I hope everyone has a good month. It’s really inspiring seeing people writing away.
I wrote 20 something thousand words in July. I rarely hit my targets but I only missed 2 days in July and consistency seems to work for me.
I am currently debugging. Hoping to.have a beta that plays to the 65% mark at the end if the month.
I also want to start playtesting other people’s games and giving feedback this month (something I haven’t been good at in the past but I want to change that).
Hi guys! 
first of all! August is my birthday month and i’m happy about it… well kind of, in the past year I have moved out and rented on my own, I got a raise at work and been promoted to Administration manager (Working on securing a sysAdmin role too) so I’m definitely popping the bubbly and pizza on when i turn 25! but guys it hasn’t been easy sailing, I survived Corona, been through so many anxiety episodes, overtime and burn out 
but remain thankful for the good as well as the bad.
my goals for this month uum:
Yeah that’s about it my progress is slow and sometimes life gets busy / overwhelming but this is something I actually believed in enough to invest my time in and I genuinely enjoy writing my story.
Receive all my Love! all my best wishes 
and happy birthday to my fellow Leos and Virgos.
So, in the last season of Bojack, there’s this arc where Diane is trying to write The Book. The Book that she has always had inside her, trying to write, feeling like she HAS to write because it’s stuck like a lump in her throat and she can’t think about anything else or any other possibilities because it’s The Book, her Most Important Thing that she will ever do, and she really does want to write it. But she just can’t. And Princess Carolyn and Guy keep trying to tell her that maybe, deep down, she doesn’t actually want to write That Book, and that she doesn’t have to write it. But she can’t accept that because she NEEDS to write it; how else can she get it out of her mind and body?? But she tries and tries and she just can’t do it.
That’s kind of where I’m at right now. It’s this thing that I’ve been trying to sort for years and it feels like it’s what I’m supposed to be doing. But I just can’t sort it. And maybe, deep down, I don’t want to. I really don’t know anymore. And of course I don’t HAVE to, but it feels like I do. How can I ever be proud of anything that feels “less than”? How can I even focus on anything “less than” when it’s right there, out of reach, staring back at me? I’m in the middle of that arc. And I know how it all worked out for Diane, but I can’t know how it’ll work out for me. And I don’t know how I want it to either. Do I want to be able to write The Thing, or do I just want to be free of that self-made expectation so I can do something else? I don’t know. It’s just such an exhausting and depressing mire to be stuck in and I just needed to “say it out loud,” because I almost feel guilty for feeling that way, as if I’m not grateful for the opportunity to try to write This Thing when the reality is that “the opportunity” is so, so hard to actually work through.
I’m just feeling a lot of things, the biggest of which is stuck, and I just needed to sort and say it.
End of week one though! Congratulations to everyone on the progress they’ve made so far and if you’re not where you want to be, try not to be down on yourself: the month isn’t over and every moment is a new one. 
“In the dark of the night,
Or in the soul of a fight,
Always take flight,
To your hearts delight.”
This is unsolicited advice, so obviously feel free to ignore it if it’s unhelpful.
But I totally get where you’re coming from. I also feel like I have A Book, and for a while I was trying so hard to write it and it just wasn’t happening. One of the most frustrating, draining experiences ever.
And I know the best thing to do is probably let The Book go, but I can’t quite bring myself to do that, so I’ve opted for the next best thing, which is realizing that even if I will be ready and able to write The Book someday, I’m just not there yet. I need more practice and more skill before I can ask myself to try that again. In the meantime, I can give myself permission to write other things, things that don’t feel like they have to be perfect. I can have fun and experiment and practice and tell myself it’s all going to make The Book that much better when I’m finally ready to tackle it.
It’s definitely allowed me to have a lot more fun in the meantime, without feeling like I’ve given up on that one special project I still feel is lurking in my guts and my soul, you know?
@Sid0 @Jaybirdy That actually does help. It was a very all or nothing kind of overwhelming feeling and I couldn’t even really step back far enough to say “but what about just… later?” Thank you for that.
Gotta test the three chapters of Invite Only that I’ve written.
Will probably do one more chapter, which will mark the halfway point of the story.
@Jaybirdy don’t worry about that. Write what you want to write. Don’t wait until you’re ready. By the time you’re ready, your tastes will have changed, anyway. You’ll have other things you want to write about instead. Write what inspires you right now. Don’t put it off.
And if it isn’t coming, it isn’t coming. I reckon the weight of thinking “This is The One Book that will change everything” is a pretty heavy weight to bear. I know a lot of writers who don’t like the act of writing. Find the project that lets you enjoy the act of writing, because, statistically speaking, it’ll be all that you have.
I released A Kiss from Death after several years of working on it, and the joy of finally releasing it was very short-lived compared to the work required to write it. I only finished it by focusing on the characters that I enjoyed writing about and casting off the rest that I would only be doing out of self-imposed obligation. Doing it because I enjoyed it is what got it done.
I forgot about this part.
I also forgot to follow my own advice, here.
