#afterimage-if

It's been around a month since I last wrote for Afterimage.

I started this project after rediscovering my passion for writing and storytelling, and since then my expectations and excitement have skyrocketed very quickly. However, I decided to begin this at a pretty complicated moment in my life.

Last year I was finishing high school while preparing for pre-college exams. Now, I’m still dealing with academic anxiety as I'm getting ready to actually start college in a few weeks – a big change that, honestly, has been driving me crazy as days go by.

To keep stress from getting the best of me, I’ve been spending my days doing things I enjoy, like gaming and going out with my friends and family. And I know I could've written something, but I didn't. And the reason is probably because, lately, it's been feeling a lot like work.

That's nobody's fault, really, but it’s something that has happened before, and it ended with me abandoning creative projects I cared about.

I do not want that to happen to Afterimage, though.

I’m not sure how these things usually go in the IF community, but I felt it was important to let you know what’s going on. Some people are genuinely excited about this project, and I don’t want to let anyone down by disappearing without a word.

So, for now, I’ll be officially stepping back from posting and updating. I don't know for how long, but I assure you I'll come back with updates in at least a month or two.

Just to be clear: this story is not abandoned. I’m simply doing what I should’ve done before my very first post – taking some time to get things in order and properly finish chapter one.

I'm truly passionate about this project and everything I've created for it, so I'm not letting it go.

Thank you for bearing with me.

This week, I talked to my mom and she suggested something very reasonable: write the chapters first, then code them later. Right now I’ve been trying to do both at the same time, which has been driving me crazy 😓 So I’m gonna take her advice and try to adjust my workflow.

I also went back to a scene I’d already finished and realized it was lacking some important stuff. I’m still torn between rewriting it now or leaving major rewrites for the editing phase. I ended up doing a bit of both over the last couple of days, but I’ll be putting together a clearer plan soon.

Even though the writing process is a bit messy right now, here's a few things I've come up with for mechanics/storyline:

MC will be a college dropout, and players will be able to choose their former major (which will influence personality, relationships, and more);

MC has an uncle named Peter;

For chronological and narrative reasons, respectively, I've removed both MC's age selection and the option to live in Green Park.

There’s still a lot to do, but I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished so far — especially considering this is my first time working on a project like this.

That’s it for now!

the idea first came to me around 2022. I was really into true crime and I wanted to write something like that. at first, it was a fanfic idea and the only characters I'd created were Vélez and Lilian, but as time went by I stopped plotting it and lost my obsession with fanfic as well.

then, I found out about IFs last year and I spent a really long time deciding whether I should write one or not. it was only after finding my old notebook (where I used to keep track of my fanfics) and remembering I actually had good ideas that I decided I was gonna do it.

and then afterimage was created!!

plus: jackson was based on one of the characters I was writing about and the other one became MC. lavigne and thomas though were made specifically for afterimage's plot!

when it comes to advice... well, I'm terribly disorganized, so I'm not the best person to help with that 😓

but I strongly suggest using notion! once you learn how to use it through a youtube tutorial or something like that, you can easily organize your stuff.

remember, it doesn't have to be extremely complex! if there's a section to plot your characters and write random ideas that you have, you're already doing pretty good!

FOR THE GAME:

+505 words, which means the 1st chapter is now around 7K WORDS;

I finished my first scene – a welcoming conversation with Captain Vélez!

And yeah, I realized the completion of chapter one will take some time since Afterimage's MC is heavily influenced by players' choices, therefore more branches are written than usual.

With that in mind, I'm planning on dividing each chapter into THREE PARTS so that I'm able to publish this thing soon.

FOR THE STORY:

I started working on MC'S SIBLING. I can't talk much about it because it will be a subplot, but by choosing what kind of relationship MC has with them both their personalities will be influenced.

The initial idea where MC was a local was scratched: now, they used to live somewhere else with their family, but something made them move to Graybridge.

It's been a while since I've written anything, so I'm very proud of what I accomplished yesterday.

Oh, and if anyone gets confused with my wording, feel free to ask about it!