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I always enjoyed reading through these for previous contests. I was hesitant to make one, because I know this contest is relatively smaller. But since it's edutainment, I have a feeling we all will geek out super hard about our specific field enough to make up for the lack of numbers.

I guess it would be fun to maybe share a cool tidbit of knowledge you learned while working on the game, a particularly difficult struggle, or what field you're making the edutainment game in.

Can't wait to see what everyone's working on. The edutainment category is definetly in need of some new games, and I have a feeling that the authors here will do some really cool stuff with the genre. Should be fun!

Speaking of lack of numbers, I'm working on a math themed storygame. I spent half my day brushing back up on my math skills so not very much writing has happened quite yet. It'll be exciting to see what direction everyone takes the theme. 

lol, me too! That's awesome Orange!

I may still join if I can settle on a topic. I don't feel too confident in my ability to write realistic feeling historical scenes though, I have always cheated with history-flavored fantasy.

Mizal, could you do one on the Crusades? I feel like that would be so cool, and that also lends itself to really epic historical writing. Plus I would love to read an edutainment Crusades game, and I have a feeling you would do a really great job with the theme.

So...my storygame is going to be horror-themed, and because I really want to visit Japan in the future, it's going to be based in Japan. I'm basically going to be learning about customs and etiquette, so...everyone can come along on that journey with me, I guess?

Also, a bit about horror urban legends that might or might not be Japanese-related. Well, one of them is...but there are a couple that I want to include and at least one of them is from another country of origin.

But it's my storygame, and it will still be educational, so...

I'm currently bouncing ideas around, but pretty sure it'll be something Computer Science related. I'll try to settle on something once I review this month's game so hopefully before the end of the month I'll have at least an outline of what I'm doing.

My idea is going to be math-centered, like Orange.

Basically, it's going to be about financial crimes using math, and the educational part of it is learning what goes on in finance at a high level, and the complex math that is used to orchestrate various schemes. The entertainment part is the crime thriller story. Should be fun!

So it's like a math+finance edutainment game.

Progress:
Started a fully new story after feeling uninspired.

Word Count:

Week 1: 9,352
Week 2: I... Don't want to talk about it.
Halfway through week 2: Deleted all 9,000 words written to start a new story. Was this a bad choice? Yes. Anyway, 0 words.
Week 3: 0
Week 4: 10,394, all in backup story. Currently transferring to CYS, 3 words written in main story.
Week 5: ...0
Week 6: THE TIME HAS COME TO LOCK IN. As the pressure builds, the chaos mounts, and yeah, no. I'm just going to transfer my backup and PRAY for inspiration.

I'm working on a book were there's something kinda like magic but some friends also said it's pretty sci fi because people can control atoms and molecules with their mind. I'm just trying to figure out what atoms and molecules make up what things to make the story, but fire's hard and complicated and I'm having a hard time. My word count is in the 2000s. I really haven't gotten to do as much progress as I thought I would because I chose a pretty difficult field.

I'm writing a supernatural noir detective story where you learn about Chinese tea culture

Chinese has enough culture behind tea for a edutainment book?

They really should considering tea originated in China.

I guess I just didn't think something so... simple? Could have a lot to it. That's probably wrong. Everything has a lot to it.

I would read the shit out of this game! Fuckin' A.

I don't think story games poop.

Better finish this one - I need to read it.

I gotta finish one of them

This thread kinda died. For people participating we're at:

RKrallonor (Pulling Chris out of the bottom level of SHAME)

Benholman44 (Pulling AYT out of the bottom level of SHAME and 50 point bet)

Orange

CavusRex

V_V

Liminal

Cat2002116 (Pulling Maz out of the bottom level of the SHAME pit)

Petros (Pulling Ebon out of the bottom level of the SHAME pit for some fool reason)

Will11 (Pulling Shadowdrake out of the bottom level of the SHAME pit)

Blister1

It'll pick up when people actually start working on their things. I just finished editing my end of the month review so I can start pretending to work on my entry.

I've already started, but am only just near the beginning. I've already stopped to go through for grammer errors and stuff. I think I still have some grammer errors, but I don't know where.

I can't wait to read some of these, and I will try to make an entertaining and educational story worth of being out into this contest compared to everyone in here! Can't say mine will be as entertaining or educational, but I don't mind trying

Try reading existing edutainment for inspo, that's what I did

yeah

I'm actually gonna take the historical fiction route for my storygame. I'm thinking of expanding my story in the Thunderdome contest since it had historical facts and events. I hope this is allowed or else I'm gonna go back to my idea on creating a science, math, and music story in the form of school (yes literally my idea was to write about highschool)

Update on participants! Endmaster already said this in the actual contest thread, I'm just putting this here incase someone didn't see it and also because this thread has become pretty inactive.

AttilaTheGun

V__V (Avo) (Pulling The Canary out of the bottom level of SHAME)

Benholman44 (Pulling AYT out of the bottom level of SHAME and 50 point bet)

Cat2002116 (Pulling Maz out of the bottom level of the SHAME pit)

CavusRex

Liminal (17 point bet)

Orange

Petros (Pulling Ebon out of the bottom level of the SHAME pit for some fool reason)

RKrallonor (Pulling Chris out of the bottom level of SHAME)

Wildblue (Pulling jster02 out of the bottom level of the SHAME pit)

Will11 (Pulling Shadowdrake out of the bottom level of the SHAME pit)

Blister1 (got banned)

Side note: Is it just me or do you all think of a canvas when you see Cavus?

I mean not really but the image isn't that far removed from the meaning behind that name back when first came up with it.

