers which manage to give us a n AAR, that would be thrilling just on it's own, with an enthralling story, inte resting characters and a unique style, that keep me coming back and reading more . There are several promising new writers, as well as the old stalwarts, that ma ke me look forward to reading many more.

Introduction In this article I am going to talk about things I do to improve my AARs. It is n ot prescriptive, you can produce good work without doing all of the things I des cribe. Indeed my methods may not even suite your writing style. Nevertheless, I hope you will find some of these things helpful in your own work. Making Characters As I explained in a previous article, you will almost certainly need an interest ing cast of characters for a successful AAR. Since it is an AAR, these character s will have to have some connection with the game-play. The easiest thing is to use the Faction leader and Royal Family, but I like to utilise ancillaries and a gents as well in order to get different viewpoints of the action. I often make u p characters who are tied to particular armies, such as a master of horse, or ev en a unit commander. Episodes AARs are written in episodes, just like serials in magazines. Since episodes are going to be read individually with substantial gaps between them, it is importa nt that each one can stand alone. I believe that an episode should have a single main subject. There should be an introduction or setup, a main body and, most i mportantly, a conclusion of some kind. It is perfectly OK (and fun) to create cl iff-hanger endings, which leave the reader desperate to learn the conclusion, bu t even these must still function as a valid ending to the arc of the episode. Supporting Material An AAR can consist solely of the text of the story. Personally I am perfectly ha ppy with this, but the wider readership will be expecting battle pictures. I thi

nk that it is important for pictures to support the text. This requires the mean ing of the picture within the context of that story to be clear. I have seen a l ot of screen-shots in AARs where I just couldn't work out who was who or what pa rt of the story was being depicted. My own system is to write battle narratives from the pictures, so hopefully I will always get a good match-up. Another trick is to put captions on the pictures. I try to make my captions act as comments o n the action rather than just repeating the text. In this way they hopefully com plement the story as well as tying the picture to the appropriate event within i t. In exceptional cases I will even annotate a picture, writing commander's name s and showing lines of march. Personally I like to add non-battle pictures to help add flavour to the story. I n particular I have collected portraits to help bring my characters to life. I t hink that a portrait is a powerful factor in helping the reader identify with a character. If you can make them care about the character, then the events of the story will have a much greater impact. As an additional decoration, I put a quote at the start of each episode. I caref ully select my quotes to be relevant to the story - indeed, sometimes I actually have to alter an episode to better fit the quote! My purpose with quotes is to provide the ultimate summary. If you have already read an episode, then the quot e provides a cue to help you remember what it was about without having to read t he whole thing through again. The Art of Writing Prose Everyone has their own style, but there are still some important points which I think are applicable to everyone's writing. Firstly, if you write an AAR consist ing entirely of battle descriptions or campaign decisions, then readers are like ly to tire of it. You need to have changes of pace. The contrast between calm an d hectic passages enhances the special flavour of each. Secondly, think about te nses - yes I know it's boring, but random use of tenses will give the reader a v ague sense of dissatisfaction which may prompt them to abandon your AAR entirely , putting it down to poor writing. Thirdly, it is good to spice up your narrativ e with contrasting viewpoints (unless it is first-person of course). Rather than having everything fully described, it is nice to introduce a little ambiguity b y means of different characters having contrasting views of the action. Fourthly , it is difficult to tell a story entirely through dialogue without the reader g etting bored. Given my own level of skill, I use dialogue sparingly with exposit ion setting the context and much of the dialogue merely implied from the descrip tion. Quality Assurance After you have written your latest masterpiece of sparkling wit and gut-wrenchin g action, don't post it straight away. Leave it awhile and then come back later and read it through carefully. The first thing you should look for is spelling m istakes and missing words. Even with a spelling checker, you can still easily us e the wrong word (I constantly write Their instead of There and often forget to include connecting words between phrases). The second thing to look for is bad f low, something that sounded fine to the mind's ear while writing may turn out to be horribly awkward on second reading. Try reading the story out loud, flow pro blems should quickly become apparent, and they can usually be fixed quite easily with a bit of rearrangement and minor changes of wording. Afterword I am just an amateur writer, my tips and insights coming from experience, and a lot of reading. If you disagree with anything I've said, or think I've missed so mething important, then by all means please post your thoughts. I am always look ing for ways to improve my writing, and I think that talking about it is one of the best methods for finding both weaknesses and new ideas. Happy writing everyo ne!

It's so often overlooked, yet surely the most basic part of an AAR. It must also be the first thing the writer thinks about when they write an AAR - what's it g oing to be about? And it is crucially important, yet some people clearly don't g ive it much thought. Rome AARs The sub-title says it all really: Rome. The most commonly used topic for AARs on the RTW sub-forum is that of the Roman Empire itself. In a sense this is pretty likely - Rome is one of the few factions that features in every single mod (but not Vanilla ironically enough, if you know what I mean). But really it is mostl y lack of originality. I'd say almost half of RTW AARs are Rome based. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't limit the AAR - look at AustenBin's legendary Pontic Exp edition, an AAR like any other Rome based one - that is, in terms of plot base. However, it's easy to see why so many rubbish Rome AARs clog up the forum when y ou compare them to this particular example. They simply either show the expansio n of Rome as happened in history, the 2nd Punic war, or a particular campaign in some country. The last one often works well, as AustenBin showed, but of course , initial ideas aren't everything. But more on that later. Other popular choices of RTW AAR include Greek factions, including Macedonia and the Diadochi (Seleucids, Ptolemaics, etc.). These are slightly more varied, and it's easier to see the AARtist themselves coming through because of the more or iginal storyline base. But even though I seem to see a Mediterranean monopoly em erging, Carthage, Iberia, Lusotannan (depending on mod) rarely get a look in. An d when writers do stray north of the seas, more often than not the Getae/Dacians are the source of their creativity. Although that last topic has not been... wo rn out anywhere near as thoroughly as the southern choices. Barbarian AARs are q uite rare, the only one springing to mind being JerichoOnlyFan's. If new writers want ideas, then for this area I'd suggest: DON'T do Rome, or if you do, make it specific and provide some in-depth characters. Greek factions brink-of-defeat is not a bad idea here, as would an AAR that went north or west instead of staying and fighting other Greeks... maybe after killing them all ? Medieval AARs Now obviously I'm not going to go into quite so much depth here, as I am less kn owledgeable on the subject. But whilst I look around at the moment, I see that E astern Fever clearly reigns quite a bit here too, although the other main focus for AARs either seems to be Spain or factions from the British Isles, although V enice also seems to be popular (a bit). I think the British focus comes from the fact that in ancient times Britain was either similar to the rest of Northern E urope, or Roman. In MT2W / SS, not only are conflicts between the english and ot her parts of Britain 'available', but the idea of crusades, knights and a format that can relate much more closely to modern England than before. The Eastern faction's frequency surely stems from the fact that this is the era of knights in armour, crusades, and of course, the Muslim caliphates. In fact, i t seems to me to be a similar mind frame to the Diadochi wars almost, although t here is no concept there of two religions, two blocks of powers that are certain ly separate but united against the Christians/Muslims. To me, there is a lot mor e room here for creativity and inventive ideas for AAR factions to use - Portuga l and most Central European factions seem rarely used, and like the Getae in RTW

, the Italian principalities are commonly used and liked, but not yet exhausted and overused. Empire Total War Now I know even less about ETW, but that doesn't make me blind. Funnily enough, I am witnessing the opposite here, although it is to expected. As you saw going from RTW to M2TW, what factions people tend to choose often depends on historica lly, 'where the war was' - where the centre of the world was, economically and p olitically. As the balance shifts from Egypt/the Middle East to Western/Central Europe, so people choose different factions in ETW. There are a good deal of Prussian AARs, and many British too. Very few, as I sai d, are from the East, now poorer than the rest of Europe. Many focus on America and India, as would be expected with the new inflated map system of ETW. I am pl eased to see a great deal more of AARs which are breaking the mould - one about Malta here, one about Greece there (common in RTW, but SO different in the 17th century (it is 17th right?)). A Central Character? Of course, choosing an interesting faction to play as isn't everything. One of t he key things is characters. Some AARs pivot around a single person - some invol ve a few people central to the plot, a group, or, in a sense none - AARs where t he events of a campaign/faction are displayed but are no characters or events ar e dwelled upon before moving on to the next event. The other factor that has always been in people's minds is the status of their c haracter. Now as soon as anyone thinks characters, social status, AARs, many wil l shout 'SHARPE!' and leave immediately. Personally, I think of the Lausard seri es by Richard Howard (Read them! they are ten times better than rubbish old Shar pe), but the point is that many will turn into a God-Bless-America, Disney style he fights on in the face of adversity and wins morally despite everything... fe st. Many portray the fates of Kings, or rising princes... others choose to champion the ordinary man and watch him as he fights heroically without gaining notoriety . A frequent case, as with Sharpe is the peasant-becomes-the-leader-of-a-Legion idea - low man goes high. It can be a bit samey, but it can be done right, as th e great Saienga proved with his AAR The Balance of Vengeance and Honor. Something Different! My conclusion is this: to the AARtist looking for inspiration, be UNIQUE. Instea d of trawling the forums and looking for what IS there, look for what ISN'T ther e. Fixiwee did this, producing new ideas in the form of his AAR (the only AAR I can think of to try and represent the history of men over several mods, also int roducing the Multi-AAR concept), and now, after much hard work, he has reached t he top of the MAARC (we eagerly await the tie-breaker results!). Yes, browse and learn how to write well and to layout well, etc, but don't copy everyone else - you must retain your own style. That's how the great AARtists ha ve become great. As I thought through when I examined factions, look for what's missing. People will be attracted to it - it's new, it's different, it raises ey ebrows. When people see another RS Rome AAR, they often simply say 'Oh, not anot her one.' and forget about it altogether.

In my opinion an anniversary issue must hold something unique, something that do esn t return every month. Therefore I ve decided to make a list, since we all love l ists (the list of all the goodies of Dominion of the Sword, the list of improvem ents that hopefully the next sequel in the TW genre will possess) and this one c ontains tips and rules that should be considered by any AAR writer of this site who wants to improve his or her AAR. Hopefully you ll enjoy my little effort, I m su re I did when I thought about it. 1) One writes with the intention to entertain not to gain rep or any other form of reward. 2) The greatest story is written under the greatest stress, so if you are angry with your teacher or parents and you want to punch a hole in the wall, don t. Phys iological studies revealed that the creative centre of our brain has a peak when being in an intense emotional state, so if you want to grab the next MAARC priz e, you know what to do when you are feeling down or hurt again. 3) if you are uncertain about your writing skills go write in the TOTW first! Th ere you can sharpen your skills and learn techniques and tactics that will help you in your further career as a writer! 4) Don t copy the exact outline of someone else s story, always ask for permission i f you want to use something from another s story. 5) 7 Days a month you are competitors, those other three weeks you are silent wo rshippers of each other s work. If you are stuck on your story don t be to hesitant to ask someone s help, it s a recognition of his or her work and a way of socializin g. 6) When you are stuck on a certain point and you don t know what your main charact er should do next, you must leave your work! Go jogging or cycling or in the wor st case do homework, anything that makes you focus on something else then your u pdate. When you force yourself to write no good will come out of it. It ll never b e excellent only mediocre at best and that s not what you want (RULE ONE!!!!!!) 7) Time for a clich: always try to be original, the more original you are the mor e entertaining your story is and the more admiration and thereby rep will fill y our account. 8) When you receive criticism don t be to arrogant to point your mouse immediately to the report post button. Sometimes their opinions are supported by a lot of rea ders and then you must do something about it! 9) When you decide to make an AAR and want to give it a real authentic feel, mak e sure you learn a bit about the faction s history, learn some key military comman ds in the native language and learn some titles or offices. These small changes are the things that separate excellent AARs from mediocre or good AARs. The best way to learn about a nation is the thema devia in my opinion. Here you can find those patriotic national language only groups, who will be more then helpful to help you creating an AAR which makes their country shine like the brightest sta r. 10) A special tip for comedy AAR writers: make sure you aren t repetitive. Look we have heard those epic one liners from 300 far to many times now! Surprise us wi th something new, perhaps a quote from the latest C-show that your female relati ves are watching lately. And never be to shy to think of something funny yoursel

f! There are 6 billion people breathing just like you, there must be someone the re that also shares your sense of humor. 11) Don t make deadlines or if you have to don t throw them out in public. Chances a re that you don t make them and why should the reader pay attention to your goods when the delivery date is a lie. 12) Make sure your story has depth! When a story shows intriguing plots combined with all the shady figures that comes with it, I found that most readers don t ev en notice the grammar and spelling mistakes you as a non English make. 13) If you do want to make sure that your story has a minimum amount of faults t hen I suggest that you write in MS Word. Word has a grammer and vocab check that you can easily switch on and of. That way you ll slightly improve your English wh ich isn t only handy here at TWC but also in RL at school or in a later career. 14) Another clich: Make sure that the faction you plan to follow through your cam paign is one of your favourite factions. That way you won t lose interest and that will make the story also a lot prettier to read as a whole Fourteen rules and tips for you new AAR writers. Of course there are many more b ut I leave those open for you to fill in. If you can t make a good story whilst fo llowing these rules then or you didn t understood the meaning of these sentences o r you are not destined to achieve greatness via the path of the AAR world. I hop e you ve enjoyed reading these rules, some are old and common but I hope that othe rs are new but more importantly I hope you take your advantage from them.

Hey all! Ariovistus Maximus here wishing you a Happy Holidays! As you know, there is always a close tie between the AAR and the game we use as a platform. That s the whole point, right? Well, of course I agree, but I would su ggest to you that this relationship is often over-emphasized. In short, the game does not make the AAR, and I d like to explain that a little bit. All too often, writers suffer from tunnel vision. When you think of your AAR as a reflection of the game, it s easy to unconsciously turn your story into a simple reflection of the Total War game of your choice. Now, that s interesting if you h ave a REALLY good campaign going (the psychotic Timurid AARs come to mind), but I think we all know that the TW series has its limits. Thus, many AARs are limited because they do not go beyond the game. They simply write the game. And, to be honest, that doesn t make for particularly great storyt elling. If we just want the game, we can play it ourselves, right? But we don t re ad AARs for the game itself.

