The Silent Column (Thread Closed, New Development Blog)

[Ran08]

Ack. He is?! My bad. And I don't mean wild as in the wild party boy. I mean wild as in... er... do you know Shea from HM? Hahaha. He's super sweet and innocent though. XD I just got the feeling that Tashen likes helping people the way Shea does. XD

Either Serra or Keith, then, I guess? I like little kids! Hahaha. I'm an only child, so I've always wanted little siblings. Lol.

Hahahaha, alright then...
Sorry for calling it creepy though. I thought it was like... on purpose, because of the genre.
Still, good luck on this!

[SelLi]

Ack. He is?! My bad. And I don't mean wild as in the wild party boy. I mean wild as in... er... do you know Shea from HM? Hahaha. He's super sweet and innocent though. XD I just got the feeling that Tashen likes helping people the way Shea does. XD

Either Serra or Keith, then, I guess? I like little kids! Hahaha. I'm an only child, so I've always wanted little siblings. Lol.

Hahahaha, alright then...
Sorry for calling it creepy though. I thought it was like... on purpose, because of the genre.
Still, good luck on this!

No worries and sure I can work on Keith.

[SelLi]

There we go. I think I have the night time one the way I want it. The day time one looks pretty good too but I still need to work on it a little bit, I think. It looks a little too plain in some parts.

[SelLi]

Kay, train station's done.

And writing is coming along well which I am thankful for.

And after seeing this http://s.vndb.org/sf/16/316.jpg my mind was blown at how cool the text box was. Man. Maybe I should work on mine a bit more...

[SelLi]

Just so you all know, I'm still alive.
I haven't been working on the project too much as of late but I've been thinking about it and expanding parts of it in my head, and I have been writing a little bit down.
I wrote a little bit today, regarding a certain video tape.
But, yes... it is not abandoned, I'm continuing to work on it.
I hope you are all having a great summer.

[SelLi]

Most of my characters tend to be rational a lot of the time, not doing anything too outrageous or reckless.
Because of this reason (and some spoiler reasons), I rarely have fight scenes.
But, realistically, people- and therefore characters- do act out of character sometimes.
In certain situations, people may not be entirely rational, and other times, fighting needs to happen.
Thanks in part to a particular epic fight song with an accordion, I wrote a fight scene today, involving two pretty significant characters. Very spur of the moment, but in a lot of ways, it feels appropriate: Char.2 was already suspecting Char.1 of targeting them for assassination, and Char.1 was very excited, and needing to let out a bunch of bottled up things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osSgFvJhOes

[SelLi]

Have been writing about Suzu and her time in Vadleen as she tries to figure out things, like the identities of those around her.

[SelLi]

Writing about Tashen and Kina helping Sal and her friends search for people in the city.

[SelLi]

Wrote a scene about wandering around the remains of a destroyed space ship.

Also, lately I've been writing in third person and in present tense. In third person, I can float between other people's points of view pretty seamlessly, and I like present tense better because it makes you feel like you're actually in the story while it's happening.

(An example of third person present tense in comparison to first person past tense:
1st past: A chill crept through the air and made my skin crawl...
3rd presant: A chill creeps through the air and makes Maielle's skin crawl...)

It's hard to say who the protagonist is (For a few different reasons.)
First of all (not wanting to give away much, but) let's just say that the names of some of the characters... change sometimes. :3

Second, I write the story from different characters' points of view, whenever I want! ^_^

So far, though, it's pretty fair to say that the story usually follows either Tashen or Suzu. Though again, other characters are also followed.

[Reikun]

Yay, an update!! Oh man, a person/tense change. I'm worried about all the re-writing that might take place for all the earlier stuff you did! But if you think it will deliver the story better than first person past, go for it!

[SelLi]

Yay, an update!! Oh man, a person/tense change. I'm worried about all the re-writing that might take place for all the earlier stuff you did! But if you think it will deliver the story better than first person past, go for it!

^_^
Very glad you're enjoying it.
Stay tuned for the next couple of days- an important update is coming up.

[SelLi]

Against my better judgment, I stayed up until 4 in the morning finishing the thing I said I'd do. Here it is. Enjoy. ^^
Now off to bed... sheesh...

[SelLi]

Made a new character. She goes by the name "Petti". Sal, Trad, Saile, and maybe Tashen and April, find her when looking for other survivors in the city.
I'm still writing about her, and she is still quite new for me, too.
But I already know of a few things she can do/ people she can meet/ places she can go.

[SelLi]

Made a new character. She doesn't say what her name is, but she is known to some as "Keeper".
She is in vadleen. She is quiet, and peaceful, and is friends with a hotel land lord. She is grown up, too, as opposed to a lot of the other characters- especially outside of Vadleen.
She does her best to provide things that people need and protect people from hostile forces without becoming hostile herself.
She enjoys getting to know people on a personal level, whoever they may be, and looks up to her friend the land lord.
He doesn't have a name yet, but he's just a cool guy.
I don't think I'm going to make an update for him, though.

I'm going to try to work on the story, specifically during this month (November), since it's national writing month and all. I'd really like to get the writing completed for the demo, and I might be able to, but I don't want to make any promises.
I'll let your hearts recover after they all skipped a beat there for a second: talk of a demo. Cool ^_^

Anyone can feel free to pm me or leave a comment here and I'll pm you with the demo's text when the day comes that I feel it's ready. It won't be a full demo- just the text- but yeah.

[SelLi]

Hello all of you.
As I said in my last post, I've been working on the text for The Silent Column's demo this month. The demo is well over due, and I've written quite a lot for the story over these years. So, in a full month, I thought I'd be able to get the demo text to you no problem.
But there have been a few problems.

Though I have written much for the VN, many of the pieces I've written are old in some way. Some of those scenes simply need to be edited to shift things from first person past to third person present, while others need to be completely rewritten due to slow pacing or other reasons.
Also, some things I've written for the project just aren't making it into the final VN, and when I started writing the project, things were generally written without much thought of how everything would tie together.

I've been rewriting, editing, and writing completely new things for the demo but I'm not personally satisfied with the length of the demo text as it is right now.
However, I don't know when I'd be satisfied with the length of the demo. Or rather, I don't know when another appropriate time to end the demo would be.

When people make a demo, generally speaking, they want to leave the reader/viewer with a hook or something that makes them want more.
The demo for Katawa Shoujo ended at the end of the school festival, where you either ended up spending time with one of the girls, or... well... *cough* being

MANLY.

And then, if you were starting a relationship with one of the girls, you got to see an epically animated video featuring them and Hisao.
There was a proper first act, and it made sense to end the demo there.

However, I don't know if The Silent Column has a first act like that.
If I kept writing, I don't know when I'd stop without going until Christmas (in the VN) which is most probably way too far into the VN for a demo.

Things do happen early on, but so does Hisao's heart problem in Katawa Shoujo. Ending the demo there would be far too short.

As things are right now... even though I'm not satisfied with the length of the demo as it is, It ends on at least a little bit of a hook.

The demo text is roughly 8700 words as it stands, and if anyone wants to read it as it is now, they can pm me.

lol this is a very scattered and unprofessional post, isn't it? All well.

I'll just continue to write, I suppose. What do you guys think about all of this?

Please be polite. ^^;