October 2023's Writer Support Thread

[HarrisPS]

@HannahPS

I don’t mind saying that I have felt in a bit of a funk thanks to various ailments (an ear thing, and now an eye thing - nothing super worrying but the ear thing was debilitating for a few days and I feel generally run down) which put a dent in my energy, writing ability, and social life, and various bad news from the games industry. But: it is very nice to come to these support threads which are always chill and nice.

My goal this month is to write Chapter 6 of Honor Bound. Realistically… I’m not really sure I’ll manage it. I feel a bit nervous about it generally, as I need to do some careful planning to make it all hang together - there are some big plot developments that some players will encounter and others will not, there is some major branching, and mid-game is always a tricky stage. Right now I have a broad-overview shape of it in my head but not much else. While I know it’s OK if it takes longer, I do want to get at least most of it down so I know where things are going for the next chapter.

I am feeling in less of a funk now that it’s the end of the month. I did some really nice social and relaxing things and have been reading a lot.

@HannahPS

I have changed my plans and confirmed my deadlines! I realised a lot of my worry about October was that I won’t have much writing time for the last week of the month. So I’m going to write the Royal Affairs epilogue this month, which will be doable in the three weeks, and plan as much of Honor Bound Chapter 6 as I have time for.

It was a good move to change my October plans, as I’ve been able to do both these things in the end (I don’t think I’d have been able to do Chapter 6 with the time/energy I had). I’ve drafted and revised the Royal Affairs extra epilogue, indulged myself thinking a bit about a potential maybe-to-do-one-day idea about a hedonistic romance romp, and did some planning on an unrelated/unannounced project.

Chapter 6 was as tricky a proposition as I anticipated, but I sat down with @FayI to air my various issues with it and as usual she managed to help me figure out what the real problems were and how to fix them. I always run into this sort of thing in the middle of a project, where I don’t have the ease and momentum of the start, nor the end-of-a-rollercoaster speedy feel of the end. But this chapter is now in good shape! I am keen to jump into writing Chapter 6, but really what I need to do is check where I’m at with game balance so I’m going to do that today, see how far I get, and then probably get on with the writing tomorrow.