[Episode 1.15, week 5] Moar writing

Hey guys!  I had a tough but productive week's writing.  It's getting there!  I expect the next episode will be ready to play sometime this month.

I'm finding that this stage of the story is pushing me outside my comfort zone as a writer.  I'm not that emotional in real life, so I find it hard to hard to write about girly things like feelings and relationships.  (I'd much rather write about guns and missions and safehouses.)

It's just a silly NSFW game, so I shouldn't have to care too much about that kind of thing, right?  But I've learned that sexy scenes aren't actually that hot unless you dig into the emotional undertow of the scene, and try to capture some of the ways that sex changes how people tacitly interact.

For example, while writing the previous episode, I'd expected it would be enough to just strip the heroine down to a thong and stick her behind a bar.  Topless girls are sexy, right?

But, in the end, the scene only started sparking when we started exploring her psychology and emotions about the experience, and how they developed through the night.  Turns out that "topless girl" isn't what makes that scenario sexy, the truth is a lot more complex than that.  I had to really push myself to capture some of it.

This time, I'm grappling with something similar; even though the plot developments are fairly straightforward, I'm having some challenges landing the emotional tone.  (Which needs to be right at this stage, or it's going to be very hard to write the next big change in the story.)

But I made good progress this week!  And I think it's a good sign when things are difficult, anyway.  Byron said adversity is the first path to truth.  I'm hopeful that having to operate outside my comfort zone is improving the game's writing somehow.  Maybe it's even improving me as a person?

Okay, I'm going to rest my emotion circuits for the evening, and get back into the fight tomorrow.  I'll report on progress again next week.  Have a greta Sunday everybody!  I love you all!  🥰