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Izz

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Anybody interested in writing interactive fiction? I've just discovered, via Simon Kewin, one of the W1S1 founders, inklewriter, which is designed specifically for writing interactive, text-based fiction. Excitement!
 

defcon6000

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Anybody interested in writing interactive fiction? I've just discovered, via Simon Kewin, one of the W1S1 founders, inklewriter, which is designed specifically for writing interactive, text-based fiction. Excitement!
That's neat. :) But I wouldn't know where to begin with an interactive story. Would you write it like a 'choose your own adventure'?

And ugh, so tired. I need to finish editing my Deep Cuts sub and write the recommendation... Yes, I procrastinated.
 

Izz

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That's neat. :) But I wouldn't know where to begin with an interactive story. Would you write it like a 'choose your own adventure'?
Yeah, that'd probably be the main way you'd use it. I think the makers of inklewriter specialize in games, so i'm guessing (even with all my enthusiasm, i haven't had much of a chance to play, yet) you could structure your story similar to an interactive game.

I was thinking perhaps a mystery story, with the reader being the detective/sleuth and the responses they choose (lines of questioning, etc) dictates what information they know and what conclusion they reach. Which is basically a Choose Your Own Adventure, except maybe called Solve Your Own Mystery :D

Hopefully next week i'll have a day or two of downtime (i've smashed my word goal for the month already), and then i plan to inkle!
 

Nathaniel Katz

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As I start driving back to college tomorrow, my Summer of Incredible Productivity is now over. And its name might be a tad of misnomer. Outside of fiction, I did read fifty-one books (I read fast...) and write a whole stack of reviews. But I've only worked on three stories. The one I finished was for submission to Black Library and turned out... rather mediocre, alas. Then there's a humor story for Alex that desperately needs revision and, I fear, may be proof that a sarcastic protagonist in a dark tale is as funny as I can get without my writing falling to pieces*. Finally, there's the detective story whose first draft I just finished three minutes ago. I like this one quite a bit, but it will need a fair bit of editing.

On the upside, I did improve my writing habits from where they were last year, and I've been writing something every day for a few weeks now. Time will tell if I can keep that up at college...

*This is an example of the ironclad tactic of telling the editor of an anthology that your story is rubbish before you even submit it. I don't see how it can fail!
 

alexshvartsman

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*This is an example of the ironclad tactic of telling the editor of an anthology that your story is rubbish before you even submit it. I don't see how it can fail!

Editor? Where?? *hides*


I have revised my submission cover letter. It is now this:

deareditor.jpg



Nothing can possibly go wrong.
 

defcon6000

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Nothing can possibly go wrong.
Except when the editor doesn't own a cat. Should take a footnote from the Dune movie: poison the editor, the only known antidote has to be milked from a cat--which you'll only provide if they accept your story.
 

Nathaniel Katz

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Ha! This truly is an ingenious solution. Though I would feel bad for the cat...
 

Eliza C

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Editor? Where?? *hides*
I have revised my submission cover letter. It is now this:

Nothing can possibly go wrong.

Ha! (Love the graphics.) Sure, what could go wrong?
(BTW - if that had been a picture of a puppy, I would have found this not the least bit funny.)
 

Izz

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Passed 65k words written for the month today. 15k over budget. 7,500 of those have been short fiction words. 2 short story drafts completed so far, 3 other stories in progress (2 of them started last month). 1 novel draft finished, and almost 35k into the new novel.

At the beginning of the week i thought i might hit 75k for the month, but i think 70k is more likely, as i'm beginning to fade a bit, and i'd like a day or two off before ripping into the new month.

That's a lot of stattage crammed into 2 paragraphs. I should probably think about condensing my blog posts to a similar length :D
 

defcon6000

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Received an odd email this morning. Editor from Phantom Drift was asking for 1,700 Euros 'cause he'd lost his wallet.

I wonder if there's any shame to using submitters' emails as your personal mailing list. Not to mention, something like this would never work due to diffusion of responsibility.
 

zanzjan

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Received an odd email this morning. Editor from Phantom Drift was asking for 1,700 Euros 'cause he'd lost his wallet.

I wonder if there's any shame to using submitters' emails as your personal mailing list. Not to mention, something like this would never work due to diffusion of responsibility.

Almost certainly his account password was compromised, and the email was sent to everyone in his inbox/outbox/address book. This is a fairly common scam, with variants about being mugged on vacation, etc.

If you have some means of letting the editor know outside of the compromised account itself, it might not hurt to drop a gentle note.
 

defcon6000

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Almost certainly his account password was compromised, and the email was sent to everyone in his inbox/outbox/address book. This is a fairly common scam, with variants about being mugged on vacation, etc.

If you have some means of letting the editor know outside of the compromised account itself, it might not hurt to drop a gentle note.
Ah, I hadn't heard about that. I just thought this editor was kind of pathetic. No, I don't have any other means to contact the guy. Heck, I'd forgotten about the zine until now.
 

Eliza C

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Ah, I hadn't heard about that. I just thought this editor was kind of pathetic. No, I don't have any other means to contact the guy. Heck, I'd forgotten about the zine until now.

Yes, very common scam. I know a few people who have received e-mails like that. Most of them I've heard of have happened via Facebook hacking. It's possible that either your account or his somewhere on the web has been compromised. If you have any suspicions that your e-mail was hacked or if you posted on any forum about your submission (especially Facebook) you might want to consider changing your password. Seems to usually be a one-shot try to get money and honestly that one sounds like a form-letter sort of hacking, cause who would ever say an editor lost his wallet and needs money?? Usually it uses the name of a friend or acquaintance.
 

defcon6000

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Yes, very common scam. I know a few people who have received e-mails like that. Most of them I've heard of have happened via Facebook hacking. It's possible that either your account or his somewhere on the web has been compromised. If you have any suspicions that your e-mail was hacked or if you posted on any forum about your submission (especially Facebook) you might want to consider changing your password. Seems to usually be a one-shot try to get money and honestly that one sounds like a form-letter sort of hacking, cause who would ever say an editor lost his wallet and needs money?? Usually it uses the name of a friend or acquaintance.
Pretty sure it's not my email; I do not put my email out there on the web. It came from the editor's account and had his name on it.

<digs around>

Ah, found it!
If you have any questions, contact Managing Editor:​
So someone hacked their yahoo email, knowing it'd have a list of contacts from submitters, then went on a spamy rampage.

Well that was an interesting mystery. Also that yahoo may not be reliable.
 

Eliza C

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Glad to hear it wasn't yours. Pain in the butt for the folks it happens to. The people I know who got hacked had to e-mail all their contacts to warn them that they indeed had not been held up in Europe and needed money to get home, then had to change all their passwords. You'd probably be doing the editor a big favor by letting him know if others haven't already.
 

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Good for you, O'Dandelo. I am trying to reach 100 by the end of the year. So far, I am at 71.
 

michael_b

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Ah, just clicked send on my 50th submission. Nice little milestone to make me feel like a real writer.

I wish I'd thought about tracking stuff like that. I have no idea how many times I've sent things out or how many acceptances I've had either for that matter.
 

zanzjan

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Just a reminder for anyone who hasn't seen the announcement, AW will be down for maintenance for a brief span late tonight. See details here, including how to convert time window to your local time.

There's always chat, if you can't live without your fix :)
 

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Congrats, ODandelo!

As for me, I'd lost my way right at the start of the new school year. It's a busy time for high school English teachers, to say the least. But I started my new weekly story last night, and OH, HOW I'VE MISSED YOU FOLKS!