There are a few major elements to the AAR. The game is an important element, for sure. You probably enjoy reading historical fiction, but the AAR is special bec ause it gives you a taste of the game you enjoy so much. The other elements are common to any story: plot, characters, setting you know the drill. So the game is certainly a big part of the story, but there needs to be a balanc e. If you ignore the game entirely, you will lose an important element. Like I s aid, people enjoy the connection between your story and the game they like so we ll. However, if everything is a reference to the game, or a simple report on you r campaign progress, the AAR will lack depth; there won t be any story to keep peo ple coming back for more. There is a degree of excitement to a string of battle reports, but it gets old p retty fast. Truth be told, it s already been done quite a few times. See, a battle can be interesting, but without a story, it s just an isolated incident without a ny real significance. You need to give each battle and campaign a context and an underlying storyline. To illustrate my point, let s create a miniature little tale, starting with a camp aign from Medieval 2: Total War. The French fought the Spanish. Swish swish, clang clang. AAAIIIIEEEEEEE!!! Okay, that s a start. Why did the French fight the Spanish? One day, the Spanish invaded! Oh; so the erratic AI decided to bother you. Well, there s not much of a story to that. Let s see if we can t roleplay that a little bit. The Spanish were worried that I was getting too powerful, I guess. All right; now you have a motive. Let s embellish it a little, shall we? A jealous monarch sits upon the Spanish throne, his dreams of glory and empire fr ustrated at every turn. Disaster has befallen the Reconquiesta; hordes of Muslim fanatics pour across the Straits of Gibraltar. But now the King of Spain sets h is greedy eye upon the fertile plains of Southern France: a land unscathed by th e war that has plagued his people for decades. 'Perhaps that is the answer', he thinks. 'Perhaps ' Hmmmm starting to look like a story, isn t it? And that s just scratching the surface . The more you experiment and flex your creative muscles, the more your story-te lling skills will grow! Also, you may have noticed that the more effort you put into your story, the dee per it becomes. In the beginning, we were just talking about France. Now we real ize that we need to develop our secondary characters as well, and create a backg round for the events we portray. Before you know it, you ll dedicate chapters and chapters to expanding on the story you ve created. Your product will be a deep, sa tisfying narrative. It won t rely on the game to make sense, but the game will amp lify the plot you ve woven. They key lies in your focus. Does your AAR reflect the game, or does the game re flect your AAR? This is where planning comes in, and that s another article in itself. You see, if you plan out your story from the beginning, you can bend the game to your will, so to speak. Consider our example above. If you just write the story as you pla

y your AAR, you might roleplay, and you might be able to embellish the story, bu t the AI will still do strange, nonsensical things that interrupt the flow of yo ur story. However, if you plan your story out from the beginning, and have a direction in which you want it to flow, your narrative will be much more fluid, and won t be th rown off course by crazy AI plays. To expand on that concept, remember that your story is not tied to the game. If your campaign doesn t make for great storytelling, guess what? Nobody needs to kno w! It s your story, after all. You can very conveniently exclude any information y ou wish from your story; no one will be the wiser. I find that new writers often feel that they MUST report the game at all costs. I hope that now you can see that you don t need to be dictated by the game. You ca n take your story wherever you like. I have attempted here to come at the subjec t from multiple angles; I hope you find it helpful as you explore the wide, wond erful world of AARtistry. In conclusion, remember that the game should supplement the story, not control i t. Remember, this is your story; the possibilities are endless! Once you realize this, then the excitement really begins. Thanks for reading, and have a great Holiday season!

Hi there! Last issue, I gave some thoughts on how people tend to cling to games as they write AARs. This habit, which does take practice to overcome, really lim its your writing potential. But I won t rehash that here. Now that we ve talked abou t one of the more prevalent hang-ups in plot development, let s talk about somethi ng that will make your story better. Planning is an essential element of a good story, and one that is tied to your a bility to bend the game to your will, so to speak. If your story simply reflects the game, as discussed in the last issue, then your story will revolve around i n-game events. If that s the case, you certainly can t plan what you don t know. Why is planning important? Planning has a major effect upon the story s flow. I m su re every writer can remember a time when he had a BRILLIANT idea but it came too late to fit into the story. Usually, you can t just inject a major character or d evelopment into the story; an important development requires foreshadowing and b uild-up to make any sense. So suppose that you re writing a story about a medieval kingdom. For the last few chapters, you ve been developing a nobleman who is plotting to seize the throne. T

hen, one day, you have a magnificent idea! The King will die of a serious illnes s, leaving the crown within your character s grasp. You go to your computer and write it up. Bam! The King died of the plague! But since when was there a plague running through the land? And who knew the King had it? And why is that important again? It might have been a clever idea, but it came so suddenly that it merely interru pts your storyline. It would flow much better if you had planned it from the beg inning, or at least looked a few chapters ahead. And that s a pretty simplistic example, but you get the idea. It s happened to me ma ny times, that I wanted to add a neat piece of information, but I couldn t because it would be too abrupt to make any sense. There is one other issue that arises from lack of planning. If you are writing a n AAR involving your game campaign, you have to be prepared for the AI. They do some pretty bizarre things, but if you have your story planned out, you can avoi d those problems. Otherwise, the AI will mess up your plotline, you ll have to rus h to fit their move into the story, and it will all come across as a game play-b y-play, which isn t especially interesting. That s why it s important to reflect on your story idea before you actually begin. W hat is your story s focal point? From what point of view will you write? Where and when will the story take place? What is the theme of your story? For each person, the answers to those questions will be different. But planning your story will enhance each of them. There are a few ways to plan your story. Before you begin, you should know more than the faction, perspective, and settin g of your story. You should have at least an outline of how you want the story t o proceed. This will vastly improve your story s flow. For myself, I found that le tting my ideas sit in the back of my mind for a few days was quite helpful. I d to ss around different ideas from time to time, until my AAR gradually came togethe r. Another method is to write a few chapters ahead. That is, ers before you begin to post them online, and try to keep r train of thought as you write a story will give you all are writing ahead, you will still have time to implement chapters, and the story will flow perfectly. write up several chapt a few ahead. Often you kinds of ideas. If you your ideas in previous

A third thing that can be of great help is to read other people s work. Certainly you don t want to copy anything, but I ve found that reading other AAR s has helped me understand the nuts and bolts of AARtistry. Other AARs can teach you a lot abou t plot and character development, style, and form. Now, I know it can be tough to keep up on these things; especially writing a few chapters ahead. I wouldn t think of it as a strict regimen to which you MUST adhe re; it s just a few points that can help you, especially as you start out. If you keep in mind the importance of planning and act accordingly, you will be rewarded with a seamless product. And it just gets better; that s what makes writi ng fun!

1. Be passionate about what you write. You have to really want to write about th e subject. If you don't feel passion for your character/faction/story, you will procrastinate doing updates and soon enough, you will have lost the bubble and b e so far behind that you just don't want to start again. Also, know up front tha t this endeavour is going to take a lot of time. Take your worst estimate and th en triple it and you will probably be getting close. For myself, I easily spend three hours writing and editing for every hour of actual playing. If you don't r eally want to write the story for its own sake, you won't. 2. Define the scope. You can define it by the conquest of a certain number of pr ovinces, the destruction of an opposing faction, the capture of a specific city, or whatever. If you decide to change your mind later on, no worries. For my own AAR, I have limited it to the life of one character. Whereas this has made the scope larger and longer than I had originally thought, it does give a definite e nd time to the AAR. Just having a defined end to the work is liberating in and o f itself. 3. Be realistic about what you can do. If you aren't going to have the time to p ost in the next week, just accept that and make an appointment to get back to it when you can. It also helps your readers to not get antsy waiting for you to up date. If you do have a long break, make sure you commit to doing it at a defined point in the future or you will find it very hard to start again. 4. Try to define a format early for how you want to present your information. Ho w will you present the battles? What information will you include? Will you post maps every time? Are you going to have dialog? If so, when will you include it. Do a test post where you present a single chapter/turn/campaign and then go bac k and edit it again and again until you are satisfied with the presentation. Tha t way, you can use it for every future post and know the areas that you need to address for every post to follow. The format is not a rule but will be a helpful guideline. It will probably evolve as you go along but it helps to have somethi ng done up front to serve as your guide. 5. Take notes. I keep a separate document where I make short notes about what ha ppened each turn. That way, when my game play gets ahead of the story, I can go back and know how the exact sequence of things happened. It helps with the flow of the story and to keep you on track. Also, if you happen to have a great idea that goes along with something that just happened, write it down before you forg et about it; because you probably will. 6. Back up your files! Make a save for every turn or every 2-3 turns. When you g et to a certain point (every ten turns or so), make a separate backup folder of your saves in another location (or better yet, another drive) so that if the fil e gets corrupted, you can reload. I have seen a lot of AARs die an untimely deat h because someone lost the save game file and can't recreate it (at least that w as their story). The whole process takes about five minutes and can save you unt old hours (or the whole AAR) trying to get back to where you left off. 7. Review and spell check. Having simple errors in the wording or sequence can r eally take away from the "punch" of the update. Make yourself re-read the entire post before submitting; that is what the "Preview Post" is all about. Better ye t, copy the whole thing into a Word document and then let the automatic spell ch

eck catch your errors. It is another simple thing that can save a lot of "edit p ost"-ing later on. 8. Save your post to a Word document before you submit. Often times, it can take so long to get a post together that when you hit "Submit" you have timed out of the login and the forum rejects the post. Hit the "Back" button and you will fi nd that you have lost the entire thing. Again, this is a simple process that can save you hours and hours of recreating your work. For myself, I have gone one s tep further and just before I hit submit, I will "select all" and then "copy" th e update into a separate post (but not submit it) just in case this happens - be cause it will; and you will hate it. 9. If you can't finish it, be honest. If for some reason you have decided to end the AAR, just say so. It happens; people will understand. I have seen a lot of lame excuses about losing files or hardware glitches when people begin to compla in about no updates. Just let people know the AAR is over and be done with it. D on't drag it out if you really have no intention of keeping going. 10. Don't get discouraged. You are going to have problems and setbacks - accept that. You won't get a lot of replies at first - don't worry about it. Write the AAR for yourself and don't worry about who has or hasn't written you back. The A ARs that are well done can take weeks or even months to catch on. Just know that going in and keep going. As I said in my first rule, you have to be passionate about what you are writing for its own sake - not for the comments or rep you ge t.

Any avid reader of AARs here at TWC has long ago noticed the increasing populari ty of using still pictures and other media to augment their AARs. Purists may sh udder at the notion of non-written input being used extensively, seeing (perhaps in cases justifiably) these techniques as a crutch to compensate for a lack of literary abilities. If one looks carefully, however, one may find that in these pictures are used st rategically, thoughtfully, and with different purposes in mind. And contrary to being used as a crutch, in the right hands, they draw further attention to the w ritten elements. "I constantly look back at the pictures from the battle stored on my computer in order to get that much needed inspiration about what exactly to write," states LuckyLewis, the author of the epic Liberation. He freely admits that writing is not his primary forte, but that the writing experience of Liberation has improve d his skill. Quote: "During battles, I find that a good photo can really help show what the effe cts of a 'devastating charge' were"

Many authors agree that the pictures are not really used to progress the story a s much as to help readers visualize key aspects of the AAR's battle sequence. "D uring battles, I find that a good photo can really help show what the effects of a 'devastating charge' were", states Skantarios of I am Skantarios! Rebirth of the Eastern Empire fame. Dignan, author of A Cold Defeat, further explains his r ationale: "I go through the replay again and try to capture screen-shots that ar e artistic, captivating and 'active'". These sentiments are echoed by Fixiwee, a uthor of History of Men. These pictures are used not solely for the reader's benefit, but also for the au thor's. Skantarios explains that the pictures assist him greatly in the writing process: "I will write the battle using the pictures to prompt me on how the seq uence of the battle progressed and make for an accurate retelling,". PICTURE SELECTION AND PRESENTATION When deciding which pictures to use, and how to present them, nearly as much tim e and thought is spent as on writing the AAR itself. Every detail is considered, even the season in which the battle is being fought. "I probably prefer battles taking place in August and the warmer southern European climates," states Lucky Lewis, "I love taking pictures in autumn as the battlefields aren t completely cov ered by snow yet...you still regularly get that essence of dark and disturbing p arts of war,". While conceding that most AAR writers prefer autumn and summer pictures, Dignan points out that the benefits of winter shots are sometimes overlooked. "Actually , I think the winter colors combined with some of the uniform mods look good". I n A Cold Defeat, "the sun was low in the sky with overcast conditions which soft ened the normally harsh looking winter maps,". Spoiler Alert, click show to read: There is a common consensus that picture cropping, and editing out the HUDs and UI is a basic must, explains Fixiwee. Quote: "I (added effects) at the beginning, but I thought that it looked cheesy...n early all pictures are unedited." From there, however, personal styles and preferences take over. Picture size and dimensions vary. Skantarios is very conscious of pictures that are too large, a nd threaten to distract the reader from the story. LuckyLewis applies extensive use of panoramic shots, although he admits that it started accidentally during t he cropping process. Now, however, the continuation of that format is deliberate . "I wanted to put emphasis on the action within the battle....If I uploaded the pictures as they were from the game, I think they would bore people quickly,". These pictures, added in sequence, give the reader the impression of a moving fi lm of glimpses into the battle. Spoiler Alert, click show to read: Panoramic shots, such as this one from Liberation, give an old-time, epic movie feel. There is no standard approach to the application of effects on pictures in AARs. Fixiwee reflects that "I (added effects) at the beginning, but I thought that i t looked cheesy...nearly all pictures are unedited." Dignan believes in a temper ed approach to effects: "Sometimes I apply a simple color correction filter to g ive colors a more washed out look but usually my pictures are straight out of th e game, unaltered". Skantarios admits that his limited application of effects is due "more to my lack of knowledge on how to do this effectively as well as the

greater time commitment required to do so...If I had more time and skill, I woul d definitely do more to make the pictures better". FUTURE DIRECTIONS Many AAR authors shared their thoughts on how they may use pictures in the futur e. LuckyLewis sees his style of pictures as a key to keeping his AARs unique, bu t admits that in future, "If anything, I d probably take fewer and concentrate mor e on the writing...I don't want my AAR to become dependent on pictures to say th e least...less is more,". Skantarios explains that his AAR was a great learning experience, and that his u se of pictures in future would reflect those lessons learned. "I might also try to add in some other historical art shots that aren t part of the game and bring i n some graphic detail from outside to make the story better. The game gives you a lot of material to work with but there are still some elements that could be m ade better to show some of the items not covered in the battle.". He goes on to state "I have at times overused the pictures...I would make a more judicious use of them rather than throwing in all the 'good' ones and going from there...Also , I would probably incorporate more map screens to show the progress of the camp aigns and to show the mid- and long-term objectives...I have done this to a cert ain extent but not as much as I would have wanted to.". For Dignan, his thoughts of future direction when using pictures take a very cre ative turn. "I actually toyed with the idea of doing an AAR using exclusively sc reen-shots, something in-between a motion picture and a text AAR...imagine a Pow erPoint presentation with pictures that flip about every three seconds with fade s, wipes and slow zooms...almost like a History Channel documentary with still p hotos". An interesting idea indeed. -----links: LuckyLewis' Liberation Skantarios' I am Skantarios! Rebirth of the Eastern Empire Dignan's A Cold Defeat, Fixiwee's History of Men

