The Shadow Society (WIP) Writing Update on #1545

Update 18/1 - 19

Hey everyone,

The reason this post is called “update” instead of the usual “writing update” is because I have some things to say outside of writing.

First things first - I decided to temporarily close down my Patreon. I would have done this much, much sooner had I not forgotten about its existence, but as things are, I thoroughly lack motivation and energy to keep up with it, which has caused me to be inactive there for a long time. I found out that I could revert my account instead of simply deleting it, so that’s what I’m doing in the meantime. It is my hope that once I feel like I have a proper plan for rewards and the time and energy to stick to that plan I can launch my creator page again.

To all of my patrons whom I didn’t interact with for a long time, I’m very sorry about my absence. I should have done this a lot sooner.

On the bright side, writing is still going very well. I’ve completed all of the romance events in chapter 10 (including the A/R triangle) save for G’s and started on the non-romance one as well as finished writing the first part of chapter 11 (now around 6 000 words). Each of the character events are around 10 000 - 13 000 words, so it’s kind of a lot to get through, but hopefully you’ll find it enjoyable once you’re reading it :smiley:

That’s all for this time, I think. Thank you all for your continuous support <3

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@carawen so you know, after you choose to escape from the car, run into the shadowman, and your character of choice comes to your ‘rescue’ you have several choices as to how to act, but I feel that there should be an option to resist at this point, too. The options currently available clash a bit if you choose that path. Perhaps it’s more noticeable if your choose to flee after the shadows are run down, but also if you choose to do so before. It just, I mean, it doesn’t even have to be real resistance on the MC’s part, since you could have the character of choice or one of the others seize the MC during the fight when you attempt to run away for a second time. This is ultimately your story, so the call is yours.

(Also, I meant to post this a long time ago, but I went to check something in another tab and I forgot lmao gotta love ADHD it makes up for a lot of funny anecdotes XD)

(And sorry if during that time someone else said something along these lines.)

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@Hakai_no_Megami Hmm, I know what you mean, but the draw that the MC has to the Shadowman and his shadows kind of prevents them from simply running away, now that they are within his grasp. It would probably be possible to add the option to try and escape once more, though it wouldn’t work due to this. That’s something I’ll look into when I keep editing the demo and get to that particular part. Thanks for the suggestion!

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Thanks! As I said, it works even if it’s just the intent to resist, as it allows you to follow up with earlier choices. Oh btw there’s another thing I wanted to mention. It’s about the choices that you have after you hear the gang talking about… how they ‘need’ you… The last choice, the one that goes “I want to trust them even after hearing this” it’s phrased in such a way that it’s slightly spoilery if you’re a bit genre-savvy. When I saw it for the first time, I couldn’t help but think that it revealed where the story would go a tad sooner than it should. If you intended for it to be that way, then ignore me, but if you didn’t, well. My personal recommendation, which you haven’t asked for and thus don’t have to take into account unless you want to, is to change the wording a bit, something along the lines of “it is too early to know” or “I’ll have to ask them, but for now I’m trusting them” or something like that. Again, you don’t need to take this into account if you don’t want, it is your story.

@Hakai_no_Megami I’m not sure how it’s spoilery? Could you tell me what impression you got from reading it? I put it as the MC wanting to trust them rather than necessarily feeling genuine trust, is that what you’re referring to?

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Yeah, that’s the one! It’s a bit hard to explain (having ADHD doesn’t help lmao), it’s not a big deal by any means, and it’s very subtle, but I thought of letting you know so you could decide if you wanted to change it or leave it as is, which isn’t bad or anything, by the way. It’s just that, in my opinion, we don’t have anything to make us want to trust them. I’m not saying that we cannot want to trust them, of course we can, but in the face of what we hear, it is a bit weird to word it that way. Even if I wanted to trust them, hearing what they say would probably give me pause, and if I did choose to trust them, it would be because I’d have to give them the benefit of the doubt. I dont have anything that makes me know where the story is going, but it’s just a feeling. I don’t know if other people feel like this, for all I know, it might be in my head. There’s nothing wrong with the choice itself, just, the way you word it sounds a bit off, nothing more.

