Nixies tend to be associated more with fresh, flowing water, like rivers and springs. Marshes are will o’ wisp territory.
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Depends on where they’re from, I’d say. Folklore is funny like that, and not all terms even translate properly.
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When I went to this particular place in a summer evening I saw a barn owl in the wild for the first time in my life (other than very briefly seeing a few fly across the road when in the car at night) and I could have totally believed it was a will’ o’ the wisp. It was unearthly! Today I just saw egrets and magpies - still very pretty.
Same, I always get in a grump and have to remind myself to do it because I’m like “I don’t wanna…” …and then it helps of course. Thank you for the well wishes!
@Samuel_H_Young Even if there were fewer words, you have written a huge amount, and the non-new-words work you’ve done will be massive for skill development and the outlining will be a solid foundation. I completely get focusing on the words but you’ve made really good progress even so.
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Owls are so majestic! Egrets are pretty, too, and magpies have their own kind of beauty. We have eagles here, and it’s always a treat when I see one flying or perched in a tree. I’m grateful for my dog who gets me out for hikes every day. In the past week I’ve seen so many tracks in the snow! Deer, squirrels, rabbits, a bobcat, and even lynx tracks! Nature helps me keep things in perspective. I’m super grateful that I live in the mountains and have access to so much wilderness. It feeds my soul.
Agreed. Some of the most important work we do as writers can’t be measured in word count. Growth comes in so many ways. Outlining, editing, worldbuilding, and developing craft are at least as important as drafting.
And now, it’s time I got some words in. 
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I have a bad case of what I call “final draft” syndrome: the perfectionist tendency to write the perfect phrasing on the first try, in chronological order. My brain hates trying to skip around. Had it my whole life, and I’m afraid it’s terminal. 
Currently trying to manage it today, a day when the words don’t want to flow out but my brain still wants to be writing, by writing weak, skeletal paragraphs in order to get something out. The efficacy of this practice has yet to be determined. We shall see…
Update on the COVID front: most of the symptoms have eased up, barring the cough. I had a really rough few days of barely getting out of bed though. Even now, I’m pretty confined in my little apartment.
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I’ve never posted in here. Hi! 🩷
I’ve hit a slump where I’ve gathered many side stories and bits and pieces of lore and characterizations but whenever I try to write the actual game I feel stuck with the systems I implemented myself! I think maybe it’s a sign to dismantle them? Or maybe I just need to get used to them? A mystery. I think they do not have a significant impact in the gameplay as I first thought when I blindly implemented them. Oh well.
What do people do when writing games? Go through all the ramifications and choices right away or write the linear bits first? I don’t know how to tackle it. I’m a lost soul.
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I should really do that myself 
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I just write. And stuff kind of follows. I don’t know where the stuff comes from, the same place forum posts come from I guess. Stuff happens and you write them down. Then more stuff happens. And then even more stuff,
I mean… first you start with a tennis ball. It’s rolling down the road. Then what? you chase it? or don’t. Or you watch it. Then what does it do, maybe it rolls up to an open manhole, and then drops in. So what do you do, look into the manhole? or not. Or wait. And then maybe the ball pops out again. Why does it pop out again? there’s something in there throwing it out? maybe.
And then so on and so forth and before you know it you have a story.
Stuff just happens, you accept a job posting to be a tutor to a rich governess’ daughter. How do you get there? what are the servants like? what is she like? what do you do with her, how do you spend your time off?
You just go on, and on, you follow the story. Stuff happens, more stuff happens, even more stuff happens, then it ends.
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Thanks for the reminder, really. Usually I’m able to remember this but it helps to hear from people that do.
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I believe the general advice is, if they don’t improve the player experience (or, I might add, writer’s experience… you’re more likely to finish if you enjoy what you’re doing), and they’re not crucial to the design, there’s no point in keeping them.
Just food for thought.
That depends on writer! Different writers have different processes.
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@void_mermaid I’m just here to say I like your username
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Hi @void_mermaid – welcome to the Writer’s Support thread.
There is no one “correct” writing process.
Regarding stats, my approach is three-fold for the 1st or alpha copy.
- Make an outline of expected stats and what I want each system to do (i.e. provide customization, so the reader feels more connected)
- Set up a skeleton of a stats page… this is when I make a rough draft of how I want the stats page to look … setting up a navigation menu and making sure i have a couple of place holder pages in place so i know the code works
- Ignore stats until I finish the written 1st draft completely.
