Ah, well, you see—
drops everything she’s holding and runs
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I write a chapter outline and then wing it based on vibes. 
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I spent a lot of this month focused on my game’s demo update, sprucing up its forum post with some banners I made, and launching a patreon + adding tiers to my ko-fi. So I have a little less to report end-of-month in terms of writing, but I’m really happy to have begun a new venture 
It’s already helping me keep more on schedule, knowing that at the end of each month I need to have enough written to merit an alpha update. Best of luck to everyone (and myself!) with our goals in April 
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I am not in good place this month has been horrible and I am in a bad health situation.
I am frustrated with myself and my lack of having something to show. I can get why everyone believes I am a fraud.
I am very disappointed with myself. I am not good enough, I dont do enough either. I dont do anything that help others I am a zero in the left.
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Done and dusted! It was a push throughout, and especially at the end, but I’m happy with the edits and new material I’ve added, and hopefully my readers will be as well. On to next month and even more edits and additions. We’re at Chapter 7/11 (counting epilogue) now, so I am actually getting there.
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So long as you’re happy, and aware of your own worth, that’s the best thing!
Oh Interesting! A bit complex, but very thorough!
Oh my god I didn’t realize it was a pun till I opened it. This is hilarious!
Quite nice! I can see where you’re going with it, although personally I think that there’s perhaps a more elegant way of displaying it, or at least condensing the information? from what I understand though, this is a test-build for making sure code works and generally to make the game functional. XD
hahahahahhaha same.
I use an bullet-point style outline of each chapter.
No one, as far as I’m aware, believes you to be a fraud, Mara. You are DEFINITELY legit, and capable of producing beautiful work. Your work with the gamejams is enough to show that.
I feel this in my bones. I think it’s imposter syndrome talking, honestly. Mara, you do a lot. Even if you didn’t, you’re sick right now. Take it easy on yourself. Would you tell these same things to anyone else?
WOO Congratulations!
Not only did I manage to work on the game TWICE this week, which is a miracle, I managed to finish a small section! WOO! (shhh, let me have this tiny victory)
That said, still nowhere near a demo update, despite it now being THREE MONTHS since I put one out. TAT this section is taking SO LONG. ugh.
On a non-game related note… I’m thinking about starting up a thread for Accountabili-buddies to find each other. Kinda like a dating profile XD But for writers who wanna goad each other into writing more. That kind of thing. I’m thinking of doing it monthly like the Writer’s Support Threads, that way the posts are new and up to date, and people don’t have to search back through years worth of posts to find someone active.
Does anybody else think this is a good idea?
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Referring to foot in mouth moment involving a character with sheeplike characteristics as a ‘faux baa’
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OH MY GOD, THATS BEAUTIFUL
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Royal Affairs is one year old! I kept meaning to post about how the draft review/beta testing process went for it, the organisation I did, and the editing decisions I made during the late stages of the game - I’ve finally written it up for those interested!
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I’ve just rolled out Project Missionary, my entry to NaNoRenO 2024. I plan to finish the entire story at Ludum Dare 55, which will happen next month.
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Brian (he’s really efficient) just sent out a link to the preview site for all participants in the 2024 Spring Thing. I had a look and everything seems solid. It seems like we’re getting a lot of really good entries this year.
The intfiction community does provide tough but useful feedback during the comps, so we’ll see how it goes… 
If anyone here is planning to take a look (you should!!!), a gentle reminder to check out the other non-choicescript games as well. 
I discovered parser games about a year after stumbling upon CoG, although I seem to keep getting stuck. 
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Ironically, my bad cough helped me this evening because I couldn’t sleep. I’ve managed to get some writing done instead of trying to make myself sleep, so I am now in a position to catch up to where I wanted to be tomorrow.
But now it’s 4 am here, so I better try to get some sleep. Good night everyone,
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Well, it’s 5 am Easter Sunday here, and I’m up. It’s still dark outside, and I’ve followed a routine of having a coffee outside, listening to the sounds of the woods, and processing any little tidbits related to my story that my unconscious had been hard at work untangling for me over the night. Doing that each day for the last four months has been incredibly helpful in continuing to pick away at the rather monstrous story idea that has existed in bits and fuzzy pieces in my noggin for the better part of a decade. Over those years, from initially trying to bring the insubstantial thing to life in ChoiceScript way back in the day and failing. Then again, I tried to resurrect it in various media, like as a videogame using Unreal Engine, and failed multiple times. It has not let me go, and in all those years, it remained an ethereal thing. These fuzzy ideas popped into existence and faded away, only to reappear differently and with more clarity months later. So, being bored, I checked out these forums. I would occasionally do so over the years, and I searched for my original story. I found my original WIP post from January 2012. My second son would be born eleven months later. Still, I noticed a few people on the forums talking about this long-lost game they enjoyed on a thread written in 2017. They were talking about my game, and it shocked me. Five years after I let the game die, people were still talking about something that I had made that wasn’t, in all honesty, well written, as something they enjoyed and missed. So being much older now (I sometimes feel I’ve aged 30 years in those twelve years), a bit wiser, and certainly more disciplined, I decided it was finally time to get this damn story out of my head and share it with people that will hopefully enjoy it.
