Writer's Blog: Oh Editing, How I Loath Thee

Current Wordcount: 321,000

Average Playthrough Length: Unknown, as I have at least a day’s worth of debugging ahead of me before I can run randomtest to get the average.

I’ve been working on Mind Blind nonstop today, tweaking Reese’s scene in order to properly convey their flamboyant, moustache-twirling, shoe-wearing, villainous persona. Larger than life personalities can sometimes come across as cartoonish in comedic writing, so I want to make sure that as giddily wicked as Reese delights in acting, there’s an element of implied danger that carries through Button’s interaction with them.

When my brain gets stuck progressing the latest scene, I’ve been going back to do work on past chapters. My goals for the semi-final draft (the one that’ll be uploaded after saves are wiped in a month or two or three or . . . . let’s just say four because to be honest I don’t know when I’ll be done with all the edits). Okay, I lost track of that thought.

My goals for Mind Blind’s semi-final draft are thus:

1) At least twice as many variances in inner and external dialogue depending on Button’s stats.

2) Expanding certain scenes (ex: John’s departure, Button’s solo exploration of Chicago, and returning to Sofia’s with K).

3) New branching scenes (ex: choosing not to talk to Hope and Chapter 10 scenes for ROs other than K).

4) Keeping better track of what Button knows or doesn’t know, coding-wise (ex: K’s mom, Button’s past parttime job, that Rosy isn’t American).

5) Smoother implementation of the RO paths, taking into account that Button may be flirting with multiple people (which will always be a no-go for Rosy, and may impact how Glitch feels about Button working with K).

6) Making Valero gender variable in order to make future readers think that she may be Noh. Because you guys have taught me that people code dive (I’m still wracking my brain for a way to hide Noh’s identity in the code before the next update).

7) Implementing the asexual romance routes (probably to be done after the book is completed, so the alternative passages get added in all at once).

8) Find new texts for the chapter covers. The chapters will still shift depending on route and stats, but I need to use passages that won’t get me in trouble copyright-wise (I’m thinking ancient philosophers?). Which means, sadly, no Sound of Silence lyrics. Oh well. At least you guys get to experience the subway route in all its meme-able glory.

9) Obliterate all typos and grammatical issues.

10) Code a setting in the stat screen that changes the images of Chapters and the Aeon paperwork in plain text without frills in order to be accessible to screen readers.

11) Approximately two billion and five other minor improvements.

It's a lot, but the game will be better for the changes!

Mind Blind is the first piece of interactive fiction I’ve ever written, and (to put it bluntly) I had no clue what I was doing at the beginning. Now, I have . . . well, maybe not a full clue, but at least a fraction of one. While writing, I’m constantly going back to prior chapters in order to tweak things and add foreshadowing as the mystery finally begins to unravel. Because we’re past the halfway point, provided I keep to my 500k word goal and don’t have any more ah-ha! moments.