October's Writer Support Thread

I never know where time has gotten off to.

Progress has been slow but picking up so far this month, with roughly 3k words in the last 10 days, bringing my current chapter up to about 9k/??? I haven’t been writing quite every day, which is a little disappointing, but I’m managing about 5 days a week, so it’s something.

There’s some part of me that always worries I’m not providing enough different sorts of reactions, and is always thinking “oh maybe I should be tracking this other thing too so the game is more responsive” and so on. I feel that the story is going to be sort of linear for an IF so I really want to compensate for that by giving as much room within the confines and as much nuanced flavor text as possible, but that is a challenge all its own, heh.

@Jayffel I absolutely know that feeling. I’ve had it happen to me before, and I suspect it’ll happen to me again at least a few times with this WIP. It’s sort of a bittersweet feeling; bitter because I really liked the stuff that never made it in there but sweet because I realized the reason it couldn’t be there is basically what you described: the characters and the story had grown in a different shape than I anticipated. It’s sorta like a bonsai tree—you can clip it and try to shape it to some degree but it’s always going to be reflective of the quirks of the cutting it grew from, too, and there’s something kinda beautiful about that.

Or maybe I haven’t been sleeping well and my brain’s just full of mush. :grimacing:

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@Jaybirdy – I have feedback for you on your Chapter 10 material; I’ve been letting it sit in my thoughts for a bit before writing it, so don’t let me forget to give it to you this week.

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Writing this week was really difficult. I was either busy with other stuff, with muscle pain or just distracted, but I have found that measuring my progress in milestones has helped tremendously, because I can see that there has been a lot of progress, even if I can’t see it word count wise.

@Jayffel I take out scenes a lot, too, and change my plans constantly. I have made an habit of not erasing anything though, I just save it on another document. I end up using it afterwards, as a point of reference or simply to include it in another chapter. And also because I like reading my old writing for inspiration.

There’s a scene in my game where one of the characters would forfecully remove your mask (it’s a big deal in their world and because of the MC’s nature), and it was so angtsy and I was really proud of the reactions the MC and the other characters could have to it. I still miss it, but who knows? Maybe I could include some parts of it in the future. No one knows for sure where your story will take you, maybe you’ll find some way to include it after all, or like you said, write it so you can get it out of your chest.

@Jaybirdy I also feel this way, but I can assure you, you have nothing to worry about. I played your game and there are many, many ways to react. You’re doing good!

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I’ve no idea where to drop this, so I’m dropping this here.


Maybe this could help you improve your typing?
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Exactly! It’s been a really interesting balance. I’m always finding new branches and choices that I never expected. Figuring out what to trim and what to redirect and what to nurture has all been fascinating. And difficult. But mostly fascinating.

I actually just created a new document the other day as a kind of copy/paste dump for stuff I had to remove that I might be able to reuse elsewhere, whether it’s in part on in whole, or the same idea but reworked. Like you said, even if it’s not something I end up using, I want to at least have it as reference to remember how I interpreted the plot/characters at one point in time.

…I think I’ve managed to creep up to five or six documents now that are just meta files helping me keep track of the story now.

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Currently my goal for this month is to get a firmer grasp on ChoiceScript. I’m confident I understand most of it but I’m sure there’s something I don’t really know. I’m reading anything and everything I can get my hands on–on the forum, on the wide net, in a basket in the middle of the sea–if it exists, I’m pouncing.

I wish there were more videos on the topic, though. The ones I’ve found are great, but they don’t go into the details I’d like to learn more about.

My todo list on my first project is, as of now, to simply do, do, do. I’m not going to stress myself out over it. This is a learning curve for me; I’m gonna enjoy it.

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You can try asking the video creators to get into detail about a specific CS topic. :innocent: Or just ask in the forum with specific questions. :slight_smile:

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Thank you for the suggestion. I’m not sure if they’re still active, actually, and I don’t like bothering people if they’ve moved on from a program.

One hasn’t posted any videos or responded to questions (that I’ve noticed) on ChoiceScript in about a year, another one is about the same, another hasn’t posted in two years, and the last hadn’t done so in three years.

