Hello and welcome to Jun 2025 Writer Support Thread everyone!
I’am happy and honored to host this Writer Support Thread again. I hope everyone is good and happy.
So I unfortunately no time to research articals but I have a topic to disscuss this time.
What do you think about planning when writing?
For me a specially for characters developed naturaly in writing. I generaly don’t know how wil developed.
Thanks for everyone specially for @HarrisPS
I hope everyone reaches their goals.
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My goals for Jun:
Learn Choice script, Write and finish the Prologue and post my WIP.
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my goal for this month is to beat procrastination and find ways to deal with my mental exhaustion 
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My goal for this month is to just keep consistent and keep putting words on page.
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Hopefully this month I manage to make progress.
In regards to planning. Well, I kind of don’t, I have vague ideas brainstormed in commutes but the specifics are always done on the fly generally. Though it mostly depends on the flavor of what I am consuming at that time. Right now I’ve been playing some of the Telltale games and the way they do dialogue options is one I am strongly considering using. Most dialogue options besides changing relationship dont actually do anything besides flavor how your character feels or thinks about something. But sometimes they hide choices within them. Allowing you to take a more peaceful approach if you can calm someone down with words properly. Not with a simple “convince” option over a “threaten” but with actual dialogue options.
But even when it doesnt really change the story meaningfully, it still feels good, especially the ability to be silent. Which may not seem like too notable an option but being able to simply stay silent when none of the options presented are to your liking or where you feel like speaking or saying anything will screw you over (revealing hidden information). Like. I don’t know how to describe it but it gives me this level of control that, while is not quite real. Makes me feel like I’m directly responsible for more than what the choices actually do.
Like, yeah sure at the end of the day its smoke and mirrors, but it makes the experience faaar more enjoyable. Unfortunately, the timer on options isnt something really doable nor probably encouraged for a written IF. But that sort of urgency or undecidedness as an option you can unwittingly or knowingly decide manages to also make it feel real. Its why when I recalled life is strange. Or other Deck nine games, the choices didnt feel as alive in spite of fundamentally being the same thing. Just being able to stare at them and not choose a dialogue option and the game just, crawls to a stand still. It really easily tears that carefully crafted curtain making these characters seem alive and real. They wont wait for you to respond forever, theyll look at you funny when you just stay silent and they say more the closer the timer gets, either remarking on your silence up to that point or adding to the argument to make you choose better.
I don’t know. I just know it feels real satisfying choosing options like that for telltale games, more than pretty much every other game thay has you choose dialogue options like mass effect or Fallout.
But thats enough yapping.
Hope you all have a wonderful June.
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With Lily Adventuresses! Episode 2 now fully out, my goal for this month is to relax a little, while also preparing for the Philippine Game Dev Expo. I will resume development on Episode 3 once PGDX ends.
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In June, my goals are to submit Meteoric to Hosted Games and make a substantial amount of progress on my Trial of the Demon Hunter update
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For IF, I plan out what needs to happen in every chapter for each plot line. Then, at the start of a chapter, I review everything that needs to happen and create a chapter outline that pulls it all together. Lastly, I plan out scenes right before I write them.
Personally, I feel blocked when I’m not sure what happens next.
Goals for June
I want to finish most of chapter 3 in June so that I can finish it fully in July.
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Good morning everyone! Can’t believe it’s June already.
For planning, I have the plot written out and major beats and motifs noted. Generally have much fewer notes for characters. I sort of cheat by basing characters on people I know in real life, so I can just think about what they’d do. (Yes, I know a lot of very strange people IRL)
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Threw my Neo-Twiny work so far into a word processor to check the word count and yeah the execution of this particular idea is definitely going to be over 500 words. I’m gonna have to pivot to the other ideas. But I still want to work on this idea at some point. Just, of course, can’t be for Neo-Twiny.
Also it’s the last day of a comic clearance sale, not sure if it’s going by EST so I made sure to complete my purchase before then just to be safe. But uh. There’s a part of me that feels like I bought too much, I feel like that lady who bought sushi just because it was on sale even though her whole family’s allergic. (But, I do like comics, and I’m not allergic to them. I just also like being frugal. But I also like supporting artists. …It’s a dilemma.)