Ok, I thought I’d revive this thread because it might be interesting to use for this competition. I never use motivational threads usually but as I haven’t written a cys story for a year and I’m making a late start due to a combination of holidays, hangovers and jetlag this might be useful to help keep track of progress. :D I got the initial idea for my story from a documentary I watched a few months ago so I just need to write it up.

I reckon my completed story will be some 10,000+ words (about 20 pages in Word or perhaps 5/8 story length or 50 pages on here). I need to do some research to get the details of the true events, then plan the pages and choices and make a few notes on characters and settings, which I think will take about a week, then write it up, which I guess will take another 2 or 3 so hopefully I’ll be done around mid-November. I don’t think I’ll win because there are a lot of good writers in this competition but, hopefully, I’ll turn in something ranging from Good to Very Good (though I'd settle for Not Crap).

The way I usually tackle stories is just to make them the most important thing in my life after sleep and work and put all my free time into it, putting everything else like other writing projects and computer games completely on hold – that way I can usually produce a lot of writing in a month or two. I’ve got a pretty intense work schedule until Christmas but I still reckon I’ll be able to give this writing at least an hour or two a day.

It’d be interesting to know how everyone else is getting on with their stories and how they're progressing :)

Edit: Had a productive day and revising my timeline. Did 5 pages of notes (2,700 words) and finished researching (it's not a very complicated story). I think it'll still be about 10,000 words long but just 30 pages on cys (4/8 length maybe) which isn't a biggie - Seth's Snow wasn't much longer and Petros wrote a pretty good story for the last writing competition that was about the same. I'll start writing it up tomorrow and can hopefully get it finished in the first half of November. :)

Oh my god... now I feel like I'm working on something that isn't enough effort!

     Anyway because you asked how we were doing I'm decently ish through, I have 4 more branches to go but I forgot an item I had before but instead of removing it I added another branch for is so now I have to write 5 more branches. I also wanted to make them longer at first, but don't think I have the time now. I'm 36 pages in, 18263 words.

If you finish, you have already put in more effort than most storygames on the site.

Really?

The vast majority of stories on the site do not come close to 20k words. There are very notable exceptions, but on average, you are already well above.

Anthraxus makes a really good point. We sometimes get starry eyed seeing the giant word counts, but it's also important to remember that so many stories(indeed the majority) are shorter in length.

Not to mention, you can do a lot of significant plot development and characterization in fewer words if you're careful and deliberate about it.

Malk's "Prayer for Destruction" and "End of Creation" are some of my favorite examples of worlds situated in stories with relatively fewer words, because they're ones that will stick in your imagination for a long time and continue to persist because the characters are really compelling and well designed!

36 pages and 18k words is awesome! I think you might be in the lead Avo!

I hope the Khan Academy articles have helped! Let me know if you have any other questions about atoms or anything.

Can't wait to see Shifting!

     I was originally going to get other sources too, but turned out your khan academy link had everything I needed, except for more info on what kinds of atoms and molecules make up, say, the rest of water and air. Searching on google is exausting and hard to find reliable sources so it's crazy how much research Will has done.

 

PS.   I wanted to name it shifter, but someone already took the name.

That's an interesting dilemma you posed here, Avo. Typically in college, we got a lot of our research done through the reading of scientific papers. Since a lot of the times, the websites with information on specific topics actually compile information from multiple sources, many of which are scientific papers. So it's good to go directly to the source, but a lot of times, the information there can be hard to understand because of the jargon and the complicated language.

I think your game boils down to understanding basic general chemistry.Since you're working with molecules, learning about bonds and how they can sometimes alter the shape of the molecule could be interesting.

In high school, there was this cool website that had a lot of interesting animations. These animations were science based, so they were accurate and they were a lot of fun, since you could alter different variables and see what happens!

here's the site: https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/filter?subjects=chemistry&type=html

This site was made by the University of Colorado in Boulder, and scrolling through the animations briefly, I feel like these would be helpful to you.

1. Models of the Hydrogen atom. I mean, you're planning on having your protagonist manipulate water, and hydrogen is a huge part of water. H2O after all. Some of the words can be kind of complex, but basically, a guy named Niels Bohr from way back when, decided that atoms had discrete energy levels that could be represented by these rings in the atom. And the electrons would follow the orbits faithfully like planets orbiting the sun in the solar system. But over the years, scientists figured out that the actual reality was a bit more complex. Still, the PhET animation shows the Niels Bohr model because it's easy for students to digest, and it looks pretty! You can also explore other models like the billiard model, plum pudding model, solar system model, de Broglie, and Schrödinger.

The spectral lines form when the electron jumps between energy levels. And they give off some cool colors, which is emitted as light! You've got different spectral series that correspond to different states in fancy quantum mechanics equations that you most likely don't need to know until a few years down the line when you decide to study physics and chemistry professionally in university.

2. Building a nucleus.

Honestly, it's kind of funny I put this one after the hydrogen atom models, but I feel like this is probably a better starting point. I've just been listing these in the order PhET has been showing, but I would recommend you start with #2 first. You'll learn about protons, electrons, what makes up a nucleus, and other cool stuff!

3. Molecule Shapes: Basics https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/molecule-shapes-basics

In this one, you learn about how different atoms covalently bond to each other forming molecules. What's cool is that different molecules have different bonding angles and shapes. And this animation is really neat, because it manages to get into the essence of what makes these different, by having you see the molecule shapes before your eyes, and you can drag an atom and watch them move across the 3D space. I feel like it's important to be able to visualize molecules from beyond the 2 dimensional space of the paper, and I think this animation should be quite helpful in that.

4. Molecule Shapes: https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/molecule-shapes

This one is the long awaited and just-as-good sequel to molecule shapes: basics! This one has more fancy stuff like the option to toggle between single bonds, double bonds, and triple bonds, and lone pairs. Fun stuff!