So, in the four months that I’ve been working on wrangling all the ethereal bits of the story into living, breathing, substantive things, I’ve created hundreds of pages of character outlines, timelines, and notes about practically every conceivable thing related to the story and the world, and while I know that’s not a story. It’s getting the floaty bits in my brain out and onto paper. I’ve even managed to write a good start to the story and almost 60,000 words, which, according to the word processor, is an astounding 130 pages! I’m barely through the character creation portion of the story; granted, a big chunk of that is the various character descriptions, relationship descriptions, and gosub stuff that most people may never see (All those precious, beautiful words and no one to read them, that’s rather tragic), I am still thrilled with my progress this month. And, after the debacle, that was my interactive fight scene, and it consumed all forward momentum on the story in February (Fight scene, I still haven’t given up on you!). March has been great.
In other news, and after consulting @Eiwynn’s permission, I wanted to mention that I am trying to start a writer’s group here on the forums. For any that might be interested, you can check out that thread here: Gauging Interest: Would You Join an Interactive Fiction Writers’ Group on the Forums?. The assignments listed, and everything else is up for discussion with the members, so don’t let the bi-weekly assignments or, as we’re now calling them strolls, or picnics scare you off if you’re the least bit interested. This will probably eat into some of my progress on my story. Still, I hope my writing will become stronger for the effort. If I can do that while meeting some cool people and helping other new but dedicated writers write better stories, then it’ll all be worth it.
Anyway, I apologize for the long, rambling post. This might be how I managed the March wordcounts 
Write on everyone!
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My re-write of chapter 1 has begun. I’m just over 500 words in, but I have a 2.5k chapter outline to guide me along the way. I still have some bits to figure out (mostly for the romances), but I was reaching the point where preparation was procrastination. So, after reviewing ChoiceScript yesterday and doing a tutorial to refresh my memory, I started writing. It feels good to be getting words on the page.
Also, in case others have not seen this resource before, I highly recommend checking out the One Stop for Writers. There is a paywall, but some content is free and you can sign up for a trial (2 weeks, I think). I love their character builder which asks that you start each character by determining the emotional wound that has shaped them. While I didn’t use every page and blank of this tool, I did follow parts of it to re-build my LIs. Each of them also has a Big Lie that will likely be addressed over the course of the romance.
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I understand your feelings and that sensation of failure with the years. It is like a feeling that I left something unfinish. A what if I finished that projecf? What if I didnt failed…
You seem working on the right direction. Maybe we disagree a little in how design writers groups and dynamics but I am very happy that you are trying to create a group and helping yourself and others to write.
I would have made that two years ago; but I was sure I wasnt the right person to do it. I think you will do an amazing job, as you have the diplomacy I lack of, and you are not hated for half of the forum.
If you need any advice or the opinion of someone like me you know where I am.
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I firmly believe that adversity is the fire in the forge that allows something extraordinary, unique, and new to be created from something ordinary, dull, and nondescript (I know that sounds a bit melodramatic and cheesy, but it’s true). While those failures of the past at the time depressed me and beat down my will to try and be creative, they were essential in getting me to where I am today. This isn’t to say there won’t be roadblocks along the way that beat me down some. Still, the failures have given me a good reserve of IDGAF, or grit (personally, I prefer the profanity; I’ve built quite a colorful vocabulary from my military time and a career in construction), but I digress.
My advice is to just keep plugging away. Giving up is admitting defeat, which is different from failure. Failure is growth; failure is an opportunity to give a big F U to the stumbling block, dust yourself off, and keep on trucking.
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Speaking of old projects, I browsed my old novel (I apparently got at chapter 20 in it, which of course means nothing without knowing the chapter length, but I think it was nearing climax), and I certainly miss it. But sadly the world has changed since I wrote thst, and I’m not comfortable continuing it anymore. 
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Keep it in your back pocket, you never know when the Muse will hit you again.
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I did complete the Chapter 9 draft and made a start on Chapter 10, but despite my optimism and best efforts I didn’t manage to make decent progress on Chapter 10 thanks to a few medical things going on. Still, I hope to get into a better routine next month and to return to some of my healthy habits that help both me and the writing process (mostly, these habits are “go outside in the morning and move around for the sake of it” and “do yoga and/or strength training in the evening”).
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