Laki - Narrative Designer | Author | Artist

So we've set our sights on making a mysterious social roguelike of sorts, where the relationship with the party and what they remember is key. It fits my excitement for experimental character writing perfectly!

We're going for an 8~ hour play time, so I need to show restraint 😆

#GameDev

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Blue Prince is probably the most layered, extensive puzzle game I've ever played, and that includes all of the Myst series. I don't think I've ever used quite so much paper! 📃✍️

I want to write them a glowimg review on Steam, just usually want to beat a game first - but this one just keeps going!

I'll be sharing little glimpses of development during my inevitable dive back into graphic novel-ing and game design, a direction my brain has always not-so-secretly wanted to go.

Thank you to everyone who followed me as a book person. I still write tons, just mainly for visual mediums atm.

In fairness to the piece, this story (Spirit.I.) was originally meant to be an adventure game series, and it seems it has no intention to lose that. The lonely explorer vibe - no matter how jazzed up by my MC's personality it is - invites a lot more desire to participate than observe.

So! I've been a little quiet lately, as my creative direction has taken a spin...

It turns out, in the attempt to write an engaging paranormal mystery with a witchy fantasy twist, I ended up drafter the outline for an extremely cool game instead of a book 🥲

🎮✍️

Happy Pride Month 2025 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
Be gay do crow stuff

#pridemonth #pridecrows

Current obsession:

Absorbing every psychological and philosophical angle of Slay the Princess 🗡💗

This game is BRILLIANT

The battle has truly been lost on this one! Especially for writers who draw their own characters (even me).

Using "OC" still feels like taking a kind of demotion from being a full-blown author, but I get that people expect fan art, and need the distinction of "self-made" in fewest letters possible.

Reminds me of how I was *very* confused when I saw people using "OC" to refer to just... characters in their own fictions.

It seems the usage has spread and solidified, likely because "OC" is short, so it helps in limited text space. But it was super odd to me at first.

Poster Pit THE RULES MAXIMUM OF THREE PITCHES FOR THE ENTIRE EVENT, AND NO MORE THAN ONE PER HOUR PITCH MUST INCLUDE A "MOVIE POSTER" GRAPHIC LIKE IN THE PROVIDED EXAMPLES, WITH ALT TEXT MOODBOARDS, ART OUTSIDE OF THE POSTER, AND ANY OTHER GRAPHICS ARE PROHIBITED ANYONE CAN LIKE THE PITCHES, WHETHER IT BE WRITERS, AGENTS, OR EDITORS USE DESIGNATED AUDIENCE, GENRE, AND #POSTERPIT HASHTAGS

#PosterPit is coming soon!

Me: I don't know brain, between all the medical appointments, you think we could do some, ya know... writing? That favorite thing we like to do in life? There's a decent number of days between these things-

Brain: But one of them is a blood draw... 👀 ONE OF THEM is a BLOOD DRAW.

a man in a pirate costume with a feathered hat and mustache Alt: a man in a pirate costume with a feathered hat and mustache

Your opening line is your first chance (and sometimes your only chance) to hook a reader, publisher, or agent. Let's look at some ways to make it unforgettable.

A thread 🧵🪓

#writingcommunity

More to come👇🏻

Thank you! It's really the whole reason my spouse reads my story 😆

Coolest nonhuman character in my book is Shadow Friend, Sage's silent sidekick.

The little shadow spirit peers over Sage's shoulder during investigations, and helps out by slipping into tiny gaps or moving light objects.

When not on detective duty, it likes to play and nibble on things!

Really drives home the point that when we do our job to entertain people, we're writing for a better class of people who need a deeper challenge.

... In which case, thank goodness most of us stick to being good, because Phew! But still. Annoying how much the cartoonish evil lives on.

I dunno guys, all this time learning how to write complex, nuanced, mastermind villains, and all we get irl is this Saturday Morning Cartoon slop?

I now believe we're having a "good guys writing bad guys" problem 🫠

Had a little binge of major edits on @musedoes.bsky.social and I's shared story for the last few days while waiting out some irl headache issues.

The romantasy epic was escalating too far into tragic drama and needed room wedged back in for actual romance ☠️💘

I'm biased toward Veridian because I have an important fortress/institution in one of my stories name that, explicitly for the color and tropical setting 😄

I think with the *e* makes it more clear it's about the color, while the *i* hides it a little for subtlety, perhaps.

