Welcome to the Writer Support Threads @tour303335 .
Anxiety is something that many authors deal with. Sometimes knowing you are not alone in experiencing these anxieties helps … other times people use therapy or other ways.
One of the ways is just by showing your work, as you have.
Maybe others will share what works for them.
Edit: I also moved our posts to the current month’s support thread, just so you know.
Happy Pride and happy June, everyone!
I finally really started focusing on my WIP again starting last month, after about half a year of not having the time and energy.
Goals for this month: Finish editing Prologue and writing Chapter 1.
Also, as a non-professional writer, I find that no matter how many times I read writing advice like “avoid unnatural exposition through clunky dialogue” or “show don’t tell”, and tell myself that “of course I’m not gonna make these mistakes hehe”, I often end up doing the exact things I was so sure I would avoid 
More than anything, this simply shows the constant truth in the importance of experience and trial in any field.
Also, finally changed my profile picture here! At last, I Am No Longer “d”.
It can’t be June already, surely? Some time shenanigans are going on.
My goal for this month is to get a version of Chapter 2 up and running - not all of the dialogue/choices will be written, but a simple end to end run of the first investigation is the goal, so I can work on my implementation of the mystery
This is almost certain to take multiple iterations, as I want the story to feel like you’re an actual agent of an intelligence service. That means I need multiple routes through that don’t just feel like the player is clicking on all the options in a conversation, but it can’t be possible for people to get stuck either. It should feel like our MC is actually working things out and making connections.
Hopefully the advise about chokepoints and the three clue rule here prove helpful, and I’m leaving the link here in case anyone hasn’t seen it before.
More than 1k words today. So well so far.
This is a small scene from it.
*page_break “What’s going on?”
The muffled cries flow amid the sinuous humid crackle of oily water, falling through the dilapidated pavement like a festering worm.
Not a single scarlet mutant, rat or cockroach is there stirring and devouring feces and bodies like they kind always do.
Only The Silence keeps company to the groans. Fog and death tempered with the sound of your boots
The shadow cast by your hurricane lamp trembles in your belt but shows nothing. Nothing It’s almost like something erases the entire skyline.
“Sir or Madam. I am a policeman I would support anything noble orders me… I am a proud servant of her majesty.”
Has my tone been realistic enough? You tremble like a sheet, each word was like a forceps opening your lips.
Ahhhh!
I’m torn on mascots for my magical girl story. Themis has a horse named Tarragon, Yuna has a falcon named Sora. And Ran… doesn’t have one? I was thinking maybe her mascot is dead but that feels super edge-lordy.
Omg what- a magical girl story?? 
I’m already in love. Is it possible for Ran’s to be… sort of hibernating? Obviously I don’t know your story and its rules, but the mascot doesn’t have to be dead. Or maybe the mascot went missing? If mascots can be seen by others and physically interacted with, maybe the mascot was kidnapped? Perhaps by a baddie or something. Or Ran and her mascot split ways for some reason. If the mascot gave her the powers like I’ve seen in other anime/manga, the mascot could have taken the power back or left it with Ran because, well, it is a necessity but the two of them stopped speaking and seeing each other…??
I had imagined Ran is a veteran and her original team split ways or got kidnapped. Now Ran works at a boarding school which Themis and Yuna attend. Maybe it could be like pretty cure in which the mascots become cell phone-like devices for easy carrying? I am still plotting.
I’ve never watched Pretty Cure! What about plushies? Like the ones you can clip onto your bags? Or even pins? They make some fairly large ones. I saw a huge one for Boba Fett not long ago. Or the mascots could be jewelry, I always liked that.
Also, by the way, definitely don’t worry about it being edgy or anything. It was already a thing in magical girl stories but once Puella Magi dropped, you can go as hard as you want.
If Ran is a veteran that had a former team, and you had the idea that her mascot is dead, you could make it so Ran kind of… swore off being a magical girl. Or at least doesn’t use her powers unless it’s absolutely necessary. Assuming Themis and Yuna are new, or new-ish and still figuring things out, Ran could be the mysterious magical girl that swoops in last minute. Kind of like “omg they’re gonna die except look! Another mysterious girl has arrived!” And, as a veteran, depending how you’re doing things (and if her mascot is dead), Ran could try to talk Themis and Yuna out of being a magical girl. Or result to more aggressive means, like trying to harm/destroy their respective mascots. Which could paint Ran as a sort of bad guy until you explained why.
