April 2023's Writer Support Thread

Game Development Writing and Content
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Welcome all to the support thread for April 2023.

:spiral_calendar:

:birthday: Happy Birthday to April babies.

Many have worked hard and achieved important milestones this past month, thanks for sharing, everyone.

Thank you, everyone who continues to participate in these threads ā€“ it helps others when you do participate, sometimes more than you think.

If anyone has specific questions or concerns I may help with, please let me know.

:open_book:

Emily Short is one of interactive fictionā€™s greatest writers. Her blog is a wonderful source, both in general and to help figure out some tough concepts, such as the role of non-choice in IF.

Here is her blogā€™s homepage:

and here are two of my favorite articles of hers:

and

You might have seen one of these articles before ā€“ I believe @HarrisPS had linked one or the other in the past.

Also, this monthā€™s ChoiceBeat Zine deserves a shout-out!

You can download the zine or read it online here:

It is wonderful to share everyoneā€™s journey during the month; both highs and lows help each one of us realize that we are not alone in our journey.

If anyone has something special going on in April, kindly let us know!

My April goal is to work on my Patchworkā€™s project ā€” This month I hope to complete the rewrite of the ninth chapter of the common route.

This is the last chapter of the common route, so once done, I will be sending it to Alpha readers for its first complete testing round.

Happy writing for the month of April.

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This past month, I had a couple of Alpha readers who can no longer be a part of my Patchworkā€™s project.

I am searching for their replacements, so if anyone here has the time and commitment available, and who wants to be a part of this process, please send me a dm.

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I feel like Iā€™ve seen lots of new WIP threads and updates appear recently which is awesome, so many people making excellent progress!

The Moments of Non-Choice article at the top of thread proved to be very useful to me, validating a couple of story decisions that Iā€™ve taken which is always nice :slight_smile:

As for my goals this month - the end of my first chapter is no longer some distant mirage. Weā€™re bouncing off of the 20k words milestone as I edit some stuff thatā€™s already in there, so my only goal is to complete at least one route through the chapter. I donā€™t know how many words thatā€™s going to be, but itā€™s an exciting prospect.

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Happy April, everyone!

The biggest thing that happened in March for me was Royal Affairs coming out on the 30th: itā€™s been an intense but Iā€™m very proud that itā€™s out there now, and it brings me so much joy to see that itā€™s been fun for people. Itā€™s reminded me to take a moment and remember thatā€™s the reason why I create these things :sparkling_heart:

During March I ended up being ill with various minor but exhausting ailments but even so, I did a lot of planning for my new Creme de la Creme universe project (Project Hotsprings!) and ended up writing the first draft of Chapter 1, about 28,000 words. Which is delightful - starting a new project always has such good momentum and sense of possibility.

I wonā€™t be working so quickly during April due to some personal commitments, and also second chapters are far more complicated than first ones! My goal in the first fortnight is to make headway on some editing work that Iā€™m doing. Once thatā€™s done, if I have any time left over in the month Iā€™ll return to Hotsprings (if only that were true in real lifeā€¦ I could do with a nice soak). I hope to carry on keeping my development journal for the new project and to keep recording time taken on each stage so I can talk about it retrospectively and learn from what works and doesnā€™t work in my process. I like to cosplay as my own producer!

In the meantime Iā€™ll also be fixing any Royal Affairs bugs that come up.

Emily Shortā€™s blog is absolutely fantastic - something ChoiceScript specific that I regularly use is this article about balancing difficulty - I find it a really helpful way of tweaking stats and difficulty.

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A dm cant be sent since your profile seems to be privated/hidden

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my goal for April is to be able to fit writing into my new chaotic routine considering I havenā€™t been able to write at all last month. I miss my characters!

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In april, I aim to write 5 million words a day!

April fools! Obviously, but if onlyā€¦

More realistically, I aim to finish act 1 of Onryō, and ensure that the code, which was likened to a birdā€™s nest by my beta tester, actually works.