It is almost as if people are born with a set level of creativity, with some dro wning under the influence of as many ideas as there are birds in the sky while o thers struggle but can never quite rely on the fickle muses to do their bidding. They can hide it too, and some are just better at expressing it. Different writ ing styles aren t the only way writers differ - their attitude to writing is impor tant as well. We all know that starting a story is always the hardest part, but too many peopl e are being put off writing of any sort, no matter how talented they may be, for whatever reason. There have been several articles in the CQ to encourage wouldbe writers, but I have another idea for those still to timid to reach for the pr overbial quill and parchment, la Harry Potter. Join a Creative Writing group! Oh my god, lock him up! you shout. If I'm too embarrassed to have a go at home, th en how s sitting around with a group of random people going to help my anxiety?! W ell, the most obvious solution to any self-consciousness has already been posed by Juvenal and the CQ writers: through TWC is an excellent way to go. You get (m ostly ) intelligent critiques, sub-forums which let s you be sure only people who are going to want to read your sort of story will do so, and the anonymity of si tting at your computer and being completely removed from any overdone banter suc h as you might receive in school. But actually, clubbing together in a group wit h other writers can be another great way to get scribbling, especially in anothe r light. After warming up on TWC, critiquing many AARs and writing Caelus Morsus Luminius , I joined a writer s group at my new 6th form school about a month ago. First of al l, like most things, it was good for getting me out of my little niche in writin g historical fiction, and focus more on overall skills. But after the first two slightly uneasy session, even for one as reserved as myself, it became much more relaxed, not the Alcoholics Anonymous style meeting I had dreaded. It s also grea t for picking up nifty little tricks and tips other writers around you use, and exposes you to a lot more ways to write. It helps to focus creative ideas as well: every time I ve been, I ve listened to a s ong (often from Rattle & Hum/Achtung Baby/Joshua Tree, massive U2 fan!) and it c licked an idea in my head, so I wrote a piece for next week inspired by that. Al so, these groups are much more practical in the long term (not just because all the good looking girls in my year go ) but because they often have a view to pub lishing publicly. In my case, a new teacher at my school who attends an adult ve rsion of such a group (but is the only un-published one..) which has produced writ ers whose works have sold very respectably. Although Lulu.com, the free online p ublisher is a great way to publish, as with Sword of Neamha (direct from TWC!) and Saienga s The Balance of Vengeance and Honour , these groups can often be at least a s productive, if not more so than this independent method: more people to tell y ou what you re doing wrong at each stage of the process. So if you re looking to emerge from your shell and take up the writer s mantle, then as well as TWC writing forums and Lulu, creative writing groups are an excellen t way to go. As long as you aren t immature about it, you can mix it with the best of them relatively regardless of age, gender, race, general differences, etc., and you d be amazed how many of the more bluff, outwardly uncaring individuals aro und you are more interested in writing their own stories. I certainly was.

By dezikeizer Most people probably know me for my helping with spelling and grammar errors, bu t in the time I ve done that I ve also read plenty of AARs. Along the way I ve noticed something of a trend. Some people seem to prefer to go the honorable and just route with characters in their AARs in Rome Total War and Medieval 2. In fact, at times it leaves me fee ling that too many AARs are disneyesque, with the side of good always winning in the end. History was different, and many times ruthlessness and distasteful act ions were necessary to succeed. For example, a supposedly honorable ruler, Phili p Augustus of France after returning to France attacked the lands of Richard the Lionhearted while Richard was still off on crusade. Now, I m not saying that there wasn t considerable honor and justice during these pe riods, but the truth was probably much closer to somewhere in-between this and t he opposite end of the spectrum. As such, incorporating this into AARs can add c onsiderable authenticity, making it seem more like the time period the story tak es place in. In ancient and medieval times life was often brutish, nasty, and sh ort, with life expectancy around 30-35. People died often quite young, and many times of diseases easily treatable today. Furthermore, it was customary even in ancient Greek and Roman armies that if a c ity resisted siege it would be sacked or worse exterminated. Carthage in 146 BC is only the most famous example, but there are plenty of others, such as that of Jerusalem in AD 70, or Corinth in 146 BC. Among barbarians and nomads it was ev en more common. Medieval armies were never particularly well trained and there a re plenty of sackings and massacres of cities there too. So again, doing so in y our AARs adds authenticity for those time periods. This grittiness and nature of life for people during ancient and medieval times certainly shaped the people of the time period, and not necessarily for the bett er. In a harsh world, men often had to be ruthless to survive and less than savo ury characters did quite well. It would only be fitting then, to sometimes have less than savory characters conquer empires, and succeed. It only adds to the fl avor of the story and the time period, where truly ruthless men like Genghis Kha n conquered empires. That is part of why I liked I Am Skantarios so much, that what war can do to a p erson is shown, and that one doesn t have to necessary be the most moral ruler to succeed. Now you may be thinking that I m saying that it s acceptable for rulers to act like that. I m not approving of the actions they took from a moral standpoint, merely a practical standpoint. I wouldn t do such thing if I were in their positi on, but that s often how things were done back then. However, writers often write about good characters, perhaps out of the influence of today s standards and norms , and or that they identify with honorable actions. These can make it hard to id entify and connect with the way things were during those time periods, but in my opinion, one should still do their utmost to connect even with these elements. Doing so adds in your AAR adds a certain flavor and uniqueness to the story, as it goes against the grain, and shows the realities of war, of leading a nation, and again of the time period. You may be wondering, then, about how to use darker characters in AARs besides a s the antagonist, but instead as the protagonist or supporters of the protagonis t. Well one thing to note is that they don t have to be out to conquer the world,

instead they can be reacting to threats to their power or even their life. In th is case, they may merely be accumulating power to make sure that they are safe f rom being killed or losing their position. One way to get in that mindset is to think of how someone who is very suspicious of others. There is also the possibi lity that they after sufficient hardship and warfare became dark, ruthless, and perhaps even cruel. This would be similar to Emperor Skantarios in I Am Skantari os. There are plenty more possibilities to types of darker characters that can be us ed, and which type they are definitely has an effect on how a writer would use t hem in a story. After all, if you re going to roleplay as you play the game that goes with the aar , then the nature of the main character affects what you do. In case of darker c haracters this can determine things like how aggressive they are in pursuit of p ower, and in starting wars. Using and understanding their mindset, even if it s ve ry different from your own, dramatically effects what you do in your AAR. I hope this has been helpful and provided food for thought for immersion in the time period and using darker characters in AARs. Perhaps more such characters wi ll be present in AARs soon.

1. General outline In this article for the Critic s Quill I will try and offer some advice to fellow AAR writers as well as discuss some of the ups and downs I ve experienced and the tricks and traps I ve encountered while writing my very own first attempt to an AA R. This is by no means a manual to writing an AAR nor does it attempt to be one rather it is a personal journey I wish to share with you. Who might be interested in this article? Aspiring writers who are thinking of writing an AAR but are somewhat intimidated by the process of writing, and uploading pictures etc. might take courage at my bad and good experiences and those too shy to publish their work might be tempt ed to post it on the boards now. Experienced writers on the other hand might rec ognize some of the issues I raise and are invited to post their own thoughts on my experiences and opinions. 2. Technical aspect I would first like to talk about the technical side of writing an AAR. This aspe ct should never be underestimated as it is rather important to the process of wr iting chapters and sharing your story with the community at TWC.[/FONT] While it may seem like a simple enough task of writing a story, several technica l hiccups might stand in the way of your next update.

Pictures: Although there are quite a few AARs consisting almost entirely out of text, most writers utilize pictures to enhance their storytelling. When I started my AAR I used photobucket to upload my pictures and although it is a reliable website I found that it would sometimes cut my pictures down in size. I only noticed this when they were already uploaded in the chapter and so my pictures in the story w ere stretched or incomplete. I m sure other aspiring AARtists with a widescreen mo nitor have experienced the same thing in the beginning. The advice I got was to upload them to imageshack which is an equally reliable website and keeps your pi ctures in the original size. It s not that easy to find the right picture size for your story so trial-and-error will have to guide your way here. Text: When I commence writing on a new chapter I first write the entire text in a word processor (MS Word, Open Office ) with remarks outside of the storyline concernin g the adding of pictures, specific fonts or a special lay-out. I have gathered t he pictures I want to use in a single map, easy to locate and upload them to the image hosting website. For example: Spoiler Alert, click show to read: The battle for Gaul was hardly over but the enemy were on the run and we had ach ieved victory... (bold italic Arial Narrow, size 16) [s poiler] insert picture of battle result [ /s poiler] -leave 5 lines space openThe advantage of my approach is that you are safe against power fluctuations whi ch tend to happen a lot in certain countries, safe against internet troubles whe n uploading it to TWC (disconnection, software malfunctioning, ) and you already h ave an idea of how your text will look like. This approach might take up more ti me than directly uploading it to your thread but you don't want to lose hours of work because of a technical glitch. This way you have a safety net. Post-posting: I've found a new friend in the edit button. He allows you to correct your gramma r mistakes and typos (for the writers who don't have English as a first language ), he allows you to update a post with new information for readers and so much m ore. Use it wisely and you will organize your AAR so much better. 3. Feedback Like every other artist an AARtist appreciates feedback, even bad feedback as lo ng as it's constructive criticism. He thrives on feedback and the readers' input . In my opinion experienced writers have usually found a way to keep themselves mo tivated and do not rely as much on feedback as the aspiring writers do to keep t hem interested in the story. They have also often found a certain rhythm in upda ting their story (e.g. one chapter/week). The aspiring writer wants to know what the reader likes and doesn't like, what he thinks of the characters, if the lay -out appeals to the public or not... We want to know what the readers think, but how to get people to leave their feedback? Here are some ways that I found will get your AAR noticed and inspire people to leave their comments.

Quid pro quo, my friends! Want writers and readers to visit your AAR and lea ve a comment? Why would they do that when they don't know you? Look up the major contributions on TWC (AARs or picture contests or any other type of content) an d comment on them. Always be friendly and encourage your fellow forum members in their own projects. Provide a link to your own AAR and there will always be som e who visit and comment. It's a beautiful synergy and you may meet interesting p eople. Enter your work in a competition or at least visit the entries here. Not onl y does it encourage competitiveness among the writers, it also forces them to st ep up their game and improve on their skills. You will also be confronted with o ther writing styles and other stories, which might in turn enrich your own narra tion. Visit the mod forum if you are using a mod and participate in the discussion s going on there. Chances are higher you will find people who will be interested in your writing. A player of Europa Barbarorum is more likely to read a story w ith EB in it than read a story about Napoleon and his grand arme in Russia. As a new writer you also have to keep in mind that there are many people viewing the forums as visitors. This means they are not a member and so cannot post the ir comments or leave rep/feedback. I'm afraid we writers will never know what th ey think since TWC does not allow visitors to post a message. Many views does no t mean many members have read your story but did not leave a comment. I found th is frustrating in the beginning as I had 1000 views but only 25 or so comments u ntil I found out that TWC garners much attention from non-members. Don't let thi s demotivate you! On a final note there is a special type reader who will follow your AAR avidly b ut not leave any comments. I received quite some rep from this kind of reader an d I'm sure I'm not the only writer who experienced this. A last suggestion I have for the aspiring writers is to interact with your reade rs. Involve them in the story, answer their questions and make them feel like a part of the future of the AAR. Without your readers the story is just text on a screen so appreciate them like I do. 4. Storyline Stories need to grow just like trees. They need a root (setting stage of your AA R), they need water and sunlight (new chapters) and they eventually die (conclus ion of a story). Think of your characters as people and the story will easily co me to you. A prince whose father died might be in need of a father figure? An he ir who was disinherited might feel resentment towards the leader (good for a bac kground story)? Your empire could become corrupt when your treasury is over a mi llion. Incorporate these details from your campaign into your story and you can invent the rest from then on...the sky is the limit! 5. Originality You only stand out in a crowd if you're different. The same can be said of writi ng AARs and I've found some ways to obtain a kind of originality which my reader s seemed to appreciate. I made some custom ancillaries to better represent the s pecific roles the characters have. You don't have to look back to read what this general was doing again because you can just look at his ancillary and you see "ah this man is the commander of Judaeans". It was quite the trial-and-error bef ore I got them up and running but I feel they add a unique feel to the AAR, some thing which I suspect will garner you much praise and attention from your reader s. Always strive to try something different from the mainstream writing. 6. Maintaining interest How to keep the literary flame burning? How to keep going with your AAR and mayb e finish it one day? Many AARs have been started but they often don't get furthe

r than four-five updates. The writers usually lose interest in the story or the mod/game they are playing. I'm no different and have thought a few times about abandoning my AAR altogether . How to avoid losing interest? - I never write a new chapter when I don't want to. You can't write a good chapt er if you'd rather be doing something else. - I write down good ideas I get during the day (when away from computer) and dev elop them later. - I look up some history on my mod/time period to keep the interest alive. I hav e been playing as the Ptolemaic kingdom and I found that many civil wars were fo ught between family members and even siblings. I included a little conflict in m y AAR, which one reader found entertaining as it was historically justified. - I engage in other areas than writing. When taking the pictures for your AAR, e dit them a bit and upload them in a "Post your picture"-thread. See if people li ke it and if they offer advise on how to improve them. This kind of feedback wil l inspire you to carry on with the AAR. 7. Conclusion I hope this little article of mine has inspired people a bit. I wrote mainly fro m a personal experience and I wanted to portray the difficulties and joys of wri ting an AAR for the first time. More experienced writers are invited to comment on it or even refute everything I've said I hope you found this an interesting r ead and with that I conclude my humble contribution to the Critic's Quill.

