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I think a wholesome progress thread might keep me more motivated, for longer.

This is my first concerted effort to write for pleasure in quite some time. It’s been fun knocking the rust off. I am aware of the common trend of people procrastinating and then using the anxiety of the closing deadline to quickly put together a product. So far I’ve worked a little on my story each day.

I could easily end up without access to a keyboard for weeks at a time between now and the deadline. As such, I can’t work that way. I have to make good habits right away and make steady progress. I must plan to finish with time to spare. My hope is to be editing by late February.

While I’d like to write a branch and bottleneck with lots of cool state tracking, I’ll probably more or less write a linear story first, then start branching wherever feels right.

I was looking at the prompt about a detailed magic system and wrote the following on my notepad during work.

“Magic:
is common, but obtuse
Consumes raw resources
Time consuming
Skill and labor intensive
Powerful, above all

Between two roughly equitable armies, effective magic tactics shape victory and defeat
Players make strategic decisions while managing their resources.

Defining Fires

Three rings, concentric, one of shaped steel, one of polished stone, and one of delicate glass, are set into the hilltop. The outer ring consists of 18 pieces, each identical, and shaped like dragon scales. Each scale is tilted to the side and embedded into the earth about halfway, so that the ring seems to run counterclockwise. Freshly disturbed earth lies nearby in four neat piles. Each piece of shaped steel weighs 50kg.

The second ring, the one of polished stone, is composed of 12 pieces. They are cut into rectangles and inscribed extensively with horizontal lines and tiny geometric shapes. They are much larger than the shaped steel, standing, partially buried, almost the height of a man. They each must weigh a metric ton and half.

The inner ring, the ring of glass…”

That’s all I got done, but this idea is probably permanently shelved since I ended up with a different prompt. I’m actually quite pleased with my prompt so far.

Who else has started? If you had a different prompt, which one would you want?

I have to say, that's quite an intriguing worldbuilding concept. Even though you got a different prompt in the end, I'm sure you could still find some way to weave it into the story if you want to.

And I know consistency is super important especially for longer projects, so if you're motivated by deadlines, setting mini-deadlines for specific branches or plot points has been a helpful technique for me. But you're on the right track with planning to finish early in case life gets in the way.

As for my entry, I'm rather behind schedule and haven't written nearly as much as I'd have liked. Also, there a really strong writer who's apparently trying to write a better storygame than me, and as much as I hate to admit it, they're currently ahead. But don't worry, I'll catch up soon enough.

I'm starting to realize I've incorporated elements from different prompts into my storygame. So even if I had chosen a different one, I could have written the exact same storygame and no one would be any wiser. But there's definitely at least one which is more relevant than my current prompt.

Best of luck with your storygame and I hope this thread keeps you motivated!

You made me acknowledge something. If one measures general success by Word Per Day, then the project could swell indefinitely. Even if one meets or exceeds their stated goal, they might not complete a project.

Instead, one might focus as you suggest, as long as the branches or plot points are part of a known outline. Keeping to a certain schedule, in that case, does assure the completion of the project.

I might try ballparking a word count for each chapter, then maintain my current words per day goal.

I have no worries that you will have a finished product. I hope that it will be your best yet.

I generally am much better motivated by verbal and psychological abuse, but I guess I can dig this too. I took the mystery box and I’m keeping my prompt a guarded secret until the end, but it’s a pretty great one. I definitely wouldn’t trade it.

I’m making fair progress. My average (not counting today) has been 400 words, but I hope to pick up the pace in the next few days. I’m also hoping that I’m done with research. I thought I wouldn’t have to do any, but I’m consistently wrong about everything.

I am definitely shooting for a victory here, but realistically, all that I am actually reasonably sure of is that this story will be better than my first one.

I definitely wish the two of you luck, but not too much. Lol

Everyone should strive to be better than they were before. It's admirable and attainable. Best of luck to you.

My friend showed me this after I told her I kind of wished I chose your prompt- wow

I also started mine and to be honest if I had a different prompt, I would want the insane asylum prompt (#17) because it seems like something I could adapt to my magic thing. I look forward to reading your story because the prompt is really cool!

I started, and I wouldn't trade my prompt for the world.

By "started" I mean I've made a few pages and typed maybe two

wow me too! I wrote for like 3 days then got a writing block and havent written since

Well, make sure you push past that. I wouldn't recommend any stalling.

That deadline is much closer than you think it is, trust me.

I was stuck on a character and eventually got a name for them. Tell me, how would you expect someone named 'Cameron' to act?

Based on experience, like a basketball obsessed skinny kid with daddy's money but a strong loyalty to family

That comes from multiple Camerons

thank you I will be taking aspects of this

I would envision a Cameron as a gaunt tall man, definitely a smoker and severely underweight. Extra bonus points if other people describe him as a living ghost. He's a man of few words, quiet and reflective, is very awkward in daily conversations. He would be quite the loner with few friends. It would take quite a while for him to open up.

His sleep schedule would be abysmal, seeing that he would carry some dark shadows under his eyes. He's a light sleeper, gets nightmares every now and then, doesn't fall asleep easily. Whenever he sits down, he always has to have something to fidget with in his hands. I think that Cameron would be quite competent at his job, but he's not particularly enjoying it. He kind of drifts through life aimlessly with not a lot of lingering attachments.

I think that he would be thinking about committing suicide from time to time, but he's too much of a " coward" to actually do it. He kind of tends to get in a negative headspace pretty easily, becoming very numb to everything around him.

As for when he would act: hmmm... There would be some form of loyalty, but the type that stems from guilt not out of love or duty. It's more like: "If I don't this now, this person will despise me or I owe this person so much already, I can't have him do this." 

If he does anything what could be considered heroic: he would be mentally screaming from the inside and panicking. However, I do think that he wouldn't be nervous trainwreck when it comes to things related to his job, sort of the only thing he's actually good at.

