I am sorry that you were not approved, but I am grateful you shared with us this process from the very beginning. 
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Iām so sorry to hear that. But Iām glad youāre taking it as encouragement to keep trying and growing. And I still love the game ideas you submitted - I hope weāll still get to read them someday, whether published by CoG or HG. And, like @Eiwynn, I thank you for taking us through the process with you.
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Itās alright these things happen 
Iām turning 40 in September so Iāve been writing for a long time and itās obvious Iāve picked up some bad habits over the years but these are issues I can fix and I intend to work on them. Iāve started using Grammarly recently and Iāll more than likely subscribe to it to make the most of the service.
But fear not, Iām not going anywhere. I will focus on The Graveyard Watch and cleaning up my prose and then will resubmit an application as soon as I am able.
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My WIP also has the feature of petting both cats and dogs. The options I employed are less restrictive, but I might keep your planned feature in mind for a future chapter.
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The past month and a bit have been disastrous for my writing - work refuses to let up, which means my old writing time is now life admin time. The day I booked off to try and catch up turned into a day of naps, with no writing done.
I had hoped to have a second chapter of my WIP done by now, but Iād estimate Iāve managed less than a quarter of it.
The plan going forward is to write in even shorter chunks, wherever I can fit them in. I donāt see a ten minute session being very productive, but itās better than nothing, even if Iām only able to manage a few hundred words in a week.
It does serve to increase my level of admiration for people managing to write successfully alongside their full-time jobs, because this is real hard.
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Sometimes you need that day of naps more than anything else in the world. Ten minute sessions might not be ideal, but it keeps you engaged and moving forward. I hope things get less intense for you soon.
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I canāt decide what Iād love more.
- cutting my hours to a four day week so I csn have 3 days of writing.
Or
- being able to be a cabin in the middle of the woods to write in.
Either way work has been a bit stressful lately but have been keeping busy making notes for the three types of vampires that you can encounter in the Graveyard Watch. Namely the earthbound, the skybound and the feral.
Earthbound vampires only revive when submerged in earth/dirt and they have to Bury themselves before dawn.
Skybound vampires are dead bodies revived by a spirit.
Feral vampires are the standard aggressive vampire.
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Well, one of those is how you get Miseryād, so, uh, I suggest the other one?
Have you considered the Omnomnomicon, the eldritch cookbook, instead?
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I was more thinking of reading from the necronomicon to be fair but good point!
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Soooo the magical girl story isnāt going well. Itās on hold. Iām writing an aot fanfic right now.
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The dream of my life. If only there werenāt these responsibilities to keep meā¦
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Having just finished writing approximately 17k+ words within a week, I cant help but find a much higher level of respect for any IF author, because whew this was something else lol. Iāve never dedecated this amount of words to a singular project before, so its totally a new experience for me, and i hope it pays off in the end.
Now, however, comes the intricate part: coding. I really want to navigate this stage swiftly, so i can present a fully functional demo before the month draws to a close. So wish me luck friends 
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Here is a little July 15th excerpt from Honor Bound. This chapter has many, many food descriptions and this is no exception:
The carriage comes to a smooth halt outside a gold-fronted restaurant whose sign reads The Lion of the South. When you emerge, you canāt help but inhale the smell emanating from it: strong and spicy, with a delicate floral undertone.
Inside, itās tiny. The sort of exclusive place @{(hb_rebel > 50) rich people love: it makes them feel more special|youād have little hope of getting into if you werenāt with a Field Marshal}. Much of the space is taken up with a public cooking area in the center beneath a skylight, the stoves alight with flame while chefs expertly work.
āThe usual, please,ā Alva says to the maĆ®tre dā, who shows you to a secluded booth above which lush pink flowers hang from the ceiling. Then, as you consult the menu which does not even have prices, āIāll pay, obviously.ā
*page_break
Waiters ceremoniously bring you plate upon plate of bite-size dishes: battered asparagus, miniature tagines and spiced bean soup, crunchy fried potatoes with delicately aromatic salad leaves. Battered vegetables and kebabs are cooked in front of you on the public stove as flames shoot dramatically into the air.Alva tucks in enthusiastically, taking morsels from each small plate to combine them on hers. Between the cooking-clatter and the talk from the neighboring guests, she has to lean over the table to speak.
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Thank you for starting this monthās round of sharing, Hannah. It is much appreciated.
