I dropped off the update train for a while, but that didn't mean I wasn't writing. These past few weeks have been pretty enlightening for me in terms of how my writing habit changes in response to outside pressure.
I initially started off with an idea: could write four games, one per week at 12,500 words each? Here's what I planned at the beginning of NaNoWriMo versus what actually happened.
"Nightengale"
Summary: A Persona 5 Protag/Akechi fan game.
Result
I finished the first draft. With some light edits, it ended up being around 8,000 words. I'm planning on editing this down a bit more and publishing it as a story in a zine first.
"Effie's Final Project"
Summary: A Purple Moon like point and click adventure game extension of the Terranova universe with Tourmaline, Cherry, Sendaria and Effie where you do puzzles and discover friendship.
Result
I stopped around 1,800 words and it is currently in progress. I underestimated the amount of time I would take to think critically about the game design on this one—just write the game is great advice if you already have the game logic worked out, but in this case, I did not. Another realization I came to is that Purple Moon games are known for their large cast of characters, so for the game to feel like a Purple Moon game, I would have to write new characters that didn't feel like they were shoehorned in with the old.
I've started making a list of the Purple Moon games to stream for game development research and plan to pick this game back up.
The Flying Dove
Summary: Emille is a skilled bartender and has a generally normal life...until he meets Clive, an odd inventor with a dark secret. The two of them witness a murder...can they solve a whodunnit before either of them is jailed?
Result
I was sidetracked by health issues and didn't write it—but I wrote about something else. I've been struggling with intestinal issues for the past year and a half and in November, the doctor told me I needed an exam for colon cancer. Since the procedure was done in Japan, and I was very young for such a procedure, I was very anxious. To help with the nervousness, I wrote a daily blog during that time (Nov 10th-Nov 18th) which will likely turn into something, but I'm not sure what yet.
Magnolia
Summary: Ash is a skilled cook, and in the world of Magnolia, cooking can imbue special powers to others. Play a short cooking game where you help your friends with your cooking.
Result
I worked on this for a couple of days and dropped it. I don't think this should be a game—but it is important worldbuilding.
In Retrospect
As I was working on NaNoWriMo, I was also working on QA'ing Terranova's bugfixes with @mabbees which, I'm relieved we did—the game needed an update and because of my health things had been stalled. I'm glad to see things move forward.
I ended up writing a lot of humorous stories, silly things to keep me entertained while Twitter had a meltdown and I had a health scare. I made a lot more plans to be social, which though it did not help my writing pace it did help my mental health. A lot of the 2,000 and 3,000 word counts weren't me escaping into fantasy but trying to process the reality as it was happening to me.
I came out of the exam cancer-free. I'm so thankful. I don't have any conclusive diagnosis beyond, "you seem stressed, so be less stressed"—which is, as some of my fellow high-strung friends might know, is entirely unhelpful advice to someone who is chronically stressed.
But I am taking the advice to heart and carving my own path. I am setting intentions, being mindful despite my general state of having 100,000 things in my head at the same time competing for attention, and forcing myself to spend equal amounts of time outdoors as I do indoors.
During NaNoWriMo, I published rough edit of a funny short story called "I Am Kimura" about how I went from an unspellable last name to using a Japanese one, Kimura. It inspired me to write more stories about living in Japan.
I expected this NaNoWriMo to be more explosive; a chance to dive back into my own worlds and to say hello to old faces, but it ended up being a more contemplative exercise about real things in the world.
It's unexpected, but not bad at all.
