as an author who did lots of fantasy genre research don't get me started on how much time goes into nature/plants (!) animals food and architecture

#dc comics#dc#batman#bruce wayne#dick grayson#batfam#tim drake#dc fanart#batfamily




seen from Australia
seen from Türkiye

seen from Malaysia

seen from Malaysia
seen from United States

seen from Belarus
seen from Malaysia
seen from Hong Kong SAR China

seen from Indonesia
seen from United States
seen from Canada

seen from Malaysia

seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China

seen from Poland
seen from United States
seen from Israel
seen from United States
as an author who did lots of fantasy genre research don't get me started on how much time goes into nature/plants (!) animals food and architecture

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Utterly delightful bits of hive mind consensus world-building that I have observed emerge (the beginnings of a compendium):
Young Eridians are pebbles.
Rocky actually is kinda skittery and weird by Eridian standards (and everyone loves him for it).
Rocky mate bad as hell (means biiig); also green, and very calm and grounded.
Grace Rocky Adrian throuple. Statement.
Grace will not suffer touch-starvation any longer than is narratively necessary. That man will be hugged and snuggled by a wide variety of Eridians under every imagineable circumstance.
"Friend Grace" is a standard form of address (endearing).
Grace names every Eridian he meets after Earth fictional characters, usually from scifi canon (never real people).
What else?
Writing Spotlight: The Golden Rose
We interviewed @anathemafiction, author of the IF, The Golden Rose, Book 1. It’s a game that delivers everything it sets out to do, with its sweeping, ambitious scope and beautiful, intricate detail. It was an honor to pick her brain about bringing such a rich, complex, and truly immersive world (and its wonderful characters) to life.
In one of my favorite quotes in the interview, she writes:
[…] We Portuguese sometimes still call ourselves Lusitanos, and it always saddened me to some extent. That loss of history, of identity, is one of the major driving forces behind the Rose. What if there's a world where it's Rome that's forgotten? Where Latin is forbidden so that the languages born from it, the kingdoms, and the civilizations never came to be?
Without further ado, here’s the full interview!
What drew you to interactive fiction as a storytelling medium?
The very nature of it. I'm a big fan of RPGs, where you can shape your character and make key decisions in your adventure, and, of course, I'm also a big fan of books and literature in general. So, when I encountered my first IF game (Choice of Dragon), I was instantly hooked.
It's the perfect blend of two of my passions — storytelling and player agency. The fact that it's entirely text-based gives a kind of freedom and depth that's hard to match in other gaming media simply because the only budget it needs is the author's time and effort. It's quite literally, corny as it sounds, fuelled by your imagination.
2. Is there a part of your background—personal, cultural, professional—that finds its way into your work?
In a land that is today a region of Portugal, there used to be an agglomeration of tribes collectively known as Lusitanos. They were eventually conquered by the Roman Empire, but not before putting up such a fight that even Roman generals acknowledged their spirit. Their culture was largely eradicated, and the pieces that weren't were assimilated into the empire. We Portuguese sometimes still call ourselves Lusitanos, and it always saddened me to some extent.
That loss of history, of identity, is one of the major driving forces behind the Rose. What if there's a world where it's Rome that's forgotten? Where Latin is forbidden so that the languages born from it, the kingdoms, and the civilizations never came to be?
I'm also fascinated by the Catholic Church and its monopoly over some of the wealthiest, most powerful kingdoms of Europe. The Pope was the king of kings, so to speak, and all that power, that opulence, was born from something as simple and as human as faith.
That control, that God-like power, not only over the body but the very mind of its subjects, is another big part of the story I'm writing.
So, in summary, my cultural background was and is a major influence on this IF.
3. What does your writing process look like?
I'm what's generally called a pant-ser; I like going where inspiration takes me. Still, in a project as big as The Rose, I did write a general outline, and I have a very clear idea of where I want the plot to go and the major story beats that will get me there.
But the in-betweens are often left blank. I think, even if I tried to plan every single detail beforehand, I wouldn't be able to. Even the scenes and chapters that I have planned, I'm always open to changes or deviations from the outline. If a character, a situation, or, especially, the MC decides to surprise me, I kind of roll with it.
To be honest, most of my favorite scenes, dialogues, and even characters that I've written were born as a sudden inspiration and not from the pages of an outline.
But as for my actual writing process, it goes like this: I go chapter by chapter, and I always begin by handwriting the first draft. I don't know why, but handwriting, when it comes to just getting the ideas out of your head, with no finesse, no grammar checks, just the pure chaos of materializing your thoughts into tangible words, is the best medium for me.
After that, I write the second draft on the computer. There, I fill in all the choices and paths I didn't write in the first draft, and, of course, beautify the text, make the dialogue fit the characters, discard or expand on rudimentary ideas, etc. Basically, it's where I write the text that'll appear in the game.
