I am, which is a bit of a wrench especially as work has been less consistent the last couple of months. But trying to work constantly during holiday time is a great way for me to get stressed and burned out - I’ll be in a better state if I come back refreshed.
I’m getting my creative fix gently writing a non-game story…something over this period as an experiment. It’ll be fun to see how it goes.
My plan is to spend this week’s free time to focus on editing and doing some ancillary work (drafting char bios and a synopsis, etc) to get to a state where I can post my demo this or next week, rather than trying to write anything new.
I thought it was a good idea in theory, but in reality I’m finding work + holiday activities too demanding on my time to think of much else! Also, playtesting; I’m usually relatively comfortable reading my own prose but reading through my own writing repeatedly looking for bugs and game flow issues is proving surprisingly demanding!
This is my cue to recommend Le Guin’s Steering the Craft, which I got for my birthday, several years back. It’s a great resource for polishing your style and prose.
I’ve read Save the Cat! Writes a novel and The Anatomy of Story. They have both shaped part of my ideas and story. I’ve also watched videos on story structure as a Game Master for TTRPGs which have given me ideas for different approaches that I think help with IFs.
Excellent! I picked up IF to improve my writing craft, so this is exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for. Thank you.
Fair enough, can’t wait to see it if you do decide on doing it.
As far as writing techniques and advice goes, I like Mythcreants.
Also apropos of nothing: I have this urge to do a pacing/plotting exercise by taking a book I like, reading it scene by scene, and writing my own version with similar scenes type-wise (low-tension for low-tension) but different content (so it’s not a copy of the scene, just a plot beat) where they happen in the same place pacing-wise. We’ll see if I get to it. Would probably be better to try it with an abridged book rather than a full size one, it would take less time.
Trying to, but finally got the creative fire I needed for Estheria back, so I resumed development.
I’m hoping that I can hunker down and push the revitalized Character Creator Demo onto CogDemos by Christmas, or no later than New Years.
Self-imposed deadline, but I want it back online and I want it online yesterday, I just don’t want to compromise the overhauled vision.
Honestly has been a whirlwind. I built The Frontier in such a modular manner that I can easily codeshare between the projects and port over features. I’ll likely craft proper turn-based combat in Estheria and then port it over to The Frontier.
On the ADHD topic, I honestly need to get back on medication. I’ll have these insane moments where I can run 3-5k words a day… and then I’ll be down to less than 200 if that. I hate that ADHD pit you get in your stomach when your ADHD doesn’t want you to do something and you feel that total dopamine drop.
I imagine others get that too!
I’ve started reading Steering the Craft and it is wonderful. Very different from other books or blogposts I’ve come across. It has a lot of concrete and specific advice that is exactly at the level of craft assistance that I need. Strongly recommend this one!
Thirding the Steering the Craft recommendation, it’s excellent.
I quite like How Not To Write A Novel but I did find that the focus on negative rather than positive made it very funny, but not so easy for me to apply in a practical way (the need to flip it on its head took up more energy than I wanted to spend!)
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Dave King and Renni Browne is out of print but available second-hand, and is really, really good. It’s my favourite general writing book - clear, witty, and covers the bases well.
Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer is a lovely coffee-table type book that makes me feel inspired when I read it and includes a bunch of exercises. I don’t find it as useful as a clear “teaching” tool but it is nice for getting in the frame of mind for creativity.
On a much more specific note, Passion and Play by Michelle Clough is about writing intimacy in games - contains a lot of frank NSFW discussion as you’d expect, so if that isn’t for you give it a miss. But if someone’s writing a game with that kind of content, I highly recommend this book to help sketch out characterisation and make decisions about what the scene is doing.
Just posting this from intfiction.
The intfiction community is currently hosting the Short Games Showcase on itch. Unfortunately, itch did not index the jam, so it is a little hard to get the word out. If anyone here has any short and complete Interactive Fiction (including choicescript) games which were published anytime within 2025, feel free to enter them in the event.
Entries must be hosted on itch. If you need help with hosting a choicescript game on itch, please refer to this guide.
You may submit up to two games. (On another note, I have entered one visual novel and am weighing which I should enter for the second.)
I’ve ordered Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, scheduled to arrive in a few weeks. Can’t wait!
Oh, I definitely want to look into that. I don’t think I can’t quite work up the nerve to ask for it as a birthday present, ehehehe, but I can just… get it for myself.
If I have any chance of dropping my update within the month, I have to write through the holidays lol. So far, this update has been fighting me. My variables consistently weren’t working in my second chapter, so I had to recode all of them, and I also had to rewrite the first major death scene, which gave me a negative word count for a few days.
Hope everyone’s writing process has gone smoother than mine, and I encourage everyone to take the holidays if they can!
Finally done editing my demo. Comes in 68.1k words all in all which I’m hoping is a reasonably healthy start. If I have free time over the next couple of days, that’ll be spent uploading the files to COG Demos and getting a forum post / tumblr blog ready to launch on Boxing Day.
The prospect of having my writing out there feels surprisingly daunting now that it’s about to happen! But c’est la vie.
If you need any assistance in weaving together a Demo post on the forums that’ll catch eyes, I’m glad to assist! We might all be working on WiP’s in our own ways, but I find that first impressions last, especially as we grow.
That said, one way or another I wish you the best of luck with your project, and it’s super exciting! You should be proud, and have a happy holidays!
This is really kind, thank you. I might take you up on that. I am putting together a post draft at the moment that I’d definitely love to share with anybody who’s interested in taking a peek tomorrow.
Merry christmas everyone.
Merry Christmas 
Some announcements:
If anyone wants to take over the writer support thread for the next month, please let me know.
If you want your WIP to receive a showcase for the next thread, do let me know as well.
If you have any blog posts or articles you’d like to share on the next thread, do let me know.
Something new I’m trying out:
I’m planning to trial a feedback exchange system. If you want feedback for your WIP and are willing to provide feedback for someone else’s in return, let me know. I’ll create a separate exchange list where you can reach out to other writers to make a feedback exchange agreement. No obligation until the two of you have agreed on something.
My 2000 words a day streak ended when I inevitably got sick and have since been sick. Oh well. In three weeks, I managed to write almost 40000 words for my WIP and other fun creative projects.
Back to resting for me.