November 2021's Writer Support Thread

[Eiwynn]

Welcome all to the support thread for November 2021.

Happy Birthday to November babies.

Thank you, everyone that 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.

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One important aspect of all of our writing journeys is to look for ways to improve. With that in mind, I’d like to share a few basic articles that might help you:

Writing Gender-Inclusive Romance

10 Tips for Writing Fight Scenes

Guest Post: High Fantasy Vs. Epic Fantasy

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Remember NaNo is upcoming.

It is awesome 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 November, let us know!

[Eiwynn]

My starting goals for November are:

• Reveal project one in a WiP thread
• Start writing the next scene for project one
• Redesign the project I outlined last month
• Provide Feedback

Good luck with everyone’s goals this month.

[will]

Two massive projects done for October! Now I hardly know what to do with myself in November. Suffering from success.

[HarrisPS]

Good luck on all that @Eiwynn, and well done @will for your October achievements!

I completed what I wanted to do in October and then some - I’ve actually nearly finished drafting Chapter 3 of my new project. In November I want to:

-Code and write at least half of a draft of Chapter 7 of Royal Affairs.
-Finish off Chapter 3 of the new project (there’s not a huge amount to do so I will do that first).
-stretch goal is doing as much more of Chapter 7 as I can, and also looking ahead to solidify the shape of Chapter 8.

I’m also going to start a WIP thread for my new project, which I’m very excited about with a side note of tenterhooks.

[Jaybirdy]

Congratulations on the progress, all!

It’s November and therefore NaNo, so I think I’m going to challenge myself to do the 50k words. I usually get about 30k a month, so it’ll be quite a stretch to manage. But it at least seems theoretically possible, so we’ll see if this plan survives first contact with the enemy (in this case, my brain).

So the goals:

• 50k words forward on FoA
• Finish outlining the last scene of the Diaspora chapter we’re currently working at
• Make a new “start point” in the Diaspora save point system for the upcoming chapter, for testing convenience.

Obviously one of these things is huge compared to the others, heh, but hopefully all are within reach.

Good luck to everybody, whether you’re NaNoWriMo-ing or working on some different November goals.

[Kotosinica]

I’ve published new version of chapter 6 of my game, the last chapter I needed to re-write. Now I need to write new chapters… Somehow…

[lyssentome]

Surprisingly, I did everything I said I was going to do in the last thread and then some, which I am really pleased about. Seriously thought I wouldn’t be able to finish them, but I did! I’m even in the middle of writing the first part of chapter 3 now, way ahead of the previous goal of starting chapter 2. So for this month, my goals are mostly working towards posting a public demo thread, which hopefully can be done by mid-November or late November, so my goals are:

• Finish chapter 3
• Go back to chapter 1 and 2 to polish everything up and making sure everything works
• Do some outlining for next chapter and maybe work on some minor worldbuilding stuff as I go

Semi-unrelated, but I made a demo link to send to my friend who’s been helping me out with the ideas for this WIP and I kinda got emotional for some reason? Not sure why, it’s the feeling of, “Oh my god, this is actually happening.” or something like that, I guess. It’s weird lol

Anyway, I’m gonna try to finish everything above, though I have a lot of life things to take care of… Hopefully I’ll still manage. Not doing NaNo, but I’ll try to write more often.

Good luck with your goals, everyone!

[TheGhost]

A wish everyone the best of luck! My creative writing has stalled due to… life, but I have more written now than I did before. Plus, it’s finally my time to shine as a November baby.

[lisamarlin]

I am happy to read (almost) everyone seems to have had a great writing month.

For me, I was occupied with other things but I have actively started writing on my WIP over the last few days. On a happy note, one of the books I was eagerly waiting for finally arrived (Magomero, portrait of an African village by Landeg White, about a missionary village started in central Africa) so naturally I had to finish that in a couple of days

I should have more time the coming two weeks and hope to be able to do quite a bit of work on my project so I can post a big update soon.

Primary goals:

• Finalise the Bagamoyo section (which was my October goal and I am closing in)
• Settle on a more definitive system to determine speed, food, desertion etc during the journey

As secondary goals I will put:

• Finalise the conversations and coding (halfway there)
• Introduce a new character and big choice
• Start on the outline (and write) the first route

Happy writing everyone!

[Hazel]

My big goal last month was publishing The Flower of Fairmont’s updated demo, which I accomplished by using itch.io when my files rejected Dashingdon. Very technical work, but I learned a thing or two. And the new demo was received well.

This month, I’m back to focusing on Turncoat Chronicle. I want to test aggressively and make a thorough list of every writing and editing task that needs to be done, from now until the game is finished.

[HarrisPS]

I’m delighted to say that I’ve finished drafting Chapter 3 of my new project, a whisker before the calendar page turned to November, so I’m free and easy to dig into Royal Affairs Chapter 7. I’m getting a few mid-complicated-protect jitters - plot will be hotting up soon, much of it behind the scenes, and I will be doing the usual balance of revealing bits and pieces without throwing it all out there to players straightaway. But also I will get to write about dog agility contests, and that’ll be fun too!

[Rinnegato]

October report: wrote a joke scene about the gruen stones; lost track of the rest: I don’t know how much or even if I made progress

November: Snap out from my desperation.

[Eiwynn]

@Eiwynn

My starting goals for November are:

• Reveal project one in a WiP thread
• Start writing the next scene for project one

I have released my demo for “project one” – The Emigre: Wagon Train

and

I have officially started the next scene … although I am staring at a blank page currently.

