October 2024's Writer Support Thread

[HarrisPS]

I’m going to put up a blogpost about the very early process of making an outline, and I’ve drafted it already - I think I’ll be posting it tomorrow once I’ve sorted out some image credits.

In the meantime I’ve been musing about gender-selectable characters (if you click the image, it should zoom in):

I don’t think there’s any wrong way of me doing it, but it’s on my mind a bit. Part of my uncertainty about having more fixed nonbinary characters is, to be candid, that the difference in overall popularity between cis characters and any other kind of character is very clear. But: I was also nervous about Honor Bound and have had good feedback there, and there’s something to be said for doing whatever feels right without necessarily thinking too much about it.

So I haven’t made any decision in any direction yet. However I do it there will be romanceable trans characters, both binary and nonbinary, and the romanceable characters will be interested in all genders, so that’s covered.

[LiliArch]

In today’s news, I realized I have a plot point that depends on a character doing an incredibly stupid thing, and I’m not sure how to go about that. On the one hand, they did take precautions, but on the other, it was still a poor decision from a character who should have known better.

[Snowflower]

What motivated them to make such a stupid decision? Were they making a correct decision with limited information that became stupid in hindsight (and as they got more info)? Were they thinking with instinct instead of their rational mind? Were they under the influence of a mind-altering substance?

[LiliArch]

Well technically, it’s not a stupid decision after they get all the info, but they also absolutely don’t have all the info that makes the decision stupid at the moment when they make the decision, although I’m not sure they shouldn’t suspect.

…okay, that sounds needlessly complicated.

It goes like this: A is a medical officer on a military spaceship. B is a superpowered alien who’s suspected of murdering the crew of another ship (they were framed, but it’s not known at that point). B is in A’s medbay, restrained by a piece of technology that prevents them from using their powers but also from healing (because the healing is tied to the powers). So A removes that piece of technology so that B can heal, assuming the other pieces of technology that have been set up are enough to keep B contained, which they turn out not to be, which results in B tunning loose (and C, who’s a security officer, chewing A out for being reckless).

[izzily]

Well, you just have to make it seem like a reasonable decision to the character at the time. If you get character A’s perspective in the moment - either because they’re POV or as part of the scene - they can literally talk through their thought process. “Okay, this is a bit of a risk, but I don’t want to lose the patient. These other precautions should keep the subject secured though: tech 1 does this, tech 2 does this, so collectively they’re covering my bases”

narrator: they did not, in fact, cover their bases.

[Cataphrak]

If it looks like B’s about to die, their powers seem like the only thing that might save them, and A recognises B as a sapient life form with all the associated rights of a sapient life form, then they could argue that there’s a duty of care to save the patient’s life by any means necessary and that refusing to do so would qualify as doing harm through inaction.

[LiliArch]

@Cataphrak

A recognises B as a sapient life form with all the associated rights of a sapient life form

Yeah, that’s not a question - B used to serve in the same navy, the ship whose crew they are accused of murdering was one they were 3rd in command of - but that’s also what makes me think A should have suspected B has something up their sleeve, even though their species isn’t very well known (and B was perfectly content on playing along until C crashed in fighting a werebear, so nice job breaking it, C).

Although it does give A an extra incentive to keep B alive (they want them to have a hearing…)

[Niki_Christopherson]

@KittyLady

Well so far this month, I have started on making my 1st game, alot of it has been plotting stuff out!

Congrats! It’s hard taking the plunge. I know, I’m still working on my first game too.

@AletheiaKnights

Quick question: is it possible to use a multireplace inside another multireplace?

Nope. I’ve tried. It yells at you and doesn’t work.

@LiliArch

One of my favourite exercises is diving into a game without any info and watching how long it takes for the game to tell me what kind of technology level we are in.

…Well shit, I think mine does that in the first chapter? Maybe? Now I’m nervous.

@Kade_Foster

You could add an input with the label “Please type what the previous warning stated here”, with copy-paste disabled and a blink tag on, and it’d still not help everyone.

This made me laugh sooooo hard. XD

@LiliArch

On the one hand, they did take precautions, but on the other, it was still a poor decision from a character who should have known better.

In my experience, people are people. Last night, I walked over a bright blue dustpan six times. And then, instead of picking it up, knowing that if I didn’t pay attention, I would step on it and possibly break it. My dumbass turned off the light in my bedroom, went to step over it and stepped immediately on it. Sometimes smart people do dumb shit. even when they know better.

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So I haven’t been able to work on my game this week. My husband and I both caught a horrendous cold, and I even had to skip 2 days at work. It was that bad. So yeah. I’m taking this week off. See ya’ll in next month’s support thread.

[LiliArch]

@Niki_Christopherson

My dumbass turned off the light in my bedroom, went to step over it and stepped immediately on it.

I hope you didn’t hurt yourself! I’ve lost count of how many times I’m about to fall on my face due to stuff I leave lying around.

[valence]

@LiliArch

I realized I have a plot point that depends on a character doing an incredibly stupid thing, and I’m not sure how to go about that.

@LiliArch

-but that’s also what makes me think A should have suspected B has something up their sleeve

Sounds like you have a perfect moment to advance characterization/world-building in some way. When I have moments where I suspect a character should have known better, it usually means that I’m about to find out something about their core motivations or context.

Like what if A does suspect that B has something up their sleeve, but takes precautions against the wrong thing? (Thereby cementing B’s super-powered status in the minds of the reader.) Or B tricks A into underestimating them on a personal level, thereby cementing B’s reputation as a liar amongst the crew and casting more suspicion on them.

Or even if A does everything by the book for the situation, but B’s lesser-known species status means the safe-guards aren’t enough / A deliberately breaks regulations against advice because they can’t bear to see a patient die. Thereby cementing their reputation as either someone who follows the rules against all common sense or someone who values compassion over the rules.

