January 2025 Writer Support Thread

[AChubbyBlackCat]

Will third the advice on death and big dramatic moments unless the MC is established from the get-go to be a pre-set character with a personality or a semi-pre-set MC with their own personality (think Hawke from Dragon Age 2), but even that I’d offer something of a compromise.

In Act 2, Hawke loses their mother and has a point in a cutscene where they’re cradling their mum before screen cuts to black. Later, you get to choose how you feel about it in a dialog option with a companion or your romance option, I believe.

[Zodac01]

@Sylvio

What do y’all do when you just cannot focus on your story?

I agree that a good walk is helpful for brain storming, especilly if you have any scenes taking place in the wild. Other things to do, and no guarantee that any of these are silver bullets, is to watch or read something in the genre, write a different scene or do some plotting, or if the writing really isn’t coming work on one of the more mechanical aspects of the game. Now a days with all the AI you can also produce nice images of the characters and places in your games - sometimes looking your actual characters in the eyes can help inspire.

@lliiraanna

I second the advice to not outright tell the player how to feel. Show them, let them feel themselves.

@AChubbyBlackCat

Will third the advice on death and big dramatic moments unless the MC

I will fourth it - one of the most major charms of these games is to make it and the prot our own. Best not to force feelings.

That stated . . .

@Fusion_Ultimatum

Hey guys. When writing an emotional scene that involves let’s say the death of someone close to the MC. How would you go about writing the scene and what feelings are you trying to invoke? What devices do you use?

For me, and I probably do worse on it now than I did say 20 years ago, I’d recommend imagery as your friend, and symbolisim. Without being to cliche’ (i.e. you want to say it in with the right voice and style) plenty of ghostly cries of the wind, lonely pines, grey skies, etc. etc. Also, for IF, while I wouldn’t recommend forcing the prot to do or feel anything, giving them an oportunity is certainly perfect - so, even if its a false choice, you could add moments for the prot to select some random action to express potential grief, such as hiccuping, swearing, moaning, laughing inanely, etc.

---

So, as I suspect is the case for a lot of you, the sudden move from Dashingdon in progress has cast a bit of roughness. Yesterday was a bad day - after two days of different hours than I normally work populated by all sorts of sick calls from coworkers and a stomach bug, I learned that one of our local beloved celebrities from the state and city I live in had just passed away, and then shortly after that I learned of the permanent closure of Dashingdon - ah, a rough spot indeed. But other than that and a bit of a back slide to move everything, I feel like I’ve made acceptable progress on Sense & Sorcery this month and can see it gradually taking shape like some sort of strange radioactive clay.

Well, best luck on the move everyone, and proud pens and all . . .

[FireFlyy]

@FireFlyy

honestly think I’ll be finishing my chapter within the next session. I’ll take the few days after to re-read it all, fix phasing, tidy things up and prepare to update my WIP link after. Jesus christ

I overlooked a WIP branch. Placeholder text I forgot to write up, oops.

But we keep on swimming ~~ just a teeny tiny branch yup yup. (Im already 10k words over my initial goal) aaaaaaaaaaalmost there.

@AChubbyBlackCat

Later, you get to choose how you feel about it in a dialog option with a companion or your romance option, I believe

Finding myself struggling with these types of heavy scenes. Ive written out my first “death” in my WIP, and wasnt too sure how to make it just right. You take away player agency in hopes to make it more dramatic to honor the character that has passed and the players may feel disconnected, or you give them the option to pick what they do or feel in the moment which may make it feel like a throwaway character death if not done right. Or maybe I’m just hesitant and nervous that people reading it may think like it did not justify the character enough.

So ive just pulled the mc to the background and gave the podium to other characters around the mc to react to the death before giving the mic to the player. Not sure if such an approach works as well, but I suppose I shall figure that out soon.

@Sylvio

What do y’all do when you just cannot focus on your story?

Ive got this habit of mine where I adventure through spotify to find just the right playlist for the scenes im writing, and then im locked in for another hour or so. If writing starts to get tedious and Im starting to get distracted around the few minutes? I try to jump to a different branch and continue writing there. Altough may fuck with the phasing of the story a little c’:

Also, you dont have to write 10k words in one sitting. Take breaks in between, watch a movie, go out on a walk. Inspiration will surely return at one point again c:

Small advices from a fellow person who gets distracted every five minutes or so.

