✍️ Writing
A community for writers, like poems, fiction, non-fiction, short stories, long books, all those sorts of things, to discuss writing approaches and what's new in the writing world, and to help each other with writing.
Rules for now:
1. Try to be constructive and nice. When discussing approaches or giving feedback to excerpts, please try to be constructive and to maintain a positive vibe. For example, don't just vaguely say something is bad but try to list and explain downsides, and if you can, also find some upsides. However, this is not to say that you need to pretend you liked something or that you need to hide or embellish what you disliked.
2. Mention own work for purpose and not mainly for promo: Feel free to post asking for feedback on excerpts or worldbuilding advice, but please don't make posts purely for self promo like a released book. If you offer professional services like editing, this is not the community to openly advertise them either. (Mentioning your occupation on the side is okay.) Don't link your excerpts via your website when asking for advice, but e.g. Google Docs or similar is okay. Don't post entire manuscripts, focus on more manageable excerpts for people to give feedback on.
3. What happens in feedback or critique requests posts stays in these posts: Basically, if you encounter someone you gave feedback to on their work in their post, try not to quote and argue against them based on their concrete writing elsewhere in other discussions unless invited. (As an example, if they discuss why they generally enjoy outlining novels, don't quote their excerpts to them to try to prove why their outlining is bad for them as a singled out person.) This is so that people aren't afraid to post things for critique.
4. All writing approaches are valid. If someone prefers outlining over pantsing for example, it's okay to discuss up- and downsides but don't tell someone that their approach is somehow objectively worse. All approaches are on some level subjective anyway.
5. Solarpunk rules still apply. The general rules of solarpunk of course still apply.
Click here to visit our solarpunk writing resource wiki!
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Wikipedia credits Twine and other story games with at least some of the blame for the decline of the gamebook industry. It really is a upgrade in so many ways - the ability to set and check hidden flags so you don't need as many (or any) "if you have" or "if you've been to" -type checks is a big improvement all on its own. In some ways game books were an awkward compromise between book and game due to the limitations of tech in their heyday. Or maybe in an few different awkward spots on a spectrum from book to game...
All that aside, I always imagined this as a proper printed choose your own adventure book (if I finish it I'll make a bookbinding version anyone can print and bind). Awkward compromise or not I love those books (CYOAs, Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf) and I really love the idea of making a solarpunk one.
I'm not sure yet how I'll do the final section numbering (to replace the twine links) and page layout but I figure I need a functional story before I worry much about that and Twine seems to be a great fit for it. I just wish I could get spell check working on the desktop version.