Tell me about it. Though I feel the theme can develop with the story as you go along, I'm also struggling with a hook. It doesn't help that most of my ideas are basically "ok so this starts out like regular X BUT ACTUALLY" and that's really hard to sell without spilling the beans from the getgo. Still, yeash, it's important that you write what you feel is appropriate for you now. I started with what is going to be the second or third story in the collection simply because it's the one I wanted to write right now. That said, I feel it's probably the most depressing one in the book, and that's saying something considering my last year's halloween story is set to be in this collection
I honestly feel the lack of a theme for the story is bothering me. I mean, even just describing the premise to people makes me realize how absolutely generic it sounds and so I feel I need a better hook for it. This is really more of a frustration story as well of which I had a similar story I was originally going to do for NaNo but that one actually had more of a fun gimmick to it and it was a comedy piece whereas the one I'm currently working on is just kind of depressing and not something I need to be in right now. I may actually change to the other story, cause lord knows I need some more humor in my life. Still, I want to kind of get back to my novel and my other story collection project so at least I'm feeling inspired at least.
I think it's normal that once you start actually working on a project, it loses a lot of its lustre. Like, I just started the NaNo thing and was super excited about my story that is high fantasy on the surface but it's actually cosmic horror, but now that I'm writing it, it's like pulling teeth again. You really gotta push through it if you want to finish something.
Course the 3DS version has the other alternate ending where you can marry Jessica because people are very possessive of their waifus. I finished DQIV last night, only have Chapter 6 left but I'm probably going to stop my handheld DQ gaming and focus on finishing up Tactics Ogre instead. As for my NaNo story... I already hate it and have been getting more inspired to go back to a different one I did a few years back. I have some ideas for it that I feel will vastly improve the narrative so I don't quite feel like a hack. Sadly, I've been watching so much Death Stranding stuff lately, that I feel like I should be trying to come up with something a bit more avant-garde since I tend to have more fun with those types of stories or projects. I've been focusing too much on mundane real life stories as of late and I feel I may need to jump into something abit more creative and world building focused.
That reminds me I need to do that myself. I also did the Dragovian chapter on the 3DS, but never got around to rebattling the final boss to see the golden ending. Will make an attempt at some point, that's for sure. I've yet to sit down to NaNo, but I will try to do that today. I'm gonna work on my short story collection so that I have some stuff that I can start sending out to contest while the whole book gets rejected multiple times. Good to hear that you're excited aboyut a new project. The stuff where you've got nothing planned is usually the most rewarding once it's done.
Yeah, but you still kind of had to sacrifice a comrade to get that better world. So I would still say it's a bit bittersweet. At least compared to the rest of the franchise. In DQVIII news, I beat the Lord of the Dragovians and gained the right to undergo the Dragovian Trials. Might try to make a few more alchemy items like the Dragon Slayer before I go further. Technically I already accomplished what I wanted here and unlocked the new ending, but I figure I should give the trials a chance since the first fight wasn't terribly difficult. In DQIII, I'm in the post-game and debating if I really want to tackle the Zenith Dragon stuff or just call it a day. In DQIV, I've reached the final dungeon of Chapter 5. I did stop to complete the Immigrant Town sidequest which I always forget how disappointing it is compared to VII's better version of it. In other news, I am doing NaNo, though I'm not really sure how well this one is going to go. I'm coming back to an older story I've been mulling over for years, but finally felt I was in the right mindset for it. Probably taking this piece a little more personally than I should. On the brightside, I don't really have much of a plan on how this story is really going to unfold, so there is a lot of potential for this piece to go into some interesting directions. It's rare for me to write a piece where I don't have a clear idea of what the ending is going to be. I don't even know who all of the characters are going to be. So this should be interesting. I missed writing today, but I'll write some tomorrow since I have time off finally.
Even then, I don't think DQVI is that bittersweet? I feel the only really sad thing about that ending is Ahslynn disappearing, with the world pretty much being left in a much better state aside from that
I finished DQIII. Forgot how much more cinematic the Super Famicom version was with the final battle. Very reminiscent of the battle with Magus intro which was super nice. Zoma wasn't quite as nasty as Baramos was, but he is incredibly Disruptive Wave happy which I guess is normal since he was the first boss in the series to have it. Still makes him annoying. I think one of the reasons I really liked DQIII besides the twist is the fact the ending is really bittersweet at best. I mean you save both worlds, but now Loto is trapped in a foreign land with no way back. They witnessed the death of their father and now their mother lost both her husband and child. Not to mention Zoma's final words basically foreshadows the events of the later games. It's a pretty dark ending compared to some of the other entries. I think only DQVI ended on such a bittersweet note.
I'd imagine they do a better job in some regards, but a lot of those genres also tend to be more episodic, so they can just leave the stories on a cliffhanger to get the player coming back for the sequel. At least that's what I would imagine. I hear mixed things about games like Life is Strange and the Telltale franchises. I feel the tougher part for them would be trying to keep the story going in a way that remains fresh and exciting.
I mean, that's probably one of the factors. When it's a big budget thing, you need to think economically and make cuts in places that would make the most sense from a marketing standpoint (and not necessarily a narrative standpoint). It probably explains why indie titles don't suffer this problem, as they're usually already made from passion using shoestring budgets, so ironically, they have more freedom in that regard. Still, I wonder what it's like for more mainstream narrative-driven games, where the narrative is the selling point. And I don't mean RPGs, since not everyone plays those for the narrative - I mean more stuff along the lines of Life is Strange or Tellatele games or something (never played those so I don't know).
