Weekly Update - August 18 - On Writing The Wrong Things

Last week, I had an enormous amount of trouble getting myself to sit down and write.

I did a lot of work on things that weren't writing last week. Every day, I'd put 'Write Some Play Things' on my list of things to do today, and every day, all the way up to Thursday, I'd end the day with that particular action item unchecked.

I like writing. I like the process of figuring out a story, I even enjoy the physical act of typing - so when I'm having trouble getting myself to do it, it's usually that something, somewhere, is wrong in my life.

I thought it was external stuff. I don't know if I've said it here, but I'm trans (a shocker, I know) and I've recently started transitioning. I'm doing it at 40 years old and, let me tell you - this process has been interesting, anxiety-inducing, wonderful, and confusing all at the same time. I thought maybe it was something to do with that. My relationship with my body has changed a lot since I started this project a few years ago, and maybe I'm having trouble thinking my way into 'Play Things headspace' but... no.

No, that wasn't actually it!

The last chapter, 'The Girl From Reddit', was some of my favorite stuff I've ever written, and I wrote that in a frenzy. I wrote the draft for that chapter in 6000-word chunks for just under a week.

So it's not that!

Turns out, when I did finally force myself to sit down and write, I figured it out pretty fast. I was writing the wrong stuff!

This happens!

The outline I was working off of for this chapter (Chapter 6 - Dreamer / Tattoo) was... fine. I'd cooked it up a long time ago, back just after I finished the previous chapter for this route, and it was... OK.

It logically followed from the things that had happened before. Nobody acted out of character. It even had some fun scenes. Riley yelled at Mitchel, the guy who took you to the hotel and messed with your head by accident. It was OK, but it was also really boring. It mainly consisted of scenes we've seen before in one scenario or another, and the key element of this path (the Dreamers) weren't really used very much. This makes sense - like - you probably wouldn't mess around with things that had caused so many problems, but also that's kind of the point of all this.

It was OK, is what I'm saying - but not good.

So, on Friday, I revised the outline into something I hope will be better. I've done this a fair amount. I'd say about half of the Play Thing chapters I've written have involved me discovering that I need to substantially rework things. This usually happens after I've written quite a lot of not-very-good words.

I think this is, maybe, why people find the writing in this game to be relatively good - I'm willing to toss the bad stuff in the garbage! I think that is the key to doing most things well: accept that you're going to do it badly sometimes, and be willing to do it again!

I have thrown out complete 30000-word chapters before, because they were bad or didn't work. This time, I'm lucky - I'm only losing five or six thousand words!

As part of this revision, I'm also doing something a little weird. I'm stealing your choice!

At least, I think I'm going to.

In Play Things, every chapter, you get to choose one of two options. Some of those branch the story, and some are just decorative. The choice in Chapter 6 is decorative - you choose either 'Good Girl' (which gives you fuzzy ears, a chunky collar, and a fluffy tail) or 'Bad Girl' (which gives you demon horns, a spiked collar, and a spade-tipped tail). These have effects - both on you, and the narrative, but they don't really branch the story that much, even though you get to choose which one you take.

This time, though? I mean... Riley owns you in this branch, doesn't she? Your her toy.

Isn't it really her choice?

Anyway, that's what I've been up to. I hope you're all having a lovely week, and if you're really struggling with something, consider that maybe you're doing the wrong thing!

Maybe you need to throw out a bunch of stuff and go in another direction!

- Squish