November's Writer Support Thread

Yes, people doing serious sci-fi knows how to make accurate space battles. But is one of the cases where reality destroys literature.

Realism for the sake of it is very harmful when only does is make game slow and boring

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Iā€™ve got past a scene that was slow to write, yay!

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Congratulations Sooner you write Sooner we all can buy your game and play it. Thatā€™s a win-win Situation!

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I have something Iā€™m working on and I have half of the first chapter wrote but Iā€™m losing traction. I was all gungho for it and thought it was gonna be some awesome Bloodbourne style dark fantasy and was super excited to write it, but then I read the WIP for Shepards of Haven and found alot of similarities in what I had planned. Now Iā€™m not sure if I should scrap it and try to come up with something else or just revise everything to make sure itā€™s different. Definitely has kicked me out of a writer mood though. Idk what to do.

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Mentioning South Park for the second time today, ugh. But there is an episode called ā€œSimpsons did itā€ the point in that episode being that everything has been done before, if your story draws similarities to another story or whatever thatā€™s fine, you said yourself it would be a ā€œBloodbourneā€ like fantasy so youā€™ve taken inspiration from that right? Keep writing what you like, donā€™t let similarities with other work get you down, because I guarantee the prose and characters are all different too. No two stories are exactly alike. :grin:

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@Azraeel ā€“

I suggest that you write your story ā€¦ having similarities is o.k. as long as you are writing your original material.

@rinari would be happy to review it, if you think there is a problem ā€¦

One thing I learned: Do not read books, WiPs or short stories that are similar to your story as you writeā€¦ there is too much of a danger that your subconsciousness will mimic something that you read.

It is alright to read before you start, give yourself a week then begin writingā€¦

If you are whole-sail copying, that is another matter :slight_smile:

@Autumn19 ā€” this resource thread was made specifically to answer these types of questions:

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Just curious now, copying a plot device is fine right? Because itā€™s not unique to any one story surely. Iā€™m writing a Sci-fi (trying to anyways) and from what Iā€™ve seen so far, one or two other stories have a certain way of introducing the character that I want to utilise also, so was curious if I can still go about that. I mean as I said itā€™s a universal trope, but thought Iā€™d just get an opinion.

Edit: Thanks! Iā€™ll have a look now. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Iā€™ll take that into account. Iā€™ll hold off on finishing that WIP so I can write my own. Im still nervous since this is a first attempt for me at ever writing lol. Thanks guys!

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October was very productive for me as I managed to finish my second project and am excited to begin working on another game. If my lazy butt can do it, so can you!

So donā€™t overthink things and embrace the No-Nonsense November and write to your heartsā€™ content!

Remember, perfection is an illusion. You write to express yourself, not to impress yourself! :slight_smile:

Whoops, meant to reply to everyone. :slight_smile:

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One other thing is roleplaying potential. Unless the other story has every possible player choices you want to make, your written choices/consequences will always be in your control to write about. :slight_smile: (personally even Wayhaven had non-player-controlled responses to events/dialogues that did not match my ā€œhead canonā€, which is completely understandable, but itā€™s still out of my control because I didnā€™t write it)

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Others have already mentioned it, but maybe thisā€™ll help put your mind at least? I commented this before concerning the idea that you need to have a vast array of branches in your story.

@Valda_Reehux @Jackpot1776

Valda. In particular, if you look at SoH or Wayhaven do you think theyā€™re wildly branching in terms of plot points/beats? I would argue they arenā€™t. Theyā€™re more linear than most stories but that suits them just fine.

In your case, I think youā€™re perfectly fine. The choices arenā€™t found in diverging plot beats but are instead found within how you approach a situation.

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PSA for writers (and everyone else):

Remember to eat food, and drink water, and take your meds.

Donā€™t be an idiot like me.

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Hi everyone, happy November! I canā€™t wait to check out all the Halloween Jam games. My goal for this month is to do some much needed planning and outlining for my wip (when I get excited about an idea I tend to just write blindly, which is okay for getting ideas down, not so much for finishing a proper game.) October was rough but this month will be better! Good luck to everyone on your goals!

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Happy November to everyone!

Iā€™m keeping my goals for the month light because weā€™ve been preoccupied with family visiting long-term (safely) and a new puppy in the household. I also exceeded my October goalsā€“I think I wrote something upwards of 75,000 words totalā€“so Iā€™m going to count last month as my NaNoWriMo, lol.

Goals for this month:

  • Add some ā€œdays offā€ to the alpha build of Shepherds. I tend to concentrate on the main plot, but I think now is a good time to write some character interludes as I recover from the big push to finish Chapter 5 last month.
  • Start the beginning of Chapter 6.
  • Finish more chapters of my other professional project.
  • Prepare for the holiday fan contest Iā€™ll be running for Shepherds through the end of November and December.
  • (Stretch goal) Get some editing jobs done this month.

I ran into this problem too, and to this day I donā€™t read any WIPs that are in a similar genre to my own, to avoid what I call ā€œbleed-over.ā€ :slight_smile: There will always be similarities between storiesā€“if your WIP is compared to Bloodborne, mine is constantly compared to Dragon Age, and thatā€™s okay!ā€“so as long as youā€™re not outright copying, I think youā€™ll be fine so long as youā€™re okay with readers possibly drawing those comparisons! I wouldnā€™t worry too much over similar details if you thought of them before reading other WIPs, though! Donā€™t dwell too much on trying to make yours ā€œdifferentā€ from what already exists and just write the story you want to write!

To reiterate whatā€™s said in this thread: ideas and plotlines cannot be copyrighted. Itā€™s usually frowned upon to copy something beat-by-beatā€“if you write about an 11-year-old boy who lives with his abusive aunt and uncle and has a scar, but then gets a letter from a magical school where he discovers heā€™s a celebrity, it might be frowned uponā€“but writing about a magical school in general is inevitable and fine! There are whole schools of thoughts who propose that, boiled down to their essentials, there are only 7-11 stories in the collective human consciousness, or that we all operate according to the same basic archetypes. If you believe that, then stories overlapping is inevitable, stories being totally unique is impossible, and thereā€™s no need to worry. :slight_smile:

Good luck to everyone this month, and stay well!

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I cut more words than I wrote today. Thatā€™s not something I do a lot.

It might just be temporary, but it still doesnā€™t feel good.

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I am suffering with pairing words with genderā€¦bleh. Whispers vs whisper, chuckle vs chuckles, and so on. Ahhhh. Still havenā€™t finished any of Vedereā€™s bits or the ruin bit of Luptaā€™s for the godly patron choice soā€¦hehā€¦thatā€™s me being lazy. :>

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Psst. Replied. See if it helps. :innocent:

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It certainly has. Thank you again! Iā€™m going through what I have right now to add those in. Itā€™s already making everything nice and neat. :blush:

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Aaaah, my resolve is flagging already, I managed to get a short prologue written up for the story I want to work on, not sure how it will fare once people see it, itā€™s quite a bit different from the starts of most other stories Iā€™ve seen. I finished it then thought maybe Iā€™ll start writing the first chapter, then I thought to myself, what I have is awful, then I lost focus entirely. I swear I need a shock collar or something if my attention drifts away from the task at hand.

Hope everyone else is faring better than this easily distracted brain. :roll_eyes:

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Being distracted is normal. Iā€™m taking a few days just to read and rest. I should be fixing things in my wip and the halloween jam entry (to upload after votes), but I feel drained.

It would pass and you would do great.

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