#it may get published with a bunch of typos and plot holes

[peanutparade]

Someone asked me what my process was, and I’m not sure I gave her a satisfying answer in the PM, so here I will attempt to explain how I make a game from start to finish.

*Please note the the drafts above are not for the same story, but for the purpose of illustration.

**Also please take this advice with a grain of salt. I’m not a published author (though I do know a bit about the publishing industry), and I’m definitely not a perfect writer. This is my process, and the things I try to keep in mind when I’m writing, and you may find this advice to be complete garbage.

Step one: Get an idea for a story. I can’t really give any tips on how to go about doing this. I tend to take inspiration from other works of media (classical literature is my favorite, though I have taken cues from more contemporary sources as well).

Step two: Consider who your characters are going to be. It’s okay if you only have one or two characters in mind at first. I’m pretty utilitarian about my characters, so most of them don’t get created until step three.

Step three: Open a word document and just start typing shit out. (I use Google Drive so I can access it from anywhere, and for another reason which I’ll get to later.) Don’t stop to think, don’t even breathe. Just type. Any idea that comes into your head goes in the document. Some of it won’t make sense with everything else, some of it will contradict other things, some of it will be vaguely defined. You will fix that later. This is the most important part (especially the way I write), because it’s where you’re going to get an idea of how your story starts and how it ends, as well as cement your cast of characters. If you need a scene where your main character goes to a lighthouse, then you know you’ll also need to come up with a lighthouse keeper (see my comment above about being utilitarian with characters. I’m no authority, so if you do things differently, that’s fine, but I don’t like making characters that don’t serve a purpose).

Step four: Annotation, annotation, annotation! (This is the other thing I use Google Drive for, as it has a comment feature that I heavily rely on.) Go through all your scribbling and make notes for yourself. Be a little hard on yourself here, because this is the part where you’re going to try to make everything you’ve written in Draft 1 cohesive. This will be a long process, as you need to think about how all of this is connected, as well as think about what sort of arcs your main characters are going to go through. I read somewhere once that ALL of your characters have to go through an arc, but that’s a bunch of wacky nonsense. Some characters are minor characters, and thus do not require depth. The only character arc that MUST be included is the main character’s arc. Remember: character arc ≠ character motivation. ALL major characters (protagonist(s), love interest(s), villain(s)) MUST have motivation for what they are doing. The motivation doesn’t have to be anything too complex, just so long as the audience understands why the characters are doing what they’re doing. (Minor characters with motivation can make the world feel more real and lived in, but they can also make the story feel bogged down. Brevity is key here, and sometimes less is more.)

Step five: Draft 2 All of that plotting you just did? Throw it away! Just kidding, don’t actually throw it away. BUT you’re going to rewrite your plot outline, tidier this time, and only refer back to Draft 1 when you get stuck. Feel free to come up with new ideas during this time; Draft 1 is not your story’s final form. If you think of scenes or quotes, feel free to include them in this draft, but you’re mostly just outlining right now. (As you may notice in the image above, Draft 2 is also subject to annotation.) Draft 2 is where you should be solidifying the themes of your story. Character arc(s) should tie into and support this theme. This is also the draft where you should be catching any plot holes (especially if you don’t have an editor/beta reader), as once you’ve begun actually writing the story, any problems here will only compound as you go.

Step six: Write the story It’s pretty straightforward. Follow Draft 2 (and any additional annotations you made on Draft 2), and go scene by scene and write. I never skip around, as it makes it hard to keep track of what characters know at what time, but I know of authors that do skip around, and they seem to do okay. You’ll have to figure out what works best for you.

Step seven: Edit, edit, edit! Aside from the obvious (typos and spelling errors), look out for:

Scenes that are too long or too short. Counterintuitively, these may be the result of the same problem: a lack of purpose. Ask yourself, “Does this need to be here?”

Long-winded info dumps. Consider the old adage, “show, don’t tell.” Whenever information can be conveyed through action or reaction, write it that way. If you can convey two things at the same time (i.e. something about a character and also something about the world--bonus if these two things are actually unrelated to each other), do it.

Information that your audience wouldn’t logically have being the key to resolving the plot. Especially in sci-fi and fantasy stories, if the conclusion of the story relies on knowing something--even if it’s something that the characters all know--you need to make sure your audience also knows this, or else they will be frustrated. Keep in mind the Rule of Threes.