--------

Well, this is pretty much my interpretation of what a Cameron would be like, eh, a massive bumbling fuck up. However, it really is up to you what you want to do with your character. One of the things that I sometimes like to do is to not give characters any names during the planning phase so that I can sort out their role in the story a little easier. Names are a very arbitrary thing.

------

I do wonder about the identity of that "writer" who wants to write a better story than Mystic, that person must be some nutty halfwit. You have my permission to behead that individual and dip their head in tar.

hm...interesting. I think I should dip someone's head in tar at some point, that sounds cool. maybe I'll just put it as a passing mention though

Suppose I knew a Cameron. Suppose she was one of a pair of twins, identical except for a scar on her head. She'd been trying to help a cat down from a tree. The cat did not need her help. Feeling cornered, the cat jumped, landed on the girl, dug in with its claws as it tried to steady itself, and leapt to safety. She was a scarred twin.

The incident didn't make her fearful. Instead, she became bold. Unsympathetically, she dove headfirst into every problem, looking for any solution. The twins grew steadily more distinct in behavior and temperament, as if reacting to one another, insisting on otherness.

Or something like that...

I love twin relationships maybe I'll add a twin and then kill them

Damn, nearly a month too late. You just needed to watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off and all questions would have been answered.

I originally wanted the epistolary prompt but I was a big homo who waited too long and it got snatched right in front of my nose.

But I managed to get myself the prompt about magic vs tech, I'm planning of placing the story right at the end of the Age of Magic of some generic fantasy world, and making the MC be one last magical roar into the big uncaring world.

At the moment there's some ideas of making the magical elite the totally-not-Romans beset by beastmen/orc hordes who managed to combine their martial society with gunpowder. Though underground refugees that formed a totally-not-dwarven culture rebellion are cool as well.

The one definite thing is making the MC narrate his entire rise to demigod status in first person because I like the way that writes. How much of it can get actual branching or even actual writing depends entirely on how often there's a dead night shift. If all else falls I'll shit out another 3k length ministory to save myself from !shame!

Got a bit of a first page going on, so I'm proud with my progress thus far.

I think the totally-not-Romans are great to write about. Have you thought more about the beast/orc hordes and the not-dwarves?

UPDATE #2

I’ve finished chapter 3 of the main path. My intention is for there to be 7 chapters. It seems like I won’t be writing much branching in the first 3 chapters. There will however be some choices with state tracking. My first goal is officially to write through one complete story. It occurs to me that if I do that first, then I will have a finished product in the end. Even if I only branch at the very end. It’s at least a finished product.

I’m already getting some anxiety about producing something that I’ll ultimately be happy with. I need to ride that anxiety forward! I have the day off now, but for the better part of this week I won’t be able to sit down at my keyboard at all. I’ll go analog as much as I can and transcribe later. My wife had the idea of printing out everything I have and editing during spare time.

To what extent does everyone outline their story first? How detailed is everyone else's planning stage? I Wrote about 5,000 words before writing my outline, and it's only for the main path. I took time to commit to certain ideas.

Seven chapters? Good luck my friend and I hope that it won't spiral out of control. 

It's actually kind of cute that your wife wants to spell check for you. That's really cool! l'm a bit too embarrassed to let people I know in real life read stuff I'd written. 

I'm slowing down a little due to me being a bit busy with real life stuff as always. Wow, I thought I was a big outliner/planner, turns out you got more written down than me. 

I generally have the "big" general outline with the character names and quick summary bout them. Yup, I do write this one first before I start writing. This one contains descriptions of the endings and the general paths I want to do. It's just so that I don't accidentally write plot holes/ forget people's names (tend to do it a lot). While I'm writing, I usually go back and add stuff like important details and other plot stuff I forgot into it.

The story and lore is much simpler, so I don't have many things to keep track of. So the outline is now about 1300 words long. If I make it too long, navigation and looking things up would be a pain.

Then there are the smaller outlines I write for every writing session/story chunk which go in detail what I need to cover for this page. I do these mostly in my head, but when I'm a bit stuck, writing it out helps.

The fear of it spiraling out of control is present and menaces me in my waking dreams.

Your system clearly works for you.

I'm a big proponent of outlining individual scenes when I sit down to write them. If I don't, I'm liable to lose track of the intent of the scene and meander into some detail that struck me as interesting while writing. Better to note that detail in the margin for later.

Most of my creative writing is for D&D. That's a different process. Prep for that is prewriting important descriptions, bulleting plot points, and exploring possibilities to avoid being caught off guard. I have to keep myself centered when writing a narrative or I'll end up with interesting scenes that don't really fit together.

I spent the past week researching one topic, and suddenly lost all interest in that topic after deciding it was time to write something. I am now back to square one and now I only have a vague idea of what I want to do.

Just start typing something. That way you wont end up having to submit a 2500 word quiz at the last minute to avoid SHAME.

And I say this as I have 0 words of actual story typed.  Though I do have main character profiles and a rough outline of of the story.

Well based on my prompt, I don't think a quiz would be a practical way to avoid SHAME. I cannot just start writing because without research I may not do the topic justice. I think that was the issue with Wolves of The Sea and I hope to not repeat those mistakes again. Thanks for the advice though.

HA I have ONE page done, got you BEAT

Speaking of which, I should really, REALLY work on that

well guess what? I have TWO pages done

you one-upping bitch

yup that's me :)

dw its really easy to one-up me if you put in like any kind of effort

lol. Nice one CP.

Fresh- Newb said you lack effort or she couldn't one-up you.

 

I do lack effort

However, I have written two pages, one of which is in German (which I've been taking a class for but it's not perfect), since making this post.