5. Building an atom. https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/build-an-atom

This one is pretty key, and you basically just make an atom. There's even a little game at the end, so that's fun!

6. Changing between states of matter: basics. https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/states-of-matter-basics

You get to see how the molecules comprising each state of matter look at rest, and how they look when you apply a phase change. Fun stuff!

Anyways, I hope these help. You can also ask some questions to any of us if you get stuck. I know there's a lot of science people on here who would be more than happy to help out!

God that's a lot, thanks!

     RK, I hope you don't mind me asking, but what's the difference between spectra and energy levels? I'm on that first site, and I'm probably going to do both but haven't already and while I think I may get energy levels I have never heard of spectra. Or anyone else who doesn't mind answering, not just RK.

EDIT: AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bunch of random stuff I don't understand!!!

*ahem* So when photons hit a proton, the it's electron orbitis it from farther away and gets closer again? As I think I made pretty clear a moment ago, I don't understand half of what I'm looking at. It would appear that... oh my bad, it's when the photons make contact with the electron that it gets farther and closer? I'm assuming the distance has something to do with energy levels and the squiggles on the right.

      Also, this is using the Bohr option, switched to model, on white in the bottom left. This was the default, I didn't change anything.

     On the right, there's a rectangle labeled at the top with "Electron Energy Level" and to just the left of that label, still in the rectangle, is an orange square with slightly rounded corners and a white dash in the middle. 

      In the rectangle, I see (the dashes are connected, I think),

---n=6 

---n=5

---n=4

---n=3

---n=2

and an arrow on the left pointing up that's labeled "Energy".

The n=6, 5, and 4 are equal distances from each other (going down, a bit right of the arrow) but for some reason the n=3 is spaced farther away and the n=2 even more so. As the electron in the symulation gets closer or farther from what I think is the proton (from the key), different squiggles appear.

     The squiggles are really just curvey zig-zags, at least that's what it looks like. At the end of it is an arrow, and a blue dot most of the time. Usually, the line is gray but between starting at n=3 and ending at n=2, pointing down, it turns red. I can't see how far away the electron is when it does that, because it's going too fast. And one time the squiggle line was blue.

      Obviously, the n is a variable and I'd love to say I know what it is but I'm not sure. Very obviously, they're showing some kind of different levels of energy. The arrows of the lines that appear sometimes point up, sometimes down. I'll make more observations about the connections between the squiggles and the proton/electron/photons in a sec, I need to look at it more.

      One more thing I noticed that I'd love if someone explained, I don't know if this is wrong but it appears that the arrows point down when the electron gets closer to the proton and point up when it's getting farther.

      Oh! I somehow almost missed this, there's a ---n=1 as well way down at the bottom of the rectangle.

     When a photon (I think and hope it's a photon) collides with the electron, not only does the electron get farther or nearer but the photon changes direction drastically to shoot off somewhere to the side.

      Oh... there's a speed option and it's on normal... I'm just going to set that to slow. I can't believe I missed the speed option.

      Slow's super slow, but super helpful. Ok, there's 6 dotted circles that the electron can orbit on. There are 6 different n=[whatever number it has]. The inner ring is n=1, the next closest n=2, and so on to n=6 on the outer circle. If, say, the electron gets hit from the n=3 circle to the n=5 circle, as the n=5 is above the n=3 on the rectangle a squiggle will appear pointing up going from n=3 to n=5. Is this the energy levels?

      Because the arrow on the left points up and the numbers the n's are connected to grow going up, does that mean the higher n= or the farther from the proton the electron gets the higher the energy level?

      And does the squiggles being gray, blue, or red (or possibly something else), represent some kind of stress or something? Sorry, stress is what comes to mind. I don't really know what the different colors could mean.

Switching to de Broglie:

     I'm making a lot of similar observations, but I quickly noticed that while photons are changing direction, I can't tell why. Now, instead of an orbiting electron we have a writhing blue circle thingy that's mostly on the dotted line but because it's... however you describe that (squirming?...no...) and photons don't eject away when touching it.

     Most of the time, the circle looking thing has alternating parts of I think the same length that go slightly closer or farther from the proton than the dotted line. By alternating, I mean if one's going closer the two it's touching are going farther. The exception, is when it's on the innermost n=1 circle it stays in a circle but goes up intil it's bottom touches the proton then down until it's top touches the proton and up and down and so on.

     I'm just going to stick to these two and not even try thinking about Schrödinger because it's so freaking complicated at just one glance.

      There are some things here that the Bohr option didn't, like in the bottom right it says n=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. It matches the guess I made, with the inner being 1 and going out to 6. There's a section labeled "Spectrometer (photons emitted / nm)" that I may check out later, but not now.

     In the top left, there's a dropdown menu. By default, it says Radial Distance. There are 3 options, and the other 2 are 3D hight and brightness.

de Broglie: 3D hight

     When I select this, it shifts my view so I'm seeing it... less flat? Like, it's still flat which I didn't think it would be but... like looking at a paper not from straight above it but diagonally. The blue thing has similar movements, but more up and down than in the across looking way from before. On n=1, it looks more like it's seesawing up and down rather than sliding back and forth.

@V__V

You may use the name 'Shifter' now. The title was taken by two members who hadn't logged in since 2013, so I used my newfound powers to steal it from them.

I might at some point need to inquire about someone checking who's hogging a title I had in mind for a story, but that one's on pause because of this contest. Still it might at some point be a good idea to either do a purge of old unpublished storygames hogging up titles, or open up a "Who stole my title?" thread.

There are too many abandoned storygames to purge them all, but a 'Who stole my title?' thread does seem like a good idea.

