THE CATACOMBS - Welcome to my article! I'm here to give a general guide to
winning the Storytelling, including some tips I never saw in any articles.
Also, sorry if I sound harsh, but some of the entries recently made me cry.
So this is partly to improve the standard of the writing and partly to open
people's eyes. The Storytelling is a wonderful way of gaining a rare item,
some fan mail, some NP and a beautiful trophy. You don't have to be a published
author to win it!
So how to win the Storytelling…or comfort yourself if you lose?
Length
Go for about 3-4 paragraphs, probably longer if you want, but the Neopets
Team aren't going to appreciate scrolling through an essay or read one sentence.
Argh!
Stuck? Add an inventive twist. If the characters are looking for a blue necklace,
and see something blue, DON'T make it a necklace! Inventive twists are very
important. Out of millions of entries with blue necklaces, only the very best
written or most imaginative will stand out. Yours is more distinctive if you
DON'T have a blue necklace.
Check
Have you made Dillan a Krawk in your passage, when before he was a Cybunny?
Did you change the grouchy character into a happy go lucky pet? Check the paragraphs
before yours and make sure!
Sure Winners?
If there's only one character, introduce another. More than four gets a bit
fiddly though. Make their personalities really obvious and definite.
Like I once used, it's better to squash evil Fuzzles with a Glass Coffee Table
than "a table". It makes it more Neopian and more interesting.
Decorate a bit but not too much. "A Lupe" is boring. "A beautiful White Lupe"
is better. "A beautiful Lupe with pads as soft as velvet, fur as white as snow,
eyes a pretty shade of forest green and a gentle, lilting voice" maybe too much
if the sentence is short. Occasionally this much detail is good.
Sure Losers
WhAt ThE LuPe WaNtEd… Don't use the mixture of capitals and lower case. Don't
use slang eg The Lup no wot u r doin.
Check punctuation and spelling.
Make sure it makes sense - I had to read one entry three times and it still
didn't make any sense.
Think of what the characters may feel and how they make act.
Make it a little funny if you want to but bad jokes are awful.
Ending
You may well be writing the ending paragraph. Bring everything up to a satisfying
conclusion. Please DO NOT do any of these:
- A Neopian staff member comes on and tells you the story's gone on too long
- "Cut!" says the director. "That's the end."
- So-so gets married to Bo Bo and they live happily ever after and have 50
Quiggles.
Remember to keep trying - I used to send in at least one paragraph for every
bit of the story, sometimes two. Lastly, here are some comforts if you don't
win or, even worse, you lose out to someone whose writing ability is minimal:
- The Neopian Staff thought mine was so brilliant that if they put it in, everyone
else would be discouraged.
- Mine was sent in so late that they'd already picked one before they read
mine. (I once sent in a paragraph only to find the next one had been put up
while I was typing. I put my head down and worked on the next one.)
- The Pant Devil stole my entry and the staff never got to read it.
- You shall die! You shall all die! Wait till I'm Ruler of Neopia. Who will
win the Storytelling then? MUHAHAHAHA!
This is oily106, now off to write her next piece. Storytelling? Poetry? Neopian
Times? The world of Neopia is her oyster and somewhere there is a pearl…
Disclaimer - The author only believes in taking over Neopia if you lose the
Poetry as well as the Storytelling. The sure winners may not actually win you
anything - they are just tips. If you feel you are being targeted when I say the
standard of writing has gone down, read this article and improve yourself :) | 
