Violent murder is one of those things that always helps smooth things over
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It’s all the blood, makes things super slick.
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That’s me whenever I add a stoic/quiet response choice to make fake_choices and it often leads to a single follow up sentence of the characters awkwardly staring at each other as they expect an answer from the MC that never comes, while all the other branches lead to alenias upon alenias of follow-up narratives 
and yes, it feels very much like this.
other than that, one of my greater branches right now has led to a good 30 000 words in total. I thought I was almost done with my chapter until I felt like I HAD to write exactly 30 000 words for the other branch as well. So here I am still. Totally not starting to lose my mind
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While it doesn’t bother me, gratuitous swearing does bother some. The nice thing about IF is you can offer a choice for the MC to express distaste if someone is swearing a lot, and if they don’t like it you can multireplace the swearing going forward, so those who don’t care get the full color of the character and those who prefer a cleaner vocabulary, so to speak, can still play without it being totally offputting.
I did this with three of the ROs in Ink and Intrigue, allowing more colorful speech during spicy scenes if the player was into it, or keeping f-bombs out if the player preferred.
Not that you must include this, of course. Just an option.
I let myself get distracted if I need a break, but I’m obsessed enough with my story and driven to get more written so that brings me back. Things that help me focus:
- epic orchestral music (I’m writing fantasy, after all)
- a nice hot cup of tea (that often gets cold because I forget about it)
- getting up for a stretch/walk every so often (because staring at a screen for hours on end without breaks isn’t great for eyes or productivity)
- Timed writing sprints if I’m really struggling to focus
I’ve been making good progress on The Eternal Library and have an update ready to go out to Patreon subscribers tomorrow. Public update is planned for the end of the month.
I took some time this week to figure out how I want to integrate different character’s POV scenes, which will be optional so people who don’t want to read them can skip them. Basically, it came down to not including all the POV scenes I will write for Patreon subscribers (and to get into the heads of my characters so I know them better). Select scenes that add depth to the story and don’t distract too much from the MC’s path or slow down the plot momentum make the cut. All the rest are bonus material. I’m glad to have that figured out, as it was the missing piece in my story for a while.
I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! 
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Often I start my sessions by diving into spotify to find a playlist to set the mood, and get myself a cup of hot cocoa! And I often get hyper-focused enough to keep on writing for the first 30 minutes or so. And it’s great, because I’ve got many ideas eager to be written down.
Like. this was 30 minutes ago. my cup is empty and the single second I spent to peeking into this thread caused me to get distracted again oh no.
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I love stoic/quiet responses in IFs and I do definitely want to put some in mine. I might try to see I can play around with body language a bit more without being too boring and hopefully still engaging.
That is true. Sadly my coding skills for multi-replace aren’t quite there yet! Maybe one day!
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How do you guys write first? Sometimes I try writing first in CSIDE but hah, I really dislike how it comes out.
I found that I tend to write better when writing longhand, and then I edit on the go as I move it to the CSIDe.
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How do you guys avoid getting lazy with the branching? I don’t want the story to be linear but branching can be really hard sometimes lol.
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It’s been a mixed bag today while I’ve had today for work. I’ve managed to write about 1,438 words, but it might actually be more or less than that as a good chunk of time was spent trying to unknot some of the earlier code, which I finally did (I hope) and did involve doing some rewriting,
I do know I’ve added at least 799 words of brand-new content for Quiver that wasn’t a previously written scene.
Either way, the current word count for Quiver Chapter One is 11,575 words out of the 25,000-word target. So I’ve got five more days to write another 13,425 words, which should be doable now I’ve got past the bit that was tripping me up, and I’ve got five prison events to write in a flashback scene.
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I generally don’t swear, and I get very easily annoyed by excess swearing, so as a reader, a lot swearing tends to turn me off a character (or the book as a whole if its in the narration instead of dialogue).
As a writer this is about where I stand as well. Although, I tend not to write characters who swear
Would it make you feel better if I said that when I play a quiet character I’m expecting the conversations to be shorter.
I often get made fun in my family for making tea, and forgetting to drink it before it gets cold. 
Glad I’m not the only one.
I do like writing straight into CSIDE. I need the organization of going in order and seeing the code alongside the writing because I have trouble visualizing how they fit, if I don’t see it all together.
I just have to force myself to do it to be honest. I try to think about how excited I would be as a reader to see the different options to motivate me. (I’m a write what you want to read type of writer.) Sometimes that’s not enough though, I just have to use sheer willpower.
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Hello everyone, I’ve not been as active here as I’d like as I’ve been busy getting back into work mode this week, so below are a lot of quote-replies to lots of people:
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I don’t think you need to have a disclaimer, it’s OK to include the romances that suit the story as you see fit. It kind of draws attention to it as well!
Although there’s a lot of unpredictable thirst around, and you can’t cover all eventualities, I think it’s worth thinking about how to make the characters romantically unattractive (by which I don’t mean physically unattractive!) enough that they don’t feel tantalising. Whether that’s them doing horrible things, or just being unpleasant enough that players are less likely to want to get to know them that way.
I’m really enjoying reading about your progress on Quiver!