To be fair, you have been participating in the Owl's Challenge threads a little bit, so you've done a bit more writing than CP in the long run. More procrastinating and more writing! Sounds like you've got her beat multiple ways. 

it's very likely

I’ve written 6000 words. The issue is that I never, ever outline for anything. I also tend to write different scenes at once, because switching it up keeps me motivated. Therefore, all my pages are in strange orders and I’m various stages of completeness.

Unfortunately I’ve hit writer’s block like a brick wall. Not that I can’t motivate myself to write, but my writing has sucked. Doubly unfortunate is the fact that outlining the story would probably help, cause I ain’t doin’ that now. The upside is that I did plenty of research and now know a fair bit about the history of the hamburger.

I’m shooting for 62k words (for absolutely no specific reason) which is still very doable.

Mmmmm.... hamburgers.... dang it! Now I have to go get something to eat. I was perfectly fine before I read this and now I'm too hungry to keep writing. I'll be back soon...

If a scene suddenly occurs to me, I usually open a page and quickly write it. The downside is that I sometimes end up with lots of disconnected scenes that I have to build the connecting tissue for, or scenes that never manifest into the story at all. I definitely understand what you are saying. I try to resist doing it too often.

My editing process will be to tighten the text. I want to reduce my overall word count and keep as much content as possible while doing so. I have a lot of words written, but I'm more worried about moving the storyline towards completion.

Ah, it's nice being able to relax for one of these... No pressure to finish, no bothering people to betaread...

You're not in this one? 
 

or are you supremely confident?

He already won a contest, so there's no need to try anymore.

Sad.

Cel already hit his peak.  The rest of his CYS existence is all downhill.

There will still be a major peak, when I become End's son-in-law.

Good luck with that.

We have a saying in Serbia...

It's not the handsome one that fucks, it's the persistent one.

We sometimes arrest those people where I'm from.

Puts Srebrenica in a whole new light

Is persistence the Serbian word for roofie?

Woot

I am off to an early start (for me) on beginning my entry.

A whole 650 words.

nice! more than I've written (combined) in the past... (let me check real quick) 13 days!

I have a lot of words done already, but I've slacked off for the past week and haven't written in a couple days. Currently, a lot is not enough. I should get to it.

I've barely written this week. I'm managing sometimes just 100 words or so, handwritten, each day. Maybe tonight I'll get a little done, but then the next few days I will accomplish nothing. I'll be too busy for 3 or 4 days. Next weekend I'll put myself to work.

I'm back to regular work hours and trying to write 4000 words by the end of day Sunday. By Monday evening I want the first major branch finished. I'm really enjoying this so far and I'm very confident I'll have a finished project by the end of February.

My ongoing struggle is deciding when description becomes distracting, and when brevity becomes boring.

Later on, I'll look for someone unrelated to the contest willing to proofread.

How's everyone doing as the first month approaches its end?

I remembered to write today. Sitting on an even six pages out of about twenty to be made. (Hey, I said it'd be short)

I've been siitng at a decent 20 total words for the past two weeks or so. Just wrote 4 more so I'm just about on schedule.

I read it. It was very funny. I hope that you are able to add gay fanfic arc too (where the protagonist is so frustrated with his lacking love life that he starts to write self-insert gay fanfic about himself. Double plus if the love interest in his story is some anime edgy pretty boy character. Triple plus if he posts it on Choice of Games.) Gay and Depressed: Truly an inspiration for all. 

Edit: don't foget to add the twitter internet wars. Whenever a online content creator gets relatively successful, try to be the biggest virtue signaller and dig up dirt about them. It could be a thoughtless comment they made when they were a teenager, that doesn't matter. Paint them as the devil incarnate that participates in book burnings and lynchings.

Sadly enough, I have a growing hobby with keeping up with this perpetual online discourse stuff, so if you ever have a lack of inspiration for such things....

it is the most wonderful feeling when you have ditched your story weeks ago, get a new idea, and churn out 3k in the span of three/four days

I believe in you, Ace

Question though. Why do I always think of a snake or serpent when you come to mind? Did you have an old account that was named along those lines or something?

Yeah I was @Serpent once upon a time. My main accounts were @Jeff21Turtle @MrAce @Serpent @MicroPen and @MrAce321 in that order. There's loads others, but those are the ones that I used for any real length of time.

That's... a lot. I would tag past account(s) of mine, but it'd get rather embarrassing. However, I can say that I draw really epic piñatas.

Nonetheless, thank you for clearing that up for me. I have no idea how I caught on that y'all were the same person. Must've been my sick intuition :p

Unique Names: jeff21turtle, jeff22turtle, helloiamturtle, jeff23turtle, jeff24turtle, jeff25turtle, jeff26turtl, thetyrant21, iamashark, darkdoom333, Nightshade333, helpme987, helpme333, whatisgoingon, helloiamcool, hellohearmeout, fathertime, Pain, thisisnogame, MrAce

Probably still missing a few.

There's also MizalButCapitalized and EndMasterButWholesom lol.

Okay where I am now.

That idea sucks and I don't have an idea to make it good. The concept is sort of a classroom of the elite type of setting with a competition with someone for a place on the student council or something, thus creating the "love hate relationship" theme through the rivalry.

But that sucks and I don't know how to make it better, so I'm switching gears.

I've had another idea that might just work if I can ever get around to writing it.

Currently I'm getting my ass kicked in Calculus 1 and some other classes, yes shut up I know calc 1 isn't that hard and calc 2 is harder, I've heard that enough, so we'll see. It really depends on how excited I get for the story and if it doesn't fall apart in my hands.

After a month's delay (during which I did read numerous storygames) and then an ignominious defeat in my battle against sleep yesterday evening, I finally got started on my entry. 15 pages! ...which is less impressive if you know how short my pages tend to be, but I'm happy with my progress.

Hey, nothing wrong with that. If you're happy with what you have, then more power to you. If you don't let the project run away from you, then I'm confident you'll end up with something nice.