#febredit
hahahaha.....
The critique that changed my life was @calarion.bsky.social ripping a first draft of a play to shreds.
I spent 24 hours thinking divorce was on the cards 😅
When the rage cleared, I realized not only how every point he'd made was right, but that 1/2

#QueerPrompts

Oh no, they sensed my whole plot!! Run! 👀💦

So, yes, there's a worldbuilding reason that Spirit Eyes are not typically found anywhere near each other. While the scattering of hermits are beyond issues of basic discrimination, the motives behind reinforcing that hermitage run deep 🤫

Fabulous! I love your art style! I'm sure your video will be great 🙂‍↕️

Sorry friend 😔

Writing really is a slow world. It's especially true for first books because they represent a HUGE leap of learning to go from first draft to truly publish ready. Figuring out who and what gate checks can help you tell if it's actually time is a big part of that.

Thank you so much for the last little jigsaw pieces! Now I have the complete picture 😁

On 6) is the drama triangle from one of the writing books you mentioned?

And in 11) what is meant by "by stealth"?

Thank you so much for going to the trouble to screenshot (and even ALT text!) this for the rest of us! I think your list is brilliant and comprehensive, and very useful to those learning how to get into a more rigorous editing process.

If you don't mind, I'd like to ask about two of the points (1/2

1 Do a run per major character, per scene looking at their INTENTION > WHY they have that/feel like that > the OBSTACLE they face (and remember the four key emotions at the core of everything: Anger, Hurt, Fear, Love) 2. Run through checking that every scene has a turning point. If it doesn't, why is it in there? 3. Check there is Inhaling and Exhaling happening (as in, action - reaction, excitement - calm) - also check Motivation-Reaction Units 4. "Scan through the whole text for POV - what assumptions do people make about the feelings of others, and am I making it clear these are assumptions and why they are assuming e.g. body language? Am I ever head hopping? Do I ever info dump out of POV? Am I ever slipping into omniscient? Third person close: think about - Word choice What to focus on and what to ignore Whether to emphasize the character’s thoughts and emotions e.g. are descriptions coming from the point of relevance to protag, or her opinion on such things? When are we getting protag's thoughts, and when are we not? Drop AS MANY internal questions as possible!" 5. When doing the dialogue run, look at the speech patterns of every character and make some decisions about stylisation for each - contractions? Slang? other features of speech? Edit for everyone having different facial expressions and gestures 6. Look at using the drama triangle for conversations 7. Edit for exposition, especially in speech 8. Edit for showing and telling - search for telling emotions rather than showing, look for any thought/wondered/realised/hoped etc, look for explaining motivations (usually headed off with a 'because') 9. Edit for - is something a scene when it could be a summary - and vice versa. But also for conversations which might not need to be conversations

10. Edit for adverbs around speech, and for places where said would be better than other words 11. Edit for stage directions by stealth 12. Edit for active/passive voice 13. Edit for speaking and doing at the same time - make sure it is possible 14. Edit for transitions, especially in and out of memory 15. Edit for thinking rather than feeling the moment 16. Edit for removing some of the scaffolding questions and marrying ideas in, in a more organic fashion 17. "Edit using Steering the Craft (a lot of this is covered in other points but also: - Watch adjectives and adverbs - do you really need it? - Have fun with pathetic fallacy - putting mood and exposition into the details eg. foreshadowing events, using evocative words, using descriptive passages as a chance to reveal something about character - Crowd the necessary moments, leap over the unnecessary)" 18. Edit for sentence grammar and making sense - refer to Elements of Style 19. Vary sentence length more 20. Edit for paragraph length and breaks 21. Edit for repetition of words (crowd, threat, long, turn, suddenly, started to, had, down, up, got and also) - run a word cloud first 22. Edit for scenery (this can come way late) 23. Read aloud!!!

books while doing structural edits: Saves the Cat, Take Off Your Pants.

For the following revision/edit rounds, I've made up a table of approaches for mini-revision runs, getting a bit granular here but they are included below if you are interested
2/2

#febredit For me, and I'm only just starting to understand this myself, but it's that the first (arbitrary number, but) 1 million words are just practice, and then after that you'll find your voice.

It's been true for me, both with first drafts and with revising too. I actually enjoy revising now 😅

#QueerPrompts

It's a lot of this... until it snaps 💙