Outlining : pt2

 Woohoo! What a long month it's been. I've been writing for the past 2 weeks and it feels like it's been forever. The main heroine's route took the longest to outline, and the others went by quickly. As I write each of the other routes, I realize there's no girl better for our MC than the main heroine. It's hard to try and fit the main theme into every route, especially since every girl has such different conflicts. I struggle to keep them all in character and sometimes they all feel like the same girl T_T The outline is about 75% done, not including editing and rewrites.

One of the heroines had a route so messy that I had to rewrite it 3 times. What's worse, is that her route directly affected all the others- so a lot of stuff from the other routes had to be changed or gotten rid of entirely. This heroine in particular is my least favorite, but I can't exactly cut her now because of how important she is to the development of the other girls.

I started working on some character sprites and they're looking good so far. Of course, they aren't masterpieces, but they are much better than whatever monstrosity I created for my last VN. I'm worried about the BGs and CGs though...and I can't decide if I want to use edited photos or draw the backgrounds. What backgrounds would look good for CGs? If I use photos for the backgrounds, how should I edit them? Will the sprites look out of place against a real life image? These are the thoughts that keep me up at night as I imagine Tatsuki laughing at me for being so foolish- "Ah~ Miki-San, If I was you I would just do this..."

I'll be back once I finish writing and editing the outline!

Outlining : pt1

Finally, I've started outlining the common route. I started by making a list of all the scenes and story beats I wanted to include in each route. Right now I'm working on outlining each route so I can start scripting all the scenes. I decided that I'm going to script straight into Ren'Py- mostly just because it makes me feel more productive and scripting on Google docs is such a bore. I want to make sure the story flows well and doesn't have pacing issues ^_^

Currently I'm planning on having 5 main routes and 2 extra routes. This is not set in stone though and may change! The common route is going well, though it might be a little long. I've been researching a lot about visual novel lengths and such, I feel that a 1-2 hour common route would be appropriate. I'm not worrying much about the length right now though, as much as I'm focusing on making sure I get every scene I want into the story. You know, there are always those scenes that you imagine in your head but once you start writing you just can't find a place for them~ I hope that there aren't many of those scenes I have to get rid of, especially with the true heroine because she's such a fun character to write.