Before I begin, I d like to introduce you to a certain scene in Black Hawk Down. A battalion of Army Rangers were sent on a mission to extract a group of importan t Somali officials deep within a hostile district in the capital city of Mogadis hu. The Rangers used surprise and speed to their advantage, catching the Somali militias off guard and using the momentum of their attack to make a quick extrac tion. Then, just as the mission starts coming to a close, a Black Hawk helicopte r is shot down, and the Rangers are now tasked with a rescue mission to save tho se aboard the fallen helicopter. By this point, the militias are aware of the at tack, and are ready to provide heavy resistance. General Garrison, the commander in charge of the mission grimaces. He sighs in resignation and makes a clear st atement.

We ve lost the initiative. Initiative is what drives AARtists to start writing in the first place. It s what motivates and drives them to provide a solid start to what they hope is going to be a great story. But what happens when that initiative is lost and you find yo urself bogged down by a lack of will and time? Like a train derailed, it falls t o you to find out how to get back on the tracks. Losing the initiative happens to the best of us. Whether it s writer s block or just a stressful workload that keeps you busy for a few weeks, it is inevitable that your AAR will hit some sort of speed bump along the way that halts its progress . Losing the initiative can lead to a lack of motivation to continue the AAR, an d this is how many stories meet their untimely end. So then, how can you will yo urself to continue on with this AAR you were once really pumped up about? How do you regain the motivation you once had to write? How do you get back on the tra cks? Below are a few tips that you may find useful in keeping your AARs alive. 1. Re-read your AAR: Sometimes it is easy for us to lose track of what we origin ally set out to do by writing our AARs. In such times, re-reading your AAR has m any benefits to helping you get back on track. Reading through your own work hel ps jog your memory of what you ve written so far, and provides you with an urge to finish or continue what you started with. Re-reading is also helpful in that it provides you another opportunity to look over any spelling or grammar mistakes you may have made the first time around, in essence giving your AAR an extra coa t of polish and shine. 2. Think of your Readers: Every established AAR has some sort of following, no m atter how big or small. Readers are very important in that they provide you with the support and feedback that AARtists use to continuously use to improve upon their own work. If you have many readers, keep them in mind. In the end, it s your AAR and only you can motivate yourself to write but knowing that you have a goo d following of readers who enjoy your work really helps you to get that motivati on going. 3. Change the Pace: Sometimes a change of pace is the best thing you can do to r einvigorate your will to write. If you have writer s block, try working on a diffe rent side story as a way to get you back in the mood to write again. Beer Money did just that not too long ago when he wrote A Man Possessed: A Fallout AAR. He himself admitted how that story helped him get back on track in writing his Hung ary AAR, which he s been working on for well over a year now. Sometimes a change o f pace in updates is all that s needed. Perhaps you re no longer able to update bi-w eekly as you used to do so before. That s ok, your readers will understand if real -life obligations keep you from updating so often. AARs are meant to be flexible , so there tends to be no problem if bi-weekly updates turn into weekly or month ly updates. 4. Take a Break: Again, life has a way of burning even the best of us out. That s perfectly fine. Sometimes, the best course of action is to simply take a break f rom writing altogether and focus on other pursuits. You may find that by doing s o, you start regaining the urge to write you once had. Breaks, just like changes of pace, are normal within an AAR and do not necessarily spell death for your A AR. 5. Self-Motivation: So what do you do if you don t have many followers, or you jus t can t seem to get back into your story, even after having re-read it? What if ch anging the pace or taking a break just doesn t seem to work? At that point, you ha ve to consider just how much you want to continue your AAR or not. This is where your own self motivation comes into play. After all, it is YOUR story it is up to you to determine whether a story is worth finishing or not. I myself had that issue early in my writing career with my second AAR, Heaven s Descent. I was ulti

mately unable to continue with the story due to having lost the game files, but I perpetually suffered from a lack of will throughout that story s short lifespan. There may be times where you feel that it s better to cut your losses and start a new. That too is alright. A story can t be forced out all the time, lest you want the quality to suffer. In the end, you are the author of your own story, and you are the one in charge of evaluating whether or not a story has both the promise and determination of its author needed to keep it going strong. The above were just a few tips commonly used to keep an AAR going strong, even w hen initiative, drive and motivation are at an all time low. They are by no mean s the only ones, but they are definitely some of the most commonly used methods, and are definitely worth keeping in mind. The great thing about these pointers is that they are all interrelated. Tip 4 has an effect on your readers, which in turn affects how you go about Tip 2. In essence, all these pointers are all par t of a greater state of mind that all writers go through when they think about h ow to go about continuing their story. Remember that in the end, it is ultimately you who determines the future of your story. As the author, you re the one who gets to decide whether or not continuing an AAR is worth it or even possible, given the circumstances you re put into. I h ope that by identifying these factors, this article can provide some sort of gui delines for AARtists who may have lost their way and are unsure of the fate of t heir story. Thank you for reading, and I wish all of you the best with your AARs ! By Thokran

1. General outline Last month I spoke of how I experienced the process of AAR writing as a first ti mer. I received a good deal of positive feedback and I wanted to write another a rticle for the Quill. This time I will discuss theme and motif in stories. I wil l define these concepts, offer tips on how to recognize them in a story and on h ow to implement some of your own in your story Fearing my technical explanation will not be clear, I will use many quotes and specific examples to ensure that y ou have an idea of what I am talking about. Who might be interested in this article? Anybody interested in the inner workings of stories and these particular technic

al aspects of writing. Themes and motifs offer a very real literary value to you r writing as well as an element of recognition if it is done correctly and it wi ll enrich your story without much effort. What sources will I use? Mainly my university textbook English Literature I (Prose) by prof. Kate McDonal d, my own notes from literature classes, several websites, wikipedia, a dictiona ry and as a specific illustration I will use the short story Cathedral by Raymon d Carver because it is a textbook example of theme and motif. 2. What is a motif? According to the Oxford Dictionary: "a dominant or recurring idea in an artistic work" According to the Free Dictionary: "a distinctive idea, esp a theme elaborated on in a piece of music, literature, etc." According to Merrian-Webster Dictionary: "a usually recurring salient thematic e lement (as in the arts); especially : a dominant idea or central theme" According to my textbook: "a meaningful element which is repeated in the narrati ve" In short a motif can be anything ranging from fruit and machine-guns to a beard and diapers. There is no limit on what can be used as a motif in a story as long as the element is repeated frequently and I use the vague term "frequently" on purpose. There is no real limit on how many times you can have a motif pop up in a text but since it has to be a repetition the writer must use it at least twic e. If you want your motif to remain on the background use it no more than five t imes (arbitrary call but it is what I use) while using a motif more than ten tim es will make it easy to spot for the reader. So we now know what a motif is but let's focus a bit more on the different kinds of motif. Basically you have two groups: Static motifs: these will not change the story in any way, they are only mea nt as a nice addition. Some motifs are almost always static, e.g. a beard. The c hance of a beard interceding in the storyline is very low for obvious reasons. Dynamic motifs: these will change a story or have an impact on characters. Dynamic motifs can influence both the story and the characters (not the same thi ng!). For example in a story the motif "dead children" can cause a soldier in a war to break down because he sees dead children everywhere (and the reader reads /sees them as well). A character who suffers from a mental disorder can feel hau nted by a "grim reaper" phantom who follows him around. This may not affect the story in a direct way (depressive characters or something like that) but it can create a tension and in doing so it affects the story. When I have explained what a theme is I will move on to specific examples of mot ifs and themes and whether they are static or dynamic. 3. What is a theme? According to Oxford Dictionary: "An idea that recurs in or pervades a work of ar t or literature" According to the free dictionary: "An implicit or recurrent idea" According to dictionary.reference.com: "A unifying or dominant idea" According to my textbook: "A central idea underlying the narrative" Clearly something different from a motif. Note the use of the word "idea" in the definitions! This is the main difference between a theme and a motif. You can u sually (but certainly not always!) physically grasp a motif (a beard, a child an d even the grim reaper could be grasped) whereas a theme is intended to be used

more philosophically and it is often easier to determine in a story. The theme(s) of a story form the very core or base of that story and everything is built on that core. A theme influences everything in a narrative from the set ting (e.g. spooky castles or immense grassy plains) to the characters (e.g. hero es, villains, princesses) and even the narrator (e.g. optimistic narrator in a f airytale or a pessimistic narrator in an apocalypse based story) Themes are more easily discernible than motifs in that is often apparent from th e genre what theme you are dealing with. Not many fairy tales have an apocalypti c setting, if you catch my drift. I hope you have an understanding of what a the me is, what a motif is and how both are related with each other as well as diffe rent from one another. 4. Raymond Carver and 'Cathedral' Biography of Raymond Carver Cathedral, the short story for a quick read to know what the story is about Carver wrote in a very minimalistic way, however I will not go into that here. J ust have a quick look HERE to know what it is. 5. Specific examples from Cathedral 5.1 Examples of themes in Cathedral: Communication is a major theme in this short story. It forms the foundation for the friendship between the protagonist's wife and the blind man but I will let t he examples speak for themselves: Quote: But she and the blind man had kept in touch. They made tapes and mailed them bac k and forth. Quote: She worked with this blind man all summer. She read stuff to him... Quote: The blind man made a tape. He sent her the tape. She made a tape. Quote: Was his wife a Negro? "Are you crazy?", my wife said. Quote: Then I asked if he wanted to smoke some dope with me. I said I'd just rolled a n umber. I hadn't, but I planned to do so in about two shakes. Quote: The blind man -why should he have a name?-... As you may be able to tell from these examples there are two parts of the commun ication theme. One of them is the obvious inability of the blind man to read or write and the other is the inability of the protagonist to communicate in a civi lized way. He often speaks very derogatory of his wife and he is very rude at ti mes towards his wife as well as towards his guest in the house, the blind man. The other major theme is blindness. We have the obviously literal and physical b lindness of the blind man in the story as well as the metaphorical blindness of the protagonist. Robert may be blind but he sees the world more clearly than the protagonist who has perfect sight. Only at the end of the story (sorry for the spoiler) does the protagonist realize that he was the blind one all along. Some examples: Quote: He let his fingers touch his suitcase...He was taking his bearings...

Quote: I remembered having read somewhere that the blind didn't smoke because, as specu lation had it, they couldn't see the smoke the exhaled. Quote: I watched with admiration as he used his knife and fork on the meat. Quote: I tried to explain to the blind man what was happening. Quote: She'd turned so that the robe had slipped away from her legs, exposing a juicy t high. I reached to draw her robe back over her, and it was then that I glanced a t the blind man. What the hell! I flipped the robe open again. Quote: It was like nothing else in my life up to now. These many examples (hardly all of the ones you are able to find in the story) s how that the theme is very much present in the short story and that it influence s the characters (protagonist does not like blind people) as well as events (the blind man cannot sea the juicy thigh so the husband doesn't care and opens the robe). 5.2 Examples of motifs in Cathedral: The beard of the blind man is motif that returns a lot. You have to focus when r eading the story and you will see that it is mentioned quite often even though t here is nothing special about the beard. Some examples: Quote: This blind man, feature this, he was wearing a full beard. A beard on a blind ma n! Too much, I say. Quote: ...I have winter in my beard now... Quote: He also had this full beard. Quote: He lifted his beard, sniffed it, and then let it fall. Quote: He lifted his beard and he let it fall. Quote: Now and then he put his fingers into his beard and tugged... Quote: As he listened to me, he was running his fingers through his beard. A whole lot of beard references from the start of the story right up to the end even though the beard plays no part whatsoever in the story. This is a textbook example of a motif. Alcohol, drugs and food are also a major motif in the short story and for obviou s reasons dynamic motifs because they change the way the characters behave. In my country we have a famous writer (Pieter Aspe) who writes detective novels and he uses massive amounts of references to local dishes and drinks. Although t

hey serve no actual purpose and he never uses them in the plot, they are used as motifs so that the reader has a feeling of recognition when reading the novel. Here are some examples of the motifs in Cathedral... Quote: Let me get you a drink...I'm a Scotch man myself. Quote: ...cube steak, scalloped potatoes, green beans. I buttered him up two slices of bread. Quote: ...he'd tear off a hunk of buttered bread and eat that. Quote: We finished everything, including half a strawberry pie. Quote: "There's more strawberry pie", I said. Quote: "You say when you want some strawberry pie", I said. The protagonist seems very keen to stuff that strawberry pie in his guest's mout h. Not really, it's just a motif. Repeating things is the oldest trick in the bo ok when it comes to storytelling. There are many more motifs and themes of course but I think that these will suff ice. I hope these examples have clarified things a little. 6. How to recognize them? Ask yourself these questions and they will help you recognize motifs and themes: Why does the author/character keep focusing on that object? How does this affect the character? How do the characters interact? I'm afraid that much of it is up to a natural feel for language. You can re-read a story many times before finally seeing a motif pop up. Bear in mind though th at motifs and themes are almost non-existent in technical books and manuals and the likes. 7. How to implement them? Choose whatever you want as a motif or theme and then think about how you can im plement it in your own writing. My advice to you is: "Keep it on the down low bu t still perform a great show!" You don't want your motifs to be too obvious, but on the other hand if you are so subtle that nobody even noticed your use of a m otif then you've wasted time and effort. You want the reader to think "Hey that' s strange...He's talking about the beard every time something important happens! " rather than "Again with the beard?" Although it can be very difficult to pull off a good motif, practice will allow you to enrich your stories in no time. 8. Conclusion I very much hope to have inspired you writers to try your hand at implementing a theme or motif in your own writings. It would be great if I have helped you in some way to recognize themes and motifs in the books you will read in the future . I hope you found this an interesting read and with that I conclude my second h

umble contribution to the Critic's Quill. THE END By Boustrophedon

What can I say about AARs in general? I guess I could start from the beginning a nd go from there. When I first got Medieval 2, I loved it. It truly showed the potential of a grea t game and every time I played, I always had a hard time to stop. But back then, I didn't know the magic that would unfold once I discovered TWC. I came to TWC to look for answers to some of my questions about the game. I disc overed TWC had a vast wealth of such information, the more I looked, the more I discovered, and by looking further, I finally discovered AARs. It was on the gen eral forum that someone suggested me to go here, I had this story I had went thr ough with my England campaign that I just had to write it. It was a very crude A AR compared to all the marvels that fell upon my eyes, and this was only in the Medieval 2 AAR's, there was a lot more out there as I discovered. I started reading posted AARs and discovered how entertaining they truly were, i t added something to an already great game, it added a purpose. This is where I began my first true AAR. L'Etat c'est moi, the Monarchy of France. At first, I d idn't think much of it, I told myself I would try and see how it went. I didn't expect to rival the masterpieces that were in place and I never intended to. I h ad an idea and a solid storyline, so I thought why not give it a try. To my surp rise, my AAR attracted some readers and some are still there from the beginning. So, why do I continue writing? First and foremost, for myself. I have given myse lf a goal and I want to see it through, though where this will goal lead me rema ins to be seen. So I love writing this story, I love the game I am writing about and I have a great imagination to add to it all. But is that all? Of course not . I also do it for my readers. As long as they enjoy my work, as long as they en joy reading it, then that is all that matters in the end. This story is not only

