For the ongoing EndMaster's Prompt Contest 4 Use this thread to talk about the writing you are or are not doing, your planning, your regrets, your life, whatever you want.
Also, share your writing music, please. I'm in the habit of locking in a single mood-fitting song throughout the entire storywriting process, and with a three month deadline, that might drive me mad.
(Here's the song I've been using for my first few pages)
This is the playlist I've been listening to for writing. I absolutely can't do lyrics when I'm trying to make/process words
As for writing, well, I've started. That's more than I could say the second day of most other contests, anyway.
Writing my first page and trying to write an idyllic chorus to start the player off right. Haven't done poetry in a while. Trying to do it in Tennyson's style.
I'm reminded why I don't do this so much lol
I try to be faithful to as much of the legends as possible. Unfortunately, I have realized that Arthurian legends contradict each other so much that it's way too difficult to tell the story I want to share without creating friction with another pre-existing tale. Deciding that the best way to honor the tradition is to put in my own contradictory tale that gives nods to the tales that I like and tries to explain the differences from certain other ones.
I do like those retellings that take the time to point out, "You may have heard this. That guy was a drunk liar. Here's what really happened."
Merlin first appears in literature in the History of the Kings of Britain by the Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 - c. 1155 CE) ... Geoffrey Latinized Myrddin as Merlinus because the strict Latinization of Merdinus would have associated the name with the Latin merdus (feces, dung). The character originated in Welsh folklore featuring the wildman-in-the-woods motif, a half-savage who lived on the fringe of civilization possessing great power and wisdom. The most famous Welsh wildman was Myrddin Wyllt (“Myrddin the Wild”), a 6th-century CE bard who was said to have gone insane after a particularly bloody battle and retreated to the woods. Geoffrey wrote a short work, The Prophecies of Merlin (c. 1130 CE), prior to his famous history but this Merlin has nothing to do with the wizard of the Arthurian Legends. After the success of his History, Geoffrey wrote another work, The Life of Merlin (c. 1150 CE), in which the main character exhibits magical and prophetic skills but this work is unconnected to the Arthurian Legends. (https://www.worldhistory.org/Merlin/)
Gilfaethwy, nephew to the Venedotian king, Math fab Mathonwy, becomes obsessed with his uncle's virgin foot-holder, Goewin. His brother Gwydion conspires to start a war between the north and the south. To this end, Gwydion employs his magic powers to steal a number of otherworldly pigs from the Demetian king, Pryderi, who retaliates by marching on Gwynedd. During the war, while Math is distracted, the brothers return home and Gilfaethwy rapes Goewin.
Upon discovering Gilfaethwy’s rape of Goewin, Math punished Gilfaethwy and Gwydion by turning them into mating animals. In turn, the two brothers were transformed into elk, cows, and wolves. During the course of each transformation, Gilfaethwy was forced to bear a child.
I've read at least four versions of the Arthurian legends (Malory, Pyle, Tennyson and one other that I can't remember). I guess Mark Twain's rendition also counts in some way lol
Hope this doesn't disappoint too much, but I will be using Le Morte d'Arthur as a main reference point. Most of my frustration in tying things together has to be tracking the main twelve knights at a certain event because Malory doesn't always keep good track of things. Also, who's actually ruling Cornwall can be weird, or even if it's referred to as Cornwall or Dumnonia. There's a particular Knight of the Round Table who I'm very confused by regarding a timeline (try to guess who I'm talking about) who's related to Dumnonia and becomes a king, appears in Mallory's story but isn't consistently in it despite the fact that Mallory insists at certain points that "all the knights were there" despite the fact that he might have died at some point, or it was a different guy who shared the same name. Really it's because he was trying to tie in a lot of different stories that don't make a whole lot of sense being put together, but I give him credit for trying.
It was, but I understand not liking it.
Honestly, this little hang up isn't that critical to the story. I just have this particular autistic fixation on "getting everything right" in the setting before I proceed to the actual story.
Whatever you do, don't do the really gay thing of gender swapping the characters.