I've let my project swell quite a bit. Paths to the end are quite a lot longer than I intended. I did some editing and rewriting so far today, so my word count today is in the negatives.

I've written so much for just a single path that I didn't even intend as one of the "main" endings. I managed to stay on schedule for all of January, but I might need to actually get ahead of schedule to finish this story in a desirable manner. Oh shit.

My situation is increasingly similar. I can never let well enough alone. I had an ending worked up, but when I got to it, I found it immensely unsatisfying. So, I've been reworking the end all week. I'm really happy with it, now.

The next few days are supposed to be editing down the main path.
Then adding death links to meet the easiest criteria for a technically finished product.
Then I'll start adding real branching starting from the end to have as many endings as possible by the deadline.

"Oh shit," is exactly how I feel. How's it coming for you now?

So far it sounds like you're in the lead. (Other than the quiet ones who might be too shy to say how far along they are)

I got some good planning done, which has given me the ideas to finish writing a good half of my story. I also have some good ideas for the other half (but very little of it written).

Basically I gotta do more

This is how the dinosaurs went extinct...

I need to smoke whatever you're having.

You'll smoke it when my storygame is published

You either mislabeled the Y axis (should be per day) or you deleted a huge chunk of your story at one point.

That's what I thought also as the x axis (time) is also poorly defined. 

But here is my guess as to how these work on his graph.

Y - (word count) number of words in a given day

X - (time) should be days

That way you can plot the point of words per day and come up with the graphed line. Since, as you noted, if y is total word count, this should always increase unless you delete a chunk of your story. 

Assuming word count is per day and time is the amount of time left until the due date, my sporadic writing habits (much deteriorated since the Myth and Religion contest) have caused what would be my version of that graph to look... interesting

The word you're looking for is disappointing.

And I was actually getting excited by your story as well:(

I meant the writing habits had deteriorated but alr

I've been saving some of my data, I could make a graph like this...but I won't.

I feel ya, Thee first 20 k words were written at a lightning speed, but I slowed down midway. It's just so much easier to write during the holiday season. Well, then there's the fact that my writing speed is always quite lacking when I reach around 40k or so words, mainly because of the dread that I have to go back and add tons of in-page-scripting due to the decision to make the time travel element not only a story element, but also a gameplay element.

I finally get it why there are not many storygames here with a time travel game mechanic. It's such a huge pain to keep track of which details the protagonist knows already and what details are not known yet.  

Then there's the looming dread that mystic probably already has reached the 100k threshold and that there are so many (strong) contestants this time around. Slowly getting more nervous now. Like really, if Ninjapitka also decides for some reason to join in, I swear I'm going to faint. 

Oh right, you took the time travel one. Very much looking forward to checking it out.

I’m nowhere near 100k this time :(

In fact, I’m going to make you and everyone else feel a lot better by saying that I’m doing horribly. If my storygame were a house, it'll have a pretty entrance but the second you open the door, there'll be debris on the floor, smoke alarms blaring, and the ceiling will collapse in on you. End Game and Leave Comments.

I've had a similar problem as Ugilick and Wizzy where a planned one-page death scene ended up taking an extra day because it became a little branch of its own. And I'd plan for a short scene (200 words) to foreshadow x and introduce y, but when I write it, this becomes over 1k words. Of course, it wouldn't be a problem if only this storygame wasn't for a contest.

Time is my biggest issue now. Word count doesn't matter so much as completing the story in its entirety, and if I'm being honest, I don't think I can do this. I didn't write enough during the first month. While I ended up with more words than I had going into the final month of End's first prompt contest, I also completed less of the main plot, which means I underestimated the size of the story again.

I never realized that the university students CYStians who flaked out on contests actually had an understandable reason, until I started uni. Everything takes up too much time and energy. In a week, I'll have around eight long readings, five videos, two documents of questions, and this does not include the lectures and seminars and group work meetings and assignments and individual research. It probably doesn't help that I want to succeed academically too. 

I’ve recently tried to implement a new plan: writing the first thing in the morning and last thing every night. I limit sleep to 6-8 hours so I don't waste time, but still have enough so I don't burn out (although I might actually already be burnt out haha). The plan is to sleep around 11 and wake at 5 most days. This would hopefully give me between 4-7 hours a day to spend on writing (first draft scenes), rewriting (which ironically takes longer than writing because I hate everything I write), editing (sentence-level revising and proofreading), designing title pages of each section (don't know why I started this but I'm in too deep now), making the map (again, I know it's not necessary but I really wanted a fantasy map), transferring pages to CYS (trust me, it takes longer than you'd think), and other related stuff. Which... isn't a lot of time considering how much I have to do. 

I'm starting to seriously doubt my writing abilities. Or maybe it's just late at night, and I shouldn't trust my thoughts.

I’ve recently been beset with a strange sort of procrastination where I hate everything I’ve written, edit the same piece a dozen times, and end up completely rewriting it later. It’s extra bad because I’m deluding myself into ‘productivity’ when really, I’m making no progress.

And yes, I've probably spent time typing this that I could have used for writing, but then again, this could be considered a type of self motivation or something. But an extension would be really, really appreciated. Especially if it's for a month (although I suppose that rarely ever happens).

I almost ended with "I'll finish this storygame or die trying" as usual, but after the last time, I don't want to test my luck.

Lol, didn't realize how this made it sound like I spend all my time writing. Ironically enough, I've spent quite some time visiting places with friends, and for the last month, I've went on at least 1 day trip to a new place/ touristy attraction every two weeks. I've only started the 4-7 hours thing 3 days ago so I guess I'll see how it goes.

And most of the day is spent studying together with a group of friends, which is kind of the reason I'm trying to write early in the mornings and late at nights. That's the only times of the day I can truly account for.

The usual advice is to not edit until you're done. Don't even READ what you've written, just keep writing. I don't always listen to this one, but if you're getting caught up in edits and making no progress... miiiiight be worth considering.