Assuming the site tracks data like when the game was last accessed, or maybe just using the author's last active timestamp one could write a script that automatically purges unpublished games that weren't touched in the last 3-5 years. Considering how old the site is I doubt there'd be more to it than some basic SQL, but that's just me making an educated guess.

There's no need to delete anything with actual content, if somebody wants one of those titles I usually just add a punctuation mark to the existing one.

That also works I guess. But also taking a DELETE FROM ... WHERE ... engraved axe to over half the database entries would be more in style for at least some people in power here. Still a thread feels like the most reasonable, if boring approach.

As funny as it is to imagine Ebon or Mara returning after a 3 year hiatus, only to discover all their unfinished storygames gone, deleting past storygames might be out of proportion especially since people return to the site all the time. Old accounts hogging titles is not too common of a problem anyway given there's an easy workaround. 

I'll start a thread soonish when I have more time to check it regularly. 

This is an interesting one, actually I struggled to get a title I wanted once or twice, especially with my Zombie story where so many titles are taken (though I think "Oh No, A Zombie" - and swearing equivalents to "oh no" is still free if that helps anyone :) ).

I think almost always they can be worked around (if someone is super fond of a title they can just use a different one on here and keep the original on their Word document or whatever). We shouldn't delete or change the story titles of inactive users but if someone really wants the title of an unfinished story by an active user there is nothing to stop them messaging them with a polite inquiry asking when the hell are they ever gonna finish that story? :) Might annoy people though.

Right now the policy is that we'll change a title of a long dead author to free it up on request, since so far pretty much every time this happened it was just a game with a couple of pages under a thick layer of dust on an account that had really done nothing else.

But I'm not sure we really need a whole thread either, this is for when someone is actively working on a game that really wants a specific title and just no other will do, it doesn't come up that often.

Thanks!

I'm gonna steal it back if you don't learn how to count to ten in French

I already used it. Also, un deux trois quatre cinq ...six? sept huit neuf and dix. I know 5 languages fluently, am learning 1, and partially know 3.

EDIT: sorry I forgot was six was... or was six six? No, that can't be right. This is when you go to google translate!

2nd EDIT: Google translate is saying that six in french is six...

It's just pronounced differently. Also, bam! Gotcha! Everyone knows French makes you gay. Enjoy your new sexuality

What? How?

???

How does that make me gay?

Also, it's not new. I've known some french for years. I can prounounce it a bit... but I really suck at speaking french. I'm just better at reading at writing.

I can't believe you've been gay (like all of France) this long without knowing

I'm not gay. What are you going to say next, that I'm something else random just because I'm a girl?

Ah, I forgot you weren't a member of the superior sex. Please don't get raped. Stay out of dark alleys and off the internet

...oh wait

>:(

I'm on the internet, dumbass.

Well, make sure not to talk to men on the internet. All of them are rapists.

...Oh wait

You're a man (I think), dumbass. Practically half the people on here are men.

(All men are rapist)

scratch that.

I castrated myself with a wooden spoon and a glass jar to avoid raping anyone

"..."

*sounds of someone face palming*

(Psst. Avo, that's the joke.)

oops...

Joke? I don't see any joke. Is the joke in the room with us?

Of course, it's you.

Congratulations. That was actually pretty good

What's that supposed to mean

>:(

I'm just not trying to be a pain most of the time.

Pretty sure that was a genuine compliment on a good burn.

Oh.

She's come such a long way.

Scratch that. If someone saw what I put here before, forget it please. I was being stupid. I was half awake.

Pretty sure it's up your castrated ballsack along with those splinters ^-^

What are you mad he didn't let you upcycle them?

It’s a pretty small set, I’d say not worth the time.

It's true. I'm half French, thus bisexual. The other half is Italian, which I suppose doesn't help much.

I'm not french but know french. I'm part American part Mexican part Armenian.

Which part is American?

My mom is mexican, my dad's family has a marrige I think only one generation back that combines an armenian and american family. And he's not from the armenian or american side, he's both (apparently?I don't really know how this stuff works).

Well now I'm even more confused.

Sorry :(

I’ve developed a solid plan- I finished one 10k word story that is not great, but it’s there if I need to stay out of SHAME.

My other story is at about twenty pages of storyboarding and three words actually written down. I’m hoping I’ll be able to finish it.
It’s a six branch story with about ten endings, and my estimation is that it will be about 80k words.
Hopefully.

That's awesome Liminal!

I really like the way you're doing storyboarding for each of the pages. That's a good practice. I imagine it might get convoluted as you keep going, right? Still, I feel like having the clarity to know the exact number of branches and endings is really good.

Also, 80k! Damn! I think yours will be the longest story in this contest, or at least, one of the leading contenders!

What is your story going to be about Liminal?

The small story is a little anthology with a bit of an overarching story. It just relates to a couple historical events and tells a bit about them while telling the story of the main character. It would need to be replayed to get the full story, however.

The epic is about 'The Princes In The Tower' also known as Edward the Fifth and Richard of Shrewsbury and the myth of their disappearance. It's a little less reality based; I take quite a few creative liberties with the actual history.

I might end up publishing the 10k one if I finish the epic, but then it'll more likely benefit from editing and end up at about 12k words regardless. Thanks for the compliments, I look forward to reading your story as well ^-^

Also, didn't see this earlier, but congrats on finishing the 10k story!

You know, I think you should submit that story. If Endmaster allows, maybe you could do a second entry. I don't quite know how it works, but if you have it all done, you should publish it! Or if you want to save it, then that's also a smart choice.

Prewriting something quick is always a solid strategy, I plan to do that every contest I join so that I'm not panicking at the last minute. (And then I never actually do it but that's beside the point.)