I think you already know whether or not I'd do that based on our interactions lol
I've come up with most of my species, the stats, the general layout, flavor and flow of the space station and the general framework of contest. Need to work out exactly how many species I'm letting the player pick from to play and how I want the judging to work.
I typically don't listen to music, but do a fair amount of writing to Dimension 20 actual plays. Currently listening through Starstruck Odyssey again as it was very thematically appropriate to my prompt. My biggest challenge is making my work similar but not a direct fanfic. I have had to do a fair amount of digging already on things like "Is RecStation a unique term to that setting in this usage" and such
So I've been playing around with the number of alien species in my story. I have basically 13 major species. I have already decided to limit the species the reader can choose from to six of those, so that the randomly selected judges will likely be species that none of the contestants are a direct match to. My question is - Would it be a worthwhile feature to randomize the six species that the reader has to choose from at the start? Should you write a storygame with the expectation that it will be read more than once from the very beginning?
I second that advice.
Your first priority should be to get the main story lines on paper. Customization such as choosing from Alien races is rather an afterthought. Remember that you only have three months, so keeping your imagined end product small is the way to go.
If you have time left, then you can add extra features.
Edit: I see that you participated in some contests already. The Little Princess of the Forest is kind of the scope that is very doable in three months. Aim for that, finish your story, and expand on it later :).
You're doing really well! Keep it up
If you're willing to sit down for a longer read, Celaena Sardothien from the Throne of Glass series is an assassin, and also the protagonist. It starts off with a kind of contest for assassins iirc. The plot kinda derails off that path once you get past the first book, though.
If you want an example of assassin choose-your-own-adventure books, the Way of the Tiger series is pretty decent. It involves ninjas and a lot of fantasy, too, so if you feel too much out of your comfort zone with modern-era assassins you could try writing in that setting instead.
If my planning is correct, this story will be about 100k with much more a chapter like structure. I finally have some free time to just tinker away at it. The outline was already planned out in advance, but I never came down to writing it properly.
To be honest, I once studied for eight hours straight while listening the entire time to Bolero.
I spent the entire month+ writing Fey Light listening to this song exclusively every minute I wrote: Fey Light song. It got me 2nd in that contest, and currently a 6.26 rating, which isn't bad, and I think this creepy song was 100% of that.
Also in that story you (spoilers) kind of kill your entire family, so I guess I'm a psycho.
You guess? I remind you of your opening scene with the fairy.
I enjoyed it, though.
You mentioned somewhere that you use a flowcharting method for planning. What tools/programs do you use for that?
Just whatever is free and at the top of Google when I search 'flowchart tool' at the time of writing.
Would you be willing to share what one of your flowcharts looks like?
I like themed playlists when I run out of inspiration. However, I write in silence most of the time. Music sometimes distracts me or makes me feel that a scene is more emotional than it actually is, which becomes a problem when the words alone don't create the same effect. (And here I am pretending that I've actually written words since last year, lol).
Yesterday I scrapped everything I had and I am writing a new intro tonight. Is normal in contest.
I have a vague outline. I want to make my protagonist deep dive into some major trauma. But at this point I've bitten off more than I can chew and feel as hopeless as I intend for my protagonist to be.
Since my story is probably going to be desert theme, I've been listening to these types of songs (and these old Middle Eastern instruments are incredible, as an aside):
What would be great would be to have a way of getting my thoughts directly onto my laptop. Not speech to text; though to text. Because in my head, everything sounds so much better than it does when I write it down.
Anyway, this project is a bit more ambitious than my other two...and I'm hoping that it will be better. But we'll see.
The experience you're describing is actually the norm. There was a study on the brain activity of a group of humans eating ice cream showing that they realeased more dopamine in the anticipation of the ice cream than the actual tasting of it itself. It's not that our thoughts are actually better, we just become less emotionally heightened to the experience of them once they've been written down.
True. I often imagine things in pictures, almost movie style, so writing it out really doesn't work.
Huh. That makes a lot of sense, to be honest. I feel very similarly about all of my assignments for my apprenticeship, too.
I regret every setting choice I made. I'm no expert on any fantasy story aspects and in general am in over my head.