Although, I wonā€™t be too bummed if I donā€™t manage to complete this goal this month. Looking forward, i barely get any free time to write. Starting monday, iā€™ve got a 3-day excursion to a theme park with the family. I imagine it would be rather inconvenient to write while on a rollercoaster. :thinking:

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I too suffered multiple minor sicknesses in march, and are behind on both writing and school.

I updated my outline with my new direction, so thatā€™s done. Next I need to look through what Iā€™ve done so far to make sure it all fits, and then finish the last few scenes.

I had to murder one of my ROs. He was adorable, but I just didnā€™t think there was anything there in the vein of conflict. He would have just been there being sweet. So I gave his backstory and status as knight to another RO who had a good dynamic with the plot, but needed some extra stuff just for him

Finally, Iā€™ve decided on a title! Each book in the series (currently 3) will be ā€œ___ at the Queenā€™s Courtā€ and the first book is ā€œLove at the Queenā€™s Courtā€

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My main goal for April is to get my family moved back to Nepal. (Itā€™s my wifeā€™s turn for the demanding international day job, while I keep the house together and write XoR.) Iā€™ll set word targets again from May. Main writing goal for April is to revise Stormwright Ch 1 in light of editorial feedback, so that from May I can charge into Ch 2.

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Like I said last month, Iā€™ll roll out weekly updates on my WIP. Because Iā€™m used to writing 1,500-word chapters per day, expect an estimated additional 5,000 words per week, not including the days I have to code.

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My goal is toā€¦ finish Chapter two. Also go back through one and the prologue and add more customization options - I still want to integrate them into the choices, but I want to get most of the important ones in. Not much happened for me this month, but I expect April to be busy.

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On behalf of the ChoiceBeat crew, thanks for the shout-out!

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:partying_face:

Hoping youā€™re feeling better, and that April treats you healthyierly, which is definitely a word that exists!

This is totally doable. Watch:

ā€œ5 million words a day!ā€ And itā€™s April! Done. :stuck_out_tongue:

Have fun!

Yes, but only because the letters keep flying off the screen.

Oh no. :frowning: Hope your health returns.

Safe trip!

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Thanks for posting, @Eiwynn!

My goals for April:

  1. write 30k words of Final Monologue
  2. write 10k words of Unnamed Project

Spring Break should (hopefully!) make this possible.

And safe travels, @Havenstone!

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Unnamed Project?

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It is now at least.

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After a pretty successful March, which basically just wound up being ā€˜write the thingsā€™ oriented, Aprilā€™s workload is a little more diverse, so Iā€™m scaling back the word count goal to leave room for some other very necessary parts of the process:

  • 45,000 words on Asphodel
  • Edit and polish Chapter Eight
  • Outline Chapter Nine
  • More words for Diaspora

As always the last one is vague. Iā€™m hoping weā€™ll be able to finish Chapter Eleven there, but it might take a touch longer yet, especially since I am also starting some online classes this month, but we will see.

Good luck to everyone with your goals this month, and congratulations to those with recent milestones! Iā€™d be envious if you didnā€™t so obviously deserve them. :slight_smile:

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My goal this month is to finish chapter 6 (or at least, half of it). It is a long chapter with lots of politicking and investigation - and I hope to slip some romance scenes inside. (And find a way to fit all the essential information in my three main routes with favouring any of them. It is pretty hard, I admit.)

In the meantime, I need to clean up the code. Itā€™s rather messy now.

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Iā€™ve been thinking of doing some major overhauls on my WIP. I worry that itā€™s too generic as is, and might do better if I gave it a more solid grounding in a single, specific mythology rather than just picking this and that from a bunch of different sources.

Iā€™m putting off making any rash decisions just yet, but will probably ask someone (or multiple someones) to look it over and offer their opinion.

Although P.S. if anyone here is willing to give their opinion Iā€™d be super grateful. Just send me a DM.

As for solid goals, Iā€™m hoping to finish most if not all of chapter 3. Parts 1-3 and 5 are nearly complete, and 4 and 6 are both about half-done, so I just gotta push through!

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The article in the OP should help you. If you have not read it yet (So You Want a Pantheon For Your Game).

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