July 2021's Writer Support Thread

So I did it! I met my July goal, only seven days in. My WIP is finished!

Time to sleep for the rest of the year.

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Darn, wish my life was that good.

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Congrats!

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letā€™s gooooooooooo

Congrats!!! never gets old, does it? Enjoy your time off!

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I never usually write anything like this, but I thought here might be the best spot to get some of this out and possibly have people to tell me to get my butt in gear.

I took a little bit of a break the past couple of weeks on my WiP due to it being my birthday and managing to get hold of one of the new consoles, which I played for a total of about a week. I felt like I mightā€™ve been getting a bit burnt out because I was having some major writerā€™s block, so I pursued GMing a couple of D&D and Kult: Divinity Lost games over the past week or so to stretch my mind a little, as well as watch some Criminal Minds to possibly grab some inspiration since it was one of the original inspirations for it.

Problem is, mental health wise itā€™s been really rough. I canā€™t really play or do anything without feeling this extreme, overwhelming sense of guilt for not working on my passion. Especially because I know that Chapter Three of this WiP is going to help me so much with exerting some of this hurt. My WiP is and has always had a theme; grief. I have huge anxiety, always worrying about when my time is going to come and thinking any night I go to sleep could be the last time I close my eyes, so every day Iā€™m not finishing my IF is a day I might not be remembered, which I logically know is very unlikely and objectively not true, but itā€™s where my head is at.

Anyway, I posted this here rather than the ā€œWhy am I feeling emotionsā€ subject because the main purpose wasnā€™t really to talk about this - this was all simply a preface. I havenā€™t been able to focus on writing that much so far this month and itā€™s really irritating me, and I thought this would probably be the best place for people to tell me to get back to work and finish these two scenes for the month.

Good job by the way on everyone who has completed their goals or worked on their goals already this month, always super cool to see that - truly. You guys are awesome and keep up the great work. Sorry for rambling!

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My goal is to push past my anxiety and overanalysing, and post the damn WIP. Itā€™s there. Itā€™s ready. But itā€™s somehow not good enough. Ugh.

I want to write 10k words per week and edit afterwards rather than going paragraph by paragraph. And I want to keep branching choices and give readers a lot of options, just the way I like.

Iā€™ve honestly started to have a lot more empathy for IF authors since I started playing around with ChoiceScript; the more experienced users are so talented and make me feel more enthused to keep trying when I run into road blocks, and I just want to delete my story. Thanks to this forum Iā€™m able to figure out my issues in coding without pulling my hair out.

Shout out to everybody who is writing right now. Itā€™s HARD starting out without a lick of coding experience and an F in maths.

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An error report I just received:

What were you doing when the error occurred?

i was trying to play the game

thanks

(I did fix the bug though)

As for an update on my writing.

I am not doing much writing!

But soon I will. Honestly the hardest part is just starting ā€“ once I do the momentum carries me. Motivation follows action, not the other way around.

Wrote 200 words just now.

ā€œYou know, Harper, Bertrand Russell once said punctuality is linked to social cooperation. By always arriving late, youā€™re letting us know exactly how important we are to you.ā€

Harper isnā€™t going down without a fight. ā€œYou know, Slater, Wittgenstein once said that when you canā€™t think for yourself, you can always quote someone else.ā€

ā€œWhy donā€™t you quote these nuts?ā€

The best 200 words Iā€™ve ever written.

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You should always work on your goals and what your passionate about, it doesnā€™t matter if you progress a lot or a little, you will always thank yourself later. So i hope you will soon find the inspiration you need once more and continue on your journey of writing a wonderful tale.

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I confess I havenā€™t been doing any writing so far this month. Iā€™ve mostly been playing video games (the Witcher 3 +NG+ Horizon Zero Dawn). In an attempt to get my brain into writing mode I have spent some time today watching YouTube videos by Hello Future Me.

Iā€™ve just finished watching this one, and itā€™s making me rethink my descriptions so that Iā€™ve typed up so farā€¦ including the one that Iā€™m re-writing!

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Hello Future Me is great. I watch him all the time!

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Iā€™m not doing great with my goals :frowning: I am getting some writing done daily, but Iā€™m not sure Iā€™ll get the updates done the way I want to. Just blah!

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Any amount of writing count. Even coding or outlining. Donā€™t feel bad :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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I have been rather distracted with replaying Batman: Arkham Knight and convincing myself that itā€™s all good mental planning for my Batman solo gameā€¦ :sweat_smile:

Initial work for the Doctor Who expansion is going well though, got all the new Enemies and Locations decided on.

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Okay. I think Iā€™ve done enough planning. Iā€™m going to write something down today, because I do not want to leave another gap between the climax and the build up to it of this chapter.

That and I want to get something productive done, that I find enjoyable.

At the end of the day, I got no story writing done. :pensive: I canā€™t force myself to write parts of my story, I think I need a boost of inspiration in order to actually start working on it again. And to think when I started I would work on it for hours, day after dayā€¦

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Oof, thanks for the shoutout! Feeling a little shy about it, but the thread has indeed been an incredible source of feedback on my project.

While Iā€™m here, I might as well share my writing goals as well, haha. After dealing with a behemoth of a block for all of June, I hope to be able to return to my usual goal of ~25k words this month. So far Iā€™m a bit behind on my milestones because Iā€™m really trying to pace myself, but hopefully I can properly kick into production as the month progresses.

Congratulations! Fingers crossed, Iā€™ll be joining you soon. :smiley:

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Congrats, July writers!

My goals are easy: keep up with my beta test errors and keep testing. :slight_smile:

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Iā€™m a little late to this thread, but better late than never! My goals are to:

~Write/work on something at least once everyday. It can be fanfics, the hosted games stories, or the book you started in middle school. I just want to make sure I update something once every day
~Make it through at least 1 of the jobs in your WIP, maybe 2 if youā€™re ambitious. I want to make sure that the readers can play through the job/beginning areas.
~Write 10k words

Good luck everyone!

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Here we are at the halfway point of the month!

I am happy to see those who returning (welcome back @Lucid) and those chiming in for the first time! (welcome @ConfusedTissue )

Focusing on my stated goals for the month:

  • I have been writing every day.
  • I am working diligently on project one and feel good about the progress made on it!
  • I have not yet finished testing project two, because I am still working on my project one goal.

Overall, I feel like I actually have a shot at achieving this monthā€™s stated goals.

Hopefully, July will see more achievements!

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I wanted to highlight an upcoming release: VTM: Out For Blood by @JimD (Due out at the end of July)

Here is an interview with Jim which covers a lot, including a few things about his Zombie Exodus project.

Congratulations Jim, great interview!

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Julyā€™s been good to me so far. Iā€™ve managed to keep a consistent daily writing schedule, and Iā€™ve more or less been finishing each of the character/romance segments I need in two days each.

Iā€™m also only 5k words or so away from breaking the 100k word barrier, so, you know, thatā€™s gonna be a hell of a milestone! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Something thatā€™s also been doing wonders for my ā€˜writing-esteemā€™ (trademark pending :wink:) has been some of the rewrites Iā€™ve worked on, in regards to one character in particular. Originally, the plan was to make him cut your chat short after choosing to interact with him, since he had some in-universe stuff to do, but I instead went through with a different angle, and managed to not only get a full on convo through, but also a pretty deep look into the characterā€™s past. Itā€™s one of those things I donā€™t plan at all (like another characterā€™s romance actions, which I was worried would seem too ooc, but then managed to weave into her characterization), but end up fitting in rather neatly when I end up adding them.

Anyway, hereā€™s my goal for the month:

Chapter 4 release.

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