It's too late to turn back, though. I'll work through it.
It is never too late to turn back. There is still 2.5 months, If it is not working, it would be better to rework it now than 2 weeks before the deadline.
I would have to scrap everything I currently have, though. Better to just keep going
I say this having tried to press through with stuff that I didn't really like or get into. And then a couple weeks before the deadline hitting a wall, hating everything and trying to start over only to end up in shame.
Whatever works best for you though.
I appreciate the help, y'all. But I think scrapping now would just make me feel defeated, as I've already put a lot of work into it. I just had a moment of weakness there. It'll all come together
I know it doesn't, but for some reason I thought that it would be cool. I appreciate the suggestions though! Definitely something to think about
Actually, I really like this idea. I think there may be a way to work it in there without it being obvious that it was added on after I'd already started writing. No guarantee it'll make it, but it's worth a shot— especially if it gets me back to writing. Thank you
For some stupid reason, I decided to have the player character have a journal with them that has entries from their loved one who has passed away...and that most of the pages would have the option to use the journal (i.e., read a page); mostly to learn about the history, but also to unlock choices every so often.
I really wish I hadn't decided to do that now. It was one of those ideas that felt like a good one at the time.
My laptop has now reached a point where it doesn't want to play music, which really sucks. I need a new laptop, but I need to be earning more to get a new laptop (apprenticeship wage has had me pretty much living from paycheck to paycheck and having to move twice has been Not Helpful), but I normally have a few songs that fit the feel for whatever project I'm working on, then sometimes create a playlist and other times just listen to the same song (or couple of songs) on repeat.
I joined half a month late, but that still gives me almost too much time. Wrote up the first page already and have a partial map of the story but not planning on slowing down just yet. Most likely going to finish mapping the initial concept I had first then see where I can add more branches for further variability. I only have 1k words so far and a single page, but I feel if I know where things are going I can keep everything way more cohesive. I almost feel that I have too much time to write this and I'll bite off more than I can chew but I'll be sure to get this done.
As things are right now, I just have a bunch of journals where I'm keeping track of all the 'paths' that are going to be possible but I can't help but wonder whether there's a better way to be doing that. Any suggestions before I get too far into the planning process that I don't feel like converting it into a new format?
I'm not entirely sure how long this is going to end up being, either; I don't really have a plan. Is a lack of scope detrimental or something I can adjust later (pacing-wise, at least)?
The other thing I've made sure of is having a bunch of people I know irl to encourage me to write more consistently (which is something I'm truly awful with). Hoping that this contest helps me maintain writing for its entirety, so at the very least I'll have a finished project!
So my progress so far is that I have been thinking about the fact that at some point I really need to think about a plot for my contest entry.
Isn't that the plot of [spoiler redacted], but with a friends rather than a family? (Now that I removed the spoiler this post doesn't make sense anymore, oh well)
It's okay, I still know what you mean. I'm sure others will as well
Was it this one?
Finally got the first 2k (some planning, some writing) done, and hopefully I can keep this momentum going daily now.
He could be called WhizzyCat.
I always thought the wiz meant something else...
Wizard. It means wizard. Anyways, I got just over a measly 500 words done today. Well, it's 3 am but I'll count it as today.
In my head it will always be a cat taking a wiz
I thought about wanting to write today.
Fantasy
Kobold cooking hot dogs.
Mystery/Thriller
Could also be put into horror but I want to lean more into the mystery/investigatory elements
Less depraved, I hope, but yes! This one is more.. eldritch horror or supernatural thriller. Depends on the route taken of course lol
Fantasy. Third in my series, because the prompt fits.
Things are now slightly over-complicated due to running an rpg also set in this world, so.... (In this third story, Elrond is the player character).
Mine is a weird mix of Fanfiction (because of the Arthurian Legend bent), Fantasy and Historical
You can put it in whichever category you like. I did put in all three because the storygame really is going to be a pretty equal mix of all three genres.
Huh, thought I responded the other day but must have forgotten to actually hit post.
