July 2026 Writer Support Thread

Game Development Writing and Content
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welcome back, everyone, and happy july!

:sun_with_face: :fish: :hibiscus: :footprints: :desert_island: :flamingo: :ocean:

a short introduction…
to any new participants, this is a continuation of the monthly Writer’s Support Thread, a CoG Forum tradition started around 2020 by poison_mara and continued for several years by the late Eiwynn.

these writer support threads are a no-pressure way for us writers to keep track of our monthly goals, writing progress, and any writing-related thoughts or whatever that come to mind throughout the month. all are welcome to join, whether you’re actively writing, in the planning process, or just considering writing in ChoiceScript in the future.

typically the first day or two of the month sees everyone who wants to participate in the thread listing their goals somehow, which we then reflect on for the last 1-2 days of the month.

on the 15th of the month we have ’snippet day,’ where anyone can share any snippet from a project of theirs, just to practice sharing their writing with an audience. snippets don’t receive feedback by default, so if you are looking for feedback, make sure to mention that in your post.

and of course, to any returning participants, hi! excited for another great month with you all :slight_smile:

:sun_with_face: monthly project spotlight :sun_with_face:
here are a few projects with new content, or updates scheduled for sometime this month.

  1. 1966 by @an_inspired_guess received its Update #2 in mid-June.
  2. Age of Archdemon by @Sylents received an update in mid-June (Chapter 4).
  3. All the Way by @Zodac01 received an update in mid-June (Chapter 13-14, teaser content for Chapter 15).
  4. Blissfallen by @sana had its demo released for the first time on June 12! (note: this WIP is in the Adult Content category)
  5. The Iron King’s Heir by @hellanikthi was updated in June and has another update slated for July 10!
  6. Magic at the Masthead by @gracierocket had its demo uploaded in June!
  7. The Rise of Cthulhu by @/Jonathan_Bagelman is expected to update sometime this month.
  8. Velocity by @/Fusion_Ultimatum is releasing July 2nd! You can play the demo at the link.
  9. Wonderland Noir by @/Wannabe_Human is expected to update sometime this month.

for a much more exhaustive list of updates (including reviews, interviews, and official releases) the past few months, check out this post by @HarrisPS. thank you as always to harris for their monumental efforts in tracking the goings-on in the IF community!

:hibiscus: optional discussion prompt :hibiscus:
it’s july, which means summer is officially underway! i always have an easier time being in “writer mode” in autumn and winter—they just feel more quiet and writerly to me—so i usually end up slowing down in summer. it feels like a good time to refresh my brain, set new goals and whatnot for the rest of the year, and so on.

as such, i’d like open up a discussion with the loose theme: taking breaks. when do you, as a writer, decide it’s time to take a break from your normal routine and take time to refresh your mind and creativity? or if you prefer not to deviate from your routine, how do you work through periods of tiredness, low creativity, or low motivation?

p.s. thank you @LeannaMandragoran for inspiring me to do this with your post for the April 2026 thread!

:sun_with_face: :fish: :hibiscus: :footprints: :desert_island: :flamingo: :ocean:

happy july, everyone!

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June 2026 Writer Support Thread
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This month, I want to complete two “mini-chapters” that the player only gets to see under certain circumstances, and which only cover a couple events each. Take bets whether this turns out to be far too much for me, far too little to spend an entire month on, or just enough.

  • Too much (wordcount bloat)
  • Too little (failed to meet quota)
  • Just enough (yeah right)
0 voters
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Is June not a Summer month over there?

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hm. that is a little awkward/not-quite-right phrasing :sweat_smile: i wrote up that part late at night a few weeks ago, but i think i was thinking of the summer season official start date of june 21. so…close to july? kind of. lol

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Offended my Finnish brain right off the bat by implying Midsummer is not in Summer, despite June being literally “Summer Month” in Finnish. :laughing:

Anyway I realized I had actually answers to opening questions this time, so:

If I can’t get anything done, or there’s something else I need to get done. (Like now. Way too much stuff I need to get done. Hopefully I can get back to writing next month, one way or another. And visit a car museum. I so much want to visit a car museum.)

I switch up what I’m working on. It works fine for me, as long as you don’t mind everything takes longer… but forming multiple projects in the same story-world at the same time makes it easier to have the lore align properly.

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It’s always wordcount bloat. For me, anyway - I’ve never guessed a Pactbinder chapter’s wordcount correctly. Not once.

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Hi everyone!

I wish us all the best things for this new month of July! More success in our personal lives! More success to our writing!

My goals for this month is to rest a bit once Velocity releases and then maybe get back to writing Talon Saga close to the end of the month, or maybe the middle of it.

I hope to finish chapter three of Talon Saga and maybe hit 50k words.

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I completely failed to meet my June goals, getting very little writing done at all during the entire month. I was expecting to take some time to catch up on things after returning from a convention at the end of May, but it took me a full week and not just a couple of days. I also didn’t get that much sleep, which slowed me down, and I had to spend more time looking for work. I did actually get about an hour of writing in last night, but I spent about five hours looking for work first, so I would have had time to get a lot more done if not for that. Still, I expect to have more time over the next few days, but I know how those expectations go.

