I’m sure people can relate but don’t you feel guilty when you write varying narrative underneath the options of a *fake_choice and the varying narratives aren’t equal in length? Like maybe option one just has a single paragraph but option two and three have three paragraphs?
I feel like if the varying narrative aren’t equal in word length then it’s letting the readers down who pick that particular choice.
Relatable. I am quite new to writing interactive fiction, and one of the first challenges I encountered was to make sure that every branch has got a equal measure of words. I encountered this problem while writing the first choices of the game, itself. There were some branches which gave more information than the others about particular topics, and I didn’t know how to solve this problem. Eventually, I settled on revealing information throughout the story, so that some branches will reveal some of the information about a particular subject and later in the story, you could access more information about the topic by choosing more particular choices. Don’t know whether it is a perfect solution, but it works for me. 
A few days back I started writing chapter 4’s opening. What I was writing was extremely good but it was to spoiler stuffed, so I moved it to the editing room word doc.
I’m currently brain storming ways to the opening work, if you will. Or trying to muster up the motivation to write, when I can grab my laptop. The main reason why I think I’m having so much trouble is because chapter’s 2, 3 & some of interlude 1 all take place at around the same time. Chapter 4 is where it all comes together, at least for now…
For Extinction has risen, but he is yet to play his hand in the game.
Also I’m over 8000 words now.
This is a common concern that many of us share… if I may, I’d like to make a suggestion.
My suggestion is to let it go for now and finish your writing. The balancing can be addressed in futrure passes or reviews of your material.
This goes for everything. I personally plan out 4 or 5 passes just in the first draft of a story.
From there, I add future passes… for example on the project I am working on now, I have 3 additional passes scheduled, because there are things I need to go back over, discovered during this current March pass I am working on.
You don’t have to be as detailed as I, but I hope this helps you address your concerns and shows you a way forward.
That is not something I do feel guilty about. The important is the quality time and scenes being meaningful for player and the character revealing something from the plot of npcs personality.
In so many games I feel how the writer is writing a branch that obviously doesn’t feel, and doesn’t like but is there only to trying to balance the length with the other options.
As a player that usually play stuff that 99% won’t I can say that we don’t really expect same length in scenes compared with mainstream branches. We expect quality and different personality from the pc.
So many games put a evil path with the character still being a goodie two shoes like if character doesn’t were aware all bad stuff is doing. Those are terrible and is better don’t write a evil path if you will done same that the others.
Thanks for the advice. It’s what I needed to hear, now hopefully my perfectionism can take a back seat for this whole thing!
2020 sucks, and so is 2021.
confirmed covid-19 virus in my body on December, took me 38 days to recover and another 24 days of Pneumonia diagnose and medication, at least the company I work at didn’t threw me out.
Now I completely forgot how to code in CSIDE, but what’s worse is I saw various authors has stopped their WIPs
what happened here? it makes me sad
Hope you’ll feel better soon!
As for the WIPs, I think it’s something that’s been happening even before the pandemic. Writers either lose motivation or don’t have enough time to spend writing. Although… the pandemic itself has been a factor for some. People are still trying to cope with what’s been happening and are recovering from the problems it has caused. Let’s hope it will all settle down in the near future.
This support thread is very useful for times like this. After all, we writers might need motivation from each other to be able to push on. Just take your time! And people here are quite helpful so someone will be able to assist if you need it.
A issue I have is I feel like I am too stupid compared with everyone else. Everyone else uses pretty diagrams, statistics, nine program to parse plans. Meanwhile, I am a brute that just writes. I just end stories but I feel like I am doing everything wrong and I should do big profiles of characters and all that stuff… I just have all in my head. I probably I am too dumb to write or something.
Maybe it’s because you’re a pantser? -Someone who writes without outlines or such. Being one doesn’t mean you’re dumb, though. Some writers are just built to be like that, and the stories can be interesting especially after a couple of edits. It’s not a bad trait.