Also, sleep is good for you and your brain, which you need for both writing and actual important things like school.

That said, I hope you can finish in time!

I tried to do this by separating writing and editing sessions, but I'm struggling with the revising part. And yeah, sleep is useful, which is why I better log off now.

I'm dedicating this week to editing the central branch and planning variations. It's the first time I've read most of what I wrote. I'm trying not to get too bogged down in the details. I can unpublish and make a redux after the contest.

I just found a whole page that looks like this,

[Describe room in brief.]
[Characters work diligently while having conversation]
[CHAR B "CHAR C was..."]
[CHAR A "WHEN WHERE"]
[CHAR B "ANSWERS"]
[Characters take break]
[FORSHADOW X in some way]
so on...

I didn't feel like writing the scene and was more interested in what came next.

College is a nightmare, in more ways than one, but the important thing is that there is less writing time. This doesn't matter for shmucks that barely write anyways, but Mystic, you are a great writer that consistently drops steamy, juicy bangers. There's only a few writers on the site with your gumption, so don't doubt your abilities for a fucking second. You don't need to sacrifice your valuable sleep to get your shit done (unless you really, really have to).

Basically, an extension would go crazy.

I would love an extension. If there were one, it shouldn't be announced until maybe after the 22nd. That way people can know proper fear. I'm going to get very busy the last week of this month again, so that really cramps my style. I won't have the product that I want when the deadline gets here, but I'll have a product. That much is certain.

Thank you, Wizzy! This really made my day. I'm going to re-read it whenever I feel like giving up.

Speaking of extensions, as most people tend to write the most in the last 48 hours anyway, it would be a hilarious way of forcing people to write if the deadline keeps getting pushed back on the last few days. Then when everyone expects yet another extension, the deadline doesn't change and everyone else is shamed.

To all the people who told me to sleep: I don't know if you manifested something or if your messages affected my subconscious, but I randomly had a 4 hours nap yesterday and missed dinner (which ends really early here for some reason). Anyway it all worked out well because I made some food and finished off a section of my storygame.

Also, is it just me or does anyone else sometimes find it easier to write on a phone while waiting for a bus/ standing in line as opposed to sitting at a computer? Maybe something about typing on a phone just takes the pressure of making sentences sound good.

Don't tell anyone, but I'm rooting for you :)

Also, is it just me or does anyone else sometimes find it easier to write on a phone while waiting for a bus/ standing in line as opposed to sitting at a computer? Maybe something about typing on a phone just takes the pressure of making sentences sound good.

This, though... get some help. Phone writing is an abomination.

I mean I recall phone writing during my break during the summers that I worked. It was really refershing because I spent the day daydreaming about my story, and something about the limited time makes it easy to write. Because you only have a few minutes, so it's not a commitment.

You supporting it does not make it better. Quite the opposite actually.

I once did that with a contest entry when my laptop broke down. Not fun.

Same. No, not fun at all

I've never been able to write on my phone. I do find jotting down a few lines by hand under similar circumstances to be relaxing.

I write on my phone a lot. I'm doing it right now.

Well, after OVER A WEEK of flailing around, I finally figured out my endgame, and how it connects to the middle. None of this is actually written, to be clear, but at least I have some idea of what I'm doing.

Whether I have enough time left to do it in is another question...

This is taking so much longer than I wanted! I've cut a few thousand words from the main body and have almost finished a sub-branch. I have four days off coming up, and that'll be my last big push...

How many finished stories should we expect based on precedence? Anyone have predictions?

I'm absolutely sure Darius, Mizal, Wizzy, DBNB, Yummy, Ford, Mystic, Axxius, Petros, enter, Ace, abge, Peng, Fresh, Thara, and you, will submit.

I'm less sure about, but also expecting Malk, Sherbet, imadgalaxy, Morgan, betaband, CrystalPeng, bucketofknives, DrowningWhale, and zweihanderr to.

I assume at least four of the rest will submit something as well.

My estimate is thirty.

I wouldn't be sure about Wizzy, Yummy, Ford, Axxius, Ace, Peng.

Wizzy has a lot written already, from what I've seen. Yummy and Axxius have never failed a contest before, and neither has Ace on his current account.

The threat of triple shame should also be enough to motivate Peng.

No amount of shame can save Peng from his parents.

Wizzy may fuck up like the last time.

Gee thanks for the vote of confidence Cel. I'll have you know that my story sits at a solid 144 total words as of right now, and I plan on getting at least 5 more written today.

11/1/2022

-100

Admin. Penalty - Never Bet On Ford

Never forgive, never forget.

I thank you for your confidence in me but I have less than you do.

I love how every reply to this is basically just the people you professed confidence in telling you that you're wrong 

Nearly a month later, how are you feeling about these predictions? 

You, Darius, and Sherbet have already submitted, of which I expected Darius and Sherbet.

I'm absolutely sure crystalpeng, Mystic, Axxius, Enter, Abge, Peng, Thara, Uglilick, Morgan, DrowningWhale, Fresh, and Yummy will submit.

I'm less sure about, but also expecting betaband and goodnight_a to.

I'm not sure about Mizal, Wizzy, DBNB, Ace, and Ford, anymore. Though they could still submit, and I'm sure at least a few of them will.

My estimate has gone down to twenty.

We'll see about that after you lose 400 points.

That's a lot more confidence than Crystalpeng herself has lol

I think ford already gave up, he posted in the discord. I'm pretty sure Wizzy would submit, though.

As for me...

Me, you, Cat, Petros, Mystic, Thara, Darius and DBNB are definites in my opinion, but I'm the least sure about myself

I'd like to gamble away my points, I have too many.

I bet 200 points crystalpenguin, despite not signing onto this site in the last week, will submit a story for the contest.

Anyone willing to take up my offer?

