Unfortunately March was an impossible month for me, writing-wise. I kept finding myself staring at CSIDE and coming up completely blank. I know where the plot is going, I know what scenes need to be written, but more often than not the words just wouldn’t come. There were several times I ended up reevaluating the chapter to figure out if I was dissatisfied with the direction, but I always came up confident with where I was going. Just without words.
Honestly, up until this year I’ve always been more of a visual artist than I am a writer, so writer’s block is new and frustrating. I’ve come to the conclusion that my schedule is more of the problem than the chapter itself. Turns out working full time and running two TTRPG campaigns a week doesn’t leave much room for writing in my brain.
All this to say, my goal for April is to finally finish, edit, and release chapter one of The Lonely Shore. I’m planning on switching my campaigns to every other week, so hopefully that should help.
Couldn’t finish chapter 2 last month even though I had a general plan for it in 2 parts. Now, I’m doing a thing where stories tend to show the antagonist early on so they know who to ultimately fight against.
Originally it was supposed to be a simple monster hunt with pirates. Now I’m planning for it to escalate into 2 different boss battles that destroys the Isle theyre all on. Probably gonna scrap part 2 & fuse it into a single chapter.
Writing combat let me tell you…exhausting. But it is what it is. Gotta keep going. Already got the end of this IF in my head already.
—Forgot to set a goal this month. Finish chapter 2 JESUS CHRIST. Nah scratch that, finish by the 15th.
Internal realism can be a separate issue. I was just saying that I care about that realism more than I do alignment with an idea of how things happened in the past. An idea, mind you, that is likely even incorrect or, at the very least, incomplete. Our understanding of the past is constantly evolving (tis one of the reasons I enjoyed studying history as much as I did back in undergrad).
@LiliArch And sometimes walruses just appear where they shouldn’t, in the real life! (There was a big fuss about one a couple of years ago.) (orig.)
There posts upon posts upon posts of people discussing fairies and walruses on tumblr. I really didn’t mean to start that here, too. I just think it is a useful illustration. One person explained it by saying a fairy appearing means that one big supposition about the world has to change (fairies aren’t real → fairies are real), though it does have some cascading changes implied (e.g., existence of magic). However, a walrus knocking on your door requires several changes. One changes the rules (or genre, etc) of the world, while the other breaks the rules.
Finish drafting ch 6 (completed last night by the skin of my teeth)
Create 3-chapter demo for Spring Thing, (incl. round of beta testing & revisions)
Maybe start chapter 7
Happy to say I was able to pull this off! Except for the start chapter 7 part, but I’ve been making notes, so that counts, right?
The demo for Ink and Intrigue is now open to everyone. For now, it can be found in the Back Garden for Spring Thing, and I encourage everyone to check out all the games included in this fun IF event. Apparently @ChanceOfFire’s entry, Dragon of Steelthorne, and my demo of Ink are the first two choicescript games to be included in Spring Thing. I had no idea!
So that’s cool.
This month’s goals:
Update Ink forum thread (that’s a today thing)
Draft chapter 7 (or as much of it as possible)
Try not to get too distracted with the next game(s) I want to write (seriously these ideas are so tempting I’m over here outlining for funsies)
I hope everyone has an excellent month! May the words be with us.
Thanks for the thread and articles @Eiwynn! My goal this month is to prep this month’s alpha update, and finish chapter 12’s first draft. Sending good luck to everyone, and encouragement to those who had a rough month in March
The last thread locked before I could post but for the release & update digest: I have no idea how you keep track of this stuff haha
Thank you for including my wip in your lists and thank you for all your work!
Ah, so the problem isn’t people insisting on realism in fantasy in general, but specifically people who insist on “realism” as a flimsy basis/excuse for expressing bigotry? Yeah, that’s irksome. I feel like there’s a significant category of bigots who present themselves as “realistic” and “logical” when they don’t actually understand the things they’re talking about (or, they do understand, but intentionally spread their pseudo-intellectualism anyway because they’re bigots). I imagine that stream must’ve been frustrating to watch, especially if he was doubling down in the face of corrections.
One of my fave lit podcasts is titled “I Might Believe in Fairies” and one of the basic assumptions is that fairies are way less crazy than people think (although they may not be quite how we imagine). Basically every culture throughout human history has had a much more profound sense of the mystical/divine/supernatural - whatever you want to call it - than most of us moderners.