I don’t do diagrams (I’ll just get distracted) but I make simple outlines for the general flow and some character guides. But that’s because I love outlines. I love seeing the end goal and the step by step process on how I’d get there. All a matter of preference.
Being either a pantser or a plotter have their own pros and cons. The important thing is to write the way it works for you.
That doesn’t mean you’re stupid, and you definitely don’t need to use those things! They’re not necessary. Some people feel better using them, but it doesn’t mean everyone needs to.
I’ve been working on my project for at least 2/3 years (even if I’ve seriously started only since October) and I’ve never used a diagram, a map or anything else. I wrote summaries and character sheets instead (and I think that the way a wrote them is very unconventional).
Personally I never liked that way of planning… I found it too much… technical and artificial
Sundays are supposed to be work-days for me, but for various reasons they tend to be “burned” days when I don’t get any actual words down on paper. I can sometimes do pre-writing or peripherals, like outlining or preparing blog posts and updates.
Today is the same. I’m looking forward to tomorrow when I start a three-day concentrated effort on my first and oldest WIP, Turncoat Chronicle. I’ve been doing so much testing and debugging that I started to feel like I wasn’t progressing the writing enough. So now, I’m doing a big push forward, and I hope that by the end of it I’ll have a better idea of how much work is left to be done.
Hello everyone I hope you are all doing well. It’s very encouraging you check in and see so many people working away on their projects. It can be a long, lonely slog but you’re never as alone as you think you are. Good fortune to everyone working to hit your goals this month.
I’m doing well. I’m over a week behind schedule but I have updated my demo today. I’m really happy with what I’ve done and I think I’ve upped the quality of my game a big notch.
From here on out my game doesn’t need massive amounts of rewriting but lots of rewriting. I’m hoping to have Chapter 3 revamped and shiny by the end of the month.
Happy writing everybody.
I’ve been bouncing around some ideas, mostly writing drafts or random scenes. I’m still not entirely sure what story I’m going to write, but I finally narrowed it down to 4 different stories. So… tentative goal post a WIP by the end of the month.
Good luck y’all!
Hear ye, hear ye, for the time of miracles is not over, I’ve actually been so bored that over the past few days I started a new story and have written a total of 9000 words. Which would be more impressive if it wasn’t just an advanced form of procrastination. Maybe over the next week I’ll be procrastinating writing by doing something productive. Or by shooting myself. Could go either way.
How are we already two weeks into March? Where did the time go?
According to George Carlin, the navy has it, so you might wanna give them a call.
No, wait, Trump probably gave it to Russia
A strange month. I switched from working on my full game to an idea I’ve had for the CHOMP contest. I’ve done some really good theoretical planning and been able to prune lots of plot and complexity in my head (as there’s not enough time to write a sprawling story). I’ve got a lot of that plan down and ready to go.
But it’s been slow. So I’ve not written anything yet and I’m almost certain that I won’t have an entry in time.
On the bright side, I’m fairly hopeful that this will stand on its own as a novel way to write a CS story, so I intend to finish it either way and put the full game out there for comments.
Alternatively, I could stop distracting myself and just write the story in the next two weeks…
I am sure that you will able to fully make at least a slice of life big demo fo the contest with a good cliffhanger ending point to blow up the scoreboard.
Meanwhile, I am near 5k without code on my own entry, but I doubt I will present the game as I don’t think is what the judges want so pretty possible I just write it down and just shelving it. I don’t think this forum is the target audience for a thriller-horror story that is not focused on romantic stuff and is not even placed on America.
Edit This is not against the judges or the contest. I have Impostor syndrome and anxiety. This feelings are the ones I have to fight each time I try to make something public. Each time is difficult, but with each game I made public is a victory.
Reason I made this public is to show everyone who has same feelings that is not alone. And that many of us doubt about ourselves and our own work.
But I really think we should try to get over and fight against the feeling. I offer again as coder to anyone that doesn’t know how code but wants to participate in it.