…I have no idea what that is. I am not familiar with school newspapers from schools I don’t go in (and how would I be?)
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I’ve never seen the original newspaper, just the strips circulating on social media as infamously bad. Space Moose - Wikipedia
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It’s less he sits on my laptop but he sits on my lap when I sit on my chair and he either goes to sleep which is fine or fidgits and ends up climbing on the arm rest.
Edit:
Exhibit A
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…so does that mean moose aliens are an inherently bad idea?
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Nope, just be aware of the search results if someone interested in your work googles “Space Moose”!
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It’s not like I was going to use that specific term in the work itself! 
It’s just a handy descriptor when you’re planning moose-inspired aliens in space.
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I’m adding a line to this part in Chapter Two.
“Watch Out!”
The voice catches your attention and you’re turning, a hand reaching for your sword but as your eyes see just how close this fourth guard has gotten you know you’re not moving fast enough. John is on the wrong side of you to do anything either but then the guard suddenly stiffens. He cries out in pain, taking a couple of stumbling steps towards you before he collapses face first in the dirt. Revealing the curved dagger protruding from his back.
“How the hell could you not spot him?” Will Scarlet says, surprised, as he twirls another of those curved daggers with his thin fingers. “One of these days, your luck is going to run out. You need to learn when to stop.”
Do I need to go into more detail, or will this be enough for readers to know they need to be mindful of their luck?
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Ohhh yeah I think that fits in nicely! Along with a brief mention in your first fight (or instance) of using/pushing your luck, I think it will be a great system. 
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Writing a sequence where the player is exploring a structure, and I’m not sure how to structure it. My first impulse is to use something spatial - each primary passage is a room, and they can take certain actions, with descriptions modified based on whether they’ve been there before and what they’ve learned elsewhere in the structure - moving from location to location as they see fit. They have the choice of how to respond and what to do with what they discover.
Should I bother with the exploration choices, or just presume an order of discovery? The choice being “explore this place” rather than micromanaging the “how” of it?
i.e.
You find yourself in the middle of a long hall running from the north to the south, with steel doors on either side stenciled with the numbers one through four - one and and three on the west side, four on the right, and - presumably - two lying face down in the middle of the hall. The only lighting comes from pulsing red lights above each door, growing in intensity and then fading in time with the alarm klaxon.
A pair of elevator doors are visible at the north end of the hallway, opposite a secure looking door at the south.
- head toward the elevators
- check out that security door
- look through the window in the door opposite
vs
You find yourself in the middle of a long hall running from the north to the south, with steel doors on either side stenciled with the numbers one through four - one and and three on the west side, four on the right, and - presumably - two lying face down in the middle of the hall. The only lighting comes from pulsing red lights above each door, growing in intensity and then fading in time with the alarm klaxon.
A pair of elevator doors are visible at the north end of the hallway, opposite a secure looking door at the south.
Taking a moment, you start heading towards the elevator, discovering upon your arrival that it has no power.
- Press the button harder, see if that works
- Sink into existential despair
- Try to pry the doors open with your bare hands
- Seduce the elevator
(after which you’d eventually head to the security door, etc)
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I don’t think thsi will make a signifigant differnce in the long run. Just whichever you like better.
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As a player, I prefer the 1st option for two reasons:
- My choosing lends into the idea that MC/the player is making choices under pressure and one could maybe be “wrong” (assumed from the klaxon).
- Upon replay, if I was feeling lazy I could just pick the answer I know is “right” to skip as much of seen scenes as possible so I can get to unseen scenes faster.
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If you get different content based on in which order the MC explores locations, then I’d say it’s worth letting the player choose; if not, I’m less sure (but if not letting the player choose would then result on a long chunk of text without choices, then you should let the player choose something at least).
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You may think you’re a “writer,” but in fact you are a full-time servant of His Majesty the Kitteh. And don’t you forget it!
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I am aware I am only a mere apprentice to the Grand-Kitty Merlin the Magical
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My plates are new full-time job, taking care of myself, taking care of friends, and writing, and I can tell ya, these plates have definitely been broken and hastily taped back together. Oh, and the writing plate is actually sitting on the side table. But yeah the job plate is definitely taking priority unfortunately. We’ll see how well I can keep/get the other ones spinning as well.
I like this. *takes notes*
He sits so regally on his little perch! Ah, I mean, your armrest. Yours. Yep.
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I got my first mean message on my Tumblr blog this morning. I was pretty upset, but I didn’t want to let it affect my day, so I was determined to deal with it as quickly and respectfully as I could manage, and it really got me thinking that I made my blog for Guardian of Time in November of 2022, and I opened my first WIP thread in January of 2023. I just think it’s remarkable that I’m getting my first mean messages now, two years later.
When I first started writing with the intention of making a public WIP, I expected that people would have a lot of criticisms, and it was inevitable that people were going to be less than respectful in the way they deliver their criticisms. And writing is so personal that when people are mean it like really hurts, and I wasn’t sure I could have a public without constantly having to filter out negativity. My excitement to create ultimately overcame this fear, but now that I am two (and a half) years into this IF experiment, and I’ve realized that I was way more afraid of how mean people would be than they actually are. So yeah, this whole long post just to say that I’ve found engaging in the IF community as whole to be an overwhelmingly positive experience, and I just wanted to share that with you guys.
I don’t know if this will be at all helpful to anyone since it’s so specific to my experience, but I just thought I share so many of my struggles in this thread, that I’d share something positive and optimistic today. Feeling sentimental today, I guess.
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First, I’m sorry to hear about the mean message. 
I haven’t been in the writing IF space for too long (as a reader pretty long, but not on tumblr), and I’ve been really surprised by how supportive and kind the community is, particularly when it comes to feedback and critiques. Coming from an editing background, I’ve had a lot of colleagues who subscribe to a “brutally honest” feedback ideal and was expecting to see some of that sentiment reflected in IF spaces, too, but I am so glad to see that’s not the case.
Tumblr anonymity might embolden the few, but two+ years of positive engagement is a great accomplishment! (And also congrats on 2+ years of writing endurance and creative output! 
)
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Oddly enough, I find that the mean feedback doesn’t hurt as much as the stupid feedback.
It’s one thing for someone to have a valid critique and be rude about it. It’s another for someone to have someone complain about something which demonstrates a lack of basic critical thinking skills, a lack of reading comprehension skills, or both.
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I think my goal for April is to edit the first two chapters of my current WIP and get it up on the forums in order to get some feedback. Then from there I think it’s about keeping the momentum going. I’ve had projects in the past that have died on the vine, and I’m hoping to avoid that with this one. I have the time, I have the ideas, I have a functional outline, and I hopefully have the enthusiasm. Now its just about maintaining discipline and getting a little bit down on paper every day.
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I’m feeling really great about writing this month on Star Crystal Warriors Go. I’ve finished all the main chapters of the game and am doing a rework of some earlier portions of the game that the original author first did to make sure that there are enough stat boosts and to add more options. I love their original writing and story, so my main focus is on adding more to what is already there. Me and my editor worked out a deadline of April 17th with about 10K of writing done, which is a bit of a stretch for me.
Once that is done, there’s nothing left but the ending! I hope to write about a 30K ending to account for all the possibilities in the game (like evil endings, good endings, sacrificial endings, etc.), which would bring the game up to about 210K words total, double what it was when I started.
I definitely won’t finish that in April, but my goal is to get the outline and the start of it written by the end of the month!
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