Hey Will,
I'm really glad you posted this. Truth be told, I haven't done much regarding my entry since I've had some other stuff going on IRL. But now I feel kind of ashamed seeing how much progress everyone has made. But in a good way, where I kind of feel that competitive spirit making me want to get back on the horse again.

I like the way you are able to estimate the scope right off the bat. I feel like that's really professional and cool of you!

I know everyone here is keeping it vague because of the competition, but if you don't mind me asking, what are you working on Will? I'm really curious to know what everyone is cooking, and I've really enjoyed your previous stories. I have a feeling that it's going to be really interesting! If you don't want to tell specifics, that's ok, but what's the time period/subject you're working on, on a broad scale.

It's really cool that you've got 5 pages of notes! Good job on finishing research! I kind of like the length, Petros's story about the sci fi christian rocker/hood gangster was entertaining and really good for the length because of the amount of branches. I think he had like 4-5 if memory serves correctly. I think the gauntlet structure will fit what you're going for well. Is it going to be gauntlet all the way, or are you going to branch out some more with sort of like combining multiple different branching structures?

I think Liminal’s idea for a competition story and an epic story is a really smart one :D And it’s easy for me to write history stuff because I have read a lot about it over the years and have good general knowledge of different times (plus Google for specifics). My story is about a single historical event so it’s quite easy to research. I don’t really want to hint what I’m working on as I’ll probably publish it in a week or two anyway. And nope, it’s Gauntlet all the way :D

I’ve had a productive day and written 4,700 words bringing my total up to 7,400; I think the completed story will be about 20,000 now – the story’s simple but (hopefully) dramatic. Weekends are usually busy for me though so I’m not sure how much I’ll get done then.

That's some really awesome progress Will! Keep going man. I think 20k is a really reasonable goal, and it's so cool that you're going to finish sometime next well. All the best!

Ok, got a few hours today and wrote another 3,200, bringing me up to 10,600. I think I'm about halfway there. I've had a class cancelled tomorrow (student is sick) so should be able to get more done in the afternoon. Cat's Japan setting sounds really intriguing :D Do like a good Horror!

Good job Will! Keep going!

Ok, so I think I've finished it. :) I had a very productive afternoon, wrote 6,900 words and totalled out at about 17,500. I need to go back over it, edit and proofread but I'll try to upload and publish it tomorrow. Then I can put my mind back on other important life goals, like the acquisition of Haribo :D

Nicely done Will! Dude, 6000 words in a day is impressive! And that too with teaching and all your IRL stuff. Awesome! I'll check this one out. I'm really excited for this one, and I've been looking forward to seeing what you'd publish.

I think you seem to have a thing for "Terror" in your titles, since both Reign of Terror and now Terror of the Sea have that word in the title. Perhaps a third Terror story is coming soon?

Yeah, I did notice that :P I think when you have to think up 30+ titles there's bound to be a bit of overlap in the words :D I'm quite pleased I managed to do this one from nothing to finish in under a week :) I will try to avoid using that particular adjective again :)

I haven't even started! Someone very nice did offer me advice on Muslim things though, as soon as I can get together a list of questions.

I'm trying to put together a small game based on my Thunderdome entry right now though. Perhaps not the best use of my limited time...

That's awesome Wildblue! Your idea sounds really cool! Are you writing a historical story, focusing on older Muslim history, or is it going to be more modern?

Sorry if it sounds like I'm prying, and in any case, good luck!

Also, best of luck on the game based on your thunderdome entry! I'm sure it will go well!

I saw this meme once where someone procrastinates on project A by working on project B, and procrastinates on project B by working on A. So even though they feel unproductive, by the end they get 2 projects done.

I always found that weirdly motivating. So I guess keep going! You got this!

I'm having five main 'branches' in my story, from an initial Prologue of sorts. Considering my last two storygames have been very linear, I'm planning for this one to have a few more options for different paths.

This is not set in the world of the Ancient One and has no relation to either of my other two storygames.

I also have two weeks holiday towards the end of November, so I will have a lot of time to write then...hopefully!

It looks like everyone is putting in an intimidating amount of effort as I toddle along with my little one branch gauntlet-style story :) That's a really impressive amount of writing Avo and I'm sure your story will be great! (Don't forget to proofread, edit and paragraph :P). Wildblue's story sounds pretty interesting and Cat's I am sure will be excellent :D I'm really looking forward to reading all these in Nov and Dec!

Thanks! And it won't end up like my first storygame. That... I'm not kidding when I'm saying I wrote it in under 24 hours. That was stupid of me. I'll actually proofread this time. And have paragraphs.

Dude, I feel like you're being too modest lol. There's a reason everyone got a mini panic attack upon seeing you enter the contest.

I'm looking forward to reading all the stories here as well in December. The edutainment category's going to get some really cool stories soon :)

5 main branches is pretty ambitious! I love that you and liminal are planning so much! And I wouldn't say "Into the Darkness" and "Broken Bonds" were strictly linear per se, but I am excited to see you embrace more branching because you've got some really compelling ideas.

What's your edutainment game going to be about? I know since it's a contest you may have to be vague, but what's the general field of study you're planning on writing about?

It's going to be focused on Japan - on the culture and customs, while also involving one of its more famous (infamous?) urban legends. I really want to visit Japan at some point in the future, so this will help me learn more about it...and I figure other people can come along for the ride too.

It's horror themed, and is turning out to be a bit more gruesome than I initially planned. I'm working on one main branch at a time, but can't really say how long it might be. So far, the first branch is having a lot more happen in it than I initially planned.

Sorry, just copying this in. I don't think anyone saw it, because I edited an earlier reply rather than making a new one. This is the post I'm hoping for someone to notice (please, I don't get this stuff):

"    RK, I hope you don't mind me asking, but what's the difference between spectra and energy levels? I'm on that first site, and I'm probably going to do both but haven't already and while I think I may get energy levels I have never heard of spectra. Or anyone else who doesn't mind answering, not just RK.