[Surge]

@Surge

I am going to set a goal for myself to put words on paper, every day. It doesn’t matter to me how many words, it could be 5 or it could be 5000

So far so good, I’ve been able to keep on this mostly. Had a day or two where I didn’t but, that was when I was moving back into my college dorm, so I can allow myself a cheat day for that.

I didn’t note down what the status of the chapter was when I set this goal, but what I can say is that I’m at 2.3K words right now. Which, Its a start, its a good starting point. A lot of my focus the past day or two has been on the back end of things, getting the stats page looking nice and pretty and just figuring out how I want the stats in the game to function. Which I’m pretty happy with as it stands.

On another note, for authors who create these fantasy worlds, how do y’all come up with names for cities and stuff like that, that feel authentic. That make the reader think “Right, I can imagine the people of this city/town deciding upon that name”.

[lliiraanna]

You can look up a bunch of (old) cities/landmarks and read up on the history of their names. This should give you an idea of how naming worked.
Some were literally just “the city” or “the mountain” lol
Some were named after whatever was in abundance nearby, like apples or gold. Some were dedicated to deities (“house of X” or whatever). Some had poetic names like “the rose garden”.
And then there was stuff like “the fortress of a dead man” :')
As origins of names became forgotten, people often came up with folk etymologies or legends to explain them.

[LiliArch]

@lliiraanna

Some were literally just “the city” or “the mountain” lol

A couple of years ago I drove through a place that literally had “big swamp” so, yeah. I also know at least a few "long lake"s.

[Zodac01]

Depends on the setting. If it is themed culturally, yeah, I’ll look up that language and try to find words for places that seem cool in both their actual meaning and how they actually sound. Sometimes the names of gods can be used or adjusted, and often, historically, this was how some cultures actually would name things, so it kind of lends realisim.

However, it is a pure fantasy setting, I’ll admit that sometimes I just let my mind rush about and try to find a sound that seems to fit what I’m going for - though this leads to all the narly names in fantasy where readers may not be aware of the correct pronouciation i.e. In Dragon Lance, the character Raistlin my friends and I always pronouced as rahsssilin but apparently rAYslin was how it was actually pronouced, and don’t let me even get started on the Aes Sedai from Wheel of Time.

[Hazel]

@Cecilia_Rosewood

For an example of what to do: If you’re writing a political intrigue where people regularly die of stabbings/poisonings/falling pianos/etc that is a completely valid reason to have a major character get stabbed/poisoned/crushed by a piano at a moment of your choosing.

I need to write a falling piano assassination. Just imagine being contracted for that. “Hello? A.C.M.E. assassinations express? I’d like to place an order.”

[Cecilia_Rosewood]

I personally quite like the Oblivion quest where you drop a mounted bull’s head on someone as a means of assassination.

[Kade_Foster]

@Hazel

I need to write a falling piano assassination. Just imagine being contracted for that. “Hello? A.C.M.E. assassinations express? I’d like to place an order.”

Lord Downey was an assassin. Or, rather, an Assassin. The capital letter was important. It separated those cuts who went around murdering people for money from the gentlemen who were occasionally consulted by other gentlemen who wished to have removed, for a consideration, any inconvenient razorblades from the candyfloss of life.

Perfectly reasonable profession in Ankh-Morpork.

[LiliArch]

I mean, I’d presume even fantasy people name things in a way that means something in their language, even if the reader doesn’t understand what the names mean. (Although if there’s a city whose name means something like “Glorious Conqueror of the Entire Universe” instead of, say, “City on the Mountain”, I’d want to hear about it. It’d tell something very interesting about the setting.) Although I have to admit, I have a habit of going all Tolkien on it.

Pronunciation, meh. I’m unaware of the correct pronunciation of names in 90% of the contemporary books I read.

[Nocturnal_Stillness]

One of the scenes I’ll be writing later will involve a tavern/pub. I just need to decide just how drunk I let players make Robin…

They can be there alone or with one of the Merry Men so it should be pretty fun to write and code.