for myself, but for my readers as well, or there wouldn't be any reason to post AARs in the first place. I also support new AARtists to the best of my ability, as I was once encouraged myself. Fellow AARtists have helped me grow and become better, and it was my hop e to accomplish the same: to give good tips; to give constructive criticism; but over all to encourage AARtists to enhance our shared experience. Some Tips from Karnage: Well, I'll keep this short and sweet. First and foremost take a faction you will love, don't go for something you haven't seen posted yet, go with what you love , it will help you grow around your AAR and help you get involved a bit more. Keeping your promise to your readers is also important, they are waiting for you r AAR and want to know when to expect new updates. Keeping in touch with your readers is also important, if someone posts a comment , whether positive or negative, you really ought to reply, it shows that you do care about people posting and will get back to them. Support fellow AARtists. Now this is key to it all, especially when you get your self involved into writing AARs. A lot of AARtists wont show it, but creating an enjoyable AAR requires time and effort, to see new AARtists at work is great, b ut to give them your support only helps them more. Support them in their efforts to become even better. Lastly, and most importantly, enjoy yourself! An AAR shouldn't become a burden, if it ever does, then perhaps it is time to step back. AARs should be fun to do. Playing the game is never the issue, it is the writing and editing that can fee l like a burden. What I do, I put some music on and just go with the flow. I tak e my time and take breaks when needed. Make it as enjoyable as you can for yours elf and it will show in your writing. Remember, writing an AAR should never be about becoming the best, but just to en joy yourself. I want to also personally thank Radzeer to give me this opportunity, I believe i t is a great idea to express ourselves as AARtists in hope that future writers w ill be inspired and continue to give us exciting new stories. By Karnage

Finding recently that I had twice given http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/run es.html as a suggestion to AAR writers to use, I thought it might be worthwhile to provide a more comprehensive list of historical sources for general use by wr

iters of AARs and other historical fiction. I've added a brief note of explanati on to go with each source so you can decide whether it is likely to be suited to your purpose. I hope you enjoy the links. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=34861 This thread on TWC has links to various history websites that cover many periods of history, even ones not in the total war games. It may be long, but there's a lot of good information there. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/runes.html This site has information on the viking runes as well as other information about the vikings. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html This site has sections with primary sources from ancient, medieval, and modern h istory. I've used this in at least two of my history classes. http://www.thearma.org/ This site has information on arms during the medieval and renaissance periods. http://www.livius.org/ This site has many articles on ancient history, as well as links to other websit e covering more specific parts of ancient history. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=287029 This thread on TWC has links to various chinese classics, including literature, philosophical works, histories, etc. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=60251 This thread on TWC has links to books on history recommended by the history buff s in the vv. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=130947 This thread on TWC has links to documentaries and history related videos. http://www.flowofhistory.com/units This site has flow charts of history http://libro.uca.edu/title.htm This site has information on iberian history. By dezikeizer

1. Introduction In literature it would be hard to underestimate the importance of the narrator a

nd the effect it has on the narration. Every type of literature usually (but not always) has its own sort of narrator because of the nature of the narration. A diary will almost never be told from the viewpoint of an omniscient narrator but from the personal and limited viewpoint of the subject telling his/her story. A novel will often feature the omniscient narrator who is privy to the inner feel ings of all the characters without being part of the story. I will attempt to sh ed light on the different types of narrators in this article. I will use several sources here but most of it will be from my university courses. 2. What is a narrator? According to Wikipedia: A narrator is, within any story (literary work, movie, play, verbal account, etc.), the person who tells the story to the audience.[...] The narrator is one of three entities responsible for story-telling of any kind. The others are the author and the audience; the latter called the "reader" when referring specific ally to literature. According to The Free Dictionary: To tell (a story, for example) in speech or writing or by means of images. To give an account of (events, for example) According to Answers.com: A person who tells a story; in literature, the voice that an author takes on to tell a story. This voice can have a personality quite different from the aut hor's. 3. How to define a narrator in a specific story? A narrator has two different "levels" that define him. To find out what narrator you are dealing with, there are two questions you need to ask yourselves: Is the narrator also a character in the story he is telling? Is the narrator a character in a different story, told by a "higher" narrato r? - Is the narrator also a character in the story he is telling? Yes => the narrator is homodiegetic which means the narrator has at some poi nt participated in the story. This narrator usually uses first-person sentences. "Jill and the group were going to the river but I told them it was dangerous ." No => the narrator is heterodiegetic which means that he has never been pres ent or participated in the world of his narration. This narrator usually uses th ird-person sentences and will never use a first-person viewpoint since this woul d indicate that he was present at the events, thus making him homodiegetic. "They went to the old mill where the evidence of the murder was still visibl e. The older children weren't scared but the young ones were." - Is the narrator a character in a different story, told by a "higher" narrator? Yes => the narrator is intradiegetic which means that he is a character in a different story on a higher level which is told by a different narrator. No => the narrator is extradiegetic which means that he is not told by a dif

ferent narrator. In most cases this is how a story is built since two different narrators can be very confusing for the reader if it is not done well. Please note that it not possible to have a intradiegetic narrator without an ext radiegetic narrator. If there is a "lower" narrator present in then you obviousl y need the "higher" narrator as well. I know this may sound very technical and difficult so I made this little schemat ic representation. You need to combine one element from the left side with one e lement from the right side and you are free to combine however you like. I hope this clarifies things a little.

4. The four possibilities - homodiegetic and extradiegetic There is no other narrator and the narrator describes events he/she has expe rienced. For a specific example I refer you to the short story "Cathedral" by Ra ymond Carver which I mentioned here in the previous edition of the Quill. - homodiegetic and intradiegetic There is a "higher" narrator and he uses the "lower" narrator to tell a stor y which the lower narrator has participated in. A specific example of this narra tor is the Pardoner in the Pardoner's Tale of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey C haucer. - heterodiegetic and extradiegetic The classical narrator which is the most commonly used in literature. He loo ms over the story without participating in it but with knowledge of all the even ts, thoughts and inner feelings of characters. This is why he is called the "omn iscient narrator" even though it is not a literary term. This narrator knows how the story will end and usually employs the third-person narrative but it is pos sible that he sometimes speaks about himself in the first-person. A specific exa mple would be the narrator in Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. - heterodiegetic and intradiegetic There is a "higher" narrator and he uses the "lower" narrator to tell a stor y which the lower narrator has NOT participated in. This is a relatively rare fo rm of narrator and most common in a collection of short stories or moral tales. A specific example is Sheherazade in A Thousand and One Nights where she tells a thousand tales in which she never participates. The story of Sheherazade is in turn told by a "higher" narrator. 5. Difficulties The process of defining a narrator can be a nightmare in stories of great comple xity. However, the effort is certainly worth it because of the great importance of having a consistent narrator. In rare cases the same character can be two dif ferent forms of a narrator. An example: Quote: Yesterday I went to the park and I met a woman whom I told the story of Little R ed Riding Hood. I said: "Once upon a time..." The "I"-narrator who went to the park is extradiegetic and homodiegetic while th e "I"-narrator who tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood is intradiegetic be cause of the higher "I"-narrator who went to the park and heterodiegetic because

she never participated in the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. 6. The Athenian Murders Anybody interested should read The Athenian Murders by Jos Carlos Somoza because it is a masterpiece of narrators. I wish I had the time to expand on this specif ic example but I'm afraid you will have read the book yourselves. All of the narrators are featured in this novel and the extreme complexity of na rrators who overlap each other and sometimes even interfere with the story (one of the narrators kidnaps a lower level narrator!) is impressive. I really urge y ou to read this work of beauty if you want to see all the narrators in action an d you will appreciate how difficult it is to pull it off when you reach the fina l page. This book explained so much to me in regards to narrators and their truly limitl ess possibilities. I've read hundreds maybe thousands of books but this one stil l impresses me after nearly a decade since I first read it as a child. I guess S omoza should be paying me for this promotion tour I'm doing for him but I really advise you to read this if you want to see the different narrators come togethe r in one novel. 7. Conclusion Obviously narrators can be a pain to sort out but anybody interested in literatu re might find satisfaction now in recognizing different narrators when they are reading a story. I sincerely hope that I have taught you readers something about narrators and perhaps in the future your own writings will improve because of i t. On this note I end my third article for the Critic's Quill and next month's Q uill will feature another article on a technical aspect of literature though I h ave not yet decided its subject. THE END

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way, necessarily come s to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

Such a sentiment, attributed to one Niccol di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, epitomise s the guileful politic of this enigmatic and charismatic man. In a more contempo rary parlance the equivalent would be reminiscent of the anecdotal proclivity th at nice guys don t get very far. It could be said that the catalytic impetus that contributed to the ruthless inclination of Machiavelli was no doubt that of his imprisonment, torture and subsequent expulsion from Florentine politics by the M edici family. As Machiavelli alludes to himself, The more sand has escaped from t he hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. It is by such per sonal catharsis that many thus endured by those ruthless inclinations and guarde d themselves from further ignominy by striking before they were themselves stric ken. Some of the most captivating and provocative figures in history have been c ast as Machiavellian in their motives - political, religious or otherwise; namel y, Henry VIII, Charles V, Christina de Medici, Elizabeth I and even the likes of B enjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. At which point, dear reader, I shall indulge you in my motivation for writing su ch an article. Machiavellians make for truly great literary protagonists. The desire for an emotional investment in the literature that we read, or more s pecifically, the principal exponents of that literature, is a broadly encompassi ng expectation. We want to like the person we are reading about, or at the very least identify with them. In this regard, those characters of a Machiavellian di sposition are initially at least - rendered comparatively benign by their vulner able humanity. We can thus identify with characters that have faults, failings a nd deep rooted flaws. Wherein, lies the crux of a Machiavellian protagonist s grea test advantage; that is to say, their propensity to overcome. It is a benefit so few of us are afforded in truth, but that which so many of us would spoil for. As so many of us, myself included, turn our hands to increasingly character domi nated AAR s wherein the events inevitably act merely as a plot vehicle, greater at tention is being paid to the formation of those protagonists. After all, we are the ones who are going to spend the vast majority of our time with them we must find some concordance with them and, by virtue, so must our audience. The audience must identify with such characters by merit of their initial suscep tibility to the influence of others. A Machiavellian character must bear the sca rs of past mistakes, indignities and inadequacies. They are therefore rendered h uman, vulnerable and imperfect they are as are we. It is in this regard that the Machiavellian protagonist is presented with the occasion to overcome. The natur e of these past aberrations hence dictates the severity of future contrivances; by simpler terms, the more one has suffered, the greater the suffering can be de alt out. It is therefore expedient for an author wanting to craft a Machiavellia n advocate that they allow their creation to foremost suffer and survive by oner ous means, thus establishing the sympathy of a reader and allowing for further s cope in the impending rebellion against such exploitation. It is, in basic terms, why we are receptive to the anti-hero. If the guy has bee n pushed around enough, you don t blame him for snapping. But therein lies the most fulfilling element of a Machiavellian character; namel y, they don t snap at their prey they bewilder them, acclaim them, isolate them, f latter them, torment them and finally, but not always, crush them. Our moral com pass, and most certainly that of the protagonist, is rendered unnecessary, even deemed an inconvenience moral flexibility is far more desirable. Machiavellian characters are surrounded by intrigue, betrayal, passion, enduranc e, deceit and misdirection. Their stories are the sum of human emotions. The des ire to overwhelm, subdue and vanquish a foe is a base human emotion, but it is o

ne that is extremely powerful wholly untamed animal.

and if validated by past experiences, it becomes a

Creating a Machiavellian character in your AAR gives you immense scope. The past , present and future are inextricably interwoven by the machinations of the huma n psyche and, as such, we all want to indulge in a little of that from time to t ime. In this regard, such a protagonist can afford both writer and audience an audaci ous and dauntless vehicle through whom we express our own insecurities, hidden d esires and vengeful connivances, with one particular caveat vindication. As such we can use them to live out such darker moods with any seditious activity condo ned by the universally legitimate desire for personal retribution. Referring to the quote by which I began this article, Machiavelli was of the bel ief that if you weren t going to stand up for yourself, you should prepare to be s tood on. In defining this, Machiavelli demonstrates that we must be prepared for all eventualities and tend towards a pre-emptive, if not pre-meditated default disposition. By no means did the Florentine disapprove of virtue however, quite the contrary. He merely pointed out that you must be open to a many great tactic s in dealing with the appropriate people in the appropriate way. There will be t hose that respect virtue, those that respect fear, those that respect authority, those that respect honour and those that respect power. It is your intention to gain the respect of all and to maintain it as such, thus maintain power. A Machiavellian protagonist must wear many faces and play many parts. They are t he most fluid, diverse and dangerous of characters and their depth knows no boun ds. Combine that with the vindication afforded to a protagonist wronged and ther ein lies a most beguiling, formidable and enriching character. They can be reinv ented on a whim, for they are constantly reinventing themselves; they can be so many things to so many people yet as a writer you are aware of exactly who they are and what they are doing. It is deeply rewarding to have such scope for devel opment and so deeply intriguing for an audience to unravel those layers. Machiavelli always expressed a love of liberty. Liberty is none more so afforded to such characters as those of Machiavellian design. Nice Guys don t get very far? Well, no more Mr. Nice Guy then...

Greetings everyone, here is a small piece about AARs for beginners. This article is written from what I have learned about writing AARs.

