Star Wars Story Advice Required

[General Magma]

I was not quite sure where to place this, but since it's related to LEGO and Star Wars, I figured that it would be best to have it here

rather than in 'General Discussion' or 'Brick-Flicks & Comics'.

For a long time now, I've been having thoughts of writing my own story revolving around a certain set of invented Star Wars characters,

and throughout the months, I have gathered a good amount of ideas, concerning both content and the way I'm going to tackle this.

However, I'm now looking for opinions on what kind of way to present the story would seem best to you.

One thing has been decided for certain - to accompany the text, I will have images added. But of course, that as a whole is rather obvious.

These will be LEGO scenes, made to be as cinematic-looking as possible. So imagine detailed MOCs combined with photography and some digital editing,

the result being images that will look more like movie stills rather than just pictures of MOCs. One of my main dilemmas about how this will all be combined with the text is whether I should go for a novel style, comic book style or perhaps even a different style, such as a mix of the two. What would be nice here? Any tips?

For a better way to show what I mean, I hereby present to you, several examples...

(The little stories were randomly written just to be used here, and have nothing to do with my upcoming story)

Examples:

A) Novel Style 1 - Few Images

[picture of the beginning of the chapter - there won't be that many pictures for each chapter in this case, at times just one or two]

(imagine about 30 to 40 or more lines of text before the end of the chapter)

"CHAPTER 9: A Fiery Welcome"

[picture of Bob's ship at a landing platform]

(text describing Bob's arrival on Nar Shaddaa, his run-in with a few criminals and his further search for a Rodian called Reev)

[picture of Bob facing Reev]

(text describing Bob's conversation with Reev, after which he ultimately kills him)

<chapter ends>

B) Novel Style 2 - Many Images

[picture of the beginning of the chapter]

(15 lines of text)

[picture of Bob in the city]

(imagine 5 to 10 more lines until the next picture)

[picture of Bob walking towards his ship]

(imagine 10 to 20 more lines here, describing Bob's departure from the planet)

[picture of Bob looking out of the window, to end the chapter]

"CHAPTER 9: A Fiery Welcome"

[picture of Bob's ship at a landing platform]

(text describing Bob's arrival on Nar Shaddaa]

[picture of Bob's run-in with a few criminals]

(text describing the encounter, imagine 10 to 20 lines or more)

[picture of Bob's continued search for the Rodian]

(text describing the search, imagine more than 10 lines)

[picture of Bob facing Reev]

(text describing Bob's conversation with Reev, after which he ultimately kills him)

[picture of Bob walking away from Reev's dead body]

<chapter ends>

D1) Less text and more dialogue & pictures (and a different way of presenting dialogue)

[picture of two characters walking around in a corridor]

They walked back and forth, not speaking a word until one of them finally stood still.

SURIP: We can't do this.

APE: Who says we can't?

SURIP: I don't really know.

[picture of Surip taking out his blaster]

SURIP: But I do know that it's time to end this.

D2) Comic Book Series Style

Probably more time consuming and I'm not sure if it would work very well for something like this, but I'm open to the idea.

I've also thought of something I've seen in the Nar Eurbrikka subforum, which seemed like something that may be interesting to try, even though I'm not sure if I want to utilize anything like it for my own story at all, since it may feel somewhat limiting and won't work on sites like Flickr (if I do end up posting the full stories there, which I'm currently still doubting about as well), I'd still like to hear what you would think of it. Below, I've combined it (a bit) with the novel style.

E1) Nar Eurbrikka Style: Option A "Novel Style - Few images" combined with small minifig head pics to show who's talking

[Picture of Han Solo in Mos Eisley Cantina]

Han attempted to get out of the cantina, but he was stopped by a Rodian mercenary.

The Rodian was pointing his blaster towards Han, urging him to sit down again.

He spoke in Huttese, which he was able to translate into Galactic Basic.

[HUTTESE] Going somewhere, Solo?

Yes, Greedo. As a matter of fact, I was

just going to see your boss.

E2) With names (could be useful in some cases to make things more clear)

[Picture of Han Solo in Mos Eisley Cantina]

Han attempted to get out of the cantina, but he was stopped by a Rodian mercenary.

The Rodian was pointing his blaster towards Han, urging him to sit down again.

He spoke in Huttese, which he was able to translate into Galactic Basic.

Greedo:

[HUTTESE] Going somewhere, Solo?

Han Solo:

Yes, Greedo. As a matter of fact, I was

just going to see your boss.

And then there are also E1 and E2, the same as D1 and D2 but in combination with "Novel Style: many images" rather than few.

I'd like to hear your opinions on these ideas so far, which one you think works best, and any suggestions for my story and the process of creating it would also be most welcome. Alternatively, other suggestions for ways of doing it are also welcome.

It's going to be quite the project and I want to know what you guys think before I start working on it at all - hence, the creation of this topic.

Many thanks in advance!