And that’s the story portion done. If you’re making a visual novel/dating sim, there are other steps you need to do. (I usually do this stuff while writing the story so it doesn’t get tedious, but if you’re hiring people to do this other stuff, you should probably have the writing done ahead of time. If you’re hiring writers to help you, you should have Draft 1 done, at the least. Your writers can probably take it from there.)

NOTE: Any job you don’t do yourself is something that will cost you money. If you can find other aspiring creators to volunteer their time to your project, good for you, but please do not approach anyone directly unless you plan to offer to pay them (”for exposure” is not payment).

Step eight: Character sprites Major characters are going to need to be represented visually in your visual novel (go figure!), so... draw some people? I know some people make character design sheets, but I just jump right in, and then later, make microedits to the sprites as the mood strikes me. The design sheet thing is probably a smarter way to do it. I use photoshop, and I would strongly encourage keeping hair, clothing, and facial features on separate layers until you know exactly how you plan to code them into your game.

Step nine: Backgrounds Same as the sprites, except places instead of people. I’m bad at this, so I have no right to give anyone advice. I use a 3D interior design app to create a guide for what I want rooms to look like, and then I use that to get my vanishing points and furniture sizing right. This method is 50% tracing, 50% wishing I was dead. I do not recommend it.

Step ten: Audio If your game will have voice acting, get that together now. If you’re composing your own music, you’re more talented than I am. For my first game, I utilized royalty free options (incompetech and bensound), but now I hire a composer (I do still supplement my soundtrack with royalty free options if it’s for something inconsequential). I don’t use many sound effects, but when I do, I just look for free options online.

Step eleven: Coding I use Ren’py because it’s free and easy to learn (provided you don’t want to do anything too complicated). There are tons of resources online to teach you how to use Ren’py, both from official sources and unofficial sources. I’ve never posted in the forums myself, but the people there seem very kind and helpful if you get stuck. (If anyone wants to see how I code, specifically, I’ll do a Part Two for it, but I have to warn you that my games are the coding equivalent car repairs done with bubblegum and duct tape.)

Step twelve: Playtesting Make sure your game works. It’s pretty straightforward. You can even recruit some guinea pigs--I mean, friends to help you. (I don’t have any friends, so I do this part on my own.)

By this point, a year or so will have passed (give or take, depending how long your game is, how much time you have to work on it, and how much of the work you plan to do by yourself), and with any luck, you’ll have a game! Posting your game on itch.io is free, but putting your game on steam will cost you $100.

Like I said to the person on patreon who originally asked me about my process, making a visual novel is a lot of work, but I encourage everyone to at least try it and see if you like it.

I look forward to hearing your stories!  ♥

[zayafeli]

Tips for self-publishing (ebooks) on a budget!

I totally understand how overwhelming self-publishing for the first time can be, especially when you're on a tight budget, so here's some tips based on my own experiences with self-publishing. I happened to be lucky enough that I didn't need to spend much getting my first series out into the world, but please keep in mind that everyone's experiences are different and not everyone will be able to do what I do. Still, I hope this post can at least help people out and make the process a bit easier to handle!

Disclaimer: Since this is tips for self-publishing on a budget, that means my suggestions will centre around shaving down the cost of publishing as much as possible while still trying to keep your novel as high-quality as possible. That means skipping professional help that could be very useful. I'm not encouraging people to disregard professionals, I'm simply trying to help people out who can't afford them.

I'm going to jump right into this and assume you've written your book, given it a good read-trough, self-edited (potentially multiple times) and read it through again. This is essential for the next step. The more you self-edit and polish your draft, the easier it's going to be on your editor(s).

Beta reading and editing: Beta readers are not essential, but highly recommended. It's generally not a service you need to pay for. Beta readers can be anyone. You can ask your online friends to beta read for you, or find people on social media or writing forums who'd like to help you out. You can't expect professional help from beta readers, but you can definitely ask them to help point out where your story is weak or slow or if there's an unresolved plot hole that makes no sense. My suggestion would be to find at least 2 or 3 beta readers, but the more the merrier!

