I’m new to ChoiceScript and writing in general. My mother-tongue is not English, but I have read lots and lots of books, from Robert Jordan to Robert Ludlum, from Brandon Sanderson to King, and so on. So, that’s why I really like to write. However, I feel something is lacking in my writing; maybe it’s textures, maybe it’s detail, maybe it’s something else.
So, I thought of co-authoring a game with someone who has a work in progress. This way, I could both help them with brainstormings and writing/programming (my job is programming after all!), and I will learn about the unwritten rules of writing as we go along. Since I’m living in Iran and there are no great writing classes here (there are no classes for Farsi, let alone English!), the ChoiceScript community is the closest i have found to a writing club.
So, anyone need a co-author? Does anyone have a game they were going to start, but didn’t because they didn’t feel up to doing it alone? In that case, I’m the man!
P.S.: I’m looking to improve my writing skills, so it would make sense that the person I am teaming up with has a good writing style (I.E. they are not lacking what I’m lacking). So please take that into consideration.
From what I can see from the little bit you posted here your writing skills look very good to me. Perhaps you should consider writing your own. You will receive lots of very good feedback from the CoG community which maybe of more value then working with only one person.
I have wanted to do my own Choice of Game for a vary long time, but no matter how hard I tried, I’ve just not been able to grasp the programming aspect of it.
I’ve been told I’m a good writer, and I do enjoy reading, if it’s writing, I can do it, but when it comes to programming, I can only do the very basic and simple stuff.
@Lordirish: Thanks for telling me about my writing style. I appreciate the fact that someone else likes it. I’ve thought of what you suggested, but I’m not sure what kinds of help I can expect from the community; would it be, for instance, too much to ask for theme ideas? Or for people to go through the game and give me their opinions? Maybe the reason for things I feel I’m missing is the fact that I’m completely blind; maybe not “Seeing” things makes me not able to “describe” them, even though I could piece them together from the many pieces of art I’ve read so far.
@Kho: We can start doing a test project together: I’d take care of writing and coding, you just keep writing. That way the game would progress quicker, and we’d both benefit from another mind. What do you think? If you need to discuss this off the forum and are more comfortable with emails, just send me a mail at parham90 [at] gmail [dot] com. That’s parham90 at GMail dot com!
I do believe the group, from what I have seen gives as much feedback as you would like. But it works best if you give feed back to the others on thier projects.
Maybe you want to write a fantasy or sci-fi story, and that would be cool. But what I’d really like to read is a story about what it’s like to grow up blind in Iran. I’m serious. That could be a very powerful story, just the choices you had to face, and how people treated you, and maybe some dangerous or embarrassing situations – the ways you feel you are the same as sighted people, and the ways you feel different.
I think ChoiceScript would be a very powerful way to tell the story, and the Choice of Games community would be very interested.
i think you could do a story about being a king/queen or prince/princess going to war with different countries to try to acheive world domination (alexander the great). and the battles should be great like the ones in (300 movie)
Hey man, I am new here as well. I’m not to great a writer because I always tried to emphasize the “devil in the details” and yet I’m passionate about setting and character development. I had a story that wasn’t all that great to begin with that I am wanting to transplant to an interactive fiction story. I am looking for a co-author and a programmer to get this set into cyberspace. I am a flexible partner and am willing to compromise if you see any thing about it that you think could improve the quality of the story. If your interested, check out what I have set up on my forum page and message me for confirmation. I await your reply and wish you the best of luck in all of your indevors.
@parham – just want to second what HoraceTorys said about writing from your own experience, which is hard to imagine for all of us who interact with these stories through what we see on a screen. Iran is a fascinating, narratively rich place, and I’m sure you could write a second-person choice-story that would be gripping on both counts.
Your style is absolutely fine, your English fluent, and I’d be happy to read anything you write and toss my opinion your way.
Khoda hafez… (I used to work in Afghanistan and picked up some fragmentary Farsi, though my wife speaks it much better)
@Havenstone I actually like the idea quite a lot. However, two things seem daunting, so i’ve thought of setting it aside until I have more experience in writing interactive fiction:
The story will be very gripping for everyone who hasn’t experienced such a thing. So, I want to be sure that the writing is just as gripping. I want to give such a story all of the attention and detail it deserves, and I’m not sure if I’m up to it yet.
The life in Iran is so different for a male and a female that I think the game would end up two stories merged into one if I decide to let the player choose their gender. That makes it a big one, which would take a long while to write. And yet, if I don’t allow such a thing, a female player might not be touched by the story of a male – do you see what I mean? In that case, I’d need the experiences of a female (my girlfriend?) to guide me. For that reason, the female part of the story might not be just as detailed as the male part, since I have experienced the one for a male first-hand, whereas the second one is just hearsay.