I’ve been going to write a story. Most of the events and some of the plot were already in existance all I had to do was fill a few gaps the original story line had missed and revise the balance between some characters at a key point.

I have been going to do this for two or three years now; all I have to do is sit down and do it…

I will sit down and do it Dave … I will …

I hadn’t even thought of it until you mentioned it!

I think “Collateral Damage Woman” would be a good Superhero name myself. Any resemblance to any of the players in my on-line game is pure coincidence, honest guv.

I don’t know how you found this. I thought it was really well hidden!

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You can read it here:
http://www.dreamlyrics.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=54

The threads are numbered chronologically - spot the point where I lost count and missed a number out.

I’ve got a couple of very good writers, especially Nicki Jett, and I find in the hands of a good writer, PBeM/PBmB games let you see inside the heads of the characters in the way that doesn’t happen in face-to-face RPG sessions.

When editing my own writing, it’s really hard to discipline myself to read what’s on the page instead of what I think is on the page.

Editing other people’s work is a different kind of problem. The difficulty there is to know how much of their “voice” to preserve while making them consistent and readable. Because I’m a writer myself, it’s tempting to impose my idea of what sounds right when their version is equally right (but different). It’s actually easier if their writing is diabolically bad because then I can just re-write the whole thing!

I’d be interested to read your PBeM fiction. Is any of it in your blog? I’ve found that you can’t actually turn an RPG session into gripping fiction — because it’s unplanned the pacing never works, and you’ve never got the right depth of subtext or any other clever stuff like that.

I find that it’s better to write something “inspired by” the game session, rather than a verbatim transcript. A bit like a movie “based on a true story”.

It might be different in a PBeM game where people have more time to consider their character’s actions and are producing a collaborative narrative rather than an improvised theatre performance.

Do you feel compelled to play air-keyboards to Jon Lord’s “Bach Onto This”, or it just me?

Pretty sure it’s just you, Tim.

Although I do play air violin to Vanessa-Mae’s version of the same tune…

I’m tried turning PBeM message archives into workable short fiction, and that’s really, really hard work - the unedited first draft is email or message board exchanges between two or three people, which sometimes isn’t even consistent in person, tense or UK/US spelling. And that’s before you get into multiple POVs.