You are not.
6 Likes
Um.
āHoofprints.ā I crouched in the mud, measuring the imprints with my hand, the unyielding rain slowly dissolving the tracks before my eyes. Somewhere in the sky, valkyries were riding. āSizeā¦ eight? Nine? Alsoā¦ā something glinted in the ground. I picked it up.
āIs thatā¦ a fish scale?ā Matt leaned forward, pointing the flashlight to the item in my hand. It was a good flashlight - big, sturdy, heavy-duty, could serve as a mace in a pinch. Suddenly I was very thankful for it. āLooks like a fish scale. Baltic sturgeon. Exceptā¦ā
āNix.ā I turned the scale in my hand, studying. It was a bony thing, size of a token for a no-tell motel, dull brownish grey under the cone of light, water throwing reflections in a living Rorschach test. āItās a freaking nix.ā
I wonder if past-tense first-person would be a dealbreaker for readers. I kind of have a specific vision for this one.
It was way-too-early oāclock on a pale Monday morning, and outside my windows on the second floor of the Lindwurm County Sheriffās Office, the late Autumn wind was picking up. Sitting behind my desk and shifting through the reports left during the weekend, I was only halfway through my first mug of the day in coffee, when a dame dragged in.
She was a young one, mid-twenties by the looks of it, shaped like a femme fatale if I ever saw one, all black and gloomy with splashes of red and yellow, and a lot of legs - after the twelfth pair I gave up counting, her caterpillar-like torso twisting and turning in the cramped office. A faint glow of a glamour haloed her body, flickering like a failed special effect in a bad sci-fi flick. I could see it if I squinted.
You are absolutely not.
I was lucky enough to have a teacher whose feedback I could trust to be honest, so I learnt to deal with it relatively early. But that doesnāt mean it doesnāt happen. Rely on your feedback, not your feelings. (Unless you can sort out the difference between āthis feels horrible, but itās the kind of this-feels-horrible my readers eat upā and āthis feels horrible, I should fix it before showing it to anyoneā. Actually, still rely on your feedback. It helps to learn the difference.)
9 Likes
At this point, I have missed my target to submit for publish on July 11. Hopefully another week will allow me to finish all the editing and legwork required for publishing. I was delayed by my own undiscipline as well as the disruption of cardiac rehab. Now that my rehab is ending, I hope to rededicate myself to working on my game full time. If anyone has free time, I would appreciate beta testing my game. First Bull Run - Completed demo - 86,000 words
13 Likes
This reminds me of something my sitcom professor taught us last semester. Heās found that most writers go through a similar cycle:
While writing: āThis is the best piece of writing Iāve done in my LIFE. The jokes are funny, the characters are vibrant, the dialogue is witty and realistic, this is truly my careerās magnus opus. This is the next big novel/blockbuster/HG/what have you.ā
While editing: āWhat is this hot garbage that Iām forced to scrutinize over? This is an affront to both writing as a skill and to my eyes, for having such trash imposed upon them. My life is over, my career is over, and some other third thing is over as well. Quite frankly I should be paying someone else to discard this junk, lest it traumatize another poor soul.ā
While re-reading it a month later: āItās fine.ā
Writing is a daunting task, when compared to a lot of other hobbies and professions. Specifically for humorous writing-- you are given a blank piece of paper and told to make it funny. But I think that principle can be applied to any genre; your task as a writer is to make your audience care about a blank piece of paper. Itās an extremely vulnerable pursuit, but you do it anyway. I know you said you feel like youāre on a time crunch because of demand, but if you can manage it, I think it would be good for you to take a short step back. Let it marinate for a bit and come back with fresh eyes, and (at least anecdotally) youāll be less hard on yourself.
20 Likes
Personally, I feel kind of the opposite way of you guys.