@Hakai_no_Megami Ahh, I see what you mean now! That’s very true. I think I phrased it like that because I had noticed a lot on people in this thread and on my tumblr having already, at this point in the story, gotten attached to one or more of the characters, plus the MC has gotten the opportunity to spend some time with one of them which might result in warmer feelings. Aside from that, some of the fans (that feels like such a strange word to use lmao) like playing very trusting and idealistic characters, so I think I kept both of those factors in mind when writing out the option, though the former on a more subconscious level.

I think adding a less “nice” option, like one of the ones you suggested but also keep the one that’s already there for those who might want to play that incredibly trusting and naive MC might be a good solution. You made a great point here, thanks so much for pointing that out :smiley:

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Aw, shucks. And fans really is the correct word! I mean, we all like TSS so as long as we do, I think we can be considered fans! But I know what you mean. I, for one, never really quite know what to do with compliments, so I think I know the feeling a bit. Also, I’d like to ask, just to make sure, if you’d like for me to keep giving you any feedback I may have. I know that’s pretty much the point of the WIP threads, but us ADHDers often need others to tell us if we’ve done anything wrong, or if we’re doing things right. I am a perfectionist, though mostly with myself, and some experiences have taught me that not everyone likes to be corrected sometimes, which is understandable, so I tend to ask, even in contexts in which the answer would be a clear ‘yes’, whether people would mind if I went full ‘editor’ mode. I’m pretty good at focusing on details, less so at noticing leaps in continuity, so if you give me a green light, I’ll try to let you know about anything I may spot, which doesn’t mean that everything I spot is a mistake or error, sometimes things just catch my attention.

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@Hakai_no_Megami No, it’s totally fine! I do have a few beta testers who have pointed a lot of stuff out (and which I’m working on correcting/adjusting now when editing the demo), but I’m open for any kind of feedback and suggestions from people in general :smiley: I want to do the best I can with this story and oftentimes others see what I don’t when I’m in writing mode, so it’s very, very helpful.

Could I just ask you to please send continued feedback/criticism/suggestions privately to me, so to not overwhelm the thread? Plus it makes it much easier for me to go through if I need when editing, rather than scrolling through here ^^

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Sure! I might not do so too regularly, since I’m often very busy, and I’ll have to fiddle a bit with things but shouldn’t be too hard to send a private message. :grin:

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@Hakai_no_Megami Thank you, it’s much appreciated :smile:

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So I was just messing around in Monster Girl Maker and I think I accidentally made Quarie

Now obviously some things are a little off (like the heart shaped pupils) but I just worked with what I was given

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@Jared_Frias Aww :heart: she looks adorable :smile:

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Bit of a general update regarding the editing of the book/demo:

I decided to make the hair colour choice appear a bit later in the game, since the beginning was so full of choices all in one scene and as I re-read it, it felt like it slowed down the story quite a bit.

I’m currently trying to code a reaction from M if you end up having the same name as them, but so far I haven’t been successful :sob: I’m going to keep trying out different things and continue editing in between writing, though.

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I actually might know a thing for this for once! I’ve seen at least one game do this with an *if (“${name}” = “John”). Maybe then an *elseif or whatever for the other gender variant or *if (“${name}” = “John” or “Jane”)? Then the reaction could be underneath and anybody else could have an *else or both could go to a label afterward. If that doesn’t help than my bad, I’ve just been code diving a lot lately and recognized this. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Aaah thank you! I’ll give it a try when I have time. Really nice of you to try and help with this :heart:

No problem! I’ve been trying to learn more about code recently and I always like to help. :smiley:

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Aaaah it worked!! Thank you thank you thank you :sob: :heart:

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Writing update 3/2 - 19

I’m here with another writing update, and happy to say that I just this morning finished writing chapter 11 of TSS! The chapter is in total a bit over 20 000 words.

I started a little on chapter 12 already, as well as working to finish up G’s event in chapter 10. Chapter 12 to 14 will allow for a lot of exploring to potentially let the MC find out more about the world and how it works, as well as get a closer look at the opposing side of the shadowrebels :wink:

Thank you for your support :heart:

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Everytime you update, my heart jumps a little in joy. Thank you for your hard work~

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