I may have to rate 200 stories to make up for this, but I'll take that bet

The problem is I've messaged CP a couple of times with words of encouragement, and that strategy has been effective in past encounters (wonder who that was). But maybe she'll flake. 

I'll also take you on that bet if you want to gamble another 200.

Fuck it, I'm in.

Crystalpeng, you better not let me down.

You must have inside info on CryPeng and her story to want to go in that much on it.  Might be safer to bet on Ford.

@crystalpenguin 

No, I just have a gambling addiction. This is why I don't do duels.

Well, if all she has to do is submit a story that fits the guidelines ,she has plenty of time.  It doesnt even have to be good.

I'll try.

It is a shame that fresh would be collateral, but I really want to see you lose this bet. I know it's my own fault for betting on Ford, but when have I cared about small details like that?

@crystalpenguin by all means, stay alive and finish that story!

Fine then! I bet you 200 that CP will finish her contest entry.

double motivation!

A lot of points rest on your shoulders now. Choose carefully.

This is moving away from "motivation" and into "threats and peer pressure"

Crystalpeng, you should ask for bribes and submit/ not submit a storygame based on who gives you the most. After all, I'm sure both parties would rather win fewer points than lose a lot (and bonus points if you trick both sides into giving you points).

Now we're thinking with points!

Mystic is diabolically brilliant.

Don't do it, nooooooooooooo

If I may just point out that no admin has actually agreed to any of this betting yet...

sudo don't say that word again

Holy shit, Ace. Whenever people would mention you in a bad way, I always thought they were exaggerating. Surely he can't be that bad?

You're even worse.

What in the fuck could possibly make you think that TypeCat is an admin with "sudo" permissions lmao.

Pseudo?

EDIT: Never mind, it’s a computer thing. I’m slowly realizing how stupid I really am.

Sudo IS a computer thing, but Ace was just being retarded, as usual.

kek

If it's an consolation, I knew it was a computer thing. I just thought the word had two meanings...

You hear that, Cat? Only been here for less than a year, and people are already assuming you run the place. Albeit, it's only Ace, but that's still gotta count for something.

Things aren't going so well. I haven't worked on my contest entry in a while, since I got into a fight with that zoomer. I just need something to help me finish my entry. That's the only thing I aim to accomplish.

Well, in that case, let this help you: if you fail, you get shamed

You guys should lower your expectations of me substantially.

I've only written one page so far.

The only reason I'm not asking End for an extension now... is because is it really hard to write a lesbian pro-wrestling story?

I'm not going to make some tale with a princess having to fight and kill her own siblings for the throne, or a zealot conquering other countries with magic and warfare in a linear story.

However, I am trying to make a story-game that has more than just two links for choices this time around. So, I might actually need an extension... maybe...

I want you all to be shamed so much. But my story is literally moving at a snails pace as well.

You can all praise me for my great and fair transparency this time around.

You should ask for an extension imo.

March 5th seems like a really good date that also doubles as a wholesome reference to Cystia's past. I think you would appreciate and enjoy having this completely reasonable extension seeing how February is the shortest month of the year and all.

Everyone would probably appreciate a few more days.

I agree with the extension

Thara is the only one that can request those, careful not to make it seem like you think others deserve a vote or she might refuse out of spite.

I like this project less and less the more I work on it. I'll probably still finish it, but it's getting unpublished as soon as the contest results are in. It can join the several of my linear projects that are too awful to even contemplate revising. >_<

Many projects do! I'll probably unpublish mine if only to work on it more.

I now have two endings, but they are very similar. They are more of a Side A / Side B of the same events. The plan is to add a Side C and D today, then move on to a more distinct branch. Fingers crossed that I have some very productive days.

EDIT: They were pretty so-so

Update, and Inquiry

So far a have a somewhat long mostly linear story. I am not especially happy with this. Currently there is one choice towards the beginning that changes little immediately but alters a few scenes, including the end. I have a second choice midway through that changes many scenes and the last chapter. As both of those decisions impact the story there will be four endings. If time allows, and it may not, I want to include a more distinct branch that occurs midway through. I will have very little time after today until the deadline.

Obviously, this detracts from the replay value of my game, as many of the same pages will occur is subsequent playthroughs. How much of an issue is this for most of you?

Not that much. I would rather see a solid story than one with tons of branches that lead to nowhere. Still, extra branches is always a plus for me. However, other people might not agree with me and I have a feeling that many will comment on the linearity if it's that apparent. Tldr: do what you want. You still have 7 days or so. 

It would be an issue for me if it's not obvious enough what you did.

If it is, then I'd be fine with it.

Non-issue for me. If the branching isn't immediately apparent, I'd probably stick with my preferred choice and not replay, unless I was REALLY curious about the other outcome. But I think that's fine, I don't need to see every ending.

I rate primarily on writing, but the writing has to be really REALLY good, like Ninja level good, to make me overlook a lack of branching on a CYOA site.

Still, Ninja has recently proven that most people don't read.

Thank you all for your answers.

I will have very little time moving forward and needed to know exactly where to direct my focus.

Variations might change conversations, how certain events play out, and ultimately what happens to characters at the end of the story. The story is long enough that people will understandably start breezing through similar looking pages until something major changes. I suppose that isn't such a bad thing. I'd like to figure out a way for people on a second playthrough to know what text to read.

It's a much bigger issue if people just aren't reading in the first place.

As long as it's good writing then I don't really mind. The writing does have to really good though, like Mizal said, to still earn a high rating from me. A medium story with good branching is probably around the same rating as a great story with little to no branching imo. 

Hello, everyone. Just a quick update about my storygame. In my storygame, It is a "Bottleneck" type storygame where you take four distinct paths at the beginning, but they eventually all meet up in one boss fight. After that, there's a decision on whether you fight the next boss or not. However, there will be different endings depending on what path you take and the decision after the bottleneck boss. I think this is a proper CYOA, but I still wonder about what problems may arise.