Once you've fixed the errors your beta readers have pointed out, it's time to find an editor. There are several kinds of editors, but the ones who will be most useful to you now that you've already had your story beta read are line editors and copy editors. Sometimes, an editor will do both, but if you're forced to choose, my suggestion would be to go for a line editor. A line editor will polish and tighten your language, fix awkward sentences and in general make the reading experience much smoother. Copy editors focus more on grammar and spelling, fixing your typos and getting your commas under control. Since you're on a budget, you could potentially find a very grammar-savvy family member willing to copy edit your story for free, but a line editor's expertise will be harder to come by and truly invaluable. It's my belief that you should absolutely not skip finding an editor for your book. Before I published my first novel, I questioned just how important proper editing really was, but as it turned out, the magic my sweet editor Sarah was able to work into my manuscript heightened the quality of my writing a staggering amount.

So how do you go about finding an editor when you're on a budget? First, you should figure out how much money you're willing to/able to spend. You could potentially start saving up for an editor already when you start planning your novel. That'll give you months (or years) to gather funds. If your attempts at saving up fail completely and you find you really can't spend anything, there's still hope. All is not lost.

If you're an artist or a photo-manipulator or any other kind of creative soul, you're in luck. Your chance of finding an editor is already doubled. Search on social media, Goodreads, the Nanowrimo forums, or any other writing forum you know, and offer up your artistic skills in exchange for editing work. Be fair – the quality and quantity of the work you're offering has to match the kind of editing you're looking to get. Professional editing can easily cost a $1000 or more, depending on how long your manuscript is, so perhaps consider a less experienced editor if what you're offering to trade can't match the price. If you're really super duper lucky, you can find an editor who takes mercy on you and is interested in your project and is willing to give you a discount or even donate their skills. But you really can't count on that happening. If you're a completely lost cause when it comes to artistic ability, you might not be able to get around cashing out, but I promise you, if you spend money at all during this process, this would be where to spend it. If you have other useful skills, perhaps try offering those up for trade and see how far it'll get you!

Formatting: Formatting is another one of those nice things you don't need to spend money on. It takes a bit of trial and error, especially if you've never formatted before (my first time was pure hell), but it's perfectly doable on your own. Smashwords.com is a self-publishing platform that offers a formatting style guide that you have to follow in order to publish on their website, but you can use it even if you're not publishing with them. You can find the formatting guide here: Click. Good formatting will make the reading experience smooth and your readers happy.

Cover art: Again, if you possess artistic ability, you're in luck. I illustrate all my own covers, so I can easily get around having to pay for cover art. That doesn't mean you can't still get a nice cover if you've got no artistic skill. Take to google! Check out Goodreads, Nanowrimo and other writing forums. Sometimes, people will offer up free, pre-made cover illustrations. Even if you can't find any, a simple google search for 'Make a free book cover' led me to a bunch of websites that'll let me put together a simple, nice looking cover for free. (I haven't tested any of these sites, so proceed with caution). If you prefer to have a little more control of your cover, you can go on Adobe's website and download a trial version of Photoshop. Find a nice, free stock photo online (remember to make sure it's free for commercial use), find a nice font in PS (or on a font site. Again, remember commercial use) and you're more or less good to go. Now, if you're lacking an eye for good composition and design, here are a few easy tips when making your cover art:

Make your cover on a high resolution canvas, 300 DPI

Make sure your text is aligned, doesn't fade into the background/images and is easy to read.

Don't crowd your cover with too much text. Have your book title be the main focus, include your author name and possibly a short sentence to specify if your book is part of a series.

Try to create a focal point. A simpler cover is often more eye-catching.

Make sure that your cover is still easily readable when scaled down. Most online book stores will display your cover as a thumbnail, which is what people will judge your book by before clicking on it.

Publishing: Now that you have a fully edited and formatted manuscript and a cover for your book, it's time to send it out into the world! The first option is Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing program. Amazon is the biggest platform, so most of your sales will likely come from here. You can sign up at kdp.amazon.com and publish for free, simply follow their guidelines. You can also publish on Smashwords.com. They will help you distribute to other online stores, but keep in mind Smashwords let people download your book's file to their own devices, so there's nothing stopping them from sharing it freely with others.