EDIT: AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bunch of random stuff I don't understand!!!

*ahem* So when photons hit a proton, the it's electron orbitis it from farther away and gets closer again? As I think I made pretty clear a moment ago, I don't understand half of what I'm looking at. It would appear that... oh my bad, it's when the photons make contact with the electron that it gets farther and closer? I'm assuming the distance has something to do with energy levels and the squiggles on the right.

      Also, this is using the Bohr option, switched to model, on white in the bottom left. This was the default, I didn't change anything.

     On the right, there's a rectangle labeled at the top with "Electron Energy Level" and to just the left of that label, still in the rectangle, is an orange square with slightly rounded corners and a white dash in the middle. 

      In the rectangle, I see (the dashes are connected, I think),

---n=6 

---n=5

---n=4

---n=3

---n=2

and an arrow on the left pointing up that's labeled "Energy".

The n=6, 5, and 4 are equal distances from each other (going down, a bit right of the arrow) but for some reason the n=3 is spaced farther away and the n=2 even more so. As the electron in the symulation gets closer or farther from what I think is the proton (from the key), different squiggles appear.

     The squiggles are really just curvey zig-zags, at least that's what it looks like. At the end of it is an arrow, and a blue dot most of the time. Usually, the line is gray but between starting at n=3 and ending at n=2, pointing down, it turns red. I can't see how far away the electron is when it does that, because it's going too fast. And one time the squiggle line was blue.

      Obviously, the n is a variable and I'd love to say I know what it is but I'm not sure. Very obviously, they're showing some kind of different levels of energy. The arrows of the lines that appear sometimes point up, sometimes down. I'll make more observations about the connections between the squiggles and the proton/electron/photons in a sec, I need to look at it more.

      One more thing I noticed that I'd love if someone explained, I don't know if this is wrong but it appears that the arrows point down when the electron gets closer to the proton and point up when it's getting farther.

      Oh! I somehow almost missed this, there's a ---n=1 as well way down at the bottom of the rectangle.

     When a photon (I think and hope it's a photon) collides with the electron, not only does the electron get farther or nearer but the photon changes direction drastically to shoot off somewhere to the side.

      Oh... there's a speed option and it's on normal... I'm just going to set that to slow. I can't believe I missed the speed option.

      Slow's super slow, but super helpful. Ok, there's 6 dotted circles that the electron can orbit on. There are 6 different n=[whatever number it has]. The inner ring is n=1, the next closest n=2, and so on to n=6 on the outer circle. If, say, the electron gets hit from the n=3 circle to the n=5 circle, as the n=5 is above the n=3 on the rectangle a squiggle will appear pointing up going from n=3 to n=5. Is this the energy levels?

      Because the arrow on the left points up and the numbers the n's are connected to grow going up, does that mean the higher n= or the farther from the proton the electron gets the higher the energy level?

      And does the squiggles being gray, blue, or red (or possibly something else), represent some kind of stress or something? Sorry, stress is what comes to mind. I don't really know what the different colors could mean.

Switching to de Broglie:

     I'm making a lot of similar observations, but I quickly noticed that while photons are changing direction, I can't tell why. Now, instead of an orbiting electron we have a writhing blue circle thingy that's mostly on the dotted line but because it's... however you describe that (squirming?...no...) and photons don't eject away when touching it.

     Most of the time, the circle looking thing has alternating parts of I think the same length that go slightly closer or farther from the proton than the dotted line. By alternating, I mean if one's going closer the two it's touching are going farther. The exception, is when it's on the innermost n=1 circle it stays in a circle but goes up intil it's bottom touches the proton then down until it's top touches the proton and up and down and so on.

     I'm just going to stick to these two and not even try thinking about Schrödinger because it's so freaking complicated at just one glance.

      There are some things here that the Bohr option didn't, like in the bottom right it says n=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. It matches the guess I made, with the inner being 1 and going out to 6. There's a section labeled "Spectrometer (photons emitted / nm)" that I may check out later, but not now.

     In the top left, there's a dropdown menu. By default, it says Radial Distance. There are 3 options, and the other 2 are 3D hight and brightness.

de Broglie: 3D hight

     When I select this, it shifts my view so I'm seeing it... less flat? Like, it's still flat which I didn't think it would be but... like looking at a paper not from straight above it but diagonally. The blue thing has similar movements, but more up and down than in the across looking way from before. On n=1, it looks more like it's seesawing up and down rather than sliding back and forth."

The first site is the first link RK gave me. I clicked Models of the Hydrogen Atom, that's what he meant, right?

Hey Avo, Sorry I haven't gotten to answering this yet. I saw it though. Didn't mean to keep you waiting.

So, I guess the best way to describe the difference between energy levels and spectral lines is to use an analogy. So when you're playing darts, imagine you have an electronic light-up dart board. Different regions are colored differently. Similarly, each individual region in the Bohr Model of an atom represents an energy level. As you move closer to the center, your point values go up. Similarly, as you move closer to the center, the electrons experience a more stable orbit. But what's confusing is that the energy level goes down as you go closer to the nucleus. Because the nucleus can hug the electrons a lot tighter! So as electrons move through the different energy levels, they emit energy by releasing light(or absorbing light, depending on which direction they go). And that light can be measured by spectrophotometers, special instruments that scientists use. And to go back to the dartboard analogy, as you score in a region closer to the center, imagine that the dartboard lights up or says a little congratulations message.