The problems that'll arise are pretty obvious.

You don't have a paragraph break between lines of dialogue, the whole plot is shit and seems like something an eight year old would write about, and you used disregarded half the advice given to you from alpharune and used self-insert characters.

Your writing is also far worse than the writing of the children you said was so bad they weren't welcome on CYS and should never write again.

We have a whole thread for mean girl shenanigans.

But is she wrong?

No.

To quote from the first page of the project in question,

"Um... I think I'll join your side. I've heard terrible things about Imadgalaxy thus far..."

To be fair to imad, he deleted 100% of the advice, disregarding only half of it is probably pretty good considering he's going by memory.

Dude.

If you write it well, it probably will work.  If you dont, it will suck hard. 

If it were me, I would seriously consider what TypeCat said in her reply because the issues she mentioned are primary things that should go into any story.  The type of branching, as long as it exists, is secondary to just basic writing and sentence/paragraph format.

 

Are the grammar articles in the Help & Info section helpful? Are there any outside resources to help me? What exactly should I be looking for?

Since based on your point history it looks like you have been trying to be productive (and I am bored at work), I will try and point you in the right direction.

Grammar articles are very helpful, that's why they are there. Pay particular attention to Gower's article on Dialogue (or all of Gower's articles) - that seems to be one area that many have trouble with.

Look at other highly rated storygames and see how they structure paragraphs. Text walls suck even if your writing is good.

At a minimum, I suggest to run your text through something like Grammarly.  Actually, if you dont want to do that, Word has grammar checks built in it to help with sentence structure.

And also, really read through your plot and ensure that it progresses and develops well, and is intelligible to someone other than yourself.  I vaguely remember reading Alpharune and it was really bad (as in very very very very bad).  The only reason I finished it was to leave you a review because I heard you were DMing folks with hate mail if they left you bad reviews.  I'm not trying to just roast you in a forum here.  Alpharune was BAD.  All the reviews saying so were correct.  DONT do what you did with Alpharune.  [Also, dont go on a flame war with a bunch of Middle School kids just trying to do a class project - they're just kids]

tl;dr - Overall, it's not that hard.  Just do your best to tell an interesting and intelligible story. And do so using proper grammar and structure.

Do the thing - and don't fuck up.

Nice job demonstrating the power of editing.  Took my long post, and said it all in 7 words.

0 words. I need to submit this week though cause I have a midterm and stuff just before the deadline.

So I'm outlining something I can write quickly and still be a complete plot, probably 3 main branches and maybe 3 - 5 subbranch structures; maybe 10 - 15 endings.

And from the tip of his pen, there has been no more prodigious and prolific a font of detritus.

This thread is just brimming with optimism! Sounds like I should put time aside to read 45 masterpieces next week!

I'm nearly finished. Have one more branch to finish and two pages to touch up on, and then I'm good for proofreading. It's going to be short, but that was always the plan. If I have enough extra time, I might make another whole branch!

In other words, it's going good, this will definitely be ready to go by the first. I didn't even have to have a five hour panic-writing session the night of the 28th.

That's awesome. Congratulations on your success in planning and execution.

I have zero words.

I'm hoping today that this number will increase, I don't have anything to do until 5pm.

I have three endings of the six written down, but still haven't copy pasted stuff on the site.

You can do it.

I'm currently on about 1.5k words of entirely unnecessary backstory, and about five words of actual story. Looks like I have a busy two days ahead of me.

Still zero words, I played Corgi's DnD game yesterday and Kenshi today so I can't even blame the eye strain headaches anymore.

Gonna walk the dogs and wash my hair and then get those numbers up!

Maybe.

I believe in you mizal

0 word gang

Sitting at a hearty 3.5k, planning to hammer out a few thousand in the following days.

Sitting at 101 pages in my planning document. I can't wait to spend two hours copy and pasting this shit.

It will be terrible, can attest to that. Never try to copypaste more than 200 game pages in one sitting. I hate variables, I hate everything, would have liked to add more stuff but alas. Playtesting is awful, nothing works and everything seems to be burning. There were so many times where I discovered I assigned the wrong thing to the wrong variable.  

I should later post a guide, because I underestimated how difficult it actually is to get every friggin ending. I couldn't even get through this mess without it. 

Update: I made a cheat button. 

I decided not to fuck with variables for this project and boy am I thanking Past Wizzy for that decision.

Oh yeah, I have an unknown number of pages spread across 16 documents. I was going to use page scripts to cut down on bloat, but that's time I don't want to spend. That will have to be something I do after I unpublish and revise, assuming that comes to pass.

NO SHAME SHERBET

~11k written, which should be about it, but I still have 4k to get into the editor... and then I have to test the hell out of it, because it's going to be a web of fiddly little choices and variables and link restrictions. >_<

Sitting at around 6k and will be off tomorrow and the 1st so it's definitely time to put my nose to the grindstone! Here's hoping there'll be no distractions! 

What's wrong with 6k

6k is a totally respectable amount

There's no need for stories to be longer than 6k

6k is like, the perfect number.

(Yes, my story is going to be very near to 6k, for those of you who were getting suspicious. Shhhhhhhh)

A story should only be as long or as short as it needs to be. So you're right, you do you. 

Man I hope I can get to 6k lol. I would project that my story is about 8k if I have enough time to actually tell it all.

You've got this!!!

Figuring mine will be around 7.5k in total, just need to do 2 5k a day, easy peasy. About to reschedule a couple of followup appointments I didn't feel like going to anyway to keep my afternoons clear.

An extremely achievable goal! I think mine's gonna end up somewhere in the 12k to 15k range but only time will tell. Not gonna over extend and then end up not finishing. So just gotta write 3k a day for today, tomorrow, and the 1st. 