While writing: āWow, this is absolute garbage!ā
While editing: āMmm, maybe I can improve it enough for it to not be too embarrassingā¦ā
Now Iām worried Iām being delusional 
13 Likes
Itās the total opposite for me I think. While Iām writing Iām like āwow this piece of garbage should never be read by anyone on earthā and then when I reread it Iām like āthis is great!!ā but maybe I am also a bit delusionalā¦
9 Likes
Everyone has dips and boosts of morale at different times. For me, I tend to feel most despairing when I donāt have anything on the page and am trying to plan something complicated that Iām not sure about, or sometimes when Iām doing a first draft and Iām finding it hard to focus. The good thing is that if youāre writing, you (I hope!) have parts of it that you enjoy, whether thatās drafting, rewriting, playtesting, or going through and streamlining 20-50 lines of code in several chapters so that itās neater (thatās me, Iām weird)ā¦ so it might be helpful to try to keep that in mind and maybe use those aspects as treats to get you through the harder parts.
15 Likes
Speaking as someone who just finished writing a 102k word chapter (which probably could have easily been divided into three chapters), I think thereās a number of reasons for this:
First, thereās the logistical one: temp variables only work within chapters, so it seems more efficient to have big chapters with temp variables tracked instead of splitting those chapters up in ways which require a lot of those temp variables to bloat the global variables list.
Thereās also the fact that if youāre using the same gosub a lot, you generally wanna have all the stuff that references that gosub in a single file - unless you use gosub_scene, which is also an option.
Second, thereās the narrative reason, and I think a lot of this has to do with how the CS tutorial on the site suggests structuring stories: it basically tells us that each āvignetteā should be a complete mini-narrative arc, and I know thatās generally how I still structure my stories because thatās how I learned it back in like 2012, and because thatās how I feel like they should be structured in my pitches if I want them greenlit.
Which brings us to the last reason: inertia.
When I was writing Sabres of Infinity, my chapters averaged around 6-10k words. But as Iāve developed as a writer and a game designer - and as Iāve tried to add more options, more interactions, and more texture to my writing, my subsequent chapters balloon in size - especially since I always feel like Iām often not presenting enough content for my players. One of the criticisms I got a lot early on was that my work was too linear, and didnāt offer enough options and I kinda took that personally.
So thatās why Lords of Infinityās final chapter is the size of all of Sabres of Infinity, and why I just wrote a 102k word chapter.
23 Likes
Your sacrifice of carpal tunnel is appreciated.
14 Likes
On my front, it depends on where Iām at.
Heavier Master Subroutine files are going to be far more stacked codewise. The reason is that these reference a lot of dependent components. However, what Iāve done to minimize overall technical overhead is to keep a different Master SubRoutine file for each Master SubRoutine.
Each one of my systems uses a Master SubRoutine, and my projects are largely gameplay-heavy.
That said, my main title Estheria in particular will have a massive ChoiceScript_stats.txt file that I simply cannot avoid. I donāt like to disconnect parts from the Stats pages after tinkering extensively with systems being attached. I found that the moment someone manages to click out on some subpage that has actual mainstream coding running, it just breaks everything because the Stats page is its own āgameā technically speaking.
So, as a result, all of my Kingdom Lore, Known Characters, Known Locations, Glossary, Patch Notes, Hero Information, Quest Logs, Crafting/Gathering Recipes/Information, Spellbook info, and more are going in that file which serves as the Compendium for the game.
I have taken the road of trying to disattach them into their own files before. It ended disastrously due to the way that the Stats function operates.
Just some two cents from my perspective.
5 Likes
Hi everyone! I am alive.
My writing pace went surprisingly well in June, and has continued in this first week-ish of July. Knocking on wood, I should have Chapter 7ās first draft finished by the monthās end. Itās a bit shocking how fast a chapter goes when itās not a date chapter (which is secretly like, 5 chapters in one).
