DiD writeup process?

[GalenEvil]

Hi, I was wondering what sort of process people here go about when writing up DiDs. Do you keep a text editor open while playing? Do you write notes on a physical sheet of paper? Do you do a voice recording so you don't have to stop playing to make up your notes?

I have been thinking about this for a few days and decided I would get the opinions of those who actually do make DiDs. I have started experimenting today with the audio recording aspect of jotting down notes and so far it is working pretty well. Has, so far, been much easier to just talk out what I'm doing in game than to pause and jot notes on paper or swich screens over to my text editor. I haven't begun transcribing my notes yet so don't quite have a full picture of its ease of use.

Any information or guidance will be appreciated

--GalenEvil

[Buck_Rogers]

I use a pen and paper.

If there is too much on screen action, I wait until it dies down before I start writing. That's why I'm glad of the large distances between some of the places I dock at. As long as I don't use SETA, I have plenty of time to jot down what I need.

Also, don't forget to take screenshots. Your audience will appreciate your DiD a bit more.

[Mr. Stubb]

I use the open text editor method. Once I've done a few things in-game which seem worth noting, I do a quick alt-tab and write a paragraph or two. Writing this post makes me want to get back to my DiD, I've sort of put it on hold for a few days as I'm having quite a bit of fun with another save and a new mod. Hopefully I'll get back to it soon though.

[Rednoahl]

Paper notes for me. I've had a few powercuts and the like during DiD games where I would have lost things done on notepad or something. I found that using notes I was better at fitting character info and story because I'd end up doing little diagrams/flowchart type things to keep ideas flowing while doing the more monotonous in game stuff.

My first DiD was mainly done on notepad while playing, and I found that I ended up with vast walls of fairly boring text (at least in my case I found it difficult to be creative when a lot of writing had already been done.) Using written paper notes to base writing on was a much faster process, and I think my last DiD was much better for it.

[Zaitsev]

I use a combo of screenshots, pen and paper. Jot down a few keywords while I let the autopillock deal with the flying, try to take a few screenshots when things happen and then use them to jolt my memory when I'm writing.

Tend to die pretty fast, though, so it's usually four or five pages before it's game over

[GalenEvil]

I just transcribed a little over an hour of audio and it came to about three pages of type. I thinking I did well enough at describing my gameplay to visualize what I was doing, so I should be able to add more descriptive and interesting narration to it and make it around five or six pages of type before I start gleaning it for use as a chapter for my story. But that hour of audio only covers about two hours in game time.

This is going to be a long road for me to take I think, but it might be worth it. I will try to remember to do screenshots next time I start up the game and see if that helps my storytelling style.

--GalenEvil

[Triaxx2]

I've never had much luck being able to alt-tab out of the game, so I use my laptop with an open text editor to write as I'm doing things, taking advantage of the pause feature to write in the midst of battles even, particularly when it's really hairy.