I think I’m going to stick to the forums; it’s obviously the most active as of now. And It’s been a pretty nice place so I feel comfortable asking–if the question hasn’t already been asked and answered, of course. :blush:

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I haven’t gotten anything written, the last few days. I’m just feeling sick, and tired, and unmotivated, and I haven’t been able to get myself to do it.
Instead, I’ve been doing some coding, just for fun, and gotten some work done on a sculpture I’m making.
But mostly, I’ve just been lying on the couch, feeling really restless and unmotivated.

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I get the feeling. Take care of yourself, try to get some sunlight if you can. Simple things help. You would write when you feel better.

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It’s kinda the opposite for me today. I feel bad, but writing is one of the few productive things I can still do, so I do it. With plenty of breaks in between, of course.

(Was going to go visit my sister, but she had to get tested for Covid, so that was cancelled.)

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Decided to start on another project; this one more so I can test some things. So far, everything is pretty slow going. I’m playing around with ‘token’ variables, which will, hopefully, add something more to the narrative.

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Good luck! :smile:
Hopefully you won’t suffer as much scope creep, as I do every time I decide to “just make something simple, to test stuff out”.

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I think it’s already too late. I have been devoured by the idea. It’s because this whole thing is too addictive, I swear! :pleading_face:

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This week I did really well writing-wise. I feel like I made a lot of progress, like I’m on the right track. At the start of the month I started writing drabbles to ease myself into my daily writing sessions and it has helped me so much (along with keeping track of goals and not word count), I hope next week is as good as this one.

I also realized how uncomfortable I feel writing romance, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of getting used to it and getting some practice actually writing the scenes. I think I only ever wrote like 3 romantic scenes during the ten and so years I’ve been writing, so obviously it’s weird right now, but I’m excited to get to a non-cringey level.

I hope you all have a nice week!

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I don’t think I’ve written a word in about 1 - 2 weeks

I’m just coming to the end of a full week off and I spent the whole week of potential writing time sleeping and meditating.

So mixed emotions. On the other hand I feel like shit for getting nothing done (not just writing wise but in general as well).
And on the other I feel almost genuinely relaxed. Not quite, but something of the sort at least.

So neutral I think? Can I count that as a win? I think maybe I should.

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Time for my update:

With two weeks of October finished, I have been working on my rewrite. As I am doing the rewrite, I often feel down on my own work. Despite feeling down on myself, I do feel like the rewrite parts I’ve completed are better.

I have two weeks left of October, and I have no idea if I will reach my goal. I do know that I’ve added about 2,000 words into the material I rewrote… mostly restructuring old choices and adding new choices account for the additional words.

The story-body material I have rewritten neither added nor subtracted anything meaningful, number wise. I do consider that a win, because it means I’ve updated the material while staying within the original scope for the story I had.

My stretch goal seems farther away today than it did two weeks ago … I won’t give up hope though.

I love hearing from everyone, so keep up the good work everyone.

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Written some more on The Velvet Tome (WIP title, bleh) and reorganized some things. Like the startup was giving me anxiety with how I did it before. I just had to fix it. Did a little rewrite on the choices, too.

For the second project, which is currently dubbed Iron Kingdom (hate that), I’ve done some rough drafts for scenes and choices. Rewrote the beginning and some choices, as well as did some character writing; adding a priest’s son to the mix, and will likely add a few more.

The Velvet Tome currently has about 900 words and Iron Kingdom has about 1162 words. I’m happy with my progress.

At least my attention isn’t drifting like it usually does by this point. And I’m actually not being hard on myself! It’s a miracle.

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Everyone, let’s hang in there!
I resumed working on my little Monkey Island/Pirates of the Caribbean Project and I hope I can open WIP tests before December.
Love and hugs to everyone.
Together we write, divided we fall!

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This scene probably isn’t going to make the final cut since it’s so silly, but maybe it will.

Summary

So for context of what inspired this scene… I was vacuuming and had to stop and clean the rotating brush so it wouldn’t get all tangled up. Then I remembered those videos/gifs of cats riding roombas and how now we have roombas that can be programmed to start vacuuming whenever.

It wouldn’t be completely out of the realm of possibility a roomba accidentally sucked up some crime scene evidence.

If the Detective checks the roomba for evidence then I’ll reward them by having their optional cat ride a roomba when they return home.

Like I said, maybe it will, maybe it won’t. If it does, it’ll probably be just one line of narrative dedicated to the cute little easter egg. Maybe I’ll add an achievement for laughs too.

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