#progress journal

[ratswithbutterknives]

6291

I ended up throwing in a character creation part that hopefully doesn't feel completely out of place. With all the cycle-options it looks much bigger in the background, leaving much less text on the actual page, but at least I can squeeze it all into one passage instead of clicking through a maze :')

Since I managed to break my glasses in Iceland (haven't decided if it's a good or bad omen) I can barely see what I'm writing. If I can't see the spelling mistakes, they don't exist.

[sapphodils]

I recently started dipping my toes into Hellenistic polytheism with Lady Hestia. For the longest time I've felt wary about going from one deity focused religion (catholicism) to another, worried that I'd just be shamed and had fear used against me to keep me in line, but that has never been the case in the short time I've been working with my Lady. She's so warm and comforting, and she makes me want to do better for myself and anyone who comes into my home. Her candle flickered excitedly when I cleaned and reorganized my room as my first big devotional act for her. She gives me the motivation to bake and learn new recipes. I made a devotional charm for her for my carabiner so I can always feel motivated to do my best at work so I can go back home and rest. Just yesterday she kept my apples from oxidizing long after I had peeled and sliced them while I was making tea. I've loved working with Lady Hestia so far, I've felt nothing but love and comfort whenever she makes her presence known. I'm excited to continue working with her and letting her guide me on my path

[angelosearch]

My little writing progress journal...

Well, today is my first day of class. And Chaos Theory isn't done. I missed the deadline. I spent so many hours writing in the last few weeks, and I still missed the deadline.

One issue is that the more I write, the more there is to write. There are little bits of the story that didn't interest me before that I want to follow the threads of. And, I think, to tie up the end effectively, I'm going to think more about how I will handle part 5. It was just supposed to be four chapters, including the epilogue, but there might be more to it than that.

I've also been stuck writing two very important and action-packed chapters. One might shake out to be 15k words, and I may post it as a spin-off one-shot instead. The other is basically a super long fight scene that I have a lot of cool ideas for. but guys. Figuring out the order of operations in an extended fight is hard. For the first time since I started CT, I wish I could go back to my undergrad and ask my writing professors how to handle this stuff. I know I can figure it out, but it's going to take some time.

And editing! I've been editing stuff like crazy, even the chapters that I was really happy with. I think I've sat with them too long haha.

Lastly, I really put my media blinders on to do all this writing, and so my well has run a little dry. I need to gather some more input to produce compelling output. I also had to step away from CT and write a one-shot for Squall's birthday.

So I posted Chapter 28. I have Chapter 29 written, but it needs to be edited (again). I will hopefully publish it on Friday, but we'll see. Chapter 30 is written and will probably need less editing than 29, but it ends on (maybe) the biggest cliffhanger of CT, so I will want to wait to post it until Chapter 31 is almost done (so the wait between chapters isn't too long).

Chapters 31/32 are a mess (and one of those might become a spin-off). After that, I have a plan for the rest, a few major scenes prepared, and most or all of the last chapter written, plus the epilogue. But I may end up with closer to 40 chapters total.

So... It is going to be hard, but I am determined to balance writing with school/my internship. I will not give up on this project, but updates will definitely slow. And don't be surprised if I write more one-shots and/or finish A Sorceress Awakens before I complete CT, because they will be probably be easier to write when I only have a little time.

As always, I will keep reporting my progress here. For those of you who are on the Chaos Theory train, thank you for reading and your patience and support! I hope you don't mind bearing with me while I take my time landing this plane.

Feel free to bully me in my ask box if I don't talk about CT for a while!! I am unfortunately prone to getting distracted when projects are close to done, but I am also a people pleaser and very responsive to stuff like that, haha.

[secret-history-of-reganatlas]

Fuckening Adaptation progress:

Intro complete!

Have just realised how long the chapters were....am now seriously questioning every decision that led to this moment

[forgeryinflames-if]

Hey everyone!

Sorry about being AWOL, the last few months have been a cycle of mental and physical exhaustion at work and the only way I cope is crying and sleeping🙂 But it's starting to look up and I have energy to continue working on this! Yay!

The prologue is being written!

What you can expect to see in the prologue

Setting: at the border lands of Lustoria and Primada.

A bit more information on how Brights recruit in the kingdom.

Meet MC's guardian. Find out what happened to MC's family.

Other updates

M. Beck's backstory with MC is fully fleshed out! The original intention of the betrayal had been a robbery gone wrong because M. Beck would betray MC due to jealousy and this leads to MC being caught.... I hated this honestly, it felt very boring. The new backstory is much better! More angst! More is at stake and the betrayal is felt from both M. Beck and MC. M. Beck has also been changed from Bandit to Mercenary!

I fought myself on wanting the MC to meet the Heir before their untimely demise in chapter one. I wrote the meeting a while ago but it too coincidental. Like you'd meet the heir and then the same night they die and you are all ready to go and take their place lol. Instead, chapter one will take place either 6 or 12 months after the heir supposedly dying on route to somewhere. And you get to meet their brat brother Prince Zion earlier! Yay!

