I’m absolutely not going to give feedback on something I don’t like…I have way too many negative experiences from doing that (elsewhere, not here) and from people who asked my opinion in the first place!
Apparently “I am not interested in this subject” is a huge offense.
But that’s exactly the kind of thing I would want to know, as a writer! (That said I’ve also had some not bad but awkward experiences sharing feedback, so I totally get why that would turn you off.)
You are better person than I am. I told similar thing to an annoying writer not from here a very Karen Spanish dude. My reply was a very caustic detailed feedback making sarcastic remarks about his grammar and all contradictions chapter by chapter with screenshots.
And the burning rage ranting of my life. Chef kiss 
he never dare to annoyed me again.
That’s an interesting topic, you’ve made me think about it. Personally I found that I often just stop reading something that I wouldn’t have much positive to say about, so any piece that I actually finish I can usually point out enough good elements to counter balance the shortcomings. Some criticism also comes across as harder to swallow than other types, for example, punctuation or typos or grammar or pacing comments are usually better received than say, pointing out that the prose isn’t great or that characters are bland.
Again if the latter two are too pervasive I wasn’t likely to continue reading far anyways, but if I liked other elements of the story I’ll point out specifically what about the prose or characters didn’t work great for me, rather than saying this or that broad category of writing was weak or executed poorly.
The thing is I am most likely to be critical with something I love than with something else. I tend to be really passionate with characters and events and thinking about how improve concrete scenes or add further info.
But that also includes visceral reaction to events and characters that could be taken as bashing or even toxic if taken literally face value.
I come from a culture that is sincere to the point loves metaphors and love hate villains.
For us hating a character is a good thing is something to praise. The writer did their job and caused a strong emotional response.
The cultural shock I had when I noticed that bashing characters here it was considered face value criticism towards author I was flabbergasted. I still haven’t understood it tbh
I’m still in the mire of a very complex part of the project I’m working on and it feels like it’s been going on forever. I hope to get some more done in August but I’m not feeling all that confident that I’ll get the section finished. We’ll see!
This is a good goal, best of luck with being kind to yourself!
I love romanceable characters! The ones I like best are ones where they feel fleshed out beyond being a love interest - so they have motivations and interests, and can change over the course of the story and be responsive to the PC’s actions.
I like when emotional intimacy (in romance, friendship, or family connections) opens up behaviours and feelings that the character keeps hidden under other circumstances. So you really feel like you’re getting to know them in ways that you don’t otherwise.
I also enjoy when characters do things that challenge or cause problems for the PC for whatever reason. That doesn’t mean a romanceable character has to be antagonistic for me to like them. A constant-rival character is as samey to me as a constant-sweet one. But a character who causes friction (maybe they are overprotective, maybe they want to push the PC to achieve their potential, maybe they keep a dangerous secret, maybe they’re ashamed of something so are prickly… there are so many possibilities) is my favourite as long as there are different ways for the PC to handle the interactions.
My favourite romanceable IF characters include Finch and Alexandra from A Study in Steampunk, Remi and Eryx from Heart of Battle, Reaves in Heart of the House, and Vega from Choice of the Deathless. Felician, Eleri and Theano are very much to my taste in Fay’s WIP Heart of the Mountain. And I’m really into all of the romanceable characters in An Imp and an Imposter.
@dozendietcokesaday everyone has different sense of what steamy means, and what’s too much but have you played Hosted Games on the more explicit end of the spectrum? I’d suggest having a look at A Kiss from Death and Blood Moon, maybe It Takes Two To Tango, and compare.
@will I love the bell dragon and would very much like to befriend it!
I don’t mind being yelled at when that’s a reaction I intended, but I do mind being blind-sided by it when I was trying to do a good deed.
Probably not very helpful if the feedback is “not my genre”. The only thing you’d gain is the knowledge that particular person is probably not the best pick for your beta reader.
I probably just have different defence mechanisms.
Thank you @myeraland for the thread.
Just as in the previous month, the goal is to write every day. It helped me last month, and I hope it will help me again.
Just for the RO to like the MC in the way that makes you feel that they both are enjoying each other’s company. It might seem simple, but I think not every author can achieve this. Jane and Helena from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are my absolute favorites.
First day of August and this thread is already huge.
My August Goals:
Chapter 4, part C is going to be a pain, but it is where the MC gets to explore and investigate a variety of plots, including romantic ones, before the next big set event. Completing even half is ambitious.
(Answering before I read other people’s responses…)
An RO stands out when they are a character outside of the MC. That is, they have their own goals and fears.
Most of the ROs I’ve felt most affected by have been in video games. I like when the characters are part of the plot, have a past, have their own goals for the future, and have a personal struggle. I especially like when the romance sheds new light on the non-romantic plot lines.
Ultimately, I enjoy romances where it feels like I’m being invited into a character’s world and perspective.
So that’s something I’m trying to cultivate with my own ROs. Every single one of them has a life and each one sheds a different light on at least one plot.
This is another reason chapter 4, part C is so important. Up to now, anything unique to ROs just gives more detail to information the MC gets otherwise. Whether you ask Elian for help and then help them rescue Vuar or not, you learn about Vuar’s abduction and that Elian knows Vebon Kyte personally. If you do ask Elian and you do help rescue Vuar, then you see Elian and Vebon interact and you may encounter one of Elian’s exes.