OK, we are about to start an AAR. You would think it to be quite easy. *Spoil sp ort alert* sadly, no, an AAR, or rather a successful AAR is much more than what meets the eye. In this article, we shall see what could be a better approach for an AAR, and how you could spice one up. These few points ought to help you to attain the basic flow you would need to ge t a good AAR under your belt. Six simple points to remember: 1.) what makes you tick? As the heading suggests, the first thing to do is to find out what impresses you . The sheer variety of Medieval 2 Total War, or the awe inspiring graphics of Na poleon Total War and Shogun 2 Total War, or the nostalgic atmosphere of Antiquit y in Rome Total War. Selection of the game should be easy. The game you pick sho uld be comfortable for you, and also fresh and interesting. Now, half of the "tick" question is over. The second is which faction you should take. The answer is simple, the faction you like. One thing to note, pick a faction yo u would not get bored with halfway through the game. 2.) Mods and addons Mods are quite good for using, but not a dire necessity. It is all up to you. If you are confident to deliver a good narrative in vanilla itself, go for it. If you like to use mods, find a mod that would suit your sto ry adequately. 3.) Settings and Console There is a concept, quite popular among gamers. The harder the difficulty of the game, the more interesting it is. It would give a good game experience, but wou ld not help your AAR much. You would not want this to happen in you AAR. In a ch apter, there are plans for building an empire. In the game, the enemy is thunder ing towards your capital, your last remaining stronghold. In the AAR, during certain moments, it would do to put a map for your readers to get the complete picture. During those times, it is all right to use the consol e command to reveal the map. 4.) Type of AAR: Game driven vs. Plot driven Which of the below two categories would your AAR fit in? In simple words, game d riven is twisting the story to fit the game, and plot driven is twisting or rath er tweaking the game to fit your story. Here are some examples. Consider the example of an AAR The Scourge as game driven. In this AAR, I wrote th e narrative following the events of the game. As the game would run its course, I would make a suitable narration for it. In another AAR Exodus, and a New Beginning , I first got the idea of that plot. The n I went with the usual process of coming to a definite plot. There were some as pects, which I wanted changed in the mod. Therefore, I became a modder and modif ied the mod to suit my plot. You could follow any of these methods. 5.) Gamer vs. Writer In AARtistry, there is no such thing as a Cheater, or Good gamer, or bad gamer. There is only a writer, with a good or average (not bad) AAR. You are not in a g

aming contest, how you play the game is completely your discretion. What matters is the story. 6.) Writer s Technique There is something called as X-factor, which every writer has or develops. Equal ly important is Flexibility, in the case of AARs. Flexibility will help the writ er mould his tale from a plain AAR into a gripping and interesting one. Not everyone plans his or her AAR from the beginning and right to the end. Flexi bility will help you get to the end, developing adequate twists to keep the read ers enthralled. Flexibility is a thing that is not learned, it actually develops in the writer naturally. NOTE As writers, particularly me, learn it the hard way, it is actually a good i dea to make backup copies of your save files. This is to ensure that despite wha tever problems come your way, you can continue your AAR. That's all my friends, see you next time. I might write another article, but til l then, keep writing. Best wishes for your AARs.

This is a small topic I would like to bring forward to discuss with you. I have seen many a good articles being put down, and the newspapers and media reporting about it, with a label Controversial. So what is this controversy? How does it creep in? For now, we will discuss it only in terms and reference of Literature. First, the definition, Quote: Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion. The word was coined from the Latin controversia, as a comp osite of controversus "turned in an opposite direction," from contra "against" nd vertere to turn, or versus , hence, "to turn against". Well, that's the official definition, courtesy of Wikipedia. But now let us look a deeper into it, with only regards to writing, of course. As the definition says, a topic or opinion turned against the person who wrote i t. In simple example, you write a story or article about two Nations A and B. Yo u, in your story, glorify certain period, or aspects, of the history of A. But A had, in some part of history, conquered and humiliated B. The controversy arises thus, A person belonging to Nation B reads the story. He boils in anger. Gathers support and rallies against your story. There you go, about all that can be about it. In the example, the context wasn't so serious. But sometimes, some eras of history are sentimentally hurtful to pe

ople. There, you'd have to face the medicine as well as the burden of having hur t many people. Well, I bet no one would like to be in such a situation. Here are a few tips, ri ght from my Heart and Mind, and even Soul, that would help avoid it. Maybe you a lready use a similar list? Avoid sketchy or illegal topics. If you do select one, remember not to glorify the nasty things there. For ex ample, writing about Crimes, Genocides, etc. can hurt people who have faced the horrors or know someone who has. That is why you must never ever try to justify or glorify wrong acts. If you are writing a historical article, which is of academic nature, be the stoic academic, unbiased and true. Have the motto, Facts, not opinions! Supposing you unintentionally hurt someone's feelings, be open and apologize . Always try to include some humor in your story. It provides a contrast that helps with the appreciation of your main theme, and also leaves readers less lik ely to feel that your account is hopelessly biased

Among the many and varied ways to add to the experience of reading a piece of wr iting, there is a subset which virtually everyone has the capacity to use, and u se well: foreign languages and cultures. Now, it is no question that Total War Center has forum members (and the Critic's Quill, readers) of all nationalities, ethnicities, and walks of life. however, for the sake of convenience and simplicity, we use English as our Lingua Franca (no pun intended) and American society as the yardstick for such things as a dem ocracy (the extent of this comparison is left to the reader). It serves as a way for everyone to communicate more freely and share ideas and jokes. However, the discerning reader may already know that American English in its cur rently-known form is remarkably absent from the periods of history in which the Total War games we play are based, and thus the writers among you may be wonderi ng how to best represent languages from all across history in a format which is still linguistically accessible to casual readers. Hopefully, this article will help you make your stories, your After-Action Reports, and anything else you mig ht write more historically accurate, and allow you to add that extra layer of re alism and believability. Firstly, we should probably take a look at what already differs from the English point of view. This is the most obvious one of the differences, and grows more pronounced as we scroll back through the time periods offered in the Total War s

eries. I am referring, of course, to Names and Places. London, to give an easy example, was not always known as London, and Rome: Total War represents that by displaying it by its name under Roman rule, Londinium. I n a similar way, care must be taken when referring to cities and landmarks that exist today, but were not always so (an extreme example would be modern Frankfur t, one of the airline hubs of Europe but nonexistant in Rome). However, such thi ngs only really make a difference when playing on or writing about pre-medieval times, and as such this is the easiest of the hurdles to clear by a long way. A more difficult thing to deal with is the way that names change with translatio ns. A familiar example would be Herakles, who became Hercules in the Roman trans lation of the tale. Names given during the periods of antiquity are often more a description of the person than a unique identity, and even in feudal times do w e know of names that mean little-to-nothing outside their native tongue (such as Genghis Khan simply meaning 'Great Khan', with the man's birthname being Temuji n). Fortunately, these names are few and far between, and a few minutes' searchi ng through Wikipedia should give you the necessary information to work through t his problem. Adding in a note about the famous person's real name and how it dif fers from their better-known name (if it was used at that point) should easily a dd a layer of realism for minimal effort. Example: Consider a Medieval 2 AAR, writing about the scripted event of the Mong ol Hordes appearing from the point of view of a younger Spanish royal family mem ber. News had come from the furthest Eastern edges of God's world, of a man who r ode with a thousand soldiers to every one of God's believers. These men called h im by his title, by the name Genghis Khan. The messenger also told us of what wa s believed to be the name bestowed upon him by his heretic mother on birth; Temu jin. The reader immediately knows who is being talked about, and is also hopefully gi ven extra information about that person. A similar approach can be used when tal king about places, perhaps a little aside mentioning the older name of the city or landmark. The use of original names of people and places, however, is often rather shallow in terms of giving realistic touches, especially considering the revisionist ap proach taken by the games with respect to history. As such, the more culture-sav vy of writers could do a lot worse than turning to Conceptual Translation in ord er to improve the immersion. What is conceptual translation? It is the idea that, though many cultural ideas are unique and singular, there are quite a number of cultural concepts that mean roughly the same thing for different people, and only differ in how they are ca lled. For example, consider comedy. Quite a lot of comedy relies on the audience being familiar with the hidden ideas behind the jokes being told. The classic is, of course (No offence is meant or implied) the 'A _man, a _man, and a _man', where the first two characters react normally to a situation, and the last one doing s omething completely unexpected. However, there exists a massive number of differ ent candidates for the characters, ranging from the national level (an Englishma n, a Scotsman, and an Irishman) to the county level (a Texan, an Ohioian, and an Arkansian) and even the city level (a Berliner, a Frankfurter and a Hamburger). Thus, the joke can take on many different shapes and forms, depending on who sa ys it and who it is told to. In the same way, a story written from the point of view of the Greeks concerning the Romans, who used many of the ideas and emulated the Greeks, might paint the

m as being similar to a group of people coming from a city or region who stereot ypically copy others, though the more general the reference, the more helpful it is to reader immersion. Another example might be of the Fatamid Caliphate membe rs considering the heavily-Westernised Crusaders as being barbarians, which coul d be conveyed by characterising them as crude and vulgar nouveau riche, lacking in personal hygiene and with a penchant for coarse humour. This is usually most helpful when writing to an audience you know, however, but can be rather jarring to use in an in-depth storyline. Perhaps, then, the wholes ale use of Foreign Languages can help out? The answer to this question changes depending on the subject. Perhaps using cult ural analogies and modern-day terms alongside their historical counterparts is n ot enough, and the writer decides to use the home language of the faction he/she is playing as or writing about. The extent to which these terms should be used is hard to judge. In our previous case of the Spanish royal family member, to extend the example, it would be historically accurate to use feudal Spanish while writing from his p oint of view. However, few potential readers are capable of reading this languag e, and differing dialects can confuse even more people. In this case, using genu ine, full-length native speech is actually detracting significantly from the enj oyment that the reader receives. An alternative to this is to simply translate into English (or leave it as it wa s in the first place) and use the occasional foreign word to signify that your c haracters are not in fact speaking in English. This, however, brings the new pro blem of deciding which words to translate with it. Replacing simple, everyday wo rds like 'hello', 'yes', or 'sir' with local equivalents can have the unwitting effect of giving the reader the idea that the characters are only speaking with what is Just A Stupid Accent (warning: TV Tropes link), which is usually taken t o be indicative of humour or parody, and thus rather counter-productive to getti ng the core message and the skill of the writer across. On the other hand, translating such large and complex words and terms as 'reveng e attack' and 'royal succession' into native languages with the intent of genera ting authenticity can leave a reader who is not versed in the language rather lo st and bewildered; again, not a good thing. For an example: Koenigliche Erbe is German for 'royal succession', while Racheangriff refers to 'revenge attack'. Ne ither of these are well-known enough to be accessible, nor are they similar enou gh to their English counterparts to accurately guess what that might mean. The best choice in this case is situational; the options range from giving trans lations of a few key words in the notes or as an aside to aid in comprehension a ll the way to writing a few lines of another language, and then having a charact er (an aide, perhaps) translate into the language that the writer is treating as English for the purposes of the story. Given that I have done my best to illustrate how to use cultural and timely refe rences as well as giving careful translations to ease the readers into the tale and immerse them in your writing, it seems only fair that I make a few notes on going the completely opposite way that is, the Deliberate Misuse Of Translations . (This is done mainly for comedic effect, and thus this section can be safely ski pped over for the purposes of writing advice.) One easy way to garner a few chuckles from the audience is to use completely ana chronistic references for a character based on the nationality that they would a

ppear to be were they from the modern day, such as a Roman having an obsession w ith pizza, or a scarred, battle-hardened Norman warlord showing a prediliction f or 'a spot of tea'. Another method is to use the idea of Poirot Speak: the liberal peppering of a ch aracters' speech with simple and recognisable foreign words to replace English o nes, such as a Gallic person saying Et voila! . This is perhaps at its most effecti ve when combined with the visual representation of an accent being used, such as a Germanic barbarian warlord speaking in an akzent zat is ritten like zis, much like vun vould ekspect a stereotypikal evil-doktor akzent to zount. In summation, the level of use of native speech, naming conventions, cultural eq uivalents, and the ignoring of all such rules is left entirely to the aspiring w riter, though this particular writer would advise against using extreme amounts of any of these four techniques. With a bit of practice and a rough idea of how much the average reader might know of your chosen culture, you can achieve a kin d of immersion which will stay in the minds of your readers long after they fini sh the final sentence of your carefully crafted creation.

"Houston, we ve had a problem" Almost everyone s heard of the iconic line from the Apollo 13 movie, where all hel l is breaking loose and the lives of the crew are hanging by a thread. What not everyone has heard is the original NASA recording of the men. If you re one of tho se you who haven t then I urge you to look it up. The contrast between the mayhem in the movie and the frigid calmness of the actual crew is quite telling. These people had a plan. They had a problem, but they had ways of saving themselves. Unfortunately calamitous events are not limited to space travel, and afflict us just as readily in the realm of AAR writing in the form of writer s block. When th at happens, for the lack of a better word, you are stuck, and it s not nice. Write r s block can cause frustration, drop in confidence, hair loss, and many other har mful things. The important thing as a writer though is to be like the Apollo cre w to have a plan, and when things go wrong, execute that plan. My job, therefore, is to supply you with a plan, or some semblance of one. I nev er did manage to get a job at NASA, but hopefully you ll find my article useful. Let it be This may seem obvious but the most effective way to deal with writer s block is to not deal with it. Writer s block is a monster that feeds upon your frustration, a nd as you become less poised it only grows bigger and stronger. By leaving it yo u empty your mind of all of the things that don t work , you save yourself from the m onster that is your writer s block, and prevent it from driving you to hate your o wn work. I am a firm believer of the need to love your work, and the day you sta

rt hating it is the day it begins to lose its life. By leaving I don t mean alt-tabbing to facebook or youtube either. The latter is b etter than the former, but ultimately the best way is to step away from the comp uter entirely. Go for a walk; go spend time with your family anything that you a ssociate the least with your AAR writing. Replace dead-ends with different, happ ier thoughts. Who knows you might even have an idea while you re gone. Carpe diem 65.8% of all writer s block comes from fear1, and this is especially true with an AAR thanks to the inherent nature of the games we play. Things may happen in you r game which do not suit the story. Your main character might die on the battlef ield. This uncertainty multiplies the fear factor of putting pen to paper what i f I write something that will backfire on me later? It is almost impossible to plan an AAR start to finish from the outset. Things w ill go wrong if you try, so just stop wasting time worrying about it. The best way to overcome the fear of writing something wrong is to leave the criti cal part of your brain out of the equation. Accept that your first draft may wel l be horse tripe, but write it anyway. Do not pause to ponder the consequences o f your writing, or try to calculate what will come to pass 5 chapters later. Do not stop to mull over wording, or whether what you re writing follows logic. There is a time and place for fixing all the flaws, and it s called editing. By not edi ting your brain has more time to run wild, and the pages fill up a lot quicker. You can always cut and trim later on. Personal anecdote: long ago and in a far-away land, I slugged through three year s of a university degree that involved copious amounts of what we called constra ined creative writing. In the beginning it was a struggle, but one day a group o f us simultaneously came to the same epiphany: "Essays were easier to write while under the influence of alcohol!" While I m not advocating alcohol consumption2, this does prove my point about leav ing out (or debilitating, in my case) the critical brain. 1 75% of all statistics are made up on the spot 2 Hoegaarden is good for writing Up is down Contrary to popular belief, there is no prize for starting at the beginning and finishing at the end. In fact, doing so in AAR writing almost always multiplies the chance of getting writer s block. Writing is hard work and you want to worry a bout the structure at the same time? Write what comes to you first. Write what you find most interesting about your g ameplay. If you just fought a battle, and you re stuck on how to introduce the cir cumstances around it, why not describe the melee first? The spray of blood, the noise of clashing steel, the cries of dying men, the smell of blood and horses. If your king just got called on a crusade, and you re not sure how to describe his feelings, then write about his journey over the sea first. Write about what you r e confident with, and the rest will follow. It is sometimes helpful to think of little arcs within the story blocks of four or five draft chapter titles which tell an independent story of its own. During th is arc, the characters involved achieve an interim goal of some sort. Perhaps yo u re conquering a faction, or your king is on a crusade, or you re hunting down a pa rticular general. That way you break up your epic long AAR into short digestible chunks where you can plan your story one step at a time, cutting it into chapte

rs logically. Remember to only think of chapter titles tails later.

