Editing Short Stories (Guide)

{{GuideFor|Pages = The Writer's Desk: Begin a Work#Write a Short Story#The Writer's Desk: work on your story!#The Writer's Desk: rework!#Potential#Working on...#The Writer's Desk: Finish a Short Story#The Writer's Desk#Make Your Name – The Writer's Desk: Begin a Work#Making Your Name: Writing a Short Story#Your Activities}}{{Audience|EarlyMYN}}[[Has icon::File:Furtivehand.png|right]]
{{ActivitySummary
|Activity=Writing a Short Story
|Length=Variable
|Starting Actions=1
|Progress Actions=2
|Ending Actions=1
|Progress Details=Raise {{IL|Potential}} while maintaining at least 10 {{IL|Manuscript Page}}s. Caps at 334 {{IL|Potential}} for 100% chance of a {{IL|Classic Short Story}}.
|Output Items=*{{IL|Unloved Short Story}}
*{{IL|Short Story}}
*{{IL|Competent Short Story}}
*{{IL|Thrilling Short Story}}
*{{IL|Exceptional Short Story}}
*{{IL|Extraordinary Short Story}}
*{{IL|Masterful Short Story}}
*{{IL|Celebrated Short Story}}
*{{IL|Classic Short Story}}
|Boost Items=*''{{IL|Ornate Typewriter}}''
|Raw EPA = 1.73
|Special = 0.75 {{IL|Making Waves}}/A
|Conversion=Yes
|Input Items=*{{IL|F.F. Gebrandt's Superior Laudanum}}
*{{IL|Romantic Notion}}
*{{IL|Scrap of Incendiary Gossip}}
*{{IL|Compilation of Case-Notes}}
*{{IL|Tale of Terror!!}}
*{{IL|Compromising Document}}
*{{IL|Memory of Distant Shores}}
*{{IL|Hard-Earned Lesson}}
*{{IL|Zee-Ztory}}
*{{IL|Extraordinary Implication}}
*{{IL|Touching Love Story}}
*{{IL|An Identity Uncovered!}}
*{{IL|Favour in High Places}}
*{{IL|Blackmail Material}}
*{{IL|Trade Secret}}
}}
__TOC__
'''Abstract''': draft, rewrite, publish - the art of writing and making money.

==[[Literary Ambitions]]==
This is a storylet in [[The Singing Mandrake]]. It's only listed here for completion's sake, and to avoid confusion.

This storylet shows different options (based on the Airs of London) to write something for a commission, but has nothing to do with writing Short Stories, which is what the rest of this guide is about.


==The Writer's Desk==
[[The Writer's Desk]] generates a [[Short Story]], which so far has (nearly) no other purpose than to improve the author's budget. The task of creating ''Manuscript Pages'' with a ''Potential'' to become a ''Short Story'' is based on {{IL|Persuasive}}. The final outcome (and thus the author's income) is based on the quality of the created manuscript.


===Begin a Work===
You [[The Writer's Desk: Begin a Work|Begin a Work]] and [[Write a Short Story]]. You now have {{IL|Manuscript Page|1 x}} with a [[Potential]] of 20.

'''Note''': Throughout the process of creating a ''Short Story'' you can pause or step back and forth between the different stages without any penalty. But now that you are [[Working on...]] a ''Short Story'' you should not simultaneously try [[Carving out a Reputation at Court (Guide)]] otherwise [[Something is wrong!]]
[[File:Typewriter.png|right]]
===Work on your story!===
In fact you can move on to improve the script's ''Potential'' at [[Rework and Finish!]] when you have {{IL|Manuscript Page|3 x}}s, but to finish your ''Short Story'' you will need at least 10 of them.

You start with 20 [[Potential]], which represents the script's quality and ability to become a certain ''Short Story''. The higher your ''Potential'' the better the chance to make it a more valuable ''Short Story''. If you let this drop to 0 your script will become a useless [[Wreckage!]], and you have to [[Consign it to the flames]].

With 20 ''Potential'' (and the reluctance to spend expensive items), you should have about 30-45 pages before you advance, for the editing process will consume pages until ''Potential'' hits 60. You may want to try ''Laudanum!'' in the beginning to push ''Potential'' - or burn your script if it goes awfully wrong. The use of ''Laudanum!'' later on is either not advisable or desperate.{{/Table Gaining Manuscripts}}

[[File:nib.png|right]]
===Rework!===
At an early stage of the reworking process you can either use your raw material or some specific items to increase [[Potential]]. Higher quality ''Short Stories'' require more valuable items (or a daring use of ''Laudanum!''. Except for [[Touching Love Story]], [[Favour in High Places]] and [[Trade Secret]] all items worth 2.50 echoes or more will also give 1-2 points of [[:Category:Menaces|menace]] - even on a success.{{/Table Gaining Potential}}