From 4c onward, though, information is going to be more route-locked. If you don’t help Nothia with Kala, you don’t learn about her situation with her parents and siblings (beyond what you’ve already pieced together). You don’t learn what has led to her being so protective/etc.
(And route-locked by engagement, not right-choice-clicking.)
Additionally, the ROs matter outside of romance. Elian and Nothia help run the guild. Ostric is close with your estranged family. Frey is investigating your parent’s murders. Luvia is tied to the political power of the city. Kian is your housemate.
And, of course, you don’t have to romance someone to engage with them. You can be a friend. The focus is on building trust with someone, whether that turns romantic or not.
I’ve one character who does walk away if you’re mean enough. (If you continue to choose and think about him, he does return, despite knowing it is a bad idea, though).
One role of romantic options… replayability.
I also think romantic options are a way to build replayability into your story. This doesn’t work, of course, if you treat each RO as interchangeable. If they are unique and if romancing them reveals otherwise unseen content (beyond just physical intimacy), then readers have another incentive to re-read.
I don’t like talking about my favourite ROs in videogames, because it seems to me everyone else hates them, and I’ve had enough of people telling me I have bad taste. 
Speaking of my own characters, I aim to have the potential ROs react in a way that makes sense to them as characters…which is why I’m currently (still! I’ve been at this for months) scratching my head about how to make the player of an MC who thinks their arranged spouse is terrifying and as such avoids interacting with them to, you know, actually want to interact with them, since the spouse thinks the MC hates them and doesn’t want to impose.
Finished my Halloween Jam game, except that I realized that it also works for Engine Jam which has an earlier deadline so ig I gotta start a new one for Halloween smh. I at least have most of a plan, it remains to be seen if I can execute said plan without getting too distracted from Iron King’s Heir.
I can tell you I will NOT be working in Twine again anytime soon. Ohmygosh it is so much clunkier than CS. I know there are ways of making it a bit more streamlined but I wrote my Engine Jam game in an obscure story format (Trialogue) and didn’t want to experiment too much with it. I ended up copy and pasting most of the functions because I didn’t want to figure out the syntax and type stuff like <% story.showDelayed(“Jay’s Explanation”); %> all the time.
So glad to be moving on from this. Makes such a big difference having a clean coding language.
Trialogue sounds like a three-way dialogue.
(No, forum, I will not be silenced. 
)
Did a bit of editing, still not quite happy with the narration. I need to recalibrate my brain for this, so probably I should work on the project my brain is in correct gear for…
The soldier’s arm twitches. Then they take a sudden step back and out of your view. The door slams shut, with what sounds like a little bit more force than necessary. Then the waiting game starts anew. Footsteps retreat. Several footsteps come closer.
Your hand falls on your sidearm. Quick glance around confirms everyone’s gripping their rifles.
“Find anything?” a voice from a bit further away shouts.
“No,” a voice in front of the door replies. “Just rats.”
On one side, someone laughs. “Hear that? LT is terrified of rats.”
“Keep laughing, Eklund,” the closest voice responds, dropping to a lower register. “The vermin are huge on this accursed planet.”
“Aw, LT, we all miss civilization,” another voice calls lightly.
The voice in front of the door, the IPR lieutenant, huffs. “Didn’t we go through this village already?” There’s a pause, accompanied by the gritting of sand under boots. Then the lieutenant speaks again, slightly further away now. “All right, then. There’s nothing here. Let’s go.”
Agreeing murmurs sound from all directions, then multiple footsteps march past your hiding place. In a surprisingly short order, the voices grow dimmer; then they fade away completely.
You let out a breath.
“What,” [J] whispers, “just happened?”
Trialouge? Never seen that term before. Is that actually a thing?
The Mermaid’s Mystery has been submitted to Introcomp. (Introcomp didn’t specify a cutoff timing, so I will probably go with IFcomp’s rule.) At 17k words, the demo is way shorter than my original target, but I’m hoping to finish it later.
(Time to see whether mermaids 
are really an underserved genre in this town.)
Oh yay! Mermaid game! I’ve been hanging out to see what you’ve done with this since you mentioned it
When will it be readable?
Edit: Probably a good one to post on the reddit thread as well. There seems to be a bit of a mermaid fandom over there too.
I’m not sure. It depends on when Feneric puts up the entries on the introcomp page. (And I think he ran into some delays during last year’s contest so there’s no telling when it goes up this year.)
That said, I’m not expecting a huge turnout for the contest this year, as there wasn’t an announcement on the intfiction forums.
It was a word mentioned in the post above mine.
I’ve enjoyed doing some beta testing in recent weeks. Do we think that I should apply for the Jolly Good one if I haven’t played the previous one?
I originally thought, “no way,” but since then I’ve been enjoying the Creme de la Creme series which aren’t direct sequels at all, so I was assuming. And you all know what that means.
Alright, I did a bit of a marathon run (you don’t even want to know what time I stayed up till last night (or should that be this morning?) but I was on a bit of a roll and decided just to take the momentum and run with it to get most of the writing done.
Priority order- Muse > Sleep. (If someone would like to speak to my muse though about why they insist on keeping me up in the middle of the night if I want to work with them, that would be great though )
… And I think I’ve actually just finished Nereid 
It still needs bug checking for everything I’ve probably broken putting the extra scenes in and a good editing pass on last night’s writing, but I can’t believe I actually managed to get the full draft finished 
It is! Not a very common word at all but it’s a thing.
In this particular context though I was referring to a lesser known story format for Twine that turns your game into a text messaging interface. Like so
