February 2021's Writer's Support Thread

[Eiwynn]

Welcome all to the support thread for February 2021.

Many have worked hard and achieved important milestones this past month:

@hustlertwo met his word count and has regained his groove after a tough 2020!

@Jose_Garcia has learned one of the most important lessons about game development and writing – that sometimes less is more, and it is o.k. to remove word count, if it means a better story/game!

@SpokesWriter achieved his goal of being halfway done on his current draft and aims to complete the rest this month.

Others like:

@Lidell did not make her ambitious word count goal, but still made great strides, like overcoming a troubling section!

@AChubbyBlackCat overcame life events to continue working on a project that is at times tough!

@poison_mara overcame fears of putting out a game that some might not like and has put it out in the public, something that a lot of people could not do!

and

@Dragongodess discovered the joy of overcoming writer’s block, something that might be achieved more than once!

There are our strong supporters over the last year:

@Lucid, @Hazel and @Jaybirdy who are working steadily, if a bit more quiet than normally on projects this past month… we were glad to see everything progressing for them.

We also had new posters in this monthly thread:

@Brian_Rushton and @MonkeyLottery are but two… we hope they continue to find utility here and look forward to more.

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Thank you, everyone that continues to participate in these threads – it helps others when you do participate, sometimes more than you think.

I’d also like to suggest new writers visit @poison_mara’s Workshop Thread and Game Jam Thread.

As stated my goal this month is to get something ready to share with the community; a goal that I am doubtful I can pull off at this time.

[poison_mara]

No DOUBTS ALLOWED, SIS.
You will, and I am sure that everyone here will help you

[hustlertwo]

Rock on and write on, folks!

[AChubbyBlackCat]

Here’s to February!

Gonna keep to my goal of two sentences per day. Sometimes I doubt myself on the goal of publishing a demo within the year based on how slow progress is going.

Sometimes I feel as though if I can’t live up to my goal of publishing a demo within 2021 that that means bad things for the demo moving forward (i.e. slow progress = disgruntled audience), but I know that that’s not true and nearly everyone on the forums are understanding of delays.

[Rinnegato]

No writing goal for me this time (it doesn’t mean I won’t write something).
I can’t afford them, with my situation I’ll just fail them no mutter how hard I’ll try

[hustlertwo]

Hey, for some people a posted goal helps for accountability, for others it’s a lead weight around their neck. If you’re the latter, it’s nothing bad. Just means you know what you need and what you don’t, and it sounds like what you don’t need is a posted word minimum. So just go out there and do what you can, when you can.

[Rinnegato]

What I really need now is to get out and have some face to face (and especially heart to heart) talks

[poison_mara]

I am a person that needs to explain and share my pains and struggles while writing. It also helps me have a deadline to work.

[Gilbert_Gallo]

If I may, I would gladly make a little addition to @Eiwynn list.

Thanks to everyone’s support , a total CoG noob actually managed to write a (hopefully) hosted game in less than four months.

How do you call that? I call it LOVE!

Thank you, everybody, for being such a lovely and encouraging environment!

You are the true power fueling everyone’s creativity! And you’re the perfect buddy to lean on when the need arises!

By the way, @poison_mara would you please link those threads? I cannot find the workshop

[poison_mara]

Workshop

Workshop Thread: Post your little games or demos for feedback

[Logotipo Comida y Bebida Elegante en Negro y Crema (1)] The goal of this thread is giving a room of games not ready yet for the Wip stage; because or they are too small, or the author isn’t ready to write one and is practising the mechanisms to write one in the future This way both readers and writers can have a place to gather all those games together, and give feedback easily, and let more visibility for the WIPs that aim for publication. [Christmas Party Poster (1)] Now as an example o…

[Sinnie]

In January I did more work on a side project that I have ever done in my life to date - so regardless of the quality of that work, I’m taking that as a huge win and something to be proud of.