You may go [[Back to writing...]] or finally [[Finish your Short Story]].
[[File:Story.png|right]]
===Finish a Short Story===
Go back, if your story is [[Not quite ready yet...]] or finish it off if you have at least 10 pages with 16 [[Potential]]. <u>Publishing is a ''Potential'' challenge</u>, consumes all created pages and might add some [[:Category:Making Waves|Making Waves]]. Failing degrades your story two tiers. Echoes sale price is in brackets - although not higher math, for your convenience the last column shows the Echo difference .{{/Table Publish Short Story}}

=== Uses of Short Stories ===
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Short Story
!Sell
!Uses
|-
|{{IL|Unloved Short Story}}
|{{E}}1
|None.
|-
|{{Il|Short Story}}
|{{E}}2
|None.
|-
|{{Il|Competent Short Story}}
|{{E}}10
|None.
|-
|{{Il|Compelling Short Story}}
|{{E}}30
|None.
|-
|{{Il|Thrilling Short Story}}
|{{E}}50
|None.
|-
|{{Il|Exceptional Short Story}}
|{{E}}60
|[[Advance from Journalist to Author]]
|-
|{{Il|Extraordinary Short Story}}
|{{E}}70
|[[Pen a vigorous defence to be circulated to those|Option if playing against the Bishop]] in {{IL|Ambition: Heart's Desire!|Appearance=Heart's Desire}}
|-
|{{Il|Masterful Short Story}}
|{{E}}80
|None.
|-
|{{Il|Celebrated Short Story}}
|{{E}}130
|None.
|-
|{{Il|Classic Short Story}}
|{{E}}180
|[[Sacrifice a work of genius|Option to get St Cerise's Candle]] ({{FontSMEN}})
|}
'''Final notes:'''
*''A Compelling Short Story'' has a real bad ratio on action points for what it's worth in the end, if you don't push your ''Potential'' with some ''Laudanum''.
*A failure on ''A Thrilling Short Story'' is a real pain, so it seems advisable to rather aim for ''An Exceptional Short Story''.
*The optimal way to earn the most echoes and [[Making Waves]] per action with modified [[Persuasive]] 183+ is to grind [[Touching Love Story|Touching Love Stories]] in [[Polythremic Promenade (Guide)|Polythreme]], use [[Laudanum!]] and scrap it if it fails, then use either [[Write frantically]] or [[Write frenziedly]] if you have high enough Persuasive, then use your love stories to increase [[Potential]] to 110. Not counting the zee trips since the impact of those approaches zero as the amount of time spent overzee increases, this gives 1.73 echoes and 0.746 [[Making Waves]] per action.
*''A Celebrated Short Story'' is already expensive, risky and hard to achieve, but, if there's no serious need, to aim for a ''classic'' is quite insane - it requires a minimum of 2 ''Trade Secrets'', which take 8 weeks to gather and sell for 120 echoes directly or can be converted to 250 echoes of items, whereas the ''Short Story'' goes away for 180. Of course, some Londoners [[Sacrifice a work of genius|are insane.]]
*[[Advance from Journalist to Author]]
**This  needs an {{IL|Exceptional Short Story}} to advance from tier 1 to tier 2.
**And as the card claims: "''Being an Author […] pays better than Journalism''" - to be clear, this only refers to the fact that tier 2 professions pay better weekly than their tier 1 variants and this does NOT mean that ''Short Story'' authoring or anything else is more profitable when you are an Author.

===Writing Classic Short Stories===
This section is aimed at seekers, but also applies to other players seeking to make classic short stories.
When writing a Classic short story, you will need at least 2 {{IL|Trade Secret}}s, but in order to maximise your potential (and thus maximise your chances of succeeding), it is advisable to get as far as you can with the cheaper 12.5E items

To do this, you will want to reach exactly 150 potential before using [[Publish... and be damned.]] the final time, ending at 162 potential before using secrets (and case-notes). One way to do this is to do the following procedure:

Write manuscript pages. It is probably most efficient to just write frenziedly, but laudanum + frenziedly is also an option. 

*Up to 22/27/32: Use spare manuscript pages/Romantic Notions to get 22/27 potential. 27 is an option if you're at an odd number, 32 is an option if you used Laudanum in the process of making your Manuscript pages.
*From 22/27: Use {{IL|Touching Love Story}} in order to both finish in a reasonable speed, but also because they don't give menaces.
*102: Use 12.5 {{e}} items. {{IL|Favours in High Places}} are recommended, as they don't give menaces.
*150: Use Blackmail material.
*162+: Use Trade secrets and (optionally) Case-notes

====Probability of at least 1 success based on amount of trade secrets spent====
{|class = "mw-collapsible mw-collapsed article-table"
!Trade Secrets spent
!Potential
!P(success)
!P(success) optional strategy
|-
|2
|212
|63.6%
|N/A
|-
|3
|237
|71.1%
|N/A
|-
|4
|262
|78.6%
|86.8%<ref>Using up to two attempts each spending 2 secrets</ref>
|-
|5
|287
|86.1%
|89.5%<ref>Using two attempts, one with 3 secrets, one with 2 secrets</ref>
|-
|6
|312
|93.6%
|95.2%<ref>Using up to three attempts each spending 2 secrets</ref>
|-
|7
|337
|1
|N/A
|}

<references />
[[Category:Guides]]