"So when photons hit a proton, the it's electron orbitis it from farther away and gets closer again? "

Let's break this part down a bit, since there are a couple of things wrong with this sentence. So the electron absorbs photons, not the proton. But yeah, the general idea of it is right. Think of it like Mario eating a special mushroom and getting a powerup. When electrons absorb photons, they can jump to higher energy levels, just like how Mario gets special powers when he eats the mushroom.

"The n=6, 5, and 4 are equal distances from each other (going down, a bit right of the arrow) but for some reason the n=3 is spaced farther away and the n=2 even more so. As the electron in the symulation gets closer or farther from what I think is the proton (from the key), different squiggles appear."

Basically what happens here is that the electron shells(another way of saying energy levels) get closer together the further you go out from the nucleus, because it takes less energy to jump between subsequent energy levels as you gain more energy and reach the periphery of the atom. Think of it like this. When you're playing a video game like Dark Souls or Elden Ring or something, the puzzles/mechanics make no sense in the beginning, so you're struggling a lot. But as you play, going from level to level, or stage to stage probably takes less effort since you get the hang of it more.

" Obviously, the n is a variable and I'd love to say I know what it is but I'm not sure. Very obviously, they're showing some kind of different levels of energy. The arrows of the lines that appear sometimes point up, sometimes down. I'll make more observations about the connections between the squiggles and the proton/electron/photons in a sec, I need to look at it more."

Astute observation, Avo! So n is a quantum number. There's 4 of them, and n is the principal quantum number. Each number is a quantity that defines a different attribute of the electron, like what shell it's in, or what spin it has, stuff like that.

Thanks! :D

I was wondering if anyone has any resources about WW2 and the events that happened during it ? I'd really like to fact check what I know but I CANNAWT find anything thats helpful so far.. 

Is this a joke?

Not really 😭 I'm researching the Italian resistance and have been having a hard time finding specifics of information or sites dedicated to it.. I was wondering if anyone has any yt videos or articles that get really in depth about it? If not it's alright ^^

A research question! I'll take this one :D

So, the way I'd do it is Wikipedia Italian Resistance Movement and go down to See Also. There are a bunch of wiki links there as well as External Links. Obviously a lot of the latter are in Italian but I see the first one is the European Resistance Archive. They have information about the general movement and individual members. Tbh, just Google or search on Youtube any specific term you are interested in and you'll find it - if it's not in the first page / top ten ten results just keep scrolling down. Or, Plan B, write about something you've already learnt or read about to make life easier on yourself. :)

Thank you so much TT I did NOT want to portray it inaccurately and make it distasteful or insensitive so I've been trying to look into the specifics as much as possible but haven't got too much luck about lifestyle etc.. I might take your advice about plan b and write about sunfish 🥹

Reviving this thread because we only have 15 days (which is not a lot of time!) and I want to see how everyone's doing. I also have this text wall to post today.


How To Write Every Day

And no, it has nothing to do with having time or motivation.

Introduction

With half a month left in the contest, I figured there's no better time to share a new writing tip which helps me write every day! I discovered this in the previous prompt contest and it's the reason I tripled my word count in the final month.

The Problem of Limited Energy

(Skip this part if you want to go straight to the tips - this is just me being open about my struggles so people don't think that writing everyday is something that only the epic writers of CYS can do)

Now, you're probably thinking: "You're Mystic. Your idea of de-stressing is solving a Rubik's cube. Writing everyday must be easy for you."

Although I've built a whole persona of being productive, after the first month of this contest, I ended with a record low word count of 7k (and only 5k finalized). Most of these were written in the last week of October. I told myself I had the excuse of working on the Mafia Game, then it was the pre-readings for my course, and oh look, I have a mock trial to prepare for so I can’t possibly write now.

This is the final month. I told myself no more sitting on the fence—I have to either join the contest or abandon this storygame idea. So I dug up this post I wrote during the past prompt contest, conducted an experiment to see if it would work a second time, and I am now at 40k+ words. This technique actually works no matter how tired or drained you are.

The Energy Problem

Most of you on this site have work or academic commitments. As such, we must recognise that our energy is limited, and we may be forced to spend our most productive hours on things that are not writing. In fact, the only time we may have for writing might be after a long day, when we're utterly exhausted and ready to collapse in bed.

Then, it seems like we only have two choices: force ourselves to write and hate everything, or go to bed and feel guilty about not writing. But that's not true. Here are three different types of writing sessions you could use, each tailored to your energy level.

Energy Level: Exhausted

This tip is, in fact, the reason I've decided to write this post. If you're too exhausted to string together complete sentences and don't want to write lines like 'the color of the wall was gray and wall-like', this is for you!

Have a 'Just the Highlights' writing session.

You'll start by tricking your brain that you aren't even going to write. All you're really doing is writing down messy notes about what would happen on the next page/ scene. In fact, you don't even have to make a detailed outline; just focus on the highlights!

Do you have a fun line of dialogue in mine for one of your characters? A cool foreshadowing detail? An impossible choice that they'll have to make? Focus on writing around those specific parts you're excited about. You'll be surprised by how much you get on paper. Be careful: this technique is very addictive and once I stayed up until 3am writing the highlights of a section of my story, which helped me rewrite 10k words the next day.

If you stop there, that's completely fine! But chances are, once you've brainstormed your scene, your notes would go from incoherent to something resembling the bare bones of writing. Some of my most emotional lines have come from this exercise. There's probably a correlation between how you're better suited for creative tasks when tired and organised tasks when alert, hence why some people say night owls are more creative and morning birds are more organised, but that's neither here nor there, so I'll move on.

The key thing is to create a writing habit and ensure your story stays fresh in your mind. However, this type of writing session helps with motivation too. Somewhere along the way, we went from viewing writing as a fun hobby to something akin to a chore. But this technique gets you excited about your story again! And as you probably already know, motivation can result in a short-term boost of energy (which is why 3am motivation is a thing).