Obviously, it’s up to you! I’m just hoping all that gibberish helps you out in any way!
Whelp, I managed to get about 1000 words done today, which doesn’t really seem like a lot, so I decided I’m going to keep going for a little bit longer. It’s a little funny, every time a new scene comes up and I’m like, “Man, this’ll be such a palate cleanser from the scene I just spent 3 months writing. I’ll get it done so fast!” It always takes just as long as the last one LOL
I found myself super busy for most of the previous month - first, with tonsilitis, then with a new part-time job, and then sick again with a bad stomach flu. Joys!
I did manage to finish part of last month’s goals despite that (rewriting my first chapter), and am getting close to finishing the new chapter as well. So, my goal for June is to finish and post the new chapter.
Whew. That was one heck of a local convention. (For Filipino peeps out there, it’s CONQuest 2023.)
In between exhibiting my own game, I’ve met fellow local game devs, played their own games, and exchanged freebies (namely stickers and business cards).
Now then, to return to my daily writing task.
Cool. Hope all that serves you well to gain a network.
what a mood.
I haven’t participated in the writing support thread for a while, but it always boosts my mood when I come around and read through it. I wish us all luck in the coming month!
As for myself, I actually have something substantial to share. For the past weeks I have been working overtime on my story and everything surrounding it in terms of socials and coding (learning html and css has me dreaming in code). I’m a bit dizzy from it all, but it has resulted in a very impressive amount of work, so I’m really proud of myself! I feel as if something clicked, and all that hemming and hawing over the next sentence to write abated, and now I have accepted that the first draft of a story is kind of beautiful with all its flaws. I have never written like this before, and it is very freeing.
Now there’s only a week left until I say goodbye to my job as a teacher and instead of accepting a cushy office position, I am venturing into the unknown of writing full time. My partner is ecstatic, and the one that encouraged me to take the plunge in the first place, but myself, while still excited…I am terrified. And convinced that it will all crash and burn.
But. If there is one thing I have learned from burning out completely all those years ago, and having to truly take inventory of my life, is that life is too short not to take chances, especially when it involves something that makes me as happy as writing does (hair-tearing difficulties aside). Even if it does all fall apart, at least I will have put out something really cool into the world, something that I would have liked to read myself.
My goals for June is just to launch everything I have worked on, tell my readers about this leap, and then keep writing.
Congrats on making the big jump to deciding to write full time! Your writing is very well received, so I have every bit of faith in your ability. No matter the outcome though, the journey is normally always worth it. Speaking from someone who pursued a passion as a career and didn’t end up making it, I wouldn’t take back the decision ever.
I am also now coming up to the little more than halfway point of the investigation sequence of this current chapter, and I didn’t put into perspective for myself just how rough it’s going to be to close it out. Because there are multiple clues the player can find, and some of those clues fit together to a logical conclusion, there are going to be a lot of branches for all the clues a player did and did not find. Especially when reporting back to Team Leader Hawks and Special Agent Lance with the discoveries. Writing all those different outcomes is absolutely necessary, but it is going to be more than I thought it would at first.
I sometimes get a bit self conscious of the fact that there is a little over 500k words written for my project (after dividing it by two because of shotty coding) but the players are only seeing about 50k of it per playthrough. I’m wondering if I may have put too many branches into the game and if people wouldn’t think it’s too short because of the fact. Granted, at this point, I’m about 65% or so done with the game only, but still, I’m secretly worried I set the bar too high for myself for future games in terms of narrative direction since the spinoff horror book I’m planning to write won’t be nearly as branched out as this.
I wanted to essentially make it so someone could play the game 20 times over and still be able to experience new things in the game, which I think I’ve been doing a decent job at, but I’ve just started to wonder if that’s what people want, or if they just prefer a one and done experience. I mean, I guess it doesn’t matter too much, I’m in for a penny in for a pound at this point because I am not rewriting it LOL I’m just a bit of a logistical person, so can’t help to let my mind wander on these things sometimes.