That WiP I was forcing myself to plan and re-plan, day after day, because the scenes and the storyline just didn’t sit right in my head? I pulled up CSIDE, thinking I’d finally get something down and be spurred forward by progress, and an hour later found myself with something completely new, something entirely different, something that had been in my head for ages which I’d practically got perfectly worded already but was putting off because, well. The WiP I wanted to write, had planned near-perfectly, was being forced.
In a single hour, I exceeded the word count (with my second project) that I’d managed for the first one in months.
So that goes to show the amount of good that planning is, if you don’t enjoy the process!
My goals remain the same. Thanks for the wake-up call, Will. 
EDIT: If anyone’s got any advice about writing medical situations and so forth, please take a look at the thread I created to ask… I would really rather have a clear idea of what to do before I begin. Thanks in advance.
I am not looking forward to re-writing a few chunks of my story. I’m really not looking forward to doing it, although my mind is constancy churning out ideas for said parts, like this line - that will probably end up in chapter 3:
“The horizion was swallowed by the rising, trembling earth, the shadows of the airborne crust cut only by a blood red glow.”
But my main problem is… well, I… can’t name it, because I don’t want to give up on my writeing, on my story… I just fell… uninspired…? I can daydream and discuss my story all day long, I just lack the drive to write the thing. 
(maybe lockdown, and schooling from home is wearing on me)
But, I think I know a way to get said drive back! I could work on the Prequal story! (No, I did not spontainiasly decide two write a prequal to my main story, I just discided initially to write the prequal after finishing the main story - by finishing I mean after said main story finished and is released on the internet)
On board the struggle train right now. I think my story is getting nearer to the endgame, and that’s always the worst bit to write. Plus, I am floundering a bit on how to tie it all together. Just got to push through.
Made up my mind on who to cast to play another character. Would be fun to have a conman type in there, although that means rewriting dialogue. Probably won’t do all of that now. Almost done with the second half of chapter 2, only the canteen scene to go. There’s just so much dialogue planned in that one, though…
And oh the difficulty of describing sounds - those that I instantly know what when I hear. Are the words I use to describe what I hear the same with your idea of it? I’m driving everyone around here crazy with me bouncing coins off stuff.
Hi everybody 
Sorry if today I’m not very party-like, but something really bad happened to me.
I don’t really know if it’s okay to talk about it here, but I need help, and I really don’t know where to ask.
Long story short, I’ve been targeted by some cyberbullies who hate the story I wrote.
They first 1-starred it many times, then they sent me racist threats via messenger.
I tried to act strong, but now I am feeling heartbroken. 
What should I do? Is there a way to stop them? Will this painful sensation ever end?
Sorry if this is OT, but I am really desperate. Thank you in advance for every hint/help you will give me.
Oh wow that terrible. Sorry to hear that you’re going through this. I will say keep all your conversations and messages and take screenshots too of them. And Maybe contact Choicesofgame support, and let them know.
Hope you feel better, it’s shitty when readers do that.
Damn that sucks!
I know it’s really hard, but try to remember that it probably isn’t actually about you. Some people just enjoy being assholes online, and don’t care who their targets are.
It says nothing about you and your creations, and everything about those people.
Can you report them or something over messenger? Threats are not allowed on most platforms, I think.
@CC_Hill I kept a few screenshots. This is one of them:
I hid it cause it still hurts me when I read them.
Then I immediately blocked the harasser and reported them to FB. Nevertheless, I feel miserable
@The_Lady_Luck thank you very much for your kind words. I only hope that people will actually read the story and (hopefully) actually love it.
Don’t feel bad for blocking them. Like Lady said, there are people out there that has nothing better to do than harass people online. From what I’ve read from your post, you’re an amazing person that helped a lot of people during the pandemic and chances are the people you’ve helped will keep that bully safe.
So focus on the positive. Focus on your well-being. I know it’s hard. I get crushed too when people say bad things about stuff I create. It will hurt today, even tomorrow, but on the next day, open your computer and start writing a second book. You’re creating, you’re making money, that bully will always be a sad person on the internet, that doesn’t want to get a life.
Keep your chin up. 
It definitely isn’t about you. Almost every HG or CoG release gets a wave of these shortly after release. Don’t sweat it; they have short attention spans and eventually move on. Best thing is to just ignore them.
@Gilbert_Gallo Just look at it as a positive: this is part of your initiation as a HG author. Now you are a part of the tribe!
Thank you very much for your kind words. I love this community and I’m proud to be part of it 
I have started to read your story, and I think it is great. I love the references and the Humor. I am definetely waiting for someone who uses the a-word towards Sam and gets beaten up. So do not worry too much, sooner than later the trolls have to hide under their bridge again. 
That’s awful, I’m sorry to hear you had to deal with that. I got a few aggressive/trolly reviews when my game first came out, but I never had to deal with private messages (probably because I write under a pen name, so they wouldn’t be able to track me down on Facebook even if they tried). Definitely reporting them was the right thing to do, though sadly I doubt that FB will do anything.
Just remember that you completed and put out a full game, which is more than that person would ever be able to do. Their inexplicable rage is just an expression of their own inadequacy, and no reflection on you.