[Valda_Reehux]

Heya guys, I think I’ll need support ( is this the right place to asking for advice? )

I tried doing worldbuilding first, character personalization, conflicts and solutions within the story, then I got stuck with technical stuffs like inventory page, equipment page, stats page, etc and lost interests on both the story and the features.

Then I tried doing features first, it worked after so many errors and headaches, class balancing, databases, dived in too deep until I realized I have no storyand lost interests on both the story and the features.

doing both simultaneously is even worse and gave more headaches, so how exactly we should start our project? I need guides step by step.

damn I really want just one book, JUST ONE PUBLISHED BOOK, that represents me, where my ideal views of text-based games poured in, a complex system with understandable story and enjoyable as a game, yes I know I have tendecy toward RPG but hey anyone can have their own dreams.

I tried many WIPs and I have to say I’m quite disappointed because most of them are only smashing ‘next button’ until the end of the story and I still don’t understand a single bit of it.

There is no analysis, you don’t have to think like when you’re playing games in other format, don’t need to understand the plot, and the choices are bland, or rather said unnecessary. I don’t know how to say it, but it’s a game and a game is supposed to be fun and challenging at the same time, I hope I didn’t offend anyone here but sometimes I need to vent these thoughts out somewhere.

what I’m going to do this month: scrapping those ideas above and start it all over again, maybe with shorter story and less features, I don’t really wanna do that, I mean I want it big, long, and fun as an RPG game should be, but maybe I gotta hold that dream for now…

EDIT: just realized I posted in the wrong thread, it should be on November Writer Support, can I have this post moved there or should I re-post it? @moderators

[Eiwynn]

@Valda_Reehux

how exactly we should start our project?

This is something asked a lot, so there are some helpful links in the master-link below:

Master List: Links for Beginners

Since this gets asked a lot I thought I’d try and create a master list of links for beginners. If anyone wants to add links to the list please feel free to since I’m making this wiki format. Start here for newcomers The Wiki ChoiceScript Basic Tutorial on wiki RETowers’ Tutorial by @RETowers Lglasser’s Tutorial by @Lglasser Dedicated ChoiceScript Development Tools You do not need to download or update ChoiceScript when using either of these tools. Chronicler Visual Code Editor by @Ben…

From reading your post, it seems you would benefit from style help, the best source for Choice Script writers is:

Choice of Games Style Guide

This document should be read multiple times by everyone writing games here.

Finally, the following blog post should help you a lot as well:

By the Numbers: How to Write a Long Interactive Novel That Doesn’t Suck

These are all basic resources that should get you started.

[Rinnegato]

With less and less spare time started working, sort of, a mind stressing thesis, a family and social situation that… is not great (lets just say that and only that); maybe I could write something less time and energy draining… Character sheets could be light enough?

[Eiwynn]

@Rinnegato

Character sheets could be light enough?

Yes; these are always good to complete.

Here is a simple template I share:

Character Name

Role in Story:	

Occupation:	
 	

Physical Description:	

Personality:	

Habits/Mannerisms:	
  	

Background:	

Internal Conflicts:	

External Conflicts:	 
  	

Notes:	

There are more in-depth and complex versions, but this template pretty much covers the basics.

ymmv.

[Cat-Toes]

I’ll probably spend the month going back and forth between outlining and doing character sheets because I just find outlining so tedious, but I love character creation. Hopefully working on both will help me get through the bits I don’t enjoy as much.

[TheChaosArchivist]

I didn’t get too much done during October what with moving and getting a rescue dog prepped for surgery that’s coming up next week. However, what I did manage to accomplish is a ton of research and brainstorming on ways to build an Interactive Story that doesn’t involve some kind of mindmap. My brain hates those things, and the OCD part of me won’t budge until all the lines and bubbles are exactly where I want them. Which generally ends up with me tweaking the position of one thought bubble to match the one above it for an hour.

My goals for November are, as stated below:

• Develop a basic overview of the story, the major events, and possible endings
• Flesh out the characters, PC and NPCs alike
• Begin the story in earnest

Honestly, there’s a lot that keeps holding me back when it comes to writing. I’ve been burned out, and it’s a slump I’ve had a hard time getting out of. I have a habit of second-guessing myself, which pulls me from the story and locks up the Creative Well in my mind.

So, for this month, aside from the goals above, I’m also going to:

• Treat myself kinder
• Love myself more
• Try to stress less

As a bit of a ‘what I’ve gotten done so far,’ there’s also this:

• I created an image which I am now using as the cover art for the story I’m working on.
• I have the story’s location figured out
• The antagonist is fleshed out
• The Player Character’s backstory is ironed out, and I’m currently adding variations for different ways to experience the story
• I have a basic idea for the story, a ton of scenes floating in my head, and now I’m working on crafting a plot where those will fit in without breaking reader’s out of the story’s future narrative

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s what I got.

Also, because I’m super excited about the cover art, you can see it below if you’d like.

Project Artwork

[Sinnie]

Today I am going to write 10,000 words.

Or at least, that is the plan. Normally I write about 5 words, not know what to write next and so go play 3 games of chess (lose and get annoyed with myself) and wander away from the computer. Today I am going to slap myself and carry on writing, or force myself to figure out what to write next.

10,000 words. No excuses.