you can figure out the de

An Englishman's home is his castle And so is yours to the AARtist within you. The importance of writing in comforta ble, familiar surroundings cannot be stressed enough. A few general pointers: Set aside time to write and do nothing else. Make sure your family and whoev er you are with know that this is your time, and that you are not to be disturbe d over trivial things Switch off all your browsers, log off your twitter, break that high score an other day Do not listen to music with lyrics. Calm music is almost always better than otherwise unless you are writing something fast and furious (and maybe even then ) Ready a bottle of water close by, but drink only to wet your lips. Getting u p to get water or relieve yourself of it only serves to break your train of thou ght Forget about real life for a second and think in the character of your prota gonist. You are Richard, Lionheart King of England; or Napolean Bonaparte, emper or of France; or Suleiman the Magnificent, the giver of laws and conqueror of th e infidels. As far as I know none of those people did their taxes, or drew up sh opping lists, or did the laundry nor should you. Aunt Betsy's favour can wait, t oo. Forget the game Don t stress too much about the game. Nobody reading an AAR is going to judge it b ased on how efficient you are as a gamer. Audiences love cock-ups in-game. Reall y. The other aspect of this is this: don t be afraid to depart from what s going on in game. Be inventive - dialogue between characters, internal struggles, rivalries. By writing about their insecurities and concerns you bring the reader closer to your characters. Nobody is a knight in shining armour all day every day in real life, so they shouldn t be in your AAR. Give them real problems, real dilemmas, a nd they will come to life in front of you. Along the same lines is the technique of inventing support characters. It is a great way of running sidebars and subp lots within your AAR, and gives the central characters more personality. Girlfri ends are wonderful plot devices for showing the softer side of people. A sibling could be effective at exposing insecurities and rivalries. Childhood friends co uld be used to garner information about the hero s past. The possibilities are quite literally endless, and are wonderful solutions to wr iter s block. If you can t write about the protagonist then write about his friends for a chapter or two. Here, there and everywhere Carry a phone that lets you easily write text notes, and keep it tand at night. Next time you think oh maybe my guy can do this etween lectures, on the toilet, 3 o'clock in the morning write it for the next time you have writer s block. It may or may not you should be ready when it does. It might just save you from a ion. Conclusion Accept that and it will a wall, go at and if on your night s while at work, in b it down, and save happen often, but lot of frustrat

writer s block happens to the best writers, from Socrates to Dickens, probably happen to you at some point. Instead of driving yourself up for a walk, and see the world. You might just think of something gre you do then make sure you write it down.

Most importantly of all, write what you love, and love what you write. Happy wri ting AARtists! By robinzx

No, this is not a shoe commercial. Just as the shoes on the right have been imparted with a generous polish, any go od AAR deserves to be given that extra little bit of love and care. Readers like works that are polished and where the writer cares about his work, and a few mi nor tweaks could make a world of difference in that respect. A few simple elemen ts can help to give an AAR that professional look. There is practical value too. By making it easier for your readers to navigate y our writing you minimise the time they spend not reading your writing, and the m ore they are likely to enjoy it, give feedback, and so on. This article therefor e aims to share some tricks of the trade simple ways to improve the presentation of your masterpiece. Some of this will seem obvious, especially to more experie nced writers, but hopefully some of this informatino will be useful for AAR writ ers at large. Formatting Not terribly important stuff, I hear you say. The truth is quite the contrary a consistent, well formatted page is the first and most basic step towards a profe ssional looking piece of writing: Use a different font than the forum default. This really helps to make your writing stand out from the other posts Use a consistent font, font size and colour throughout your piece. There is nothing more distracting than each new chapter having a different look. Instead of changing font simply use bold or italics for emphasis Skip lines between paragraphs so there is extra empty space. Walls of text a re daunting to read, and by adding adequate spacing you help the reader to pace himself while he works his way through your work Table of contents AARs usually tend to be updated using new posts in its thread. As the writing be gins to increase in volume, and the thread becomes cluttered with more and more chapters however, there is a danger that the AAR becomes a serious challenge to navigate around should one wish to read a specific chapter, or to resume where o ne had left off. The solution is a simple and elegant one which requires minimal effort.

Step 1: once you have written a new update, press the quote button on the newly written post, and you will be presented with your writing in BBcode. At the star t there will be something like this:

The eight digit number is the Post ID of your new chapter. Now to insert a link to this chapter you simply put the Post ID into the following line: (for the sake of convenience I have linked the last edition of the Quill) Which looks something like this: Link here Alternatively, hover your mouse over the post number on the top right of your po st, and in the hyperlink that shows up, take the digits after "#post". Updated for every chapter, the Table of Contents gives reader and writer alike a quick and easy way to access each chapter without the tedium of scrolling throu gh page after page. I've posted a part of the TOC from my own AAR as an illustra tion: Spoiler Alert, click show to read: Supplemental information In a long AAR, especially story based ones, there generally tends to be a large cast of characters which help to flesh out the story and interaction between the m can provide for intriguing subplots. The down side is that as the number of ch aracters increases, it becomes increasingly hard for readers to keep track of ev erybody. This is where a clear list of characters could be of considerable help. This is especially true if you are writing about a culture that is not familiar to all and given the diverse demographic of the internet the names of your char acters will likely sound alien to some of your readership, even if they are call ed John, James and David. Along with names and simple details, short bios of the characters could be used to provide additional information not suited to the narrative itself. An excelle nt example of a character list is provided herein courtesy of Radzeer s Primus Int er Pares. A wonderfully detailed description of the characters does wonders to h elp distinguish characters from each other, and provided at the top of each post they act as a quick reference for readers picking up the story. Spoiler Alert, click show to read: The royal family Grand Prince Vladimir The first Grand Prince, leading the early expansion of the Rus, annexing several independent cities and fighting against both the Cumans and the Catholics. He h as found the Holy Grail after taking Oleshe, and established the tradition in wh ich the Grail is kept by the Prince to guide him. At the end of his life he reti red and transferred the power to his oldest son and heir, Mstislav. He lived a l ong life and died peacefully in Kiev. Grand Prince Mstislav The second Grand Prince, and the oldest son of Vladimir. He held power for l ong as a Prince. He fought against the Cumans in the east, and conquered Smolens k in the north overthrowing the Novgorod-friendly council. He was a skilled poli

tician and determined leader with a vision to expand toward the Baltic Sea. He e stablished the Rus as a major power, although at the end of his reign he had dif ficulties with his brothers who wanted to have their separate ways. He died peac efully in Kiev. Grand Prince Gostislav The third Grand Prince, Mstislav's oldest son, the governor of Pereyasla v. Quite unremarkable as a child, he had a lot to prove. His decisions were not without controversy, but he did what he could to keep the Rus intact. He was som ewhat successful with Yaropolk's sons in the west keeping at least their formal allegiance, but could not contain his other uncle, Yurii, who set up his own pri ncipality around Azaq. His rule was often compared to the rule of his father, in which comparison he did not fare well, especially about his foreign policy. He died shortly after a victory against Poland. Grand Prince Nikifor The fourth Grand Prince, Gostislav's first son. His marriage to a Ve netian princess was supposed to build good connections to Catholics, but the all iance was short-lived. He is considered to be a talented leader and a capable ge neral. He launched the long awaited war against Novgorod, which he carried out r uthlessly. After vassalizing Novgorod, he was caught in the conflict between the boyars and Prince Halstan. At the end of his rule he tried to reestablish the s uccession line of the Yaroslavich family, favoring his only son. He died in Kiev shortly before marching against Venice to retake Halych. Predislav Nikifor's only son. A talented military commander, but a man wit h a temper, similar to his uncle, Rostislav. Apokavkos Komnenos Member of the Roman royal family, who married Nikifor's second d aughter. Khotimir Kievskii Kievan boyar who married Nikifor's youngest daughter.

my own version inspired by Radzeer's. The main difference was th Another example e addition of unit portraits from the game. The intention was to put faces to ea ch of the characters so readers can more easily relate to them as more than simp ly being a name. Spoiler Alert, click show to read: Takeda Harunobu (born Takeda Katsuchiyo, renamed Takeda Shingen in 1559) Born 1521 The eldest of the three brothers, the Takeda daimyo is known for his military ge nius but also a lack of patience. His personal Furinkazan banner is an inspirati on to all Takeda men as they charge into battle. Takeda Nobushige Born 1525 Younger brother of Takeda Harunobu and elder brother of Takeda Nobukado, Nobushi ge is the thinker among the Takeda brothers, with his capacity for military stra tegy surpassed only by Yamamoto Kansuke and his elder brother. Takeda Nobukado Born 1529 The youngest of the Takeda brothers, Nobukado is fiercely loyal to his brothers and has established a fearsome reputation in battle.

Takeda Yoshinobu (born Takeda Taro) Born 1536 Eldest son of Harunobu and heir apparent to the Takeda clan, Yoshinobu has inher ited the military prowess of his father, but also his short temper. Takeda Yoshinaga (born Takeda Jiro) Born 1547 The second son of the Takeda daimyo has yet to come of age.

Maps of campaign movements are similar in nature that they help to deepen your r eaders understanding of the geography of the story, especially if it s set in exoti c locales that aren t immediately obvious. Meanwhile battle maps can help the read er visualise army movements during a battle that aren't immediately obvious from the narrative. Maps help to depict army movements during a campaign or battle Pictures There is a vast body of work by numerous authors were not a single image was use d in entire stories, so this section becomes more or less applicable depending o n your approach. Even in text heavy AARs though, pictures can be used as embelli shment with great effect. The vast majority of AARs are an amalgamation of text and pictures. While it is important to avoid AARs becoming comic books, the value of using pictures to pro vide supporting imagery could not be emphasized enough. They help set the mood o f the story, help readers to visualise background scenery, and help to bring the chaos of battle alive. While the same can be achieved with text alone, the use of pictures almost turns an AAR from a written story into a movie, with the pict ures used acting as still frames from the action. In that sense well composed an d edited photos are as central to the story as the narrative itself. Simple picture of a Roman arch used to introduce a story from the period Composition Decide what message you are trying to capture with the picture, and where it fit s into the narrative. Wide angle shots are better for setting the scene, while c lose up shots tend to portray action, and are more suited to melee. Once you ve ta ken your screenshot crop it so that only your subject matter remains removing di stractions such as the unit cards, battle timers and so on can only help to impr ove immersion. As for time of day and weather - it is not always easy to get the effect you wan t for your battle during the campaign, so don't be afraid to use custom battles to help give you the perfect imagery. Night shots and adverse weather can be use d to portray emotion with great effect. Calm before the storm - wide angle shots of army compositions help to portray th e magnitude of large battles

The chaos of melee is best captured by close up shots of the action Shots from behind can be used to imply motion, especially if you have the intend ed victims in view as well. The vice versa can be used to demonstrate the solidi ty of defenders bracing for impact Size Pictures should be resized so that they are not too small or big. Posting pictur es that are too small leave your audience straining their eyes to see the conten t, while enormous pictures would only serve to take the reader away from your st ory. A good range is perhaps 500 to little over 1,000 pixels wide, with a reason able ratio of height to width. Panoramic photos are also a great choice for cert ain subjects. An example of panoramic shots used to present a scene Post production Post production isn t necessary, but can be used to embellish your pictures furthe r. Borders that reflect period art can help to add authenticity, while even the simplest black border can help to make them look more polished. Simple adjustmen ts of saturation and brightness can be used portray different emotions. If you re feeling more adventurous things like motion blur and bokeh can be used to emphas ize motion, focus in on characters, and so on. It s usually best to limit heavily edited photos to a small number partly to save time and partly for the sake of e mphasis. Real life imagery Real life photographs or other imagery can do wonders for an AAR, especially whe n you re going for the movie shots approach to pictures. They help sculpt the scen e for your characters, and can provide for imagery the games by their nature can not. A chapter set in Athens is perfectly introduced with this image of the Parthenon . Death awaits in the shadows... Euphemism for lust and debauchery? A final word Make sure you deselect whatever unit you are using before you take the screensho t. There is nothing more immersion-breaking than a little green/yellow circle un der the feet of your samurai/line infantry. Other tips Some other general tips for AAR writers: Use spoiler tags sparingly. They are the equivalent of asking the reader to turn a page, so use it for information that is incidental to the main story

Including the last updated date in the opening post can help to inform your readership when there is new material to read Proof read your writing! The rush to publish is understandable, but simple g rammar and typing errors can hurt the overall reading quality of any piece of wr iting. Read your work and it will pay off Put your AAR in your signature, use the advertising channels, partake in the competitions. These all help to get word of your AAR out to the masses on the f orum, and feedback and interest is the nourishment ever AAR needs to survive and succeed Conclusion So there you have it. It's ultimately up to the author how much effort he wants to put into an AAR, but such effort does make a difference, and is generally wel l appreciated. Good luck to all! Credits: Radzeer, Thokran, Nanny, LegolasGreenleaf for their pictures.