Thank you for choosing a passage that includes a simple, but effective example of multi-replace. This is a feature that many of us are intimidated by, or we are very unsure how to use properly.
Hopefully, this will help inspire others in our community to dive into multireplace use ā¦ I know it inspires me to see such examples.
Now for my excerpt. After the recent discussion on āfailureā in writing IF, I decided to share an example of a failed stat-check. As I state in the failure thread: I try to make failure āas engaging as I can to encourage the reader to continue with the narrative.ā
July 15th Excerpt
*else
You are overwhelmed by the task before you and no matter how hard you try, you are unable to release any of the precious air left in your lungs. Each moment you are underwater eats away at what air remains. What if you lose track of the bubbles once more? Then you will be lost for sure.
Your focus narrows to keeping your mouth shut as tight as you can make it. The pressure of the lakeās chill weighs on your chest, and your lungs start to heave with the effort of keeping in what little air you have left.
Both your ${inneroutfit} and your ${outeroutfit} twist and turn on you, restricting your movements at the same time as they weigh you down, acting like an anchor. Your lungs are straining to release your breath, wanting to exchange the old air for new air.
The struggle inside of you intensifies. Breath is essential to life, and the act of breathing is done reflexively and without thought. Yet, here you are fighting the desire to breathe, the harsh pressure of the lake reinforcing the fact that underwater, breathing leads to death.
You ball your fists and your mouth stretches into a grimace with clenched teeth grinding on each other behind closed lips. If only you could take control of this situation instead of reacting. The pressure of the lake continues to distract you with its demand for you to give in and breathe. Breathing is such a simple desire.
Accepting the fate that has set itself upon you, the decision to release your last, precious breath becomes easier. Hearing the last of your life trail away from you in a series of bubbles, you squeeze your eyes shut, at peace. Now, there is nothing but unbearable pressure, and the quiet certainty of death.
ā$!{name}!ā Emille wraps her arms around you as her words in your ear and the fresh air biting into your face stuns you. Is this one last hallucination? āI have you!ā
āHow?ā You tilt your chin up as you gulp in fresh air and feel the top of your head rest against Emilleās core. She gently grasps your shoulders and helps keep you afloat in the numbing water. āEmille, how did you find me?ā
āYour stitchesā¦ā Emille interrupts herself as she shifts along your body and gets out in front of you to face you directly, eye to eye. āThey are glowing, quite brightly.ā
Update on my monthly goals:
- Started and even a couple of features implemented.
- Started this too, but this will take a bit to complete. Maybe multiple months.
- Completed
- Started and still working on this.
I hope the next 16 days go well for everyone!
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Currently going through the weird berevement stage of a project almost complete.
The good news: Vampireās Kiss isā¦ getting there. Thereās still beta ongoing, but thanks to the beta testers, I think weāve got all of the critical bugs now, and (I hope) most of the typos. Iāve been adding a few ānice to haveā features, but itās a tricky balancing act - implementing things in one chapter might have knock-on effects or change the continuity later.
So, after a few days working on all of the feedback (and a latest version that has even more features all ready to go), I find myself - for the first time in a year - with a weekend where thereās nothing to do. I mean, yes, there probably are things I could do, but really I have to wait for the next raft of feedback. That lull also means I really canāt take on another project.
And so thereās nothing to do. And I feel a little empty.
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Have a donut, youāll feel better 
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Not news: Stefano told me half of the magazines are in summer vacation and the other half have still to answer him
I decided to focus on the weird hotel tale
Iāve always been skeptical on this one, no one has menage to make me change my mind yetā¦
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I relate to this immensely. Beta is so intense, with flurries of busyness and such a lot of reactivity to the comments - and it can feel really weird when it slows down. Itās like a cousin to the post-project blues. Hope you have a nice weekend even so, and get to do something relaxing and non work related!
Also: aww, youāre very welcome! When Iām at the computer I might post another. There was a discussion on another thread about multireplace which clarified my feelings about it - I like using it most when itās a binary division like the one in the excerpt,as I can lose track a bit if itās a very long one. Sometimes Iāll write it out in lines and then condense it into multireplace in that situation.
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So, this is a small excerpt of the very little I have done of the Horror IF I have in the works for the Bureau universe. I tend to work on it when I get slightly burnt out on the main series, or use it as a coping mechanism whenever Iām in a not so great headspace.