Promotion: Publishing by yourself may be cheaper than traditional publishing, but it also means you have to do everything yourself – including promotion. Chances are, once your novel is out on Amazon, it'll quickly disappear into the void of thousands of books in its category,, to be stumbled upon only by people filtering by 'newest releases'. To combat this, you gotta do your own promotion. My suggestion is to start this already before your book is published. Talk about it everywhere, and don't worry about being obnoxious about it. Promote yourself!! Spread the word on social media, on your website, hand out flyers, whatever you wanna do. People who like to read books in your genre will want to hear about your story. Make art and graphics, talk about your cool story and awesome characters on your Twitter or Tumblr. Get people excited! Let them know what they can expect! You can even post a few chapters for free to hook readers. Amazon also gives you 5 days a month where you can offer up your novel for free to really increase the amount of downloads and spread the word. And don't forget to put it on Goodreads! Lots of people search for new reading material only on there.

The final words: If after everything, your book still ends up getting just a few downloads and a single review who happens to be from your grandmother, try not to get too discouraged. Your first novel likely won't be your best, and hopefully won't be your last. Building reputation and a following takes a long time and involves a lot of hard work. Sometimes when I'm feeling discouraged, I think about all the publishers who turned down Harry Potter because they didn't think it was a good book. Some books go unnoticed for years until they suddenly explode into popularity. Don't lose hope! You've worked hard and you've learned so much. It can only get easier.

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

When to Give Constructive Criticism: Fitting it to the draft

I’ve gotten pretty good at giving constructive criticism (I think), and I felt like I should lay out some advice.

If you’re a decently experienced writer, you can kinda tell what kind of draft it is by looking at it. There are different kinds of drafts you might be looking at. Knowing what type of writing and writer this is is will help. If you, for example, give to amateur writer who doens’t super know what they’re doing but has just started to get excited a deeply constructive critique, it can kill their excitement. But if you give me, a decently experienced writer, some generic “It was great, you have great ideas” then I’m going to be frustrated, especially if I’m looking for something constructive.

When NOT to be constructive

>When this is obviously a beginner.

You can tell when they’re a beginner. Maybe they don’t start a new paragraph with dialogue. Maybe they put exclamation marks in their narration. Maybe the first scene is a loner teen girl getting ready for her day and you feel like some band is about to adopt them. I can usually tell right away just by the voice, and that’s something I can’t pinpoint, but I can feel it, and as soon as I feel it I can spot other problems.

I say don’t be constructive here. Even if they want to know what you really think. Tbh, I try to avoid even getting to the point of giving feedback on these, just because it’s difficult for me to read, but sometimes it’s an assignment in your creative writing class or you already said you would because you’re The Writer Friend.

Here’s what you do for a beginner: avoid any line edits-- there will be too much. Instead, find the good things-- there will probably be something that’s a good idea, something that’s interesting. Some decent story idea that is currently trapped in beginner writing. Find it and pull it out, find things to like about it. And then ask questions! Encourage them to explore the answers-- word it like “I love this idea, you’ve made me curious about this. Are you going to explore the answer in future chapters?” Never suggest that it should have been there already-- it’s hard as a beginner to take feedback as constructive and instead it can feel like you did it wrong.

The only thing a beginner can do wrong is stop writing. You job is to encourage and validate them, and by finding a good idea and asking questions about it, they can be driven to write further.

(This could backfire in that they keep asking you for feedback further on.)

>When it’s obviously raw writing

Usually this won’t come up with people asking for feedback. For me this happens in a discord I’m in where after a sprint we post excerpts of it. It’s harder to tell here-- some people’s freewriting can sound VERY professional-- but context will help. If it’s posted on tumblr it may be tagged as something or indicated somewhere (If it’s just posted on tumblr, they probably don’t want constructive criticism anyway).

Raw writing is messy, but that doesn't mean you can’t be proud of it. Critiquing raw writing is useless. The only criticism I ever give to something like that is, if I’m friendly with the person, “Let yourself be messy when you’re drafting this sounds way too eloquent for a draft.”

Show excitement here! Show intrigue! Find things that draw you in, that make you wonder what’s going on, that make you interested in reading more. If there’s not a plot thing or a character, find something in the writing-- but don’t prioritize that. Style is not important in raw writing, though if it jumps out at you, go ahead and compliment!

>When it’s writing that the writer has no intention of writing the rest of

They might be answering a prompt or just going off their mind. If something’s confusing maybe point that out, but don’t be too critical-- it’s not supposed to  be A Thing.

It’s good to show intrigue here or interest in story events, and if you think it has a lot of potential go ahead and encourage more. But the best thing to focus on here actually is style-- even if it’s raw. Their voice and style will be carried into other projects, not necessarily that plot. If you know this person and their other writing, it might be good to say like “The description is really good here, I’d like to see more of that in [their current] project].” But in general, things you like are best here.

