Funnily enough, the more I’ve written fantasy the more I’ve started to ignore this and go in the completely opposite direction. I definitely don’t want to ruin people’s immersion or make the setting feel overly modern, but the more I get lost in the weeds of etymology, the less I think about the atmosphere itself, which is far more important overall. If words have roots, most people only really see the leaves that are the outward-facing appearance of those words on the tree of language, if you catch my meaning. See: the Tiffany problem, if you haven’t already.
Lots of words “feel” old but aren’t, many words that “feel” modern are anything but, and plenty of words come from real people or historical events despite most readers having no idea about such things, so I ultimately go by the vibes more than anything else. Also, if I get too strict about never using real-world names, I’d miss out on some of my favourite words! You’re telling me I can’t use herculean, sisyphean, platonic, pyrrhic as adjectives? No “odyssey” for a long voyage?
You didn’t say whether you use these or not, but I know some authors that also refrain from foreign language borrowings as well, even if they aren’t proper nouns. Words like sauna, or phrases like coup d’état and magnum opus. Carte blanche, en garde, status quo, vice versa, de facto, schadenfreude, faux pas, alter ego, per se… So many of these are really useful terms with few (if any) English cognates!
Maybe this just means I’m a bad or lazy writer, but I don’t think I could ever do away with all of these–it would drive me mad! You have my kudos for sticking to it, honestly.
Not a bit of it. It’s a stylistic choice, not a right or wrong thing; and as noted at the bottom of my list, I’m not an absolutist about it even for my own work. There are some phrases where I’m going to keep using them despite their modern origins.
Same for the other strain of linguistic pedantry in my gameworld, where I try to use Greek-derived vocab rather than Latinate words for political and religious topics. (The world-dominating empire being closer to Byzantine than Roman.) If the only Greek-inflected term doesn’t sound good to me, though, I’ll sometimes quietly skip it.
It’s all about mood. I’ve always loved Tolkien, because his world and tone is an anachronistic mashup of Beowulf and the 19c English countryside, because his characters mostly don’t speak in archaisms (like they do in E.R. Eddison’s The Worm Ouroboros, a roughly contemporary fantasy which is awesome but a bit of a heavier lift).
The phrase “hang out” sounds modern, but it was actually used in Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” written in the 19th century. A book written circa 1990 called “If I Never Get Back” had a 20th century character traveling back in time to 1869, and this came up in the book when the modern protagonist used it.
I’ve got a rudimentary spell and attack system working using parameters and gosubs. Maybe I’ll add a goal to update this thread to see how well it works.
The only thing I’m worried about is load times. It’s slight.
Ouch, hope your wrist recovers well! Graveyards hunger for bones, maybe.
My goal for this month is to continue working on a Halloween Jam entry, which is trying to grow out of control as always. I’d also like to get back into leaving regular feedback on other people’s work, which I’ve missed doing as much.
Thanks for hosting this month’s thread, @Havenstone!
Thank you for the thread, @Havenstone. My goal for this month is to edit all that I’ve written. There’s a lot to do. Wishing everyone strength this month.
I only got like 20k rather than 30k, but I’ve been making progress I guess. I didn’t even touch 2, which I guess makes it my goal for this month. And I have desperately tried three, but those stupid asks keep spawning faster than I can answer them. I might just need to close asks until I can get that back to a more manageable level.
My goals for September:
Get back to my usual 30k a month
Make it to the massive ball scene at the end of the next update, and hopefully get a chunk of it done
maybe attempt to fix those relationship stats if I can get my brain to look at them without stressing out
This month I want to finish my update for Sense & Sorcery, push that update into the test game variant of the game, post the link for that (these two aiming for by Sunday night), and then edit/ bugfix/ spell & grammar fix etc. and then post update to the COGdemo main game variant by the end of the month.
While I am excited to see the update drop and hope it will be a nice expansion to my WIP, little concerned that it will proably not feel like enough . . . lots of RO paths with just a little expansion than a huge amount. Still, any progress is good progress, mostly.
Just curiosity really. I don’t think I’ve ever written anything that I haven’t rewritten two or more times. But I also haven’t written fiction as long as most IF seems to be these days.