Yay! It makes such a big difference! So glad to hear about your Chapter 3 and 4 progress also! I hope the Patreon work is going well too 
This is a really good idea - starting with manageable chunks. I do find that changing the criteria can help - doing time rather than wordcount or vice versa.
And honestly that’s exactly what first drafts are for!
That makes a ton of sense, and best of luck with the exams!
I don’t use CSIDE, and prefer VS Code, but really it’s about whatever tool does the job. There’s no need to slog through learning something if the other one gels better for you.
I usually start with vibes and then grow the plot from there. If I try to write or develop characters without the plot, I get tangled up or lose steam, or both. (This is why I have some unfinished novels that lost momentum, heh.)
It’s definitely hard to let go of the urge to edit when going, and some people do find that’s OK to do, but it is kind of doing two things at once. I wonder if it might work trying to do no editing at all and write without thinking about it?
I often find this is true and I hope it is for you! I hope your electrical situation resolves quickly though 
Not cheating at all, that’s great going, and you’re doing huge amounts of work! 7000+ words in three days is massive!
That’s so cool, and I hope the tendonitis recovery goes smoothly!
This is a really good idea - I find starting smaller rather than jumping into a huge project straight off is really rewarding because finishing something is a great dopamine hit, plus it develops a lot of skills.
Happy new year, welcome back, and best of luck with the writing revival!
@Zaxwlyde so glad that your saving systems are working well!
I love these so much … if I ever end up making the faux-medieval game/writing the faux medieval book that’s been rattling around my head for a while I’ll totally take inspiration from them.
@Barry_Joseph nice to hear that your exhibit writing has been going well!
I think I agree with @cataphrak in wondering, is it possible to have a path that involves siding with the bad guy? It doesn’t work for every game, but I’ve often enjoyed writing those routes and figuring out what rewards a PC could be given for doing them.
Ooh interesting! For me I get the most out of my characters when I love writing them, but that can also be love-to-hate and/or finding them funny rather than necessarily liking or respecting them as people. I do like finding the humanity in characters so I try to figure out what makes them tick, including ones with heinous values or behaviour.
This is what I love most when setting up choices! It really is what game writing is all about for me (and is maybe part of why I’ve often stalled when trying to write novels because I like it so much, heh).
@Surge getting the words down is the first step and a great goal.
There’s always doing a partial demo, seeing how it goes, and adding more to it as needed?
I agree with this - it is not easy to get detailed feedback even when you’re popular (a lot of, though not all, of the commentary around some of the extraordinarily popular WIPs is more fandom-type discussion rather than what I would see as playtester feedback). So I think in general, making it easy for people to play and to give feedback is a good idea.
I wrote my very first IF (a short Twine game) in a week or so. I made my first CoG game, Blood Money (which is about 290,000 words long), in about eighteen months.
Quite right! I get in my head about this kind of thing sometimes and it always gets me bogged down.
I’m happy with characters swearing, but it can get repetitive if it’s not done thoughtfully - a little goes a long way to establish the characterisation.
One of my favourite scenes of all time is in Tally Ho when the MC and Rory exchange looks for an extended period and it’s just hilarious and delightful
I plan broadly by hand, code with placeholder text/summaries, check it all works, and then write.
What I’m pleased about today is that I drafted the first chapter of my Project Amble, and did a bunch of playtesting, and revisions to add stuff and polish. It is a lot more challenging than some of my other recent work because it’s a different genre, setting, and mood! but very satisfying, and I think I’m getting into the rhythm of it.
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it does I guess a hero only ever awkwardly staring at other people’s monologues and somehow still saving the world can be quite charming.
pfhh, thank you!! I still hope the quality of my chapter will end up being good as well. Seeing as length does not always equal quality
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I write in a document, and use bullet points to indicate choices and a highlight to indicate a variable. Then when I’m done with a chapter, I can add code while copying the story over into CSIDE.
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I write in text editor, or by hand. I like writing with a good (fountain) pen, but text editors have automatic word-counting and easier injecting of words in the middle of a paragraph when you forgot something… and also you don’t need two dozen notebooks with them.
I generally want to get the plot out first before I start coding, and text editors have prettier output than coding software.
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I do all of my research in Google Docs but when it comes to writing I do that right in CSIDE. I want to write with the code so I am keeping the two tightly connected.
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It is hard. I don’t have any good methods or recommendations but this topic been covered directly or indirectly in other threads that I can throw some links at you to review!
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How does one make it ‘easy’ for people to play and to give feedback?
I’ve tried to maintain an open door policy if people ask questions about my projects, and also placed no restrictions on the type of feedback I’m willing to accept. Even when I ran closed betas, I gave access to anyone who asked for it, with no questions asked.
What’s the secret ingredient I’m missing? 
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Satisfied with the amount I managed to write on a work day. Managed 2846 words (19.908 characters). Finished 15/20 of the environments as well. Hopefully I manage to finish that tomorrow so I can use the little amount of extra time before work I have on Sunday to start the alchemical effects list.
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When writing stat based choices, is it wise to hint what stat it affects, or let the player find out on their own?
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Thanks for this mate 
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