May 2023's Writer's Support Thread

[Samuel_H_Young]

I fucked up. Now I keep pronouncing words like this as I proofread

[RockmanX]

When you pronounce Articles like Achilles and Particles like Pericles then you know something’s wrong.

[Eiwynn]

@Kwartel

Do you guys enjoy the process too?

When I keep myself from getting lost in the details, and I keep anxiety and imposter feelings to a minimum, yes.

I also enjoy the process when I can “get lost” in the writing/editing/coding.

[poison_mara]

WhenI write I am focused and happy. All my anxiety comes when I stop writing them I dobt in myself and want to erase everything. But yes, I enjoy the writing part.

[WRMK]

So far, I’m enjoying my process this month. Normally, I just do straight writing (well jumping around as I don’t usually write linearly) so writing the alternate choices and paths had been a little cathartic. Even the rewrites haven’t been as irritating as usual. Even if some choice options are making the MC seem downright insane. =P

It’s the last week and a half of the month so I hope everyone is where they want to be for the month.

[HarrisPS]

I love writing and designing. It brings me a lot of joy and although there are times when it gets stressful (usually in tandem with other life complications that make it difficult to work or focus), it’s work that I’m good at and enjoy. I am in the early stages of my project at the moment which is a nice “honeymoon” period before the game gets wildly complicated.

At the moment I’m mulling over a character-related decision which I need to make before I start writing Chapter 3. I started coding on Friday and if my responsibilities align, I’ll have the code in place by the end of the month. If I don’t it’s not the end of the world, though. I’m mostly focusing on the Platinum Package beta for the rest of May, doing the final push of revisions.

[AletheiaKnights]

I used to live in a city that has streets running through called Baseline and Foothill, and it occurred to me one day to pronounce “Baseline” like “Vaseline” and “Foothill” as “foo-thull,” and I’ve never been quite the same since.

[vera]

In Russian transliteration tradition we usually just cut off -es and -us or replace it with -ей. Perseus becomes Персей (Per-sei), Palaephatus becomes Палефат (Pale-phat), Odysseus becomes Одиссей (Ody-ssei). It’s why I’ve never really understood the eternal Arceus debate in Pokemon - I’ve always read his name as Ar-sei.

[HarrisPS]

Further adventures in silly placeholder text:

[AletheiaKnights]

How about “To heck with this, where’d the cat go?”

[HarrisPS]

Accurate to my own thoughts in such a situation… a cat can often smooth over an awkward moment! Alas in this context you’re somewhere in the great outdoors and the cat is far too lazy and spoiled to be around; she’s probably having a long nap in the Headteacher’s office.

[Leinco]

Sounds like a job for a wild cat!

[JBento]

@HannahPS

the great outdoors and the cat is far too lazy and spoiled to be around; she’s probably having a long nap in the Headteacher’s office.

But in the great outdoors you can have the big cats. There’s five species in the genus Panthera!

[HarrisPS]

Let it be known that I have to spend half an hour on beta feedback and am strenuously resisting the temptation to go down a rabbit hole about big cats (I had figured that mountain lions are a thing in Teran, but had not considered that the climate would absolutely mean jaguars are roaming around in various places!) and small ones too (jaguarundi ocelots bobcat )

[KZV]

I want my cause of injury to be “tried to give a jaguar a belly rub” now.

[Requiem]

@Eiwynn

Publicly sharing material can be excruciating to many of us, and having a safe critique-free zone where we can do this, is in my opinion, an essential part of why I introduced this practice into these threads.

Are there any writing threads at this forum that are for-critique, that have nothing specifically to do with a WIP? I was going to ask this question the other week but didn’t see any kind of free-form writing thread, so I figured all creative writing threads had to be tied to a specific business-related project.

I have no idea what this 15th day thing is (and I’m glad I didn’t accidentally stumble into a response on that day), so I apologize for intruding.

[RockmanX]

@Requiem

15th day thing

A mid-month update where we take turns to share an excerpt from our project(s). Most major CoG and HG authors participate in this, and a few newbies like me do so as well. It’s basically a progress update, a sneak preview, an airing session, whatever you call it. If you have a major WiP, please feel free to chip in too! The in-charges are friendly enough to accommodate you (Source: I did contribute earlier this year and something caught on). I eventually got roped in by them.

[LiliArch]

@Requiem

Are there any writing threads at this forum that are for-critique, that have nothing specifically to do with a WIP?

There’s Mara’s Workshop:

Workshop Thread: Post your little games or demos for feedback

[Logotipo Comida y Bebida Elegante en Negro y Crema (1)] The goal of this thread is giving a room of games not ready yet for the Wip stage; because or they are too small, or the author isn’t ready to write one and is practising the mechanisms to write one in the future This way both readers and writers can have a place to gather all those games together, and give feedback easily, and let more visibility for the WIPs that aim for publication. [Christmas Party Poster (1)] Now as an example o…

[HarrisPS]

No worries at all, and no need to apologise.

The posting of excerpts on this thread tends to be more “show and tell” rather than for formal feedback. I would gently disagree that most authors participate in it. It’s very much an informal thing.

In general feedback tends to be related to specific projects (because of the nature of the forum, which mostly focuses on feedback for games intended for publication, and discussion of published games). Mara created a general workshop thread here a little while back for small games or writing not intended for publication, which may be of interest:

Workshop Thread: Post your little games or demos for feedback

A certain someone advised me to post my staff here. A portion of a my Wip (traditional writing). Genre: Superheroes - soft cyberpunk. Setting: Near future real world unless stated differently. Warning it contains abuse and strong language Lost Secrets I used Microsoft Word translator with some hand corrections, so if you think my writing style is a bit weird, I partly blame the translator and language differences. What I ask: What can you understand of the story based on this part alone…

[Requiem]

The Passenger is in my top 10. I want to read that. Surely that rat is better off than anything my cat ever gifted me.