Progress Report 2023.07.18: Trying Something New

Hi all,

I’m not entirely sure where to start this one. Writing has been very rough over the past couple of weeks. It’s not writer’s block, per se—I’m at a point in my career where I can typically work past writer’s block with persistence or by changing up my routine and schedule—but more how extremely drained the next stage of Episode 3 makes me.

I’ve been working on the episode’s opening since May of last year. Episode 3 Part 2 is supposed to be the other half of the Episode 2 endings, finishing off all of the variations that eventually lead the player to Diradan Tower. However, even though there are differences between the remaining routes (the various Melchior and Kit endings are going to be different than Aeran’s or Veyer’s, for example, because the MC is in a different location, with different people), I still have to hit the same story beats and divulge the same information as on the other branches.

Right now, I have no momentum. I get 500 words down, enough to cover maybe a single dialogue choice, and I run out of energy to continue. Even though there are differences, I am cycling through very similar content and I have no sense of forward progression. I feel like I am writing multiple drafts of the same thing, revisiting the same ideas over and over again. And while working in some kind of chronological order has been crucial for most of Wayfarer’s development and I am very hesitant to put unfinished routes on the backburner, I am considering that it may be time to do so.

I need to move onto the next section, even if it means leaving some of the starting routes unfinished and unplayable for the time being. I have very little joy in what I am writing right now; constructing Part 2 feels like a chore that needs to be done rather than something that I am invested in. I worry, too, that sneak peak content is going to get boring – even if I compose another 100k words, much of the content is going to be familiar if you’ve played the existing Episode 3 routes.

I’ve been struggling with bits and pieces of Part 2 since June and have very little to show for it. This isn’t great in the grand scheme of things. Episode 3 was never supposed to take over a year to develop, but due to a lot of outside factors and how difficult this year has been for me emotionally and mentally, this is the situation I am in now. Word counts are arbitrary and should generally not be used as a marker of progression, but in this case – and on a project like this – they are. And it is very frustration that I wrote over half a million words last year and this year, halfway through July, I’ve barely cracked 100k. It wasn’t supposed to take three months to code Part 1, but it did.

The most difficult part of any long-term creative project is when you fall out of love with it. It hurts to not enjoy the thing you’ve devoted yourself to, and it can take a very long time to find reasons to love it again.

I am hoping that if I switch gears and jump ahead to the Diradan Tower events, I can get some semblance of momentum back. Action sequences unfold in a different way than other scenes. I desperately need a break from the dialogue loops and conversation cycles and repeating things I have already done, albeit in a different way because it’s for a different continuity.

Episode 3 is the end of Act 1 and it has a lot riding on it, and the longer it takes, the more it feels like I hill I cannot climb. While it’s possible switching tactics will not work out (and I am very, very hesitant to leave routes unfinished and come back to them later), I’m at a point now where I need to progress further into the episode, if only to feel like I am actually getting somewhere.

So, going forwards:

• I am going to spend this week revisiting my Episode 3 outlines and structuring out the tower sequence
• After outlining, my new written content will be focused on the events at the tower
• I’m going to see how far I get; if I run out of steam, I may go back to revisiting the unfinished Melchior/Kit and drunk/miscellaneous branches
• If this strategy works out, then all new sneak peeks will be Diradan Tower content
• I will likely continue working on Episode 3’s later content and do Melchior/Kit and the drunk/miscellaneous branches at the very end. Which means that if you want to play Episode 3’s content while it is in progress, you will be locked out of it unless you have a save file where you play either Aeran or Veyer’s branches.

I don’t really have much else to add other than I am crossing my fingers and hoping that I can spark something. Every project goes through a rough patch (or multiple rough patches); hopefully I can shake this one off soon.

As always, thank you all so much for your support. 💕

Addendum – if you’re interesting in participating in this month’s Creator Q&A, check out July 6th’s progress report! I will be closing the questions form on July 27.