After I know what my story looks like, I can focus on stats in greater detail.
As I write the alpha copy, I take notes for ideas and thoughts about stats I have during my writing.
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Thank you 
Thank you for sharing your process with me! 
I think I’ll give a try to your method. I tend to get a little stuck on the idea that everything must be perfect right away, even though I know it’s not the case 
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I understand the feeling. I know it is hard to grasp what a difference having a complete draft of your story is, but regarding stats, knowing what you have story-wise makes it much easier to understand what mechanics you will need.
Having certainty with your narrative allows you to see your mechanics needs much easier. 
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I keep fluctuating between “I’m almost done with this chapter” and “Oh but I need to add these other three scenes.” 
I’m aiming to complete chapter 3 by midnight on NYE. Currently at 30,000+ words. I’m curious to see how it weighs in when I’m finished.
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Picturing Anubis weighing wordcounts now 
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I’m already having ideas. 
Good luck on completing!
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And we are ending December soon!
December overall, in regards to my writing, has been absolutely rough, steamrolled, even. I’ve made no progress on my novel. Not because the holiday has gone by, but because I’ve been subject to probably my worst case of writers block so far in the many months I’ve been planning and writing.
I suppose that’s a pretty fateful callback to my big reply here lol, writing a novel takes time. I might draw for awhile, usually when doing something else that relates to art, my imagination kicks in. Maybe I’ll progress my other novel and take it from there until I can think of something
EDIT: I’ve got it. I own a 2005 version of the Pushcart Prizes for Small Presses book. This is perfectly suited
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As someone suffering from the same affliction, I symphathise. Personally, on days like those I find the best option to be just working on stuff like planning, outlining and worldbuilding instead. As much as it sucks feeling like I’m not making any real progress, I just don’t enjoy writing at all if I’m not producing prose I can be satisfied with, and I’m meant to be doing this for fun!
But hey, on the bright side, at least when we finally get around to posting our WIPs, they should be more polished than most.
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Holy crap, I didn’t realize my writing method had a NAME. XD That said, I know the feeling here. I’m a little better on the whole “perfect phrasing on the first try”, but the chronological order thing is an ABSOLUTE CANNOT BREAK.
My tried and true (for all of six months) method so far is to get an outline of the whole game, then begin working on the systems that work best with how the game needs to function. After the systems are mostly in place, I begin working on the first section of the outline (in this case chapter one) by writing up a *comment & *label outline. This lets me figure out which sections need to happen in what orders.
Then, I go into each *label, and begin writing up the barebones coding. After I’ve got THAT set up, then I fill in the prose and djust any coding that needs to be adjusted based on the new prose. So, that’s how I do it.
I might steal this for my second game. It’s a bit too late for my first game. But my second might benefit from this wisdom.
Gonna do the end of the month and End of Year comparisons at the same time:
December’s Goals Progress
- Finish Chapter One - Not even close. I think I’m a little closer than I was at the beginning of the month? But… not by much. And I’m DEFINITELY not closer to updating the demo.
- I did manage to get posts up to mid-january on the Tumblr, so there;s that.
- I have not and will not be putting up a new version of the demo, due to the fact that while a lot has been fixed on the backend, there’s still so much to do before it’s even CLOSE to playable, that I can’t countenance putting this out to the public.
- I did fix the footnote framework, and even decided to implement it, rather than adding in pictographs. It fits better with what inspired me to make the game, and I like it better.
- I did not finish something. Anything. For the love of all that is holy. Sadly.
- I did enjoy the holidays though! WOO!
Progress for the Year:
- Start and publish a demo
- wrote 79,291 words on the first draft.
- Lost a job, Got a new Job.
- learned the barebones basics of Choicescript
- learned how to find answers to harder choicescript problems I might run into
- Get the barebones of the systems in the game set up, which theoretically should make it easier to write the game in later chapters.
I feel like, even if I didn’t complete my goal (finishing the whole game), it was a stupid goal made by someone who had no idea what kind of work was actually gonna have to go into this. The fact that it’s taken me nearly 6 months to approach finishing the first chapter has taught me a lot about what to expect in terms of how long this project is going to take.
But I’m proud of it. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished this year. And that’s something I can take to the bank.
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