August 2023 Writer Support Thread

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

:spiral_calendar:

:birthday: Happy Birthday to August babies.

Thank you, everyone who continues to participate in these threads – 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:

This month I thought I’d share an article about achievements and two unusual but very useful writing tools.

First, I often see people asking: What types of achievements there are and how to write them. This article, while older, really focuses in on the basics which you can use to help to design and write achievements for your story.

This second resource is something that is invaluable if you decide to incorporate symbols into your game. Using the correct Unicode symbols means the difference between a hot mess that does not compile correctly and happy readers who will be singing your praises for symbols they see correctly in your game.

Please note this site has tons of non-Unicode symbols as well … using those may, or may not work properly within the Choice Script engine.

Finally, a resource that I use when there is a concept on the tip of my toungue which refuses to take shape when I am trying to put it to paper:

Crossword Answers

I also use this when trying to come up with themes … for example, writing for a jam, such as the Halloween Jam by @poison_mara

My August goals are:

  • Start working on my “common route” for Patchwerks based on feedback received.
  • Finish mapping out chapter 3 of my “docks route” of Patchwerks

Working on my common route will be a multi month effort because I will be taking the feedback I got from my recent Alpha and making major and minor changes, improvements and bug fixes based on what was given to me.

The mapping goal is a carry-over from July because I did not finish it in July.

May everyone complete their August goals.

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In a few hours I will announce this year theme. One can believe that with years I would be less nervous… But Nope, It’s year brings new fears and new experiences.

Universe knows I am the most unlikely person to ever host a jam. Still, here I am again. What could possibly go wrong?

I am proud of the jam as it has serve several times its purpose.

Show newbies that they can end a project

Make people publish a polished version of their games.

I don’t know half of what the hell I am supposed to do… But so far is going well.

Finger crossed. And hope see some of you in the reveal!

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It me! :star_struck::sparkles:

Due to family commitments, I’ve planned for August to be very minimal writing-wise so that I’m not floundering to try to do two things (writing, plus being a human with a personal life) badly.

  • If I can code Honor Bound Chapter 5 that would be great, but I’m not banking on it.

  • I will be putting Chapter 2 on Patreon later today and will be continuing to tweak and fix Chapter 1-2 in response to feedback.

  • I’d like to solidify my outline for my Royal Affairs extended epilogue and assess the scope (what I don’t want to do is be completely over ambitious and come up wanting).

  • I think I’d like to do another short character study; I’m still not sure what purpose these should have - other being than something I enjoy and which helps me flesh out character behaviour - but I did another yesterday for a total of four, and am wondering whether to put them on a new Patreon tier or something. I’m wary of making them feel like a burden though, so I’ll see how it goes; I think I want to build more of a backlog before committing to something like that.

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This month, my objectives are clear.

  1. Finish the first draft and public beta of Falrika the Alchemist, and do some revisions suggested during that period before proceeding to private beta.
  2. Do another round of upgrading my rig I’m using to create this game on.
  3. Prepare myself for a local game developers expo, where I will be meeting up with fellow devs as well as local and foreign investors who will realize my potential.
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I have not put up a goal for a bit as I have not been writing I have been editing. That trend is still going on, but with the Jam starting I am hoping to get some writing in! I still have not figured out all my template. I figured out the story that I will be writing but am not sure that I will have it done in time of the Jam’s conclusion.

On the WIP front I hope to quicken my pace and get a lot more of the editing done. I have not been giving myself as much time for editing and my WIP in general due to personal reasons. Still, need to get over this process to make sure things come out shinier on the other side.

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Happy birthday!

I love doing this (for myself; I have never done one for others). I can see how these can become a burden if expectations and limits are not established if you do start writing them for Patreon.

Patreon and Ko-fi writing and creating is something i know very little about. Perhaps one month exploring those and Tumblr might be worthy topics of discussion. I’ll need collaborators to cover those topics though, for sure.

