October's Writer Support Thread

Game Development Writing and Content
126

I don’t think I posted my goals for October, but whatever they were, I think I exceeded them! :slight_smile:

  • My book, We Have Always Been Here, has been approved in its final copy and is heading to copy editing now, which means I never have to touch it again!
  • I added 50,000 words to Shepherds of Haven and finished Chapter 5 this month. We are starting Chapter 6 (out of 11) at 400,000 words now, so I’m officially more than halfway there!
  • I’m continuing to add more fun ShoH-related content to my Patreon; this month I released a full Shepherds cookbook!
  • I was productive in plotting out the game in a chart (more work than it sounds like) as well as outlining my next novel and my next ChoiceScript game after ShoH is done!

October is always one of my favorite months, and it was a very productive one for me this year! Keep at it, everyone, and happy spooky season! :jack_o_lantern:

14 Likes
127

Time for my update –

Recapping: my goal for October is to concentrate on one project; specifically finishing the rewrite of the “Origins” and Introduction.

My stretch goal is to write chapter two for this project.

I am happy to say, I finished my October goal with six days to go.

There is no realistic way of reaching my stretch goal, and I do not feel I can write an entry for @poison_mara’s Halloween Jam in this amount of time either.

What I am going to do, is to start writing new material, using the short-story I was going to convert into the Jam, as a way to honor Mara… the next six days should be enough for me to do this.

The story was going to be a “Dream/Hallucination” setting, but now will be another “Real life is stranger than fiction” moment.

Since my game is full of real life events that were, indeed, stranger than fiction, I wonder if my audience will notice or even question if this event was real or not.

One of the amazing things I love about my game so far is that it is sparking some of my alpha readers to look up the real life events and then coming to me to discuss my story versions.

I have been proud of @poison_mara for running a successful Halloween Jam and I have seen many of the participants really grow in their writing the last few weeks. Congrats to everyone involved!

I hope both @rinari and @Anathema are o.k. with me cheering them on and saying I am sharing in their joy at their achievements this month.

There are still a couple of administrative things to finish up for me before month’s end. Overall, this month was a great stride forward when contrasted with the month of Sreptember.

I still love hearing from everyone!

Until the 31st.

:books:

15 Likes
128

I don’t think I have done anything productive this month, to be honest. I didn’t finish my own Jam game yet. Mostly, I tried and try to help others with their games and running the Jam. It is really funny but time-consuming.

@Eiwynn thanks for your kind words. But still don’t know If have been a success. I will do polls and serious questions to both participants and the public about the whole thing. And If they want to have more events. Then prepare something for Saint Valentine’s Day if people consider the Jam a good thing.

12 Likes
129

I would love to write at that speed. 50k in one month feels enormous push forward. Nice!

11 Likes
130

Thank you so much! It was definitely tough and draining, and I had to be pretty careful not to burn out! I’m in a very fortunate position right now (thanks to Patreon and support from ShoH readers) to have been able to take a few weeks off to work on the game as my “full-time” job: that’s the only way I was able to write so much. In any other situation, I would never even dream of it! My previous rates were like 40,000 in one year, lol.

10 Likes
131

Very little narrative writing done this month. Maybe like a sentence or two.

Instead I’m focusing on the cogs behind the scenes. I’m planning on adding a rudimentary difficulty system, Exhaustion stat, Concentration stat, Injury stat, and changing the stat percent bars to numbers.

Keeping track of numbers has never been my strong suit, so that’s why I’m changing from percent bars to numbers. It’s easier to keep track of > 5 instead of > 55% especially as I add in variables.

6 Likes
132

Yep, that sounds like mine too. ^^‘’‘’

Today I did a 1,5h writing session and managed to do ~500 words which I think is very good for me. But that would be just 15k words per month which is too low to bring out chapters. Last year I did for 1 month straight 4-10h sessions with 1-3k words per day (had many free days etc), but I felt burned out. Also strangely I write really well in the evening, but it’s hard to get sleep then, having mind going in gears and having nightmares.

So going at own pace I think is the best way. Even if I could afford to go full time writing now, I don’t think I would be ready to do that.

Also I wonder if there are more people like that. When writing a lot in the evenings have nightmares at night, pretty much regularly.

