Help Advice On Writing Career Threads

[Fozz_Quaker]

I love reading career threads and have tried writing some myself, but I don't feel I do myself justice...

There are some talented writers out there and I just want to pick some brains about how to write a decent career thread...

Any advice would be appreciated

[veerus]

To me, it's about telling a story. Not many people care about random screenshots of your game. But it is much more interesting to learn about decisions made or goals achieved. You gotta come up with a style or an angle from which to tell your story. 

[BatiGoal]

Agree with you @veerus as long as the challenge/aim doesn't get lost and it turns into an aimless novel. For me the challenge/achievement is priority but as you say it's gotta be well-presented to get clicks.

Another thing I'd like to mention since we're on topic, I personally much prefer half-seasonal or seasonal updates on a career as it makes it so much easier to follow one's progress/story. Multiple single-post updates break a career in my opinion. There's a few going around and that's totally their choice but I can't stand it personally.

@Fozz_Quaker have a crack at it and see how it goes. Once you post a few you'll know what viewers want to see included etc. and you'll find your own style then. Having a unique career/challenge is definitely a bonus.

 

[Ashez]

Posting a career comes in two parts, part one is the save itself and part two is the thread. 

Part One - The Save: 

When picking a save to post you need to pick something unique so you can stand out, you need something to hook the viewers, something to give reason for people to comment and most importantly you need to be committed to the save. As a follower there is nothing more annoying than getting invested in a story only for the author to stop because they've lost interest. You're asking us to invest our time in your work and if you get a reputation of "wasting people's time" people will stop caring/following. I also agree with Bati's points of multiple updates being too much in most cases, asking us to invest in many updates a season is asking a lot and it's also asking a lot of the writer. 

1. Being Unique - Fairly obvious but try and post something someone else isn't at that time. 

2. The Hook - Usually being the challenge or aim of the save. Can also be more story oriented or whatever really, you just need something to make people want to invest. This leads into giving people a reason to comment, if they can leave an opinion on how things are going etc it's an easy comment to get, ask questions, try and engage the readers and so on. 

3. Being Invested - My best advice is to play a few season in advanced and make sure the save is to your liking. I'll usually play 3-5 seasons before posting just to be sure. This also means I have a backlog of updates I can post which means I can always stay ahead and have updates to go. I like to post every other day so I post 2/3 a week, in my system it usually means I can post 2/3 seasons and play the next few seasons in that week etc. 

4. How often to update - My approach depends on the save. If it's a long multi year save I'll do seasonal (5+), if it's a short save I'll likely do half seasons (>5) and if it's a one season save I'll usually do monthly updates. This is because I don't want to take up too much of the viewers time but it also needs to be worth it to me comment/view wise. 

Part Two - The Thread. 

Style - Finding your own style is key and can make updating so much quicker. My style is usually to just show everything needed while saying a few words. I like to give my viewers options of how they read it so they can take it all in or just scan the images etc. I have posted the odd story from time to time but these tend to be massive time sinks and it's hard to justify doing them IMO, the community responses are rarely worth the effort imo. Then again I might just be a poor writer so people aren't interested . Liam is one my favourite career posters as I think he gets the balance just on the money, it's an easy career to read in depth or just skim. 

Images - Images are key be it as evidence or just to show what's going on, we're here due to the game after all. However too image heavy and it can become a tad bland and hard to load so I've started hiding the more optional information behind spoilers, again I'm giving people the option of taking it all in or just getting to the point of my save. 

Career Title - I'm not saying use click bait tactics but the title is key to gaining those views, you want people to be interested enough to want to look at your save. I usually just try and have the basics in mine like what I'm aiming to achieve etc. I often put a lot of time into coming up with the right title, tbh some saves even had the title picked out first haha. 

When To Update - Try not to spam updates or to post key information in a standard comment as it gives people a lot to catch up on which they might not. Updates need time to breath but you also can't leave them too long that people just lose interest. I've always liked my every other day approach. 

Be reasonable - Try and be reasonable with what views/comments you expect to receive. This is a topic close to my heart as the comments have nosedived from what they used to be compared to the views. Just try not to get down about it, just keep plugging away and you'll get there. I often get naggy about the lack of comments across the careers forums but the views are outstanding, I'd always rather that personal interaction but I'm trying to just be happy knowing I'm entertaining people, even if they think my multiple hours of work isn't worth the 30 seconds it takes to leave a comment  

The big One - The most imporant aspect of career posting is just enjoy it, have a laugh with it and don't make it more than it is. 

Hopefully that's helpful  

[Taff]

Can I just say I love how much both @BatiGoal and @Ashez are willing to help the people on this site, I know how busy both are with challenges and threads of their own but I am just amazed at how eager and willing they are to help out with EVERY MEMBER of this site

Well done guys

@Fozz_Quaker I will say that Ashez last point is the most valid  HAVE FUN I used to get really down of my threads or idea's didn't get much feedback but as long as your Enjoying yourself I promise people will comment and give advice and the two I mentioned earlier are always willing and able to help out

[Ashez]

With Vibe the more you put in the more you get back.

[arobbo92]

Stay on topic but also think outside of the box. When writing mine I think about what I would like to see in a story. You will always get feedback from the great members on here.

[Fozz_Quaker]

@BatiGoal @Ashez Many thanks for taking time to advise me, as an fan of both your work, it means a lot taking advice from you...

I am working on something at the moment, a My Club save, just tinkering around to see what I can create and come up with, probably starting with a bit of a story ?

Thanks for the replies guys ?