SuperStarter

I just found this area of these forums. Hopefully, this is the right place for ongoing story discussion. Since this story is built around interactivity with readers, I wanted to welcome any thoughts or ideas that you have. First, though, I wanted to let you know some of my initial thoughts for background.

1. Thanks also to ChaozCloud for the idea behind the story. I was all set to just write a story about crowdfunded superheroines--I had it mapped out and was beginning to write it when Lfan had the idea to include the polls. Then, Fats got the polls actually working inside of stories. Woodclaw does a lot of thankless work behind the scenes as well, getting the stories into the "SWM" style, tagging them, and probably other things that I'm not even fully aware of. It's pretty incredible what all of those guys do for this little community for free.

2. Thank you all so much for the wonderful participation!!! There has been far more readership and voting than I imagined when it first went live! This little genre community is so engaged that it makes it so much fun to write superheroine stories!

3. I'm so glad that things are fairly even so far between Hannah and Serena. I was a little worried that one of them might run away with it, but it's staying fairly close, which is much better for storytelling purposes.

4. I'm also thrilled to see more than just strength/invulnerability winning votes! I'm especially impressed with the mental powers. I'm going to have to come up with some good ideas for those...

5. I'm thinking of cutting off the votes on Thursday mornings, giving me Thursday evening/Friday to write the next installment and Woodclaw time to get everything set before Sunday's story update. Thoughts?

6. I'm planning to make RPG-style power ratings for Hannah and Serena, as well as for Ultraman and Galaxy Girl to quantify things a bit for the readers to know where they stand. The "power levels" will be the number of votes. I think that the later rounds may be multiplied as well, but that may depend on where the plot goes. If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

7. I'm planning to alternate the point of view in each installment (i.e. Hannah -> Serena -> Hannah -> Serena). I thought about going with the winner each week, but I worry that if the same character wins multiple weeks in a row, I won't be able to get back to the other one. If you have other thoughts/ideas, I would love to hear them.

8. Please share any ideas or recommendations you have for where to take the story! Hopefully, you can see that I'm very open to trying different things and taking stories in directions that aren't what I would normally want to see, myself, as a reader. I grow so much more quickly as a writer trying things outside my comfort zone. Please bear with me if it's a little rough for a chapter or two as I feel my way into things.

I hope to hear from you, either here or via private message (if you would prefer to share ideas privately). Thanks!!!

I think your idea of alternating pov is great.
One main challenge will be to keep the rivalry and race between the characters going even if power levels diverge. 

I suspect most people here will vote for the heroine, as opposed to the darker character--unfortunately, in my opinion--and I hope you manage to keep Serena in the game. Multiplying powers as time goes on is one way, as are alternative paths, perhaps with some sort of "many worlds theory" quantum device. 

Certainly, I hope you explore the idea of a darker world--even if only at the end, through a bonus alternate ending. I'm sure I'm not the only one on the site who wants to see where that would lead!

Excellent idea, and good execution so far. Congratulations.

First off as I mentioned in the comments, great job bringing this story idea to life so far!!

As for the voting window, if you wish to release weekly thursday is already tight for you and Woodclaw I'd imagine, but if you want to maximize the number of votes you could consider releasing something every 2 weeks to give readers more than 4 days to vote. I'm guessing not everyone checks out the forums every 3 days.

The changing back and forth with the pov would be challenging to write I think but if you can manage it that would be a very interesting addition to the story.

What does everyone else think? Should I slow it down to allow for more participation or make weekly updates?

The changing POV won't be a problem. I'm a fast writer, so I don't mind a one day turnaround per episode, but if people would prefer more time to vote, I can do that...

As a reader, once a week is definitely better, even if the chapters are shorter. I think regularity is key, so if that takes longer, it's fine.

IMO, have the story be biweekly. Have the cutoff for voting be on the sunday the week after the story was published. That will give people a good amount of time to read and vote. It will also give you some extra time to plan and write the story.

I'm not so sure every 2nd week will change polling numbers greatly since people probably check in once a week. Therefore, as a reader, I prefer it weekly. 

As a reader having something new every week sounds great. As an author this might prove quite difficult. You may be able to keep up the pace for a few weeks but eventually you need the time to sit back and plan out the plot. Or the motivation drops and you suddenly HAVE to throw something out in a short time. Sooner or later this could lead to writing yourself into a corner.
And don't forget the holidays that usually affect the schedule.

So two weeks sounds better in the long run.

Firstly Love the name Hannah as a superheroine... Just saying

The idea is good but I think the two week turn around with a one week poll is a good way to go Like njae said. Mainly for the same reasons he's brought up as well; Giving yourself 36 hours to write a story each week puts yourself under the pump unnecessarily particularly if you hit unforseen circumstances and It kind of also puts Woodclaw under the pump as well given he'll have to not only edit your story but any others that drop by. That being said if he's cool with it then by all means give it a crack.

I want to see where you take it as a fellow Author though I think you telegraphed where it's heading already. It's a good way to integrate the polls into something meaningful as well

Cheers

Woody 

Don't worry about my ability to crank out an episode each week. I can do it. Seriously. No big.

I'm more focused on keeping interest in it, which I think a weekly update does better. If people really believe the number of votes after the first 4-5 days will be substantial, I may go for two weeks, but I always prefer fast to slow. Maybe it's the runner in me.

Woody, I'm not certain how I've telegraphed the story, other than that the girls will become more powerful, since I don't know how it will end!

What the readers choose will ultimately decide the journey and the end. That's what's so fun about this one. It's nice not to have to drive. I can just sit in the passenger seat, rest my feet on the dashboard, kick back, and enjoy the ride...

The selfish side of me wants once a week. However I’m just hoping you dont get burnt out or stressed doing it.