My story will obviously be mainly under sci-fi since it is a post apocalyptic setting. Although I have been toying with the idea of adding some fantasy elements also. Those 2 genres have some overlap anyway.
Probably Sci-fi
Love and Dating
The one-month mark is approaching. How goes the writing, people?
I had my story's branching set up in a really dumb way until just recently that would've been basically impossible to write, but I've pivoted and mostly ironed the issue out. Aside from that, I've been writing every day and the words are adding up... the more I think about the scale though, the less certain I am that my current pace will be enough. I guess we'll see.
By the way, Sherb, what WAS Reborn's word count?
Ummmm. We are supposed to write stuff? When did that happen?
I've got about 6k written right now and have a good portion of branching done but not fully planned out. Only about 5 pages written though.
A supernatural mystery with Lovecraftian/Mythos themes and a slowly unraveling narrative spanning the history of an entire family.
I'm not getting a bunch of pages done, but I do have a more solid outline than I've had before at a third of the way through a contest. At this point I'm spending more time trying to spot and fix my bad prose habits—although I'm sure I'll still have some leaking in. However, knowing where the story will go might help tremendously. Usually I'm sitting at my desk pulling out my hair two hours before the deadline, desperately trying to figure out how I go from "cool-event-A" to "logical ending-B." At least this time I'll have a precise idea of where the story is supposed to go.
And for once I should end up with more than one branch. Usually I just slap a couple of different endings in there, and maybe a couple of mutually-exclusive side quests. This time, if I get it done, I'll have at least two entirely different third acts, along with a couple of "losing" off-ramp endings. For me, that's a huge improvement.
There are worse ways to spend your valuable writing time. At least your brand of procrastination has to do with your story; I tend to dawdle about doing things that are, by most accounts, entirely pointless.
I've got roughly 250 words with a teenage lesbian as the protagonist. Once I'm done with this story I'm finishing the story that was supposed to be for the Gaybellion.
Horror.
Basically the protagonist is starting out the story as a whining wokie, but undergoes character development when she has to deal with some ACTUAL scary shit.
There's also a reason for the wokeness (it being a way to distract from the personal loss that she suffered through before the start of the story).
Yeah, I've read Encaged. It is literally the only CYS game on here that made me vomit. That's not a knock on TP either, the ability to elicit a strong response from the reader is literally what I look for in stories.
Btw, how exactly did you read the draft? I thought I had that off lol
Oh no, you're fine. I was just curious since I didn't realize.
And yeah, slaves and freedmen were treated like shit in the 1800s. Even the North treated them like second-class citizens, and plenty of hate crimes occurred in Union states. My goal is to portray that brutality and discrimination as an obstacle for the protagonist to overcome as they participate in the American Civil War, without letting it dominate the story (or glorify it).
EDIT: I have turned sneak preview off in order to prevent spoilers. Thank you for bringing this to my attention and I appreciate your feedback.
850 words now. My goal is 5,000 a week.
Assuming I meet my goals, I should have a story that's at max 45,000. Since novels are considered to be a bare minimum of 40,000 words, this is... well. An ambitious undertaking.
Especially since I didn't start writing until over three weeks after I joined.
6,500 words! This is after a week of writing, which means so far I'm meeting my goal of 5,000 a week.
Sweet!
Um. Define "productive."
In all seriousness, though, I'm excited to see your entry. Reborn was incredible, and I can definitely see you becoming a two-time prompt contest winner.
I do that too, but how much I write per day varies. I'll write 1,000 words one day, and the next I'll be lucky to write 30. Between work, personal stuff to take care of (it's pretty much guaranteed shit hits the fan for me every contest lol) and other obligations (ThunderDome) I don't always get to put down as much as I'd like. I've also noticed I'll tell myself to write just 100 more words and I'll end up writing 500 without noticing.
Still, after procrastinating for the first three weeks, im glad I've been able to make myself do something every day, even if it is the length of this post or less.
My entry for last year's contest was about 16k words (I think) and it still placed 6th out of 16 valid entries. As Sherb said, you can write a story with a smaller word count and still have a good contender.