This juxtaposition between the first draft and the second allows me to rethink story beats, adjust the progression of the characters' relationships, postpone scenes, etc. Basically, it allows me to think about where the chapter is going.
The third step is to put it all in code and make it playable. As I go through the Word document, I make minor edits here and there, but nothing major.
The actual editing is made later, in what I call a 'deep edit.' I usually do this when I finish writing the following chapter because looking at a text with fresh eyes allows you to spot mistakes much better than if you do it right away.
4. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone just starting out in interactive fiction?
To follow up on the last question, I will say that you need to know yourself. Just as I operate better without a clear, bullet-proof plan, other people thrive with a structured outline, a character glossary 20k words long, chapter charts, and multicolored graphics. My advice is that before you embark on such a complex and often big project as an IF game, you should know your own writing process, and the only way for you to know that is if you write.
I'd say start with short stories or small fables, but honestly, just write anything. Dive right in, and with time, you'll begin to know yourself as a writer.
When you know yourself and your own style, then begin the IF. You'll never be truly 100% prepared — we're always learning and adjusting. I'm not the same writer I was when I first started The Rose, and I won't be what I am now when I finish this second book. We're constantly evolving, so allow yourself space to fail and fall short of expectations. This is, after all, a marathon, not a sprint.
5. What’s a common mistake you see in interactive storytelling, and do you have any tips on how to avoid it?
Not so much a mistake but a misconception. I think people, especially those with little to no experience writing (or any creative hobby), believe that it's an inspiration-based activity. That you write whenever you feel like it.
This is completely wrong. If I only wrote whenever I felt inspired to, I wouldn't have made it past the third chapter of book one.
Some days — most days — you won't feel like writing. You sit at your desk, and you do it. You have to face it like a job, almost. You clock in, do your work, and leave. Does this mean I have no joy in writing? Of course not. I get really into it once I begin, but it's not every day that I wake up and want to leap for my pen.
Sometimes, I'd rather go out hiking with my dog, meet a friend for coffee, or watch another episode of whatever show I'm watching. But, when writing IF, you often will have to make these sacrifices, and, many times, you won't even be blessed with inspiration, so that sacrifice is made easier.
This is made even worse in IF. Due to the nature of the medium, you will get days where you're stuck writing repeating passages or paths you're not entirely interested in. You will want to pull the hair out of your head. You'll have to clench your teeth and do it — otherwise, you won't make it to the fun, rewarding bits where everything comes together.
It's not an exaggeration when people say, 'writing is hard.' Anyone can do it. Very few actually do. I think it's less about talent and more about commitment.
End of interview
—
A big thanks once again to Anathema for her insightful answers, and @veswrites-if for taking the time to coordinate the interview. Hope that this was a fun and interesting read.
Stay tuned for more of these interviews, both for the Writing Spotlight AND for Pride Month!!
My Hellaverse Writing & Drawing Resources (Masterpost) + Blog Tags
(A lot of this is for me, but feel free to use if you want.)
(Is updated as I stumble across more or make my own resources)
Blog Tags/AU’s
#Undercover Angel AU (During his battle with Adam, Alastor reveals that he’s been an angel all along)
#Poison AU (Angel Dust and Alastor role reversal - Angel is an overlord and Vox owns Alastor’s soul)
#RadioDealer AU (Husk and Alastor role reversal - Husk own Alastor’s soul)
#Heavens Hunter AU (Exorcist Alastor who specializes in killing Overlords)
My World-Building, Character Analysis, and Lore
The Hierarchal Power Structure in Pentagram City + Royal Family Character Analysis
Lucifer's Religious Trauma - Character Analysis
World-Building Lore
Warning : hole clusters
•
•
•
•
"The moment the music stopped, the real fight began"
(Yap below cut)

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
I am curious to see how many people work like I do~
how do you world-build?
I research and plan everything beforehand
I have a vague idea beforehand, but I figure out all the details as I write
I plan everything beforehand but as I write it all goes off the rails
idk man I just hold on tight while the world takes me for a ride
y'all world-build?
I spend all my time world-building and forget to ever write the story
other (put it in the tags)
I am any of the above, depending on the weather, moon-phase, caffeine, etc
Devera script, revised.
Been putting off the other two scripts until now (Devera and Ontaele) to focus on another project. I have failed to focus on that other project. So let's get something else done instead, and try again afterwards.
I'm happy with how this one turned out; was able to retain most of the ideas of the original draft, while also tying in some elements of the larger family tree. I find that I enjoy this process more when I let go of making a 1:1 phonetic script and embrace "okay what weird quirk have I accidentally created, and can I make it a feature instead of a bug?" And then all of a sudden it's not just a writing system, it's a writing system with a history.