I personally buy into Tolkien’s philosophy, that fantasy isn’t an escape from reality but an escape to reality. The world is a lot bigger and more beautiful than probably any of us realize, and I find fantasy often rings truer than strictly “realistic” fiction.
Tim Powers being a really fun example of this. His books don’t strictly speaking contradict anything we know of history, but they are infused with the supernatural in a way that makes a weird amount of sense.
March wrapped up as a pretty productive month, even with the deep dives I did into creating character profiles and the ongoing work with building subplots and trying to weave them in and around my main plot (I’m starting to look like a cat with a ball of yarn), I was able to bang out a respectable amount of work on the story. Since a lot of that work was behind the scenes, I’m hoping that if I can keep up the momentum and focus on the story, I can get a big chunk knocked out this month.
Get the game to a point where I can ACTUALLY POST AN UPDATED DEMO, GODDAMMIT. – PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
Bonus at work again, because at this point I might as well.
Keep up with my Accountabili-Buddies so that we all make progress on our games. @RascaldeesV2 & @Phenrex . Also looking for more accounta-bilibuddies too! Apply now!
Progress on my 2024 goals
Complete Phoenix Rising - not even close to on track for this one.
Begin Editing Phoenix Rising - or this one
Participate in at least 1 game jam - I’m beginning to think this is a pipe dream for me
Complete at least 1 game jam - definitely thinking this is a pipe dream
Learn Spanish enough to be able to use it at work (earn a $2 raise by doing this) - I have a 72 day streak in Duolingo, so… maybe?
Are you my husband? XD He spent all day yesterday freeing Malevalon Creek
do not cite the deep magics to me, witch. i was there when it was written. …Also, I picked walrus too. like. It didn’t make sense not to.
Jesus Fuck that is a title. Wow. Neil Gaiman continues ot impress.
Absolutely agreed. This is also part of why I put the disability system in my game on hold until I could research better. I didn’t want to fall into this in the name of ‘realism’.
congratulations! But also god I wish I could say the same.
That said, I am endeavoring to use the weird 30 mins before I have to be out the door each day to work on the game a lil bit. Maybe if I do that, I’ll see more progress. Not sure. but it’s worth a shot.
Here’s a question: is there a thread anyone knows of along the lines of “most valuable feedback you’ve gotten from beta testers?” I tried searching and didn’t find anything, but I’m curious to know if something like that exists. I saw @HarrisPS mention in another thread that they got the feedback of playtesters having difficulty with not fully taking in the *page_break text when reading. That’s such an interesting, niche thing to know. My crow-collecting-shiny-bits-of-information brain wants more tidbits like it
As much as I love this idea, I can’t help but feel like it would turn into another “How should I write/code my IF?” Thread. I feel like most of the IF’s that we have here are different enough from each other that they each garner their own super specific feedback. What may be good feedback for me, for example, might turn out to be a detrimental piece of feedback for another author.
This would cause havoc during the last decade always a threa.d or theme like that has resurfaced ends with moders having to step up and calm waters.
As a tester, I wouldnt like writers value or mock feedback. It causes a situation were people would feel scared to give feedback knowing it can let to be ranked and valued like it were a exam.
There is already too little feedback to being destroying confidence between testers and writers
Maybe a way to do this without making reviewers feel judged or anything like that is a place for authors to share lessons learned? It can be something they realized while writing or it can be something they learned from feedback, etc. No ‘this is good feedback’ vs ‘that was useless feedback’ in case the thread devolved into that. No asking questions even, maybe, to keep it from being a 'how do I…? Or, if you ask a question, it has to be a clarifying question. ‘Could you elaborate on X?’ etc.
Given I am currently writing, I would love to borrow from the wisdom of those who have written more than me.
A mentorship program. That was one of my crazy ideas. @Robd5822 with his group idea probably can develop that in more detail and in a more private discursion.
A mentorship and those more private tips arent well designed for a public forum.
However, more veterans are in a very busy schedule.
So maybe some weekly interview with tips and advices that is something I can organize.
In my jams I have several interviews to hannah jimD gilberto Havenstone etc… Where they give advices and encouragement.
I stop doing the interviews because I felt nobody cared about them. Most of the time I dont do anything afraid of make people angry with me agaim
), I think I shall focus more on chapter eight of my WIP for April.
and thank you for all your work!