Idk, I like your set-up and I think it could be a feature instead of a bug. It sounds fun!

[LiliArch]

…huh, now that you mention it, I do have a scene where A is completely unrepentant about breaking the rules and being landed in hot water due to that, so yeah, deliberately breaking regulations definitely tracks.

The idea is that the secondary safeguards aren’t enough due to the less-known-species status of B, since B slips out of them utilizing powers the others didn’t know B has, but A is also oddly unfazed of the whole thing, so I’m inclined to think they had a feeling that something stinks in Denmark. Hmm.

(Figuring out what actually happened with that ship is the major arc of that act.)

[Cataphrak]

I think a committed healthcare professional with a good sense of professional ethics would rate their need to help the stricken over military regulations, the same way a lot of military doctors will treat enemy combatants so long as those combatants aren’t actively trying to kill them.

That in and of itself could be a major characterisation moment, if you want to make it one.

[KittyLady]

Like I dabbled in game development such as visual novels and rpgs but those take so much resources and time to make, I decided to do this because I can still write story based stuff and still have some game feel without it being overly too much. I just wanted to try something a bit different and I am enjoying the process more.

[ViIsBae]

This week, I wrote 15k words of my serial fiction and I’m gonna try to finish chapter 4 of it tonight! I’m working on that while I’m redoing the code in The Bureau to clean it up a lot. I wanna try to finish a few more chapter before fully releasing anything, and I think at one point I wanna actually try to publish it as a book. I’m hoping, at this pace, to be done with it by the end of the year.

[Eiwynn]

The closing days of October are upon us. First an update for myself, and then some housekeeping.

First the update:

@Eiwynn

Finally, my personal goals for October: It is the same as it has been for a while; to continue my reworking of the Patchwerks project based on the feedback I received.

For the last three months, I have been on my first pass in the reworking of Patchwerks. While I am not quite at the finish-line, I am seeing the finish-line for this milestone and it feels good.

I most likely will need another month to finish this pass completely, but I consider this a win for myself.

Inspired by @poison_mara’s Halloween Jam and the entry I wrote this year for it, I also began toying with a story concept I have on those days I needed a break from Patchwerks but still desired to be creative and write.

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Now for the housekeeping: I am going to continue to post a list of authors and WiPs that are need for feedback.

If you are in need of feedback and would like to be added to next month’s list, please tag me and let me know.

I am fallible, so if you don’t see your name/WiP listed as requested, don’t hesitate to contact me to get things corrected asap.

Also, going forward, due to the fact that research is getting more complicated due to AI and search engine changes, I will not be including resource links as I have had been doing.

I am sorry if anyone is disappointed with this decision, but I just do not have the time investment available to keep the standard up. Most of my general resources are “growing long in the tooth” (meaning they are older sources now) and I don’t have the confidence to recomend new sources from a simple glance at them, any longer.

I plan on to continue snippet sharing on the 15th still, although that does not seem as popular as it once was too.

I’ll see everyone on the 1st, if I don’t post before then.

.

[Hazel]

After the holidays, I had great plans to leap back into work this week, but life threw me a curveball in the form of some kind of aggressive cold.

[poison_mara]

First of all THANK YOU for all your great work monthly and daily. Always supporting people. It is a lot of work, and many people just give it for granted.

I wouldn’t be able to do what you do every day. I am not as wise or liked as you are.

I understand how hard it is and I really like all the snippet day and all that popular or not.

I have a similar dilemma with the Halloween jam. Writers and participants seem happy enough and say have been useful.

But The jam wasn’t popular and doesn’t make numbers public doesn’t care… So, should I do more? Do people want my jams? What am I do wrong?

So, I can tell you you are doing wonderful and I am thankful for all the support you give everyone

[LiliArch]

…I really need to put some of my writing out there, I’m in my “this looks dumb and boring” phase again (on the plus side, I’m currently of the opinion that everything I read is dumb and boring, so it’s not just me) and pretty much the only ways out of it are having some opinions from people who are not me (to figure out if it actually is boring or not) or to stop writing for a year (so that I have fresh eyes to look at it).

[Cataphrak]

@KittyLady

I decided to do this because I can still write story based stuff and still have some game feel without it being overly too much.

This sounds like the same trajectory I took. I still wanna go back to “traditional” games at some point, but I don’t have anywhere near the resources for that yet.

[Jacic]

@poison_mara

Do people want my jams?

Threads disappear quickly from the main page due to the volume of posts. Would COG consider sticky-ing the Halloween jam posts for Oct/Nov perhaps?

I think in general shorter games are just a hard sell around the forums these days. I don’t think there’s anything wrong.

Other possible random suggestions (not sure if any are relevant):

• Ask authors who participate if they’d like to clean up the games post comp then release them as a free compilation on HG with the index of games at the front page.
  –Positive: Ability to be published with a low barrier to entry (short stories). Story continues to be seen and read after the comp.
  –Negative: Paper work is involved. Would need to check with COG that they would be ok with this happening. If not enough people agree to the post comp release may not hit the minimum word count. (Not necessarily the end of the world as could ask for additional submissions to get it over the line as bonus content.)
• Ask for little donations as prizes (either winner picks first and then down the line until all prizes are picked (keep private via emails or PMs so no one knows whose prize donation was picked first or last), or just randomly distributed at the end). If anyone has some spare or unwanted steam keys, wants to donate a personalised story/fan art/fan story, shout out on their blog etc. Not sure how this one would go if many would do this. Could get some community involvement and increase investment in voting etc IF enough interest could be gained.
• If willing to open up the jam to a wider community, could consider making it a jam on itch (although the response is likely to still be fairly small due to the CSG requirement.)