For L. Alarie, I'm trying to find some sneaky ways to fit them into earlier chapters. Because the first few chapters will have you go to the Capital (away from the borders) you won't be able to meet with them until later on which I find unfair.

Armon had a few changes as well, so Armon will not start as a royal knight. He instead had been fighting in one of the wars and got into some hot waters with a Lustorian Marquis and boy is he not happy to come back to the Capital.

If you have any questions or suggestions let me know! ❤️

[epylion]

What’s a few broken noses between sisters when one is trying to escape being falsely imprisoned for murder?

She had the assassin’s hair. Now all Shio needed was to escape, find a tractus to locate her and a pathos to pull the truth from the shade’s lips if she refused to speak.

There was work to be done.

“Do you think you could do it again? Like with… like with him?” Nell would not even speak the Emperor’s name now. Shio had to wonder what her sister felt now that the man was dead, but that was a topic best for another time. Instead she nodded resolutely. In truth, she had no idea whether the act of taking another’s powers could be repeated, but what choice did she have? There was no time to practice, no time for do-overs.

“Well, I guess you better make it look good then.” Nell heaved a sigh, her brow furrowed tight, “Just try not to go for the teeth, will you?”

Shio gave a small nod, made her hesitance as small as her grief, shoved down deep below her heart. She tried to imagine Nell as simply a thing, an object to utilize in her escape. Shio took several sharp breaths, heaving them in and out quickly before she snapped her fist out and caught Nell in the eye. Her sister reeled, a shriek cut off by Shio’s own hand as she took her head in both and slammed her face down unto the table. There was an obvious and pronounced crunch and then Shio had her shackles around Nell’s throat, constricting hard enough to leave bruises, but relenting long enough to let her gasp out a breath. 

Shio tried to give what she hoped was an apologetic look, but Nell glared up at her from her one good eye, the meaning obvious.

If Giovani already intended to lay blame on Nell, she had to make the assault look genuine. In a moment, Nell rose her sphere up and rendered the shackles that bound Shio’s hands apart. 

“Okay,” Nell said, voice nasally and wet, “Now would be about the time I need to start calling for help to make it convincing so, if you’re gonna do it—”

Shio did not need further pressing. She brought her palms flat together, twisted them apart and clenched her fists tightly. The air rippled and shimmered with wisps of light and dark. Nell paled, the white wisps of her own sphere flickering for a moment and then fading as Shio’s own became brighter.

“Call for help.” Shio said, her voice steady and sure as she turned to the outer wall and lay her hand flat upon it. By the time Nell shoved her hand against her broken nose to produce a realistic wail, Shio had already shattered the stone and mortar apart. A rush of cold wind rose forward to meet her and with one last look to the rattling door and Nell before it, Shio swept the stolen kineti energy beneath her feet and walked out into the air.

[pocketdogs]

quick little update on Game's progress

I haven't done this in a while but things have been really good! Game's gained a kilogram on the new diet (same brand, just different flavour) and his poop has finally solidified. I am now able to pet him (at the right moments) without making him uncomfortable, and he's become a lot more playful recently, like he goes absolutely crazy when I come home. the one thing I don't get, though, is that he's clearly potty trained but he's been having daily accidents while I'm at work. it never happens when I'm home, even Finn doesn't have a problem with this. also, crate training. that's something we absolutely have to work on

[ratswithbutterknives]

5956 words

is what I have right now and that number feels awfully small to me. Before the first upload, I'd already merged some passages by shoving everything into if-statements so there are no duplicates in that number, but I'm spending a lot of time figuring out how to add and remove empty lines around the if-statements without messing up the layout for other conditions (because as you can see during the dialogue with the professor, optional lines don't appear at the same place). Do I enjoy the changing placements? Yes. Do I like implementing them? No :')

I also changed my color scheme, praying that it's readable because I spent 2 hours looking for a combination I didn't hate:

^ That's the 3/4 passage of the "numb" option. Still figuring out how to write 4/4 without sounding too much like the alternatives. The flavor text for the "decline" option is also done, so the story can move forward.

Since one of my first summaries was "Kikis delivery service with burnout" I'm going to send MC to the same town no matter the choices and then branch the story with combinations of jobs & living spaces, so I'm currently wracking my brain for jobs that are interesting enough to experience & ....easy enough for me to write about them.

If it doesn't catch fire I'd like to structure the game with some fixed scenes that will happen regardless of former choices, some scenes depending on where you're working/living, some regarding your reputation with other characters, ...

I feel like I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from games like Stardew Valley so I hope the plot won't feel boring if there are no high stakes like other IF do. If debt doesn't motivate you, I'm doing it wrong.

You know I uploaded the prototype during an "eh, whatever" moment despite its current size but I guess I'll now wait until I have at least 10k words on that paper instead of adding peanuts. Unfortunately I'm graced with the speed of a snail.