8 Likes
133

Same here! Not quite so much when I’m just straight writing (mostly cause the monsters haven’t been introduced yet) but when I’m brainstorming and doing concept art, that sticks with me :joy: Especially when I’m writing at 3 AM ish, that pile of clothes starts looking more and more like a monster…

5 Likes
134

Do you write horror? I write pretty much exclusively in the evenings (generally from 8 PM to 3 or 4 AM) and I never have nightmares, but I do tend to have very vivid dreams of my characters! It’s sometimes good fodder for the next night! :joy:

5 Likes
135

My writing goal this month was to complete Better than Alone, which I did!

I’m thinking of also doing a last minute stretch goal: write a game for Ectocomp in the Petite Mort category, where I do the entire game in 4 hours. I’ve got an idea for it and I’m gonna bite the bullet probably Friday (30th October). I’ll be planning extensively until then to ensure I can pound it out.

9 Likes
136

Not really horror xD. But my sleep, in general, is very vague. By nightmares, I should be more clear that it is more like sleep paralysis, that I can’t move body even if I am aware of surroundings and want to wake up. And nightmarish part comes from having the feeling that somebody is near me in darkness and will grab me or worse. ^^‘’

5 Likes
137

I am so EXCITED! :star_struck:
Today, I finished the third chapter of my WIP (hopefully!) hosted game Back to Monkey Island, and I successfully uploaded it on Dashingdon!
And guess what? It works! :muscle:
THANK YOU, everybody, for your support! :love_letter: Without your help and suggestions, I would never have reached this far.
This is the dashingdon link to try the game: https://dashingdon.com/go/7045
You’re VERY WELCOME to provide feedback. Looking forward to it.
By the way, this is a WIP of the cover, I hope you like it!

BackMonkeyIsland_Cover_03
BackMonkeyIsland_Cover_03414×567 301 KB

12 Likes
138

Well, TC did go into a new beta version, and I even managed to discover and solve a very stubborn bug (I really missed debugging, apparently). I prepared for NaNo, and even though I didn’t finish step 7 of the snowflake method, I’m well pleased with the results for steps 1-6.

However, I can definitively say that the last action item has been the most successful. I can’t quite remember how long it’s been since I took several days to just do nothing, and refused to think about my writing at all. It feels good. The week isn’t even over yet, and I already have a good feeling about November. I think I’m gonna start on a high note.

8 Likes
139

Doing some more behind the scenes work in the cogs. Mainly just copy and paste repeatedly, but it’s the first time I’ve used the *gosub command since I’ve never had a good grasp on what it does prior to this.

Still not a 100% confident I’m doing it right. Hopefully I’m using it correctly.

Also using multireplace in more than a few places. One of the instances I’m using it is in the stats screen, specifically when the reader would navigate between stat screen pages.

It’s minor but I’m using multireplace to have the option text change from “Let me see X.” to “Let me review X.” if you’re taking a look at the scene again.

Again very small and probably won’t be noticed by a majority of players - if any -, but I’m doing it as a test drive to use multireplace in my story.

P.S. I’m listening to some classics (read: Earth, Wind, and Fire) and it’s nice. I wanted something cheery because it’s been a chilly day today.

What does everyone listen to when they’re writing and/or coding?

11 Likes
140

I have an inspiration playlist, mostly comprised of songs that reminds me of my individual characters, some which just remind me of the vibe of my story in general. Sometimes I’ll listen to one or two songs on repeat if they really work for the part I’m writing. Or if I’m just hooked on them. :slight_smile:

I also finally checked out gosub and used it for the first time. Now that I think about it, I need to actually do a test run to make sure it’s doing what I want it to…

9 Likes
141

Gosub, while powerful, still make me nervous. Two published stories and I only have a grand total of…two of them. And Parenting actually had zero at release; one was added a few months ago for the almost-invisible section that deals with rare players who run out of money.

6 Likes
142

gosub scares my simple caveman brain and I am unable to comprehend why

5 Likes
143

It’s the best creation ever I simply can’t live without it :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
144

Right now I’m just using it for keeping disposition stats between 0 and 100…I might get brave enough to use it for other things later. :sweat_smile:

3 Likes
145

Same.

Also *elseif and *else.

I brushed up on the choicescript wiki and I still do not compute at 100% capacity.

5 Likes