Spending my weekend too stressed thinking about work. I need to work on that work-life balance… (Would be easier if I were better at the job. =_=) It’s tough. I really just don’t wanna mess things up.
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Last month was good for me so this month I can definitely complete conquest/pestilence and possibly act 1 of the other one if im done early.
If not, at the very least the job paths within act 1.
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Sounds like good progress. One of the best feelings in the world when it starts to come together.
For our question of the month, for planning, via pen & paper or my computer or phone, I don’t do much planning. Usually a few rough pages here and there if I feel so inclined, often some scribbling or notes about new variables or plots, though the notes are usually pretty vague. Though I’m not to big on the whole planning thing, being more pro-discovery writing, I usually will be thinking about my plots, character, and code all the time in the back ground of my thoughts and dreams, so when I do start work on it, it usually flows pretty well, since I know where to start at least. Regrettably I’ll sometimes get some of the planning done at inoportune times, like when I’m trying to fall asleep, and then I need to leave myself a note or I’ll forget what I wanted to do.
— for this month my goal is to get that update for Dice & Dungeon Masters done—and it will be, though how long and how far it moves the story along will be the questions. After that, then a bit of a break before I’m back to Sense & Sorcery. Might work on some of my linear writing for a bit as I have vast rampaging throngs of half-written linear pieces that are feeling a lot of jealousy towards the IF WIPs.
Good luck to all on your writing—!
P.S. Giving some thought to maybe using my Pet Rock piece for the tiny word count game jam; though 50/50 on submitting it or not.
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I didn’t write down my goal in last month’s thread, and I was quite lazy that month. So I’d rather state my goal this month so I can at least shame myself if I don’t reach it.
I want to finish my Chapter Two and finish my edit of the Prologue and Chapter One - which is mostly implementing personality stats. And I’d like to write at least 10 000 words for Chapter Three too - but that one is flexible, I won’t beat myself up if I don’t do it.
As for planning, I’m a pantser by nature so it’s hard for me to plan, but I did figure out my plot before I started writing. And I do roughly do outlines for what is supposed to happen in a chapter before I write it. Because I don’t think you can get away with full on pantsing if you’re writing interactive fiction.
Good luck to everyone for June!
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After writing a few (non-IF) things with the three act structure, I find it not fun any more. So my current project doesn’t follow that structure. Way more fun!
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In terms of planning, I only make mental outlines of all the things I want to include. Since I have been working on the story itself for quite a long time, I don’t need to brainstorm the direction of the story or the story beats.
As for a goal, I am hoping to finish the update I have been working on before the end of the month (famous last words).
Also, I would appreciate if someone could share some insights on writing fight scenes that involve swords or daggers (both including and not including magic). They are a big part of my story but I struggle a lot with writing them. I have read quite a few guides on how to, but none have really helped.
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Do you have any problems writing other types of fight scenes? What is it specifically about swords and daggers that makes them tougher?
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As someone who has some experience with arnis/eskrima, you have to consider two things: The grip and the weapon’s reach. Consider swords/daggers an extension of your arms.
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I’m somehow like a day behind on everything already, and it’s barely the 2nd. Oh well. Still aiming for the usual:
- 40,000 words
I’d honestly also like to get all the plotting done for this other project I’m starting on (which is not an IF), but I’m not going to hold myself to much more than getting the four-page summary written out, and maybe getting the scene list written.
Good luck to everyone this month, and happy Pride!
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Really? I’m curious, what alternative are you using right now? If you’re open to sharing, I’d love to hear about it. Also, thanks to @LeannaMandragoran for getting this month’s thread started!
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The problem is that my prose quickly becomes extremely basic and repetitive. When I am writing hand-to-hand or flashy magic spells, I can usually get a few descriptors in and vary it a lot, but when working with swords and daggers, I have trouble fitting the right descriptors. Not to mention, the fight I am writing—the one giving me a headache—is against a horde of non-human entities so there’s little emotion involved, which puts all the focus on the actual fight.
So far, I have mostly written one-sided fights that ended quite quickly, but now I am writing more balanced battles with some back and forth, hence why it is becoming repetitive.
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