Oh no, sorry, I meant that 500k is already halved. It’s ‘technically’ over a million but not really because I just have two branches right from the beginning for all one gender cast and a half and half cast, hence it actually being 500k. Regardless, thank you for the kind words and votes of confidence! 
Heya, honeylou! It is always good to see you active, both here and in your WiP. For many authors, accepting that the first draft is indeed a first draft of many is a hard thing to accept. Heck, it is a hard thing to accept for many creative people.
Many of us have a vision that a muse will inspire us to write a masterpiece that flows from our vision to the manuscript on the first try.
I am glad you have reached this point regarding your first draft because I truly believe it will serve you well in your journey as a full-time writer.
Thank you for sharing everything you have because it does help us all, as hard as it can be to share 
CoG design guidelines recommend an average of between 20% and 40% of full text to be visible on a playthrough… so if we divide your 50,000 word playthrough by your adjusted total of 250,000 words, then you see that you fall within that range.
Even if you did not fall into this range at this moment in time, you are not finished writing, so the logical thing to do is to get the first draft of your copy completed and then let future you deal with this.
Trying to keep the wants and needs in mind while writing is important, but keeping true to your vision and writing to realize that vision should be the primary concern in executing your story.
You have many people who enjoy your story (with me among them). We buy into your vision, and even if we do not replay the game 20 times, your fans do appreciate the effort you make in giving us the option to do so, if we desire.
Fixing coding and tweaking per play through statistics are legit things… and these tasks will be there once you complete your first draft. Let future you tackle these… now you has the much more important task of completing your story at hand!
You have this.
@vilsbae thank you!
I am only now feeling the bravery it takes, and I just want to say it out loud: you are a force of nature to even have tried. Sometimes life doesn’t take us where we want to go, but I have found that it always leads us to what we need, sooner or later. I’m only hoping my future will be gentle in its letdowns, because I’m a bleeding heart and I take a lot of things very personally. It’s another full time job, working on my shortcomings…
I’d also like to add:
Wayfarer, one of my favorite IF games, just put out an update of around 370.000 words, where the average playthrough is 21.000 words. Very similar! The fact that you both go through the effort of writing so much, more than some writers write during their entire life-time careers, speaks volume on not only your tenacity, but on your creativity. Having to come up with those variations sounds like a Sisyphean punishment, and you are barrelling through it like it aint no thang. That is impressive. And there are a ton of grateful readers (like me!) who like to visit a world again and again, seeing things from different perspectives.
And to echo Eiwynn,
You really do. You are a fantastic storyteller.
@Eiwynn :> It is very fun to be here, to take a part of something that feels very special and in a way a little sacred (like creative endeavors always do) with you all.
Oh if only that were true! It was a lesson that was hard to learn, that writing isn’t just divine inspiration and cozy writing sessions. If you want a finished piece, there is a lot of tedious, hard work involved. Lucky I’m not scared of that! 
(just a little bit scared, though. I’m sure there will be a lot of ups and downs, but if there is anything I am good at, it’s persistence.)
I think so too. Thank you. 
With the dust well and truly settled on our return move to Nepal, my goal for June is to add at least 40k words to Stormwright Ch 2. 
Hope you can have your moment of solace and all that. But don’t overwork, Havie. Return to the rythm of other country needs a time to ajust more where there are kids in the mix.
I ended up not participating in May’s thread for various reasons, but I think that was the right decision for me. Going into June, I see that the list of tasks I initially gathered for myself is unreasonably large, and I’m working on paring it down to something more rational. Some projects will spend even more time on the back burner, awaiting their day. That’s fine.
My goals:
My unfinished short story from last November will have to wait a little longer for its climactic battle.
It’s the first Sunday of June, hope everyone has had a pleasant half-a-week.
I’ll admit, I’ve been doing a little more slacking this week but I’ve gotten about 2k words written so I’m happy with that. I’ve done a little bit more planning and come up with another flashback that I want to write that reveals more about the MC and the connection to their sibling for B:C. It probably won’t come into play until much later but now I’m considering randomizing the order of the flashbacks that aren’t reliant on specific story triggers.
And I feel that about the muse. Sometimes, it feels like I’m just staring at word and trying to will something into existence. xD