Once More, with Feeling!

I went back to the drawing board again... sort of.

After the last update of basically throwing out my drafts, I realised I needed to get back to basics, not only for the scenes but for this whole project.

I'm not much of a writer, in fact I don't really have any experience. I haven't taken a single creative writing course or class or even workshop. Aside from silly musings in my notes app, or making up stories with friends, I haven't tried this at all before. And with trying new things comes the inevitable fact of failing. I have failed to continue this project and maintain the steam and passion I had at the start. Really I've been mulling this thing over for years, and the lack of deadlines and structure, while forgiving, is really making it hard to stay in it.

All of this to say, I went and did some research. As with all new things, there has to be some learning, and I admit I did not do much of it before diving in, because I'm used to being self-taught. I like to think I can do anything on the first try, but that is obviously not true nor realistic. So I had some learning to do.

In the Western world, the kind of game I'm trying to make is called Interactive Fiction. There's tons of amazing writers who have made IF games, and I'm looking to them for inspiration and guidance. In my research I've also dove into how to write in the first place! How do you start prepping a story? How do you write dialogue? How does one even plan a crazy interactive game like this?

Which leads me to my chart up there. I am a very visual person. I am also a very indecisive person. Both of these traits lead to makig a chart and then throwing it out becuase it wasn't as flexible as my mind. So I had to get creative. Up there in that chart is the flow of events that will allow me to start better writing the story (at least for this one character) and put in the hooks and branches that will lead to the other narratives and endings. Finally I can see clearly as it is laid out before me.

I am very very pleased with this design, and now I am just debating if I should make these crazy charts for each character now, or just jump in to writing this first. Given my record and nerves of writing, it will probably be the former. Plus, this was fun to do! That alone is a really good sign.

Aside from that, life has been hectic, I've been making more art, and I'm going on a short vacation.

Here's my newest art piece, done in the style of how I want the game to look. *NOTE there is Blood.

Bye for now!