7/28/2015

4/19/2024 8:16 PM

557

2

0 wins / 1 loss

Architect

Hues of Infection

"Verde is the closest."

"Then contact them, now!"

"The OERF has already reached out; Verde accepted their call."

"Good."

"That damn facility, I knew we never should've allowed it operate in such an incognito manner!"

"Let us hope for a clean resolution."

"What a mess."

"CO says the shuttle has landed."

"Putting all our trust in one Remroid...what could possibly go wrong?"

"Hey - it's worked out before. Let's not start doubting them now."

"Oh, I do hope for their success."

"Don't we all?"



Written for the Damned and the SHAMED contest (by Mizal).

The Capi's Band & the Missing Instruments

coauthor

Entry into End Master's Manifest Destiny Contest (2021).

A stand-alone sequel to: Elvis At The Beauty Contest.

Join Miz, Matt, and Mandy as Madame Coon recounts the tale of the Capi's band and their missing instruments!

I think it is cool to try new things. Easy enough to make sure the op sets appropriate expectations (i.e., contests are usually a no-money affair, but this is different. Don't expect to see more of this). As Mizal mentioned, vetting the charities might be more work than people want to put in, but it isn't like it can't be done. Having the winner decided by site vibes can have issues, but if it isn't rushed I think most pitfalls can be avoided. Make it clear in the op as well. I don't think people being salty about losing (a close race where money is involved) is a reason to dismiss the idea. Then again, I wouldn't be the one dealing with any potential fallout. I suggest running two contests simultaneously, one with a money related prize (charity, payout, whatever) and one without. Then, at the end, you surprise everyone by swapping which contest has the prize! Woo pandemonium! Then people won't be salty about losing, they'll be salty for an entirely different (and I'd say more justifiable) reason. DICLAIMER -- The above paragraph is (probably) a joke.

Maybe first finish the sheild and rougelike stories.

Read till I finish it. If it is some procedural writing it'll get repetitive and boring sooner rather than later, in which case it isn't good, so would stop sooner. If it is a good story but with a gamified dungeon crawler stapled on, probably ditch it when the crawler grows too bothersome. If it is a video game, play it till the gameplay stops being interesting. Why would I draw a line to stop in the first place? Because I'd enjoy the story more if the roguelike elements were cut? Then why not just cut the roguelike elements from the story? Ultimately you can do a roguelike dungeon crawler and have it be well received, but it is hard. A good story is hard enough to write, if you then add on game elements that you need to translate to text (or create ui for) it ends up being more work that might not actually enhance the experience. Keep at it and don't give up too soon. Trying to realise your vision is good and you can learn a lot from trying. Then, later, you can try making the dungeon crawler in a more suitable game engine, heh. (Consider looking at other gamey storygames for inspiration. The top storygames under Puzzle / Games can show you what has worked. Something like Delve is probably a good one to examine.)

Goes to show the negative bias of humanity. I remember the unfinished stories and the proofreading that was more akin to rewriting as opposed to the successes, lol.

I'm much happier proofreading others' things than proofreading my own (see, Hues of Infection, lol).

Proofreading for contests can be iffy if there isn't enough time. There's also always the concern of being wrong in the proofreading or ruining the style by imposing my own over it. Pretty sure the only story I proofread (that I didn't write for) that got published has since been removed, but I like to think my effort kept it from being unpublished right away, heh.

Maybe Bezro will take the communal approach by using the sneak preview toggle. But it is true that most people seem to be writing (or procrastinating) their own submissions.

On-Page Scripting Paragraphs

Putting a newline character (pressing enter) breaks the on page script, but you can just substitute them with HTML break characters instead.

Add more or less to get the desired spacing (I use 2).

If you're using the Rich Text Editor be sure you are adding it as HTML (does RTE still have a source button? Click it if it does).

Pagetext & Page Script

Another thing that can give similar results is using $PAGETEXT, which isn't on-page scripting, but goes on the page script (haven't tried with link scripts, don't think it'd work there).

i.e.,
$PAGETEXT := "Added at start. " + $PAGETEXT
$PAGETEXT := $PAGETEXT + "
Added at end."

Starting Page Text:
This is a new page.

OUTPUT:
Added at start. This is a new page.
Added at end.

:= means assign to, while = alone is for comparison. I know I forget the : sometimes, which breaks things.

Because it is in page script, you can add variable conditionals before $PAGETEXT changes.

i.e.,
IF %BLANC = 0 THEN
$PAGETEXT := "He is dead."

From what I recall, you can use newline characters here (without HTML) but you do need to escape the double quotations. & q u o t ; = ". (Drop the spaces between & q u o t ;, because I don't know how to have it not be read as HTML but written in correct form and am too lazy to google it).

i.e.,
$PAGETEXT := "& q u o t;Watch out!& q u o t; he yells." + $PAGETEXT
NOT ""Watch out!" he yells"

I'm sure you can see how this can be tedious, but if there is minimal or no dialogue, it can be worth considering.

Tips and Tricks

Replacing spaces with breaks (for on-page scripting) or quotations with their entity code (for page scripts) makes proofreading harder, so I advise writing normally (but clearly marked) in another writing software. This can also act as a backup. (Word has a search and replace feature, for example, which makes replacing quotations easy). But do whatever works for you.

Do be aware that text added through page scripts doesn't start on the page, so isn't counted towards the length calculations. If you write the whole story this way it'll be marked as 0 words, which is funny. Considering you're probably using this for similar but different permutations of the same scene, I find it evens out, where it lets you avoid artificial bloat to the word count (from copy pasting many similar pages, which is another cruder option). Depends on how you structure things.

Depends on the story, but I generally prefer at least 2 endings. Too many endings is whatever amount you won't finish writing. Generally readers won't complain about having more to read. If you're making good progress, stick to 11. If you're not, cut it down. If you're writing 11 different stories in one, maybe cut it down, because starting small might lead to more success (but do what you want, ambition isn't bad). Consider your own engagement with the writing as well. If you don't enjoy writing towards some ending, don't be afraid to cut it! (And you might even be able to come back to write it later, if you change your mind).

Bad news, the editor allows you to use both AND and OR. They just might not work properly if you're using them alongside greater/less than signs. (Or so I heard on the grapevine).

The storygame is split into the different cases, so reading just one is an easy way to see how you like it. I know a lot of peeps are signed up for the prompt contest, so this is also a great way to procrastinate!

In my attempts to be sneaky, I used MHDs work as the pose reference. Sent noticed the lack of line weight, and I consider that one of the main giveaways. Adding them is a pain (not a stylus, a mouse, hence the copious amounts of tracing), but I also tend to forget to add them later. The other thing I like doing is gradient backgrounds.

Of course, used character references too, and tried copying MHD expressions, since they're so emotive. Next time I'll copy her castle designs, because that would definitely throw people off. (I did quickly give up on passing it off as MHD work, because it did not take long to realise I couldn't replicate it at all closely enough, aha).