>When they share it because they’re excited not because they want feedback

“Hey! I wrote a thing!”

Love it! Again, find something to like. They aren’t asking for feedback, just validation.

Perhaps once you read and say what you like about it, ask if they want more in-depth feedback.

>When it’s already published

No point in constructive feedback here, they can’t do anything about it. If you think they can take it you may be able to say what you didn’t like-- big things, not nitpicking-- but if not, just say things you liked about it (Even if you’re lying) and move on.

When giving Constructive Criticism

The different stages of drafts correspond to what type of criticism you’re giving. Are you a beta reader, an editor, or a proofreader?

>Beta

Ignore grammatical and spelling errors, unless you’re confused by the mistake. Ignore confusing or badly worded sentences, unless you missed something, in which case, it’s not “Fix this sentence like this to make more sense” it’s “Did I get this right? [restate what’s happening]”

Pay most attention to emotions while reading, things the author did well, moments you felt were slow. Critique when there’s plot holes or character inconsistencies or the character is flat or the description goes on to long (I got bored reading all this). And of course, if you’re sensitivity reading, pay attention to that in a critical way-- good idea to, even if you think something is okay, point out if it’s a bit iffy, why you thin it’s okay but also why someone might disagree).

Read like a reader, judge it based on how you’d judge a book you pick up for fun, with the ability to live-comment your reactions, and do so! If something surprises you, comment it, if you have a prediction, add it. But if something was too obvious, also say so. Pay attention to your feelings while reading and word it accordingly, rather than as instruction.

>Editor

Assuming you’re not a professional editor, in which case do your job. But if this is a later draft and they want you to give them real harsh feedback so they can fix it up:

Grammatical/spelling errors: I think it’s fine to point these out, but it’s not your job to look for them, and if there’s a bunch, I encourage one note (This paragraph is in present tense instead of past; Proper punctuation is to have a comma at the end of dialogue that’s tagged; etc) rather than fixing every one.

Do point out confusing sentences and suggest ways to clarify.

For the most part, reactions aren’t your job here, but channel those into advice/compliments. Look at why it’s happening-- instead of “Oooh I’m really nervous!” say “You’ve done a great job building suspense here!” or instead of “I got bored reading this exposition,” maybe “simplify the explanation here”

Point out character inconsistencies and plot holes, and actively look for them. Reread it a few times to figure it out, and bring in some analysis. Suggest subtle changes they could make, metaphors that may help, if the narration needs to be closer. Ask why they made certain choices and what they’d need to do to make those effective.

>Proofreader

Usually this isn’t your job unless specifically asked. It can be annoying, no matter your level of experience, to open feedback and see nothing but typo corrections. This is low priority until the final draft.

If you are asked to proofread though, read carefully, point out grammatical errors and typos. Reactions and large scale plot edits aren’t your concern-- if they’re really bad you may want to say “You might want to look at this plot element,” but it’s not your job to tear that apart-- you may want to ask them if they want you to, but then you become an editor, not proofreader.

>Incomplete drafts

Incompletes require a separate category, just because you can’t do the same thing. You can’t find plot holes and it may be hard to find character inconsistencies. You can, though, point out things that are interesting, things that are flat, and plenty of other things to criticize.

Them giving you an incomplete draft, though, likely means that they are looking for some validation, but they want to know if it has potential. Some people can take you telling them it has none, but that’s not usually the case. All stories have potential, I think, but that doesn’t always mean the writer will be good at it at first.

Do everything you might do as a beta, or even an editor, but instead of anything being wrong, it’s something to fix in the future, as they keep writing. Point out things that may trip them up now-- maybe a plot hole can be patched as they write-- and plot threads they should follow.

One note, though, is it’s okay to point out when they have a scene or tidbit that doesn’t add anything, but you never know if it will in the future, and imo, it’s okay to have some useless stuff in a first draft, especially if it’s a wip. Saying you didn’t see the point tot he scene can be helpful if they thought it did, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it has no place there.

On a closing note, something to keep in mind when receiving feedback

Something that took me a while to learn, something I have to remind myself, is that no matter what, a draft is okay. The critique I get doesn’t mean I should have done it like that in the first place, all it means is that I can improve it later. being a good writer isn’t about having a perfect first draft, and critiques are not evidence of being bad at it.