(Also, for those who wish to know, the story will most likely take place during the times of The Old Republic)

Edited June 24, 2015 by General Magma

[Mesabi]

I'd think a comic book style wouldn't be that hard to do, if you know how to photoshop. Otherwise, I'd stick to Option B. But that's just my opinion, I'm not really a fan of walls of text.

[MKJoshA]

I often use the "wall of text" method in my GoH builds accompanied with a picture every now and then. I've never gotten push bak on that. Those who want to read it will, and those who don't will just scroll through and see the pictures. I'm also a big fan of the last style you showed with the talking heads with labels underneath. Looking forward to seeing this in the future!

[General Magma]

I'd think a comic book style wouldn't be that hard to do, if you know how to photoshop. Otherwise, I'd stick to Option B. But that's just my opinion, I'm not really a fan of walls of text.

If nothing else goes, I'm sure I'd be able to teach myself how to do that - though I'm leaning a little more towards Option B, too, now, and I'm not sure if the comic book style would work well for this. The "walls of text" approach is something I've been thinking of for a while, and I'm still contemplating whether it would be the best thing to go for here or not. I don't want to have too much text ("too much" being an amount that would cause it to have a hard time attracting readers), but probably not too many pictures either,

so I'll have to figure out the right balance - and I'm hoping to hear the opinions of more people about it, so I can get a better idea of what people would like best, overall.

I often use the "wall of text" method in my GoH builds accompanied with a picture every now and then. I've never gotten push bak on that. Those who want to read it will, and those who don't will just scroll through and see the pictures. I'm also a big fan of the last style you showed with the talking heads with labels underneath. Looking forward to seeing this in the future!

I'm still rather hesitant to go for the "wall of text" method, it seems to be something people tend to go "TL;DR" on, but maybe not.

I also like the last style - the first type without the names, not so much, but then I tweaked it a little and added the names and it came out nicely.

Still, I'm not sure if that would be ideal for this (when posting images & accompanying story on Flickr, I would be forced to replace the pics of the heads with just names),

so I'm gonna have to find a way to figure out what might work best for this. Maybe a different style altogether would be better, if I'd be able to find one in the first place.

Edited June 24, 2015 by General Magma

[General Magma]

Still looking for opinions on this matter, and here's another thing - do you all think I should, as for pictures, stick with "scenes"

created to be more cinematic-looking & resemble film stills, for example, or go with photos of MOCs with clear bases?

I myself was thinking of the former because it would probably work better for the story - but then again, I'm sitting on the fence with this

and some may actually prefer the latter. Maybe not. But either way, I'd like to hear some more thoughts on both this matter and the one described in the first post.

[GuyDudeMan27]

I did a story on my Flickr using the latter, and I liked it. I couldn't really build the former cause of part limitations and the environment I was portraying. My story seemed to go over pretty well with the community there. I think the former is better suited for actually making brick films. And I was far from alone in using the latter. I would have a vignette displaying part of the story, and then a paragraph below it telling the story. Then again mine was in log entries which lend a bit better to that style. I hope this'll help you in deciding.

[General Magma]

I did a story on my Flickr using the latter, and I liked it. I couldn't really build the former cause of part limitations and the environment I was portraying. My story seemed to go over pretty well with the community there. I think the former is better suited for actually making brick films. And I was far from alone in using the latter. I would have a vignette displaying part of the story, and then a paragraph below it telling the story. Then again mine was in log entries which lend a bit better to that style. I hope this'll help you in deciding.

Hmm, the log entry type of thing does seem to fit in better with that style.

Since I'm planning to make this more like a novel-type of story, I think I should just go for the usage of scenes,

and give it more of a cinematic feeling. I've got some really nice ideas so I'd say that would be the favorable option here.

[General Magma]

Before I start writing the first few chapters of the story, I would like to hear some more opinions about the ways of presenting it on EB and other sites, as shown in the first post.

Any other advice would be more than welcome, I'm still trying to find handy tips to incorporate into the project.

[General Magma]

Since I'm getting closer and closer to starting this, and a decision about this has not fully been made yet,

I would still like to hear from some more people what the preferred format, etc. would be for them.

Check out the first post and let me know your opinions, it would be of great help for me when it comes to deciding what to go for, which I'm gonna have to do very soon.

I've also been experimenting with scenes lately, namely on smaller scene with my Wild West MOC, "The Lone Chieftain",

to test certain ways to create compositions (along with a certain atmosphere) and improving the overall quality of my scenes:

For Star Wars scenes, I have several other things that I'd like to implement into those scenes as well.

Edited July 21, 2015 by General Magma

[General Magma]

Had a break from this for a while, but now I'm planning to get back to working on it again soon. I'm looking for a few more final thoughts on this matter.

I was thinking of just going with something like the example given with D1, but some more opinions on this matter, and maybe ideas, would be nice.

Other than that, I'm also looking for someone who would be interested in helping me with this story - discuss ideas, feedback about my plans, etc.

If you are interested in doing so, let me know! The story will mainly take place in and revolve around the underworld of the Star Wars universe.

Edited October 2, 2015 by General Magma