I just know I can crap out about 3k in three hours, if the deadline is exactly three hours away. In theory this could be achievable on any day. Just gotta not avoid my laptop all day and then not start up Kenshi when I do make myself turn it on, easy.

Kenshi is hard to get away from I see, it's all you've talked about these past few days haha

My storygame's acronym is SOS, which is honestly very fitting for me at this stage of the contest.

Mine is P, which, contrary to popular belief, means PANIC!!! in this case.

Mine is COP, which explains why my progress was arrested

Before deciding I would only use one-word titles, mine was amusingly KYS. Which is also what I've been hoping all the other contestants do before they can publish. I win if mine is the only entry, right?

Mine is currently TBD. 

I picked the worst two months possible to enter a contest. I'm going to have to start shipping it as is. I've been working 12 on 12 off 7 days a week. I don't have the energy to do much more. Most of my branching doesn't lead to an end and will just be left out now.

If I don't start copy/pasting now, I probably won't end up being able to submit. I have about 30 minutes to start tonight, an hour in the morning and two hours tomorrow afternoon. I expected as much, but it's really disappointing.

Damn, that's one hell of a workweek. Hope you can get something together in the time you have, but more importantly, I hope you can look forward to some time off in which you can unpublish and really flesh things out.

Things should settle down one week from today. I will enjoy feedback on the existing branch and work on a Redux at my own pace. I went too big. I really enjoyed writing until I reached the point where I had to end the story due to the encroaching deadline. Once "having a technically finished product" became the priority the project lost a lot of charm. Still, I'd do this again.

Jeez, try not to kill yourself over a story for a contest where 70% of the entries are going to be half finished and phoned in anyway. Your IRL wellbeing takes priority over that. Hope you're not stuck working those kinds of shifts for long. (but iirc you do something with the military so I guess sometimes it can just suck that way.)

I'm having a fun doing what I'm doing, but it doesn't leave me a lot of time. Finishing this goes fourth on the totem pole, under work, my health, and keeping my marriage happy.

Well someone appears to have needed another week, no idea who, but hopefully you can put that to good use.

I'll have to figure out how to extend my plot a bit now since it was a pretty simple and contained thing.

It has been a relief. I've just been going to bed or relaxing instead of working on the story the last few days. It's time to get back on it now though. My schedule is finally about to normalize.

Not writing has been delightful today, thanks mysterious contest extension person! (Probably Green...)

Well at least your not worse than Ford 

That's quite a low bar.

e: I lied in my top post, story is currently at 1000~ words.

Imagine not having spring break next week (it will not increase my productivity on my story).

Imagine not having spring break right now. 

Imagine not having spring break in two weeks, where it won't help with my entry at all

Imagine not having a computer your school disables over spring break.

I finished writing on the 28th. I was smug. I thought to myself, I have a whole evening to playtest and fix bugs and still be done by the original deadline!

I am still debugging the damn thing.

Anyway. Is anyone else VERY CLOSE to done and interested in swapping playtesting/proofreading in the next few days? Mine is 11k, ish, and I wouldn't be expecting more than a single playthrough. I'm probably filing it under modern but romance plays a significant role. Nonbinary protagonist and several secondary characters. Message me if you're interested!

You were supposed to make a ghost story. Not this bionic binary bullshit. 

Well, unless the ghost was a person part of the fourty-one percent decimal.

The nonbinary protagonist is a ghost. Didn't mention it because I didn't think that would trigger anyone.

Nobody is triggered, only disgusted at most. 

If anything is outside of a binary genetic disposition, it might as well be a ghost.

0 word gang rep wya

I read that as 0 word gang rape

Okay, time to start this story for real.

gonna start after I sleep rq just gimme 20 hours

I am not sure that I like my contest story anymore - right now, it sucks and  I dont want to think about it.

There are 4 days left so might just start over from zero. 

No better time to do so.

Just finished doing my first round of edits so mine will probably be up tonight.

Clutch timing, I will have much of tomorrow to myself. I should be able to put together two distinct endings with four variant endings each. Then I might even have time to write some death routes, something I neglected to do earlier.

What joy.

Well, still less than I hoped for. It's time to start copying this thing over, likely in the clumsiest way possible.

I wanted to get this one done, but it's not gonna happen.

I want to get this one done, but it might not happen... kek

Use the power of last minute panic. Not a power I really have, but if you've got it, you've got it.

I hope these extensions are allowing us all to enjoy an unnaturally extended period of last-minute panic. A sort of extended period of dying and elevated expectations.

I think this is actually gonna work out

Good. Powerful. As for me, I'm not planning to sleep tonight until I have a full and ready to publish story already on the site.

EDIT: Or I can fuck around and waste an hour. This takes longer than I expected because of variant versions of pages. Making sure I don't cross any wires is time consuming.

Congrats to CP for submitting a story and shuffling a lot of points around.

24 Hours.

My product is ready to ship... But I have an untold number of errors to find. I have thousand-word swathes that I've never even proofread once. Tomorrow is going to be interesting.

I didn't notice the extension to today and published my game on the 12th, with absolutely zero proofreading.

It's fine, I don't actually read anything anyway.

I think we have different goals. I suspect we have vastly different amounts of time set into our respective projects. I would have spent more time if I had it, but presently I'm about tapped out. I fell asleep at this keyboard a few hours ago. This was frightening enough that I have an alarm set an hour before the deadline.

I think it's really great how many people submit stories for these now. It's a great community drive. Chiefly, you should be competing with yourself. Work to produce a slightly better product each time. That's how you win the contest in the most important regard.

SHAME is still a possibility. If so I'm removing my admin powers until I finish this one, AND the King's Music Box.

You can always use your admin power to erase every evidence of you joining this contest, I'm sure no one will notice hehehe.

"With great power comes great responsibility."

That is very true, and I can also silence anyone who has too good of a memory. But I want to actually finish a certain number of stories this year for personal reasons. And this may be the only way to do it