The idea of rewriting something even in the 500,000 word range that has a branching structure is mind-boggling really.
I always wondered how people balance all the extra tasks (Patreon, tumblr, whatever else there might be) with writing their actual project. It seems like a lot, don’t be hard on yourself if you have to close them for a while or whatever else might help.
More often than I’d hate to admit. My previous WIPs suffered from a lot of typos and a lot of branching. So I would go back and playtest them, nitpicking details that feel wrong, which made me go back and rewrite scenes because they either sound confusing or they just don’t play well based on the choices I’ve added. I’m prone to this whenever I have to write out the first chapter in a story. I think that’s why some people prefer to work in the middle of the story rather than the beginning.
Fortunately, I’ve changed my workflow and now work in passes rather than try to handle prose, coding, branches, and balancing all in one day. In hindsight, I should have learned this approach a long time ago, but I got over it. For the first week in the month I would plan out the skeleton, adding the outline and choices here and there until the week ends.
Nowadays, I don’t get as annoyed when I have to rewrite some scenes. That’s just part of the process. And I don’t feel bad about it because you’re doing this for a good reason. To improve something that could be a lot better.
That is a good point. I could see workflow having a lot to do with how overwhelming a rewrite might feel.
My current approach to rewriting sections is to shelve whatever I wrote for a few weeks to months, depending on how new and shiny it still feels. Then I read it and cringe a lot. While cringing and questioning my choice of hobbies, I try to mark whatever I feel needs rewriting. Repeat. If that qualifies as an approach lol.
Maybe I should add that I don’t really consider turning my first draft into a story as rewriting. Is it? Maybe. My first draft is not even all in one language most of the time, let alone coherent.
write 10,000 words for Deux à Deux (even just writing this out gives me nervous chills, lol, but i’m going to try!)
i don’t get very many asks on Tumblr, but i end up ignoring around half of the ones i do get. it’s either too much work to type out a response (especially if one asks/mentions something that’s already been brought up to me earlier), or just doesn’t feel like something i want on my page. and it’ll stay that way! maybe someday i’ll be better at engaging with audience, but as of right now, i really struggle with it. it just ends up feeling distracting so much of the time to put any brain power to it at all (except for stuff like my actual testers, or people with real critiques or questions that make me think).
I’ve thought the same thing. On one side, I imagine it might feel almost necessary since IF is such a niche community. Building up a Tumblr/Patreon probably is huge for making your work known, getting direct reader feedback, that boost of inspiration/encouragement when stuck, so on.
I don’t know exactly since I don’t have them, but it feels like they could turn into a burden so fast. The pressure to constantly post updates or hit Patreon goals feels like it’d create crazy expectations, and then you’re spending more time managing a community than actually writing the game. I’d bet my bottom dollar there are people hating on authors for not meeting those expectations too.
TLDR; I agree that it’s good to take a break and not be hard on yourself!
Probably. I’m sure to some degree asks and similar can help you sharpen your characters/story. But then how often do you want to answer how ROs will react if you make them a grilled cheese but use Havarti instead of cheddar.
With people feeling entitled… I’m would assume it’s not the norm, but I’m sure the few that are can be quite grating.
I don’t rewrite anything unless it’s really not working because I don’t want to get stuck in rewrite purgatory, so I make notes of everything I’m not happy with and plan to do a full revision after I finish the first installment of my project.
I think I do okay because I’m writing full time, so I’ve built my schedule around it, but I had to get a surgery in June and everything stacked up.
I think it depends, for myself, I barely get any traction on the fourum, and like close to 85-90% of my readers come from Tumblr, so I do consider that very important, but I also know plenty of authors who do just fine without it.
I rewrite when I do my editing pass, when something starts to bother me so much I can’t continue, and when I realize the way I lined up the story doesn’t work with where I’m going.
Since I’m pantsing, that can be a lot. But most of the time the rewrites aren’t very substantial, although sometimes they are.
One of my main gripes with the recent Odyssey movie. I wanted to say the modern register didn’t bother me, but it did. (I also don’t like when authors de-mythologise stories. What do you mean I’m not having fantasy in my fantasy? )
(I also don’t like when authors de-mythologise stories. What do you mean I’m not having fantasy in my fantasy? 
)