Alright, what is the thing that is most important in an AAR? Plot? True. Characters? True. Chapters? True again. This is true in case for all such aspects. But what is a very vital component is the setting, the world. This is what we shall discuss here. And also, I would b e glad if this turns out to be informative to anyone too. The Who, What, and Where of it. So, what about it? Setting or the world is an important part of the AAR. The AAR could do without it of course. But it would be more like a journal reports. Som ething like the small example before. The King ruled from the capital. He took an army and defeated a horde of barbari ans. He went on further conquests. Finally he died on a hill.

Informative? Quite so. But was it enjoyable to read? Even if it would be, it was all over before you could start to enjoy it. For every plot there is a setting. In simple words a place where the plots unfolds. It could be a timeline (Ancien t, Medieval), or a specific era (Hundred years war, Napoleonic), or simply a pla ce (Real, Fantasy). The above is setting, related to the plot. But what about the rest of the story? Does it come there too? Yes it does, and even you can do it too. Another exampl e. Robert strapped on his armour. His armour was of mail, it's metallic texture gli nting in the winter morning. He inhaled the chillness, as if it were steeling hi m for the charge. He pulls out his steel blade. He had polished it the night bef ore. He sat on his black mount, contemplating the sights before him. From the hi ll he stood on, he could see the flank of the enemy. He feels a little flutter i n his stomach. With mounting joy, he realises that the flank was unguarded. He w aves his sword above the head to signal the advance. Well, if you gist the above down, it comes down to two things. Robert is sitting on a horse, He signals a cavalry charge. Now, when you look at the two examples, which ones would you enjoy to read? A br ief up to the point report, or a richly descriptive paragraph. So, What it's all about? To be very honest, it can be about many things. It can mean the world around the plot. Simply put, where the plot takes place. It can include a lot of things. The location, The climate, The scenery, Personal effects of characters And everything that would make your story more colorful. What do you think is a vital reason of success for Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter series? It is th e level of detail put into the books. It almost takes us, or rather our senses, into their world. So, along with reading it, you can feel the story too. So, how do we get all that? Now, we come to the concluding part of the article. And that part is -> Applying it into your AAR. SO not to lengthen the article, but to round it up properly, I'll put a few vital points that can be used. Relevance -> Whatever detail you might put in the story, it should be at lea st relevant to the plot, or a sub-plot. If you'd like some suspense, you can mak e it relevant to the future plots. This would add flavour to your story. No use mentioning aliens in a medieval AAR. Detail -> Whatever you do, make it detailed. But the balance must be perfect , you have to adjust the level of detail such that it is not dry (less) or borin g (big heap). Immersion -> This is rather a subjective matter. It means that unless you ar e immersed in your AAR, the reader would not be too. So, make sure you enjoy wri ting it, and automatically the reader would enjoy reading it. Well, that's all for this article. My best wishes to all reading this. Thank you. By m_1512

Movies these days come in all shapes and sizes, but a set of common themes run t hrough each of them. Think of the last movie you watched, or the last book you r ead, and the chances are that what you remember the most vividly will be the cha racters and how you connected to them. Perhaps Decimus Maximus heroism inspired y ou in Gladiator, or perhaps the enigmatic Sherlock Holmes impressed you with his genius or maybe Katniss Everdeen struck a chord with you because you are easily impressed? Whatever your answer to these questions, it is hopefully clear that a strong cast of characters is the lifeblood of any good tale. They allow the rea der to connect to them on a personal emotional level, and achieve a higher level of immersion. In this article I shall attempt to play muse and hopefully provid e a modicum of inspiration for the budding AAR writer, first examining the most readily available character archetypes in AARs and the ways to build up their pe rsonalities so that they seem alive to the reader. Starting out Just like any real person, each of your characters needs a plausible and easily recognisable identity. Fortunately in AAR writing the game provides various tidb its that form the the basic information required. In TW AARs this often includes a name and title, family, and maybe some personality traits over time. Often th e starting characters of a game will provide an adequate starting cast usually t he protagonist, perhaps some support characters, and maybe one or more antagonis ts. One does not have to stop here however imaginary characters work just as wel l as their game-oriented counterparts. The key is for each character to be belie vable and have backgrounds that relate logically to the time period as well as o ther characters. Calling your characters Abdul and Mohammed may not work the bes t for a story set in medieval France, for example. Sometimes deliberate mismatch es could be used to spectacular effect, but in such cases a plausible explanatio n of the mismatch must be prepared how Abdul came to be in medieval France. Main characters Your main characters are the blood and soul of your story, and a small group of well-defined main characters will punctuate your readership s relationship with yo ur story. Being the centrepiece of your story, each main character should have a recognisable persona with a well-defined background, personality traits and a p urpose to serve. Often it is helpful for main characters to be defined in pairs or in small groups so that characters can be contrasted against one another, and so that there are opportunities for interaction. Good versus evil is a simple y et effective, if a little overused, dichotomy. Male and female characters can be paired as potential lovers. Old and young can become mentor and protg. Etcetera. Support characters Depending on the importance of the role, a support character s personality and bac kground can be described in great depth, or not at all. In either case the suppo rt character s primary role is to cause some kind of interaction with the main cha racters in such a way that readers are able to learn more about the latter in sp

ecific ways or to progress a story in some way that doesn't involve the main cha racters. As a result support characters are important for not only their intrins ic value but also what they are able to bring out in their more illustrious cous ins. A childhood friend can relate stories of childhood. An old flame can provok e forgotten emotions. A sibling can reveal thoughts of jealousy and rivalry. The possibilities are quite literally limitless. Sometimes in third person stories an inglorious support character can even be used as the narrator, providing a wi thdrawn, somewhat more objective perspective of the action. A good idea is to maintain a relatively large cast of support characters, even i f some have no immediate use to speak of. These dormant support characters are sto red away for future use, and can be employed once suitable events that related l ogically to a character comes to pass in the story. They can also be used as sid e plots or distractions from the main plotline, and are a wonderful device for t reating writer s block. Character development People change over time, and AAR characters should be no different. Over the cou rse of an AAR, all characters should show some sign of development not just thro ugh the accumulating of victories and battle scars but also in terms of how such events their personalities. It is important that as the reader follows the stor y he feels that he has grown with the characters, and as characters grow their p ersonalities anything from their approach to events to their thought processes s hould vary accordingly. For the main characters, it is especially important that as the story progresses, these characters are seen to be progressing along a de fined trajectory along a story arc, be it a personal mission, a goal set by anot her, or some other form of landmark. Having the reader feel the glory of success or even the pain of failure could all help to bring him closer to your main cha racter. A glorious victory could galvanise the tentative squire. The consummatio n of love could cause a brazen warrior to review his priorities. The loss of a l oved one, on the other hand, could traumatise a character in some way. Twists and turns are essential to any good story, and just as in real life, your main characters should experience unexpected events once in a while. These help to break them from clichd models of archetypal roles which can make the characte r seem predictable and uninteresting if adhered to for too long. This is where s upport characters be it one you've put on the back burner or one who is freshly introduced and their interaction with other characters comes in. Perhaps a dista nt cousin has arrived with tragic news of a death at home? Maybe a traveller bri ngs news of the impending Mongol invasion? A battle and the death and suffering that comes with it could give a character a new outlook on life? Dialogue Dialogue between characters is one of the best ways to emphasize personalities a nd sensitivities, but also one of the hardest to get right. In order to create a n authentic dialogue, the author must put himself in the position of the charact er. Only by understanding his or her goals and worries would the writer be able to create dialogue that is both logical and vivid sounding. Equally important is the tone of voice of the characters. Old men talk different ly from young men, and superiors address their subordinates differently than vic e versa. One way of mimicking realistic speech is to think of persons in real li fe or fictional persona you are familiar with and who are similar to the AAR cha racter and imagine how these people would speak in different scenarios. The auth entic use of period titles and honorifics also helps to improve authenticity. Requiescat in pace Killing a, or even the, main character is one of the most poignant things any wr iter can do to both his readership and himself. If you ve invested adequately into a main character, suddenly killing him will unless you ve provided adequate fores

hadowing and maybe even then almost certainly provoke feelings of shock, sadness , disappointment, and even anger among your readership. Even when the killing of a main character is well executed the anguish it causes may cause some among yo ur readership to protest against your decision, or even to abandon the ruined stor y all together. The death of a well-crafted character may even cause the author himself to lose heart in the plot, fearing it is tainted by the death. Despite these potential pitfalls, sometimes killing a main character can be an i ncredibly powerful way to bring the story to a climax, for example at the end of the story. The trauma you cause in your readers can multiply the glory of his l ife and the significance of his sacrifice. The final moments of a main character be it a melancholic swansong or a heroic last stand can help take him to that n ext level of greatness. In the event that you ve decided to kill the main character, the key is to do it i n a manner that seems meaningful and is epic in some way. It would be rather silly for your main character to trek across the desert in search of vengeance only t o die of an infection, for example. Permanence is another important attribute of such plot turns that brave sacrifice will lose all meaning if your character is brought back to life somehow a few chapters later. Either way, killing the main character isn t a decision to be taken lightly, and i s certainly not for the faint hearted. Conclusion An iconic set of characters are key to any AAR story. Invest well in them and bo th you and your readers will be rewarded in abundance. Being able to write with a sense of authenticity and sensitivity come from experience and practice so get writing!

I have recently been reading 'The Elements of Style' by William Strunk Jr. and E .B. White. It is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone interested in i mproving on their grammar etc. This brings me on to writing this article. I'll b e the first to admit not always using speech properly, for many years I was conf used with the whole process - either due to being taught incorrectly, or not bei ng taught at all! So I will be bringing in some of Strunk's 'rules' in this arti cle, and I hope it helps you when you next write. First and foremost is punctuating speech, it is the foundation for any effective use of speech - and by using it correctly your writing will improve massively. Use a comma or period between the dialogue and the tag line (the words used to i dentify the speaker: "he said/she said"): "I really want to go to the beach this afternoon," she said as they exited the c ar. Periods and commas go inside the quotation marks, but remember if you use a peri od to end a dialogue then the first letter of the tag line must be capitalised, as in any normal sentence. Wrong: "I really want to go to the beach this afternoon." she said as they exite d the car. Correct: "I really want to go to the beach this afternoon." She said as they exi ted the car." Other punctuation - semicolons, question marks, dashes, and exclamation points go outside the speech marks unless it is actually part of the dialogue.

Bob was wondering what Jane had said, was it, "I love cake!"? In this case Bob is asking the question, Jane didn't use it when she spoke. On t he other hand: Bob had heard Jane fine. She had said, "Can I have some cake?" Jane asked the question when she was speaking, so it goes inside the speech mark s. Also note that sentences end with only one mark of punctuation. Don't use dou ble punctuation marks, but go with the 'stronger' punctuation. (Question marks a nd exclamation points are 'stronger' than commas and periods.) When a tag line interrupts the dialogue, it should be set off by commas. Note th at the first letter of the second half of the dialogue is in lower case, as in t his example: "That is," Bob said, "we are both having some cake." Make sure that your tag lines don't awkwardly interrupt the sentence, instead pl ace them where the 'break' would appear naturally if someone was speaking. The b est way to check this is read the sentence out loud and see where it fits the be st e.g.: "Once more do you," Bob continued, "like cake?" This doesn't read well, but: "Once more," Bob continued, "do you like cake?" This flows much better, and the interruption appears where it feels natural To signal a quotation within dialogue, use single quotes: "Have you read 'The Cr itics Quill' yet?" he asked Shankbot12. Next is the layout of speech in writing. Always start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes within the dialogue. If there is action involved with a spea king character, keep the description of the action within the same paragraph as the person who is speaking. This is important because it makes it easier for the reader to follow who is speaking, and generally makes the story easier to read. For example: "Hi Jack," said Gill as she walked up the hill. "How are you?" "I'm fine thanks Gill, yourself?" Jack replied. "I've been better actually." "Oh, what's the matt er?" Jack questioned. As you can see, this is quite difficult to follow. Something like the following would be much better: "Hi Jack, How are you?" said Gill as she walked up the hill. "I'm fine thanks Gill, yourself?" Jack replied. "I've been better actually." "Oh, what's the matter?" Jack questioned. When writing in conversations like this it is important to remember: Do not use dialogue simply to convey information. It should set the scene, a dvance action, give insight into characterization, remind the reader, and foresh adow. Keep the character's voice in mind, but there must be a balance between real istic speech and readability. Don't use too much colloquialism or misspelling in

order to create a character's voice. Also remember to use speech as a tool to d evelop characters. Word choice tells a reader a lot about a person such as appea rance. Tension, sometimes saying nothing, or the opposite of what we know a charact er feels, is the best way to create tension. This example is not only easier to read, but flows a lot better and will make no ticing speech in large blocks of text easier. The bit in red is still on the sam e line as the same person is speaking, it doesn't matter that an action has sepa rated it, before it was difficult to make out who was speaking then, this way it is clear and easy to follow. . You could also put the speech in to italics whic h again makes it easier for the reader to see who is speaking. Finally we have the mysterious surrounding the use of 'said.' Strunk writes on t he subject of whether to use said or not: Quote: Originally Posted by Strunk "They [inexperienced writers] do this, apparently, in the belief that the word s aid is always in need of support, or because they have been told to do it by exp erts in the art of bad writing." This, I find, is right on the mark. I remember always being told not to use said , replace it with something that describes it better. This is complete cobblers, speech is about, as is all form of fiction writing, 'showing, not telling' - le t the dialogue tell the reader how the speaker feels, good writers will imply wh at the emotions are. Don't use tags to convey emotion or action, For example: "But I don't want to go to school yet," she moaned. Here a good writer would conjure up a scene of a moaning girl: She stood by the front door with her hands balled into little fists, flailing ab out in the air. Her red, tear-filled eyes glared up at her father. "But I don't want to go to school yet." This greatly improves the description of the sentence, and clearly creates an im age in the readers head. This couldn't be achieved by using adverbs alongside sa id. However, descriptive tags are necessary at sometimes, but they should only b e used sparingly. I hope this article has helped you as much as it has helped me. Safe to say from now on I'll be checking how I write dialogue. If you remember everything here y ou'll be writing like [INSERT ANY AUTHOR YOU LIKE HERE] in no time. If you take one thing away from this make sure it's Strunk's golden rule on dialogue: Quote: Originally Posted by Strunk It is a total loss unless you indicate who the speaker is. By Shankbot12