Ready (sort of)

Well, the content I plan to roll out on October 22nd is… ready.

Script -  check'd

Sprites, art, whatever - check'd

Music, sound effects - check'd

Currently going through an obsessive-compulsive typo hunt - already knowing I won't catch every grammatical horror creeping through my script.

The revised GUI is there - and I like its feel.

Then come the embellishments - just a couple of things I still want to add. Will make certain scenes feel more "alive". Nothing really fancy, still we all know how easy it is to live without the essentials when we've got the superfluous.

That said, I shouldn't relax. I should still think I'm standing on the razor's edge - that the deadline is slithering close, its cold tendrils already wrapping around my knees…

So really, there's a lot I could say about the journey I'm about to embark on - how I want to keep the stuff I wrote so far (re-arranged in a way that actually makes sense), how I'm striving to put into practice the lessons I've learned in these three years, how I'm trying to improve my English prose (non-native speaker here - I can be surgically precise with technical English, but conversational English is another story).

However, that's tomorrow's pain. So bear with me as I digress, and let me write down a manifesto, or a letter of intent of sorts, as my project starts anew - hopefully taking the right path.

1) A story is a good story if it's a good story.
1.1) A good story also is one the reader thinks is good.
2) Clever storytelling makes the reader think<think< em=""> - it doesn't just puzzle them.
2.1) Throwing everything at the reader and expecting them to solve the problem by themselves isn't clever storytelling. It's laziness - the wrong kind of laziness.
2.2) "Non-linear" does  not mean retcon.
3) Don’t hide behind itch.io's web file-count limit. Properly organize your script, even if that means having 200 .rpy files. Cut on assets, not on clarity.
3.1) Writing everything in a single script file isn't "synthesis". It's laziness - again, the wrong kind.
3.2) Comment everything. You know what you're doing now, not three months from now.
4) Keep writing.
4.1) Keep reading.
4.2) Keep rewriting.
5) A good idea is one that fits a scope.
5.1) Be ready to cut.
5.2) Be ready to keep what you cut. You know it doesn’t fit the story now, but you don't know it won't fit three months from now.
6) You only think you know where the story is going. Truth is, the story knows where she is going — you just follow her lead.
6.1) The story is the girl, and the writer is the man. Always.
6.2) The story decides. The writer nods.
7) When you do something wrong, admit you did something wrong.
7.1) Paper castles built on the wrong foundations don't make them any better. They just fall.
7.2) Rinse and repeat.
8→∞) None of this makes sense if you're writing a story.

I know, I know... sounds cryptic at best - far-fetched, and nonsensical, at worst. Maybe it'll all make sense one day, maybe it won't. Can't tell right now.

On October 22nd I start walking - hope I'll meet you on the way.</think<><think< em="">
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