11/06/2022 Patreon Devlog

11/06/2022

This Week's Summary:

• Less Chaos!!
• Quill's route (up to Ch 12)

The Ramble:

Just another writing week this week.

I did multiple chapters this week but it's largely because some of them are a little on the short side and I'm kind of in a no-nonsense drafting mode just to get the rough draft done so I can start revising. So I finished up Ch 9, wrote Ch 10 and Ch 11 and started on Ch 12.

I also edited my word count up since it was clear I was going to bypass my original word count goal pretty fast. I am now 85% of the way to the new goal. My current word count is 97000 words.

And I'm on track to finish up the rough draft by the end of the month (or a little earlier.)

I had to pause in drafting Ch. 12 when I realised that it just didn't have enough content. I only had two scenes planned. I originally thought it would be okay as it was going to be a dialogue heavy chapter, which is fine.

But I realised as I was writing that the chapter was just way too sparse. It needed an event to happen - something to increase the tension in preparation for Ch. 13.

So I had to pause writing and brainstorm a new scene, then outline it. It turns out I think it's going to be a good addition. It's more of an action scene that I can also use to add a time crunch to the climactic events I'm building up to. And it potentially opens up a character moment for Morgan as well (depending on choices).

Most of last night was spent planning that out.

Action sequences are always a bit tricky to write but I'm sure I'll get through this one. LoL. I planned it out pretty well, I think. Very detailed.

And it includes the first bad ending! =O I thought I might not be able to fit a bad ending in until Ch 13 but I was able to sneak one into Ch 12. Mwa ha ha.

So anyway. That's it. Lots of writing and I'm nearly done with drafting. That's pretty much all I worked on this week (except the one day I opened all my sprite files and swapped everyone's hair due to a funny review that said all the sprites look like the same character with different wigs.) 🤣🤣🤣🤣

My next step after drafting is revising. I've written this route pretty fast, which typically means it'll need much more revision than routes I take my time with. Revising is, in my opinion, always easier than drafting though. That's why I try not to stress about the draft being perfect. If I have a draft, I can make it better. So I just try to get the draft out so I can move into editing it.

Drafting is typically where I'm likely to get stuck in the process so I always feel like as long as I can get the rough draft completed, no matter how unpolished it is, I've crossed a significant hurdle. And that hurdle is pretty close to being cleared now. 💪

Sneak Peeks:

Not really sneak peeks but for those of you NOT on the server....here. (I know, I know. It's hard to tell who is who now with their hair is swapped around since everyone is practically a twin of everyone else.) 😔😔

Upcoming Week:

More writing.

It would be nice if I could actually finish up the writing this week but realistically I'm not sure about that. Typically Chapters 12 & 13 take a little more time than the other chapters. There's just so much happening and a lot more planning and care required to choreograph events because these chapters involve the story climax which - in an action based story like this - generally means fight sequences.

Chapter 12 is already partially written but probably like ⅓ of the way.

Chapter 14 tends to be an "easy" chapter since it's usually just story wrap up but I'm not sure I'll get to it this week. We'll see!

Anyway, that's all for this week. I'm hoping we can start moving into more interesting updates like sprite designs and CGs soooooon. Writing is always the most boring stage for developer updates since there's not much to show for it unless you want screen caps of my spreadsheet. LoL!

Anyway see you next time!