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My primary goal for August is to write everyday using the NaNoWriMo rules of 1666 words a day. To have written the 50,000 words by the end of the month.

Secondary goal is to have The Graveyard Watch finished. (As I am aiming for about 50,000 words this should be double thanks to my primary goal.

Good luck everyone!

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Happy August everyone :cowboy_hat_face: !

My goals for this month:

  • Finish editing Chapter 1, finalizing it to a point where I’m happy with it
  • Outline Chapter 2

I’ve been pretty happy with progress on my game the past few weeks — I’ve made concrete word-count progress, and have also polished a lot of planning/simple outlining for later chapters near the midpoint of my story.

Good luck writers, hope a good month lies ahead of us!

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My goal is be a great hostess and not let Astarion absorb my life and all that. And In a month STARFIELD.

I won’t survive to reach Halloween.

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Also me!

I don’t have much of a personal life, though my partner’s mother will be in town around my birthday to help celebrate, so I’m looking forward to that. Also there’s BG3, so… yeah. Going to need to pare back just a little on the writing this month:

August Goals:

  • 45,000 words in Chapter Ten of Asphodel
  • Get to the individual character scenes of the epilogue in Diaspora

The second is just a carry-over goal from last month, so I’m confident I’ll be able to manage it without too much difficulty. As for Asphodel, we’ll see how it goes. I tend to guilt myself when I don’t keep to the 2k/day pace I can manage at my best, but… sometimes I’m not at my best, and I’m working on giving myself grace for that.

Happy birthday to my month-sharers, and good luck to everyone with goals this month, plus those involved with the jam!

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Happy Birthday to you as well!

BG3 as a birthday release! I’m already planning out blocks of time to both play this and write. So this month will be a test to my discipline and scheduling ability. lol

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I won’t be able to resist the lure od Bg3 and starfield same month.

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After a few months of lurking I’d finally like to try and post here

I’ve been working on a small IF to try and get me to just finish something. So far it’s fun but a bit dismayingly slow going. However, I am collecting lots of data about myself and my writing, so I try not to let it worry me.

Last month was hectic and weird, but I did manage to finish a first chapter of the small IF I was working on, so for this month…

  • I don’t know how long the next chapter will take, so instead I’ll set a goal of 10k words. Last week I got some good days in and wrote almost 6k, the weeks before I wrote nothing, so I don’t really know if this goal is too high or too low. I guess I’ll find out :pen: :clipboard:
  • I’d also like to redo my outline, using what I learned from the first chapter. It was my first time trying to properly outline a story (wow, it really is very helpful, just like everyone, everywhere always said) and I have a better idea of what I need from it now.
  • Additionally, I’m very eager to try and make something for the halloween jam! I’m very nervous about working within a time limit, but I’ve always wanted to try.
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My goal for this month:

  • Get the scene in the coroner’s office and the edits from previous feedback done for The Bureau.
  • Start my entry for the Halloween Jam and actually get a submission in this year!

Good luck to everyone who is writing in the jam this year and just writing in general, trying to hit their goals!

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Not sure if I should even announce it as a goal here, since I’ve barely written anything over the past year, but I’d like to get a plan of attack ready for how to tackle an at this point completely hypothetical entry for the Halloween Jam.

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The past week or so i’ve been tackling and learning the CS code bit by bit, and im happy to say that im half way done with the coding process. Hopefully i’d be able to finish everything up and post a functioning wip within the month.

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I did not finish my July goal of getting my rough draft of chapter 2 becuase I had more family stuff than I planned for last month, so my August goal is to finish that draft.

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Yeah, that’s definitely not going to be a productive month for me either :slight_smile:

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On the first day of August, I managed to pass my goal and hit 1881 words. I’m not 100% happy because I know some words were written simultaneously for two different scene variations. But it’s a start, at least.

I hope everyone has had a productive first day as well.

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Mine is coming up in ~a week!

Only one goal this month. Chapter three is currently split into two major branches, and I want to finish at least one of them. I have the events planned out, I just need to sort-of… string them together.

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