Eiwynn
December 7, 2022, 8:15pm
43
Her point is that there is a sweet spot for all authors, and that it is different from project to project.
@Phenrex – this is a question that pops up from time to time in the support threads.
Here are a couple of posts to help you:
Adding to everyone else’s sensible comments, 14K words is the size of a hefty short story - it’s a very decent length for a demo. If you’ve established what your game’s about and some of the characters, and give a sense of where it might be going, that’s great to start with! People will always want more, but if they want more because they’ve got immersed in your world and want to spend more time in it, that’s a good thing.
Best of luck with the demo
14k for a play through is a pretty good amount! It’s often easy to think that word count isn’t enough, but obviously it’s an interactive fiction game so there are so many different branches that readers may not even get to if they don’t play your game more than once.
In terms of whether people will want to read it, there’s always going to be someone who wants to read your story. Just because it may not be one person’s cup of tea, doesn’t mean someone else won’t absolutely adore it — there’s always a place for more stories.
Here are my thoughts on this:
Speaking from lots of experience, both my own annd helping many others… I do suggest waiting until you have at least 30,000 words per play through before making a WiP.
There are a lot of reasons I suggest this, but the most important being 30,000 is usually the minimum needed to be able to get constructive, useful feedback on.
There are legitimate reasons to post one earlier, as you note, so always keep in mind that each story is as unique as its author.
One last thing – look at other WiP and see what works, what they do to draw feedback (like polls), and most importantly tell everyone the type of feedback you are seeking, for example; “I am seeking feedback on these elements in my opening.”
Most readers give better feedback when guided by knowing what is needed.
Getting feedback is another issue which has come up a few times.
In last month’s thread, I went into detail, but even in other support threads there is a lot of helpful advice, tricks, and practices to read about, and adapt for your project as well.
Finding Readers, Post One: First Readers
Getting readers at the various stages of our writing is essential.
But, how does a person do so?
Everything I put in this post is gleaned and modified from more experienced people; some from gaming and some from writing.
Most of the material out there is either generalist info, or given with the assumption that you are writing a book. With that said, there are core concepts and practices that we can use, even as a niche writer of interactive fiction.
…
There are numerous experienced authors here, and they often share their hard-earned experiences. Past support threads are a gold mine of information and help to use.
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