I also have my usual goal to write my monthly blog post. Iām trying to find more Wordpress blogs that review sapphic indie games. If anyone has recs, let me know 
Adding cents to conversations! I usually separate each text file by chapter, for the sake of my sanity. Some get quite longāChapter 6 is 69,000 words 
ā and others are quite shortāChapter 3 is 10,000 words long.
I DEFINITELY go through the process @mayaya describes. While writing I think Iām brilliant. While editing I wail āwhy have I done this.ā During subsequent edits my feelings mellow out to āthis is acceptable. Especially that incredibly self-indulgent bit.ā
21 Likes
You are 100% currect. And if I didnāt have to adult, Iād do that. But Adulting is entirely my responsibility, I canāt. XD
ā¦I am absolutely in love with this idea.
6 Likes
Iām interested in numbers! Yay! Thank you for sharing. (This, and that Omnibus data analysis post too.)
Oh yeah, Iāve been on both ends of the spectrum of āwow Leticia you literary geniusā and āohmygod this is so stupidā when rereading my stuff. The fun life of a writer.
Itās certainly understandable to feel a sort of pressure after uploading a demo. Earlier in this thread, too, people were talking about that, and knowing my own pace as a writer, I considered the possibility of putting a disclaimer on my future WIP post about the unknowably long wait time between updates; would something like that, to give readers a heads-up and mitigate expectations, help to take the feeling of pressure off?
Oh, the way this made me laugh. Thank you so much.
Toward my goal to finish rewriting that part of my first chapter, Iāve written down the #choices that still need a body paragraph in a notebook, since I thought a blank page would be easier to fill than the daunting gaps in the game file. Iāve yet to write any of those body paragraphs but Iām sure itāll help to do it this way!
Not to get sidetracked (Iām totally getting sidetracked) but Iām also planning to participate in this jam! Gotta brainstorm ideas.
10 Likes
The MC also calls her a femme fatale simply because she literally looks venomous. 
5 Likes
My chapter 2 goal was 20K words total for all the chapters, but Iām already at 20K, and Iām only halfway done 
It looks like this chapter alone will be 20K words, and as someone whoās never written anything, that feels like a lot. These things balloon pretty quickly, huh? Iām currently undeterred, but I wonder what the final chapter will be like in size. Letās hope Iāll find out relatively soon!
Todayās goal: 2K words.
12 Likes
20,000 words is a lot!
That is equal to two publishable short stories.
Most IF writers do not realize that one story/game that we write is like undertaking multiple novels at one time.
So, good job, Pinks.
13 Likes
For real. Even if we take a ācanonā route approach and ignore the words in any path except the one you take from start to finish. It is still a usually beefy novel. Especially the likes of archangel or fallen hero.
I guess on the plus side. It makes writing a traditional novel much easier and simpler, since youāre technically gaining 2x XP to your writing skill due to the larger sized work. And it is also why they take so many years to make the particularly beefy IFs. The entire lord of the rings book series is roughly 575k words and thats three to four books that took like 18 years to make. Really puts into perspective just how massive an undertaking it is for games like the infinity series with its Million word book 3.
For reference. An average 300 page book fits about 82k words. Which is the length an entire novel on average. My IF which is really still in the prologue to early chapters stage is at that number of words.
It is truly wild the large amount of work and how it flies.
15 Likes
Ok, I missed this butā¦ this is a really good idea! It actually reminds me of the Doctor Who 2 parter āHuman Natureā and āFamily of Blood.ā The Doctor temporarily gets turned into a human and gains the life and memories of a 1910s British school teacher at a boys boarding school. Itās a really good story if you ever want to do something with your idea. Itās also good if you just want to check out Doctor Who
8 Likes
I feel this. Though I am not writing a traditional novel (well, actually itās a fanfic), it certainly feels much less work than working on my IF. And the editing is much easier- I am not reading through for all paths and feeling like I am repeating myself.
7 Likes
Oh! Had to rack my brain a bit, but I actually saw that one. Loved the ending.
3 Likes