I appreciate your concern, but I won't burn out. This is fun for me, not work. Weekly is actually my preference.

HikerAngel wrote: I appreciate your concern, but I won't burn out. This is fun for me, not work. Weekly is actually my preference.

And an enthusiastic and eager readership is immensely motivating and energizing. 

We write because we have big imaginations and stories we want to tell. But the highest octane fuel that goes in the "story engine tank" comes from reader enthusiasm. 

Shadar

shadar wrote: And an enthusiastic and eager readership is immensely motivating and energizing. 

We write because we have big imaginations and stories we want to tell. But the highest octane fuel that goes in the "story engine tank" comes from reader enthusiasm. 

Shadar

^^^ What Shadar said!

Serena's starting to pull ahead a bit. Gotta try to make Hannah more appealing... hmmm...

It's interesting that Megan (regular girl) is trouncing Maria (sexy superheroine) in The Sister, yet Serena (amoral superheroine candidate) is pulling ahead of Hannah (wholesome superheroine candidate) on SuperStarter! I would have guessed the other way around, if anything, when this began.

HikerAngel wrote:

shadar wrote: And an enthusiastic and eager readership is immensely motivating and energizing. 

We write because we have big imaginations and stories we want to tell. But the highest octane fuel that goes in the "story engine tank" comes from reader enthusiasm. 

Shadar

^^^ What Shadar said!

Serena's starting to pull ahead a bit. Gotta try to make Hannah more appealing... hmmm...

It's interesting that Megan (regular girl) is trouncing Maria (sexy superheroine) in The Sister, yet Serena (amoral superheroine candidate) is pulling ahead of Hannah (wholesome superheroine candidate) on SuperStarter! I would have guessed the other way around, if anything, when this began.

Guess that's the main appeal of writing it crowd based. Even you can't tell where it's going! 

HikerAngel wrote:

shadar wrote: And an enthusiastic and eager readership is immensely motivating and energizing. 

We write because we have big imaginations and stories we want to tell. But the highest octane fuel that goes in the "story engine tank" comes from reader enthusiasm. 

Shadar

^^^ What Shadar said!

Serena's starting to pull ahead a bit. Gotta try to make Hannah more appealing... hmmm...

It's interesting that Megan (regular girl) is trouncing Maria (sexy superheroine) in The Sister, yet Serena (amoral superheroine candidate) is pulling ahead of Hannah (wholesome superheroine candidate) on SuperStarter! I would have guessed the other way around, if anything, when this began.

We had a discussion here before about this community preferring bad ubergirls over good ones - so Serena taking lead is no surprise at all. I guess Megan has a chance because character-wise Maria seems like a good girl as well.

Come to think of it you only vote for Marcs decision. A vote for Maria being a good girl or secretly wanting to sabotage the relationship is a different thing. And from the current standpoint its possible that sticking with Megan would bring out evil Maria to up her game while going for Maria could mean shes as nice as she seems and NOT happy he'd betray her sister like that.

Okay, I'm going to work on episode 2 today at lunch and after work. I hope to wrap it up by tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest.

The locked in stats will be:

HANNAH
Strength: 143
Invulnerability: 143
Speed: 36
Flight: 36
Laser Eyes: 25
X-Ray Eyes: 25
Superbreath: 25
Telepathy: 54
Telekinesis: 54

SERENA
Strength: 268
Invulnerability: 268
Speed: 74
Flight: 51
Laser Eyes: 51
X-Ray Eyes: 51
Superbreath: 51
Telepathy: 162
Telekinesis: 162

Hannah fans, don't lose heart, there is plenty more story to come...

Serena fans--impressive showing!

Okay, I submitted Superstarter 2 this morning. It should be up this Sunday. Hopefully, I didn't back Woodclaw into too much of a corner! (Thanks, Woodclaw! We really, really appreciate you!)

I really didn't expect the mental powers to do so well, but I'm glad they did. It made for some fun stuff. I'm thinking of ways to be even more creative with it in the upcoming chapters.

After seeing the costumes discussion in another thread, I think that I'm going to have a vote on costumes in Episode 3 as well as powers. After all, Hannah and Serena need some more appropriate duds after another power-up! (Apologies to the SWM team if I'm making more poll work for you guys!)

Well, the new chapter is live! (Thanks, Woodclaw!) I have some ideas for the third based on how the early voting is going.

I'm glad to see that Serena's wish for more speed is being answered as well. The interactivity of this whole thing is really amazing...

In episode 3, the voters are going to choose costumes in addition to powers for Hannah and Serena. Possibly names as well, though I may wait for episode 4 for names to space things out a bit. Anyway, I saw the thread on costumes, so I want to make sure that I get this right. 

I'm currently thinking of the following options:
- Original Supergirl TV show costume style
- New Supergirl TV show costume style (with pants)
- Wonder Woman costume (from the recent movie)
- Mera costume style from Aquaman

Are any of those choices not good? Are there options you would like to see added? Please let me know your thoughts...

Also, I wanted to understand if you prefer each individual power as an option or if you like the packages of powers better.

Thanks!

Personally I liked the packages of powers better

Okay then, it's settled. Packages again next time!

I think for me it was mostly about how they were packaged. Personally, I felt flight to be more in vein of the mental powers Telekinesis or Telepathy than with Super Speed.

The downside right now is that you only have one vote (every 12 hours) so that you can only chose one power. If you had like, 3 votes per character for primary, secondary and tertiary power, then it wouldn't be so restrictive either.

Another compromise is that there are a lot more packages to chose from, with powers appearing in multiple packages? Like Strength/Invulnerability, Speed/Invulnerabilty, Flight/Telekinesis, Telekinesis/Telepathy...