But on its own, this type of writing session cannot take you to the finish line, unless you're planning to write the next 'a guide to a dumbass girl'. (Sorry, MercuryBins or whatever your name was). Which is why I'll introduce the next type of writing sessions for slightly less tired days.

Energy Level: Normal

Maybe you're writing over a lunch break, or while commuting to work. Whatever the case, if you're not so tired as to be an incomprehensible mess, this is for you.

Have a 'Fill in the Details' writing session.

A lot of the time, when I have some energy and motivation to write, I find myself staring at a blank page. Then I write a sentence...only to delete it because 'that's a terrible opening, try again'. But with this type of writing sessions, this problem goes out of the window!

Copy and paste your work from the 'Just the Highlights' writing session onto a new page. Then, start filling in the details around the scene. Does the character deliver the line of dialogue with a frown on their face or with incredulous laughter? What is the setting in which the foreshadowing detail is revealed? What thoughts run through the character's head as they make the impossible choice?

Again, you're tricking your brain because this isn't actually writing. You're just explaining the context behind what you've already written. Our brains like coming up with solutions for unanswered questions.

By filling in the gaps, voila, you have something resembling an actual page in your story! This is what most writers refer to as the first draft. Don't worry too much about making it perfect: that's for your later self to worry about. After all, you can't edit a blank page.

Energy Level: Energised

Whether you've woken up at 6am to write or blocked off a weekend day for your story, you'll need to make the most out of these hours. This is why this is the perfect time for editing.

Have a 'Review, Revise & Rewrite' session.

When you're feeling refreshed and in a good headspace, quality-check your work. And the best part is you don't have to start from scratch! All you need to do is look through what you've written, tweak a few parts, and edit for clarity, pacing, and continuity. Here's also where you could do sentence-level edits and make your prose prettier.

However, I recognise that moments like these are rare and few in between. That is why you'll have to make the most of them. Maybe it's just me, but I find that unless I'm completely rewriting a scene, I can revise about 3 scenes in the time it takes to write one from scratch. This means you won't need as many of these writing sessions as the other two.

Bonus Tip

If you’re struggling with brain fog or extreme tiredness but you still want to work on your story, this is the perfect time to transfer finalized pages to the CYS editor! Yep, through the simple act of copying and pasting written words, you're making progress and ensuring the story stays at the forefront of your mind. It is also satisfying to hover your mouse over 'storygame length' and see the number of words go up. But of course, you can only do this once you've written enough words to transfer.

A caveat for overworkers: Despite the title of this post, there may be days where you simply cannot write. Maybe you were stuck at work all day, or had a personal situation which zapped all your energy. Give yourself some grace and take a day off. But if extreme fatigue persists to the next day, and the day after, and the day after again, it might be a sign you need to change your job or more likely, you may be over-emphasizing your tiredness as an excuse not to write. 

Now that you have this guide, there is no excuse for not writing. Good luck, fellow competitors, and I hope to see all of you at the finish line!

I fear my writing style is too concise to meet word counts... I'll be time crunching and multitasking now that the deadline is approaching TT

? There's a word count? Or do you mean to write as much as the others or...?

And even if it is a bit short being able to write concisely is good for thunderdomes and short stories. Plus, there's tons of pretty short stories as long as it isn't a barley existant story I'm sure you'll be fine.

For site standards unless I'm going crazy, I remember being told a minimum of 2000 words is recommended ^^ I checked out Will's story and realized 2000 words is a rather pathetic goal for a contest so I'm trying to ramp up my words a tad bit! 

     Oh. Yeah, 2k words is really little, and is the max word count in a standard thunderdome. I don't remember seeing that in the site standards, but it feels a bit like common sense.

     I just checked your story... yeah 802 'ain't going to cut it. You must pull some magic if you want to get a good story in, either that or become a sorcerer and make everyone love a ridiculously short story.

LOLOL TT.. Thanks for your advice a 802 word story game really does sound sad.. I actually have more written in google docs, I'm just waiting to finish writing some more before copying it over and refining (formatting in CYS is a pain - if you checked my story you probably saw the bold text and weird spacing). 

Oh. How much in google docs? I have hope now.

2000 words.... I might need to pack it up and accept my spot in SHAME.

     No! I wrote 20k words in two days (ignore the fact I procrastinated before and after) so you have plenty a chance to make a super lengthy story! If you give up now, or if you even start downplaying your abilities or convince yourself you're bad at this, that's drag on your potential.

20k words in two days is baffling. This is like a few straight hours of just grinding through writing, that's really impressive ^^ Thanks for your advice again, I'm going to lock in on my writing for these next few days!! 

It's not that long, more like 1 hour...(per day)

I think I'm just an astonishingly slow writer, in one hour I can only write about 500-1000 words

Uh... 1k per hour is still... pretty good if you write a lot! Normaly, I'd say that's great but people have a life outside of this site that has to be accounted for so...

That's true ^^ I end up writing in English class because of all my extracurriculars.. 

You have a busy schedule? That makes a lot of sense now that I'm considering the large gaps in your activity but everyone has those so it doesn't show much.

the only day my day is too packed for me to get on is wednesdays.

Hey Beefhotpot,
You're doing an awesome job. 500-1000 words per hour is expected, especially when writing a historical piece. It's a good pace. You're trying to feel the thoughts and feelings of people from more than 70 years ago, and write action in a way that respects the historical events, so it's going to be a difficult task at times. But the fact that you're spending so much time on each word means that you're writing it in a very deliberate and thoughtful way.

So don't feel like you're doing something wrong or that you're going too slow. Your pace is just right. Keep going! You got this!