TW: Explicit Language; Mention of Masturbation; Depiction of Psychosis; Mention of Suicidal Thoughts
It sucks, doesnāt it? Feeling like no one ever believes you. Feeling like no matter what you do, you canāt escape from it all. Knowing that if you make it all stop you just proved them all right. So what do you do? You sit in your room waiting for a respite thatāll never come. You tell yourself that if you can just get past one more day in the festering void of your own nothingness that maybe the voices youāre hearing will just get bored and stop. Maybe the shadow in the corner of the room thatās sitting on that empty chair will finally leave you the fuck alone. Maybe, just maybe, your search history wonāt be filled with the quickest ways on how to kill yourselfā¦ at least thatās what I do most days. Is that what you do?
Listen to meā¦ like you can actually speak backā¦
Fuck it, maybe youāre in my head too. But does that make me crazy?
Think about it, no really think about it. Who doesnāt hear voices? When people walk next to you on the street, and someone bumps into you and drops their seven dollar hotdog and screams at you and calls you a fucking worthless bitch, and tells you that you should be shot, isnāt that just a voice? They say no one hears the same thing. Everything you hear, even if itās by a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a decibel is different from literally everyone else. Youāre not hearing what theyāre hearing; youāre hearing something theyāre not. Does that make you crazy?
What about what you see? Blue dress, yellow dress, purple dress, red dress; who gives a fuck? Why am I crazy for seeing a shadow in the corner of the room move and shift. For seeing the outline of a figureless man, completely obfuscated by darkness, sitting in the corner of the room watching me sleep, or watch t.v., or finger myself, or whatever it is Iām doing that night? Why, when someone sees music, is it considered gifted, but what I have makes me insane?
Itās not fucking fair! Why are they allowed to live a normal, happy life, and Iām stuck here being me?!
ā¦
Sorryā¦ I havenāt even let you respond. Iāve just been babbling on like a-ā¦
Fuckā¦
I canāt hear you. I wonder if youāve laughed at all during this. I wonder if anything Iāve been saying has made you snicker or chuckle under your breath.
If you haveā¦ can I ask you something?
*page_breakAre you fucking crazy?
*page_breakā¦Sorryā¦ that was uncalled for.
*page_breakI wonder if Iāll be able to hear you one dayā¦
*set noyes1 āYesā
*page_break
*goto wakeup
Me being me, I didnāt want to make this just a spinoff book that was just a little spooky. I want to make this an entirely different experience from the main series. I have an Adult Interest Check Thread post up about it, but Iāll give the basics here too.
Itās going to be a set main character; a woman named Leslie Thoughton. While it will be explicitly stated in the IF that she is a lesbian, and there will be an opportunity to have initiate a sex scene, there will be no romance. Itās a horror IF and will strictly be focused on said horror. What I said in the last two sentences alone is going to mitigate the audience by a substantial amount Iām sure, but honestly, I just care about bringing this vision to life and creating a unique and fleshed out experience.
That being said, Iām hoping to truly make this IF different. Leslie, throughout the book, will periodically talk to you. Having this one-sided dialogue with you based on the choices youāve previously made up until that point, constantly wondering if youāre real or inside her head. Not only that, but from a player perspective, there will be no stats. Instead, the stats page will be used throughout the book to hide hidden choices. It will be up to you when you check to see if Leslie is trying to hide something, if something else is trying to reach you, etc.
There will be puzzles in the form of text box investigations/answers, sequence puzzles where you have to choose the right answers in the right order, things you can do or items you can acquire to help her survive, and choices you can make that could either lead to her salvation or her death. There will be psychological puzzles where youāll have to pick the correct answers in order to calm her down in situations, not to mention an option in almost any situation to take an easier route, but at a possibly greater detriment to the character.
Horror is something that people on the forum have asked for time and time again, and in my eyes, itās something that should be innovative in some way within the medium that itās being told through; whether that be gameplay wise, story wise, production wise, etc. Thatās what Iāll be striving to do with it. And people can for sure expect lots of very gruesome, horrific descriptions of the kind of monsters Leslieās psyche and trauma make into a reality. Iām very excited with the idea.
On the flip side, the Bureau is finally something Iām starting to get a groove on with again as well. I took a bit of a break due to mental health reasons, but Iām back into it now with over 5000 words done on the new chapter and many more to come.
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Yes, thank you! Multi-replace was intimidating for a long time, even though I knew it would be better. I saw your excerpt when you put it up, got myself a cup of coffee, and just finished redoing a whole chapter with multi-replace that was full of unnecessary *ifs.
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