#if writer

[deep-sea-inc]

Being an Artist, TikTok Editor & Writer be like

[deep-sea-inc]

When the depression is awful, so you haven't been working on stuff, but a person who's really cute in your writing club tells you they love your story outline, and all of a sudden, you've written 10k words

[mortish-writes]

with the poll- I feel like coding (which kinda to me included the whole "adding features" thing? unless I misunderstood) is the biggest hurdle cause for all the flaws of my writing, I'd learn if I just got a story out. I'd figure out how I best wrote and what I enjoyed and better get the hang of it, but coding just is such a hurdle (the biggest, besides RL being a real bitch and getting in the way of forming good writing habits). probably just a mental one cause I know there are some resources out there for at least the basics. that said, in regards to the actual writing- I always worry my ROs (or the romance aspect) suffer. as much as I love romance, I avoided it a lot in main media. growing up I always read action/adventure fantasy type and the romance was always tacked on and poorly done and the ham fisted in. it's only recently I've been realizing I need to give actual romance a try and that's not always great but it's been better. but it does really really mean I just don't have confidence in the romance aspect (years of fanfic or not).

The features was referring more to feature creep, wherein we tend to add a lot of features without considering the amount of time it would take to implement them. I see a lot of new IF writers fall into that trap and to an extent I did myself.

I figured coding would be #1, I almost didn’t add it just to get a better idea of where writers are actually struggling because basic coding is pretty easy once you get the hang of it, but things like technical writing skills can take years of refining to improve.

Likewise grew up consuming media where the romance was the B plot although I thankfully got into shoujo manga when I was in high school which helped me to develop a passion for love stories. I see a lot of IFs where they seem like a romance but then the authors kind of get carried away with the action stuff. I suspect it comes from a disconnect with the characters, especially when there’s a big cast. When I do the romance IF workshop we’ll be focusing on writing a single relationship story that way writers don’t get overwhelmed.

At their core, romance and action follow similar scaffolding. The real difference is that in action the stakes tend to be physical whereas in romance they tend to be emotional. If you can choreograph a fight scene you can do the same for a kiss, argument, or confession.

[mortish-writes]

I'd like to write an interactive romance novel, but...

I don't know how to create compelling love interests.

My main character feels too bland/boring.

I get overwhelmed with adding features.

Writing sex scares me.

I don't know how to find an audience.

I worry my writing sucks.

I don't know how to structure a story.

Coding.

I tried once and it didn't go well.

Voting ended onJun 23, 2025

[unwilling-souls-if]

I've seen a tumblr account dedicated to "shit on IF writers" (making lists of "disliked authors" and generally enjoying trashtalking people... with a few anons obviously). And to whoever seriously participates, likes, or feeds in that blog: i genuinely hope you never enjoy IFs ever again. You want a fully finished, quickly written and free game that caters to your every taste?

Then make it.

The obviously anonymous person running that blog and all the anons joyfully tearing down people who share their craft (for most a HOBBY) are a bunch of cowards and there is no respect or validation to seek from them, and they'd probably be smug to see people upset over their bullshit -- but whatever, I am immature and I don't care.

[mortish-writes]

How do you organize BoS in Twine? Is it just a single story or is there multiple, like one is just night 1 and another story is night 1 + 2 and so forth.

Oh wow. Sometimes I feel like readers and I are psychically linked. I had to cut writing short this morning to go through and organize my file because the Night VI branches were getting a bit out of hand.

This is how they're supposed to be labeled. My episode titles are formatted as [Chapter]_[routePassage]_[Title]. So n5_z1_wake would be Night 5, Zealot Passage 1, Wake, the title mostly being a label for my own quick reference. As I'm working with major differences between the MFM and MMF routes + Weaver Alignment in Night VI, they look more like this: n6_mfm_za40_follow, which is Night 5, Bound mode, Weaver-Aligned Zealot Passage 40, Follow.

This is hardly an ideal way to do this. In fact, I think most Twine authors do their stories in a coding environment. As I'm more visually inclined and like seeing the interconnectedness of the passages, that's challenging for me. If you're looking for a more proper way to go things I recommend this guide.

As of right now this method, when properly labeled, works fine for me. I also have a separate Scrivener file where I take notes on each route, that way I don't lose my place/forget who knows what. If/when using the visual environment becomes unwieldy, I'll probably switch to using Visual Studio to code. As I write, I am also working my way through Harvard's free CS50 course and I become more comfortable with coding each month.

[redbeanbunsworld-if]

Eheh

(Edit: my friend said the first looked lowkey sad and depressing, so I made another one...ahem.)