My goal for July is to finally get Chapter 5 of my WIP finished and uploaded, which was my June goal too. If I have time, I plan to at least get started on Chapter 6, which introduces a new town to visit.

I take planned breaks, such as conventions, though I have none coming up until November. I also took off for most of a week in May to do some beta testing. Generally, unless I think of something that I just have to fix or write down, I don’t start writing until I get everything done I need to on a given day, which often doesn’t happen, but if any time is left, I use it to write. I also take off one day per week every week. I keep the Sabbath from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, and since I’m doing this to make money and not just for fun, I count it as work.

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Getting rest was nice. I might extend it to this month too. But we will see if I find myself in the mood to do more. Hopefully the rest of you have similar fun. And happy birthday to all July birbdays!

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Thank you for seting up the thread this month @raywilson!

My goals this month are:

  1. Catch up on Patreon content that was supposed to be released last month
  2. Make some progress on chapter 5 (not giving a word count becuase I don’t know what my health will allow this month)
  3. Fix my relationship stats

I usually become less productive in the summer because my spouse is home more and we distract each other, and I get tired a lot easier when it’s hot out. :laughing:

I prefer not to deviate from my routine, but I tend to have different levels of daily output goals. So if I’m tired or have low motivation, I just work until I reach a lower daily goal then stop for the day and do something fun. For example, I try to hit 2k words a day, but if I particularly tired, I’ll just go until I reach 1200 or so then call it a day. But I also don’t write on Sundays, so I do have breaks worked into my routine.

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Thank you, @raywilson for the lovely monthly thread!

My goal for July is to finish my line edits. I didn’t last month because I discovered a major bug and had to rework a bunch of stuff to fix it. GDI.

An incredibly annoying trait I discovered about myself: sleeping through mornings and changing my routine every once in awhile boosts my creativity. Last week it was 20 minutes work, 20 minutes non-work while video essays ran in the background. This week it’s World of Darkness lofi and 30 minutes off and on. Again, I cannot overstate how annoyed I am at my brain for this.

@Cat-Toes I hope you’re feeling better! I saw the post about unexpected surgery. Yikes!

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Oh, I forgot I meant to share this little vignette.

Pre-battle jitters

[C] unloads and reloads his gun by touch on repeat; [B] reads the maps over and over again. [V] checks the neck seal of his helmet for the fifth time (always five times).

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This month is Philippine GameDev Expo month; and thus, besides continuing development on Lily Adventuresses! Episode 4, I’m preparing what I’ll bring to the expo’s Indie Game Stars exhibition.

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Last month: 22/30 writing days.

This month goal: 24/31 writing days.

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Happy birthday to everyone in July! And thanks @raywilson for hosting the thread this month.

My goal for July is just to take it easy and work on small hobby projects. In theory, I know it’s good for me to take breaks on a regular schedule; but I often end up working straight through until I get bored with something. At which point it’s less “taking a break” and more “got distracted by a shiny new idea.”

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Thanks for the thread, @raywilson!

Goals for this month:

  • Finish Chapter Ten
  • Get a few thousand words into a mockup / concept thing for a new project

Funny you should mention breaks—I’m the worst person I know at letting myself rest, and every time I try I am swamped with guilt. That said, I haven’t given myself more than a day off in… a very long time, so it’s a stretch goal of mine to take the last week of July off. Realistically, I’ll at least end up working on planning projects, but maybe a week of doing that with no significant forward writing pressure could be nice…

Anyway, good luck to everyone with your goals this month. :slight_smile:

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Thank you for making the July thread. :slight_smile: @raywilson

Completed June Goals

  • I completed a LOT of outlining last month as well as completing the first three chapters of War Sky review.
  • I wrote 38000 words and deleted 11000 words, bringing my second largest game to 74500 words.

July Goals

  • Create a hover-able tooltip that can be used on non-CoGDemos hosting platforms. Additional goals include: (1) making it clickable for mobile users and (2) making it readable for screen readers—although NVDA glitches with aria-labels, so I’m not so sure.
  • More. Outlining.
  • At least 10000 words written (at 2600/10000).
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My July Goals

  • Write at least 15k
  • Complete chapter 4b
  • Complete at least one 4c romantic route

Hm… When I need to work through low energy/creativity/motivation, having a specific word count goal can help. Hitting 15k in June helped me write nearly 3k today, which isn’t my norm. That said, I do take an occasional Saturday or Sunday off. Even when I take time off, though, I try to continue thinking about my story or working on something adjacent.

Other than that, I try to keep my weekday routine because slipping once makes it easier to slip again. Plus, my weekday routine is basically engineered to work with my energy and motivation each day.

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Heya everyone, happy July!

My goals for July are to finalize the first chunk of the game and get something out there. Hopefully that goes well!

When I hit an especially big roadblock I usually take a day or two off to not think too hard about anything at all. That usually gives me the time I need to recover!

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Good luck!

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