[agarriberri0548]

@Surge

That make the reader think “Right, I can imagine the people of this city/town deciding upon that name”.

Whether in fantasy or science fiction, the most important thing is to be consistent. If you write about a group of marauders who use longboats, horned helmets, giant axes, and live in a distant, icy northern land, people will expect quasi-Nordic names. If you present a culture like this to readers, clearly inspired by the Vikings, and then tell them that the protagonist’s best friend is Ricardo, and they live in the city of Itanhaém, people will raise their eyebrows. Now, in a world where your marauders use longboats, but carry scimitars, and follow a strict code of honor that prevents them from killing outside of specific situations, your culture will be a little more original than simply a copy of the real world, and will give you greater freedom when naming your characters and cities. I don’t know if what I’ve said will make sense to you. I think in short, the more you anchor your story in the real world, the more people will expect the dynamics of the real world to influence your book, including names. So don’t do this if you want to have a wide range of options.

One example of how city names don’t always have a deep philosophical or grandiose meaning is my own state. Sometimes practicality or bizarreness trumps what makes “sense”. I was born on the Great River of the South, in the capital of Happy Port (most depressing city I’ve ever seen), but I’ve always lived in the city of Canoes (they made a lot of canoes). Some towns in my state have Don’t Touch Me (literally), Fat Tapir (I suppose they had a lot to eat there), Lawn, Cinnamon, Towers, Pillow, and so on. Don’t be stopped by “I can imagine the people of this city/town deciding upon that name”, because I can’t imagine how my people came up with half of these names.

[lliiraanna]

@agarriberri0548

Fat Tapir (I suppose they had a lot to eat there)

This reminded me of one of the versions of what the city name of Samarkand means - “fat city” (as in rich/prosperous)

[HarrisPS]

I’m very, very tired today after a couple of extremely sleep-deprived nights. I did zip through my Chapter 1 revisions for Project Amble yesterday which was great, but am now deliberating over whether I need to tweak some of the PC’s personality stats. HOWEVER, I’m trying to keep in mind that those kinds of decisions and that kind of thought process are only productive from a refreshed mind and am t trying to set it aside for the moment.

[LiliArch]

@agarriberri0548

Don’t be stopped by “I can imagine the people of this city/town deciding upon that name”, because I can’t imagine how my people came up with half of these names.

It is my belief that it’s related to how many of those there are at the time of the naming. The more of towns to keep distinct, the more names the people need to come up with, so that’s when they get more imaginative. If there’s only one, it’s probably going to be something mundane, like “City”. Out oldest city is literally called “Marketplace” (well, translating on the fly here, so not literally called, but that’s the literal meaning).

[lliiraanna]

I think it’s because in ye olden times, when there were no cars or planes or magic brooms, for a person born in a city, it was the city, and that mountain was the mountain, and that lake was the lake… because these were the main/only ones in the vicinity.
So you could easily end up with several communities referring to different places by the same name.

@agarriberri0548

sometimes life is as simple as a settler seeing a funny fat tapir and choosing that to be the name of the town.

I found a settlement called “Big Cats”. I think it’s my favorite.

[agarriberri0548]

Exactly. I think, and this is just a personal opinion, that fantasy writers waste too much time trying to give a deep meaning to every single name in their story. Sure, it’s nice when the name of your castle is the Tower of the Three Thousand Crystals in honor of the great wizard Merlin III destroying the phalanxes of Saromin the Great Demon, but sometimes life is as simple as a settler seeing a funny fat tapir and choosing that to be the name of the town.

[LiliArch]

Oh, I absolutely agree (although now I’m picturing that the castle was built by some obsessed fan of said Merlin III which would be great characterization if they’re a character in the story). I also would like to see more house names in use, and I don’t mean “noble houses” kind of way, just the old system of tracking addresses. Old maps are fun.

[FireFlyy]

@FireFlyy

I overlooked a WIP branch. Placeholder text I forgot to write up, oops.

But we keep on swimming ~~ just a teeny tiny branch yup yup. (Im already 10k words over my initial goal) aaaaaaaaaaalmost there.

ok I’m done. I’ve finished my chapter at 133 303 / 120 000 I think I am done, if I haven’t overlooked any other unlocked WIP scenes, that is.