Writing Streaming: Should I give it a try?

[DevilishlyHandsome49]

I know a lot about art streams but only have heard about story streams a few times. i've always been curious about trying it out but I don't know how entertaining I'd be or if anyone would even come to see it. i know Google Docs is a way of doing it. If I do end up trying it, are sites like Picarto also friendly with writer streams as well? Sorry if I'm a bit naive on the subject as a whole and the answers to my questions end up being ridiculously obvious

[DrGravitas]

Sure, give it a shot! @ChaosCalix might be able to answer some of those questions.

[Nomris]

For one I'd say writing is an art, secondly I usually put any kind of stream in the background whilst doing stuff. So you have my blessing FWIW :V

[Conker]

If you give it a go, I'd take a look. But only to see how others approach  writing in comparison to me

Dunno if art streams mostly attract artists or just everyone, but a writing stream seems mostly catered to other writers.

[ChaosCalix]

I was called?

 

So, a couple generic points. If you have any questions, just ask:

* Picarto works for writing streams, and is supported. Piczel is an alternative I use, as it includes 2 person multistreaming for free users. Twitch may also be an option as it supports creative streams, however, I don't know if writing would fit under that category or if it's ONLY "art and visual work", so I would recommend checking their terms of service.

* Google Docs is generally one of the best options, yep. Though, Microsoft Word or anything else where you can increase the font size to be readable would also work. Google Docs is simply the best option in my opinion as it gives you an easy option for linking the finished product (or work in progress, if you like)

* Writing Streams rely MUCH, MUCH more on your personality and viewer interaction. If you aren't able to entertain or interact with your viewers well, you're not going to pull it off, that's just the reality of the matter. This is much easier if you have a decent quality microphone and can talk with your viewers, but is also hindered if the service you're using has a ton of delay (for me, it was close to a minute delay on Picarto, which is not tolerable). As mentioned before, Twitch is also an option, and may help with the delay issues, but also relies on your viewers having good internet if the low delay mode is active.

* Do NOT expect a lot of consistent viewers. Even mediocre art streams can hit 15~20+ viewers if you stream consistently and have good enough stream quality (i.e. not artifacted into oblivion). The most I've ever had in a writing stream was 7 viewers, and I had a decent sized twitter base to advertise to. I could probably grow that up to 15 if I streamed a lot more, but right now I'm waiting to update some hardware before I get into streaming stuff again.

* More of a general tip, but I would recommend knowing what you're writing before you go live. No one wants to see you dick around for 20 minutes before you settle on an idea.