My game idea is a little different from the normal CoG/HG model and I’m not entirely sure it’s going to work out. I spent the past few weeks building the game mechanics, which the story is going to slot into in a modular way. I’ve probably got a week of work (if I don’t procrastinate like I am tonight) to get those mechanics into good shape.

Then it’s write, write, write. This is the bit I’m most worried about. One, because I’m not exactly convinced there’s a workable story here and two, because I have barely written before and I’m not sure I’m any good at it!

So my goal for this month is to release a WiP. That’ll be about 2 in-game days worth of content (which is very replayable, so probably something like 30 distinct scenes/events).

[Jose_Garcia]

Thank you @Eiwynn and @poison_mara for all your help and support.

I’m off to a good start in February and feel like I’ve got momentum and organization.

[Shyranno]

February is here! I’m mostly just happy because it’s my birth month. Therefore it is my favourite month. A basic reason, you say? Why yes. Yes it is.

I hope to release Amadora’s Dating Agency in February. Uhm. Next February maybe. Or the one after that. Just in time for Valentine’s Day–it seems fitting.

For January, I achieved my goal of outlining my chapters, so now I have a defined idea of what’s gonna be happening in all of them, and the basic plot beats, and relationship arcs are down.

I’ve also managed to flesh out a working skeleton of Chapter One–and it took me on a road I didn’t expect! Two entirely new scenes popped up and now I can’t see the game without it. That also meant having to cut out parts I thought were essential once–I love it when that happens!! I love watching my scripts evolve.

For February, my goal is to finish working skeletons of Chapter Two and Chapter Three. I’ve never been much of a pantser, and planning has honestly always been my favourite part of writing. So I’m excited for that.

Today, I’ll be working on a scene where MC tries to juggle between finishing paperwork, getting out of pie-stained clothes and into clean clothes, and handling a bawling client asking for double ply tissue–all within a time limit. You’ll have to choose which to prioritize. But it’ll also be possible to try to do it all at once.

I can’t wait to write the results of that one.

[Shai_Manahan]

Goals for February

• write at least 30,000 words (I’ll probably cry to myself while attempting to reach this but I still want to try)
• complete improvements for the prologue as per the feedbacks given
• upload Chapter 1 in its entirety at the end of the month
• properly introduce the ROs (this is my first time incorporating romance within a story and it’s freaking me out)
• improve on my coding skills

[Red_Eyes]

My goal for this month is to get my head out of my ass and write something. I keep stalling myself.

[MizArtist33]

Oof. Yeah, January was not, uh…as fruitful as I had liked. The track I got back on in December got derailed big time. Here’s to a more productive February for us all!

[SpokesWriter]

As stated in the first post, I’m going to do everything I can to finish my entire first draft this month – I’m willing to push off all the different End States until March but I want to at least finish every chapter leading up to there.

[Dragongodess]

So. Instead of doing school work in my study periods at school I’ve been writing. And I have zero regrets about it!

I did not write has much has yesterday, but it’s still something: I’m working on chapter 3 - trying to do small amounts of POV swapping in the climax of that chapter. While trying to mentally plot how to end chapter 2 in the right way - so just some minor editing to be done there.

So… my goals for this month are (here’s hoping I don’t jinx this!): finish chapter three completely and start chapter 4.

[Jaybirdy]

In a similar vein to last month my goals are very pared down and basic, heh.

In a nutshell:

• Consistency Goal: Write something every day.
• Volume “Stretch” Goal: Match last month’s progress of 12k words.
• Not-Secret “Secret” Goal: At least 10k on my main project chapter.

I’ll be happy if I can do 2/3 of these, and hopefully one of them is the third, heh. Diaspora’s readers have been waiting a long time for another update, and I really need to get myself back into the headspace for major progress on that one.

Wishing luck and good vibes and many muse visits to everyone this month.

[Polygon]

Aww this is a wonderful invention. Kudos to everyone still writing!