May 2023's Writer's Support Thread

Game Development Writing and Content
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Welcome all to the support thread for May 2023.

:spiral_calendar:

Happy Birthday to May babies.

:birthday:

Many have worked hard and achieved important milestones this past month, thanks for sharing, everyone.

Thank you, everyone who continues to participate in these threads – it helps others when you do participate, sometimes more than you think.

If anyone has specific questions or concerns I may help with, please let me know.

:open_book:

Sometimes researching particular topics is needed in order to write a story that is both believable and realistic.

This month I am highlighting Rebecca Shedd’s Writer’s Resources blog, which I have found useful for different eclectic needs.

Here is her blog’s homepage:

and her mission statement:

Here are two of my favorite articles of hers:

and

Rebecca has put her blog on hold for now, so there won’t be any new entries in the “foreseeable” future.

Her archives hold a lot of information that is focused for the writer, and I suggest looking through them, if you find the time to do so.

Also, ChoiceBeat Zine deserves a shout-out!

You can download the zine or read it online here:

It is wonderful to share everyone’s journey during the month; both highs and lows help each one of us realize that we are not alone in our journey.

If anyone has something special going on in May, kindly let us know!

My May goal is to work on my Patchwork’s project — This month I hope to complete the rewrite of the last chapter of the common route.

I figure I have 15,000 words worth of material to work with for this month’s goal to be achieved.

This is the last chapter of the common route, so once done, I will be sending it to Alpha readers for its first complete testing round.

Happy writing for the month of May.

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Thank you so mucb for the ChoiceBeat shout-out! Our next issue won’t be out until late next month, but at this early stage it’s shaping up to be a good one!

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For May I’m going to continue working on the Platinum Package beta, and I’m hoping to complete my Chapter 2 Hotsprings draft. Like April, May is a bit all over the place with national and school holidays, which will disrupt my usual preferred routine. Though April was a bit difficult in that regard for me, I think I’m in a better state for it (ie, trying not to overdo it by doing everything at once).

I’m tentatively going to do an announcement for the new project in mid May, along with a playable prologue (which is an introduction to the protagonist rather than something that will be part of the game) in preparation for the first chapter going up on Patreon in June. I’m going to see about putting up some setting and character intros as well but I’ll see how that goes - although that sort of thing piques people’s interest, it’s fairly work-intensive for something that doesn’t directly move me forward in the writing itself.

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May we know where the story goes? This month I hope so. If I can keep momentum going I’ll finish the main parts of the rewrites I’ve been working on and can get that to testers followed by the public.

After that I can work on rewriting some of the chapters I haven’t released yet to be in line with the changes. Then work on the side story rewrites. Hopefully it all goes over well.

I’m a May baby, but will likely get extra writing in that day instead of less.

I have a feeling that I’m going to be working on rewrites for so long I’ll forget what I haven’t written yet in the story when the time comes.

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Welcome to May, writers! Today’s Labour Day, and you’re labourers too, so celebrate.

:partying_face:

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Since it is the beginning of a month, and since I’ve been pondering this for a while -

Does this sound like a decent enough first line?

The morning dawned with pale light, bustling streets, and a dead body.

(A secondary first line, but a first line nonetheless. It’s… complicated. I’m less set on where I’m going with the primary first line, but.)

If you're curious, here's the current one.

There are rules.

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It certainly works in my opinion. It raises immediate questions that make me want to read further, which is exactly what a first line is supposed to do. :slight_smile:

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Hope you all have a super creative month, and have a lovely May!

With university finally over, my goal is to get chapter 10 of Golden out this month. I had a good writing month in April, about 24k words written and I imagine that the chapter will be done so I’m super excited for people to read it.

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Wow! It’s May already? So much to do and so little time. Happy writing everyone. :two_hearts:

Haha! So true. :smile:

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Don’t pretend you’re not counting down the days until Thursday! :wink:

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Somehow, someway, still making progress on the first draft. Sometimes the scope of this feels so overwhelming that I’ll never get it done, but I’m ignoring that well enough, for now. I think. How do any of you manage it?

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Remember that snippet I posted last month of my first attempt at a MerMay fic? I added maybe a thousand words today, but nothing more in April. So much for planning ahead.

However, I did post the first chapter on AO3 today, so hopefully I’ll find the motivation to finish the rest of it this month. I have an outline. I just have to write the story.

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We have a bunch of unfinished ficlets in one corner and a semi-finished menu for testing purposes in another. Started Chapter 1, which is better than all the months before, finished prologue, I should develop some labour ethics.

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Aaaaaah there’s so much positive energy here :blush: I’m happy everyone’s cheeful as we start May!

My own goal would take quite a while to type up so I’ll try to simplify it.

My WIP is split into acts. Each act is structured like this:
Narrative > rewind > lock > narrative.

In may, now that act one is complete, I aim to tweak the optimisation to get the desired amount of player death, of which i am aiming for at least 3, in the rewind section for act one. But before that, i need to work on the stat rework that i promised.

So that is the priority, but I also aim to complete the first narrative section in act two. I also should probably find out on average how many buildings get set on fire each year in Osaka :thinking:

I realise this probably doesn’t make much sense, but whatevs, we ballin. Like I said, to explain, i would need to make a post longer than the thread is currently. :smile:

So while I’m over here in chaos land, I wish you all a good May! May you have an amayzing May!

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Hey, you changed your profile picture! Time to update my internal files.

I’m pretty sure she meant player character death, nobody call the FBI. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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That would sound like a horror plot.

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I think I’ll be stuck with rewriting during May. There are still scenes that bug me, especially the first chapter (I have lots to say but no way of organising them lol). So chapter 7 will have to wait (sign, that is perhaps the favourite chapter in my plan with almost everything revealed … )

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I’m hoping to get 10k written for my next chapter!

My update didn’t receive as much comments as I had hoped, but I’m trying not to look think about that too much. Just unsure if the lack of engagement means the story isn’t interesting enough (and I should change things up), if people are reading and just not commenting (since I did get likes), or if I’m committing some writing flaw that’s turning most away. It’s just the not knowing that makes me unsure if there’s something I need to change … :thinking:

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Today is my birth month, which is really awkward because I’m asked, “what do [I] want?” I dunno, man! Rub my shoulders for 5 minutes and let me sleep and I’ll be content.

Anyhow, I have an old writing project I need to finish. Started it way back in high school, and the penultimate story arc has been taking me far too long to wrap up. It’ll feel weird though; ending a project I’ve spent years of my left on.

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I hope you’re doing well, Anjie! I remember reading and commenting on your demo a while ago, and I found it enjoyable then, and I’m sure I’ll think the same when I get to reading your new update!

It’s so much easier said than done, but don’t be too disheartened by not getting the engagement numbers you want—I’ve been in this position myself. There can be many reasons for it that aren’t related to your writing at all, one being that there are many people who enjoy art and simply don’t comment to let the creator know, like you mentioned. I think as a writer, you’ll know when to change your writing or your plot, but ensure that’s for yourself and for your story, and not simply because of reader engagement.
I’m sure now you’re more active that things will pick up too! I’m wishing you all the best.

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