Writing Challenges
This week's Odd Prompts writing challenge at More Odds than Ends was from Cedar Sanderson: It wasn’t really a love potion
My first thought was the old Searchers song "Love Potion #9," although that's more a case of "unclear on the concept," in the character administers it on himself thinking it'll make him more lovable, rather than administering it to the person he wants to fall in love with him. But it did make me think about the ethics of love potions, and how it might be reflected in a game -- which led me back to Elaine playing otome games in the Lion in Scarlet sequence.
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The Use of Spoiler Files
Afternoon was giving way to evening, and Elaine still had no more of a clue than she had started with in the morning. Although she knew she really needed to set the game aside and watch the next lesson in Marshal Gruzinsky’s video lecture series on military history from prehistory to the present, she also knew that she’d never be able to concentrate on it as long as her inability to reach the true ending was still nagging at her mind.
Which means I’ll just have to hope he doesn’t quiz me on the material when he gets back from Sacramento.
She was never quite sure how he viewed her interest in all the various training videos on the Sparta Point LAN. Did he find it amusing, like watching children playing school? Or did he actually admire her determination to gain at least part of the education opportunities she’d lost when she’d had to forego her college acceptances to take refuge here?
No doubt she could’ve used her telepathy to find out. But now that she’d received Institute training, it felt like a violation of his mental privacy. Maybe letting it remain ambiguous was the best course, especially as her peculiar role here at Sparta Point developed.
In the meantime, she might as well keep trying. Back when she was still living with the Alandales in Silicon Valley, she would’ve started looking for spoiler files. But as long as the Feds were still looking for her, any foray onto the Internet, however brief and focused, could betray her - and Sparta Point.
It was frustrating, because she had no idea what could be keeping her from the grand finale. She’d cleared the paths to all four capture targets, but all four endings she’d seen so far were visibly incomplete. Which suggested there was either a hidden capture target or a hidden path she’d completely missed.
Back when she’d first started playing otome games, she’d struggled for days with a similar incomplete ending, only to discover that if you actually used the love potion you brewed as part of the second side quest, the final quest never unlocked and the best you could get was a partial ending.
So what was the equivalent to that love potion in this game? Although it was based upon Plum Blossom War, which she’d been able to keep up with in all its various incarnations - manga, light novels, and anime - it had sufficient significant differences that knowing the storyline in other media didn’t necessarily give one an obvious guide .
The sound of a door opening pulled her from her thoughts. She looked up just as Lisa stepped out.
No, she was not going to attract Lisa’s attention. While Lisa would’ve been as happy to get her spoiler files as the latest issues of her favorite manga, it felt too much like cheating. Finding spoiler files was part of the challenge of getting yourself unstuck, since most of their creators would give them file names that required understanding of the game to find.
Which meant there was nothing to do but brute-force it. Go back to the beginning and try all the options of each character interaction until she either revealed the secret or lost interest from the sheer tedium of the process.
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It's just a sketch, mostly because it's well into book four, when books one through three are still just collections of notes (other than an extremely early version of book one that I wrote decades ago, which is only a shadow of what it needs to become).
I also thought of a possible scene from Phoenix in Cyberspace in which Roger and Toni are trying to sort out a malfunctioning love potion in one of the fantasy games. However, with me on the road for two different conventions, there just wasn't time to work it out.
I wrote my story for the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Writing Challenge back on Sunday, because I knew I'd be far too busy yesterday and today.
As always, if you'd like to participate in Odd Prompts, just send your prompt in to oddprompts@gmail.com to be assigned a prompt of your own. Or if you're not up to the commitment of trading prompts, you can always check out the spare prompts and see if any of them tickle your creativity.
There will be a new word and picture prompt up at Indies Unlimited on Saturday. Until then, the polls will open tomorrow for voting on the Readers' Choice Award, and will close at 5PM on Thursday.
In the meantime, keep writing.
My first thought was the old Searchers song "Love Potion #9," although that's more a case of "unclear on the concept," in the character administers it on himself thinking it'll make him more lovable, rather than administering it to the person he wants to fall in love with him. But it did make me think about the ethics of love potions, and how it might be reflected in a game -- which led me back to Elaine playing otome games in the Lion in Scarlet sequence.
=============================================================================================
The Use of Spoiler Files
Afternoon was giving way to evening, and Elaine still had no more of a clue than she had started with in the morning. Although she knew she really needed to set the game aside and watch the next lesson in Marshal Gruzinsky’s video lecture series on military history from prehistory to the present, she also knew that she’d never be able to concentrate on it as long as her inability to reach the true ending was still nagging at her mind.
Which means I’ll just have to hope he doesn’t quiz me on the material when he gets back from Sacramento.
She was never quite sure how he viewed her interest in all the various training videos on the Sparta Point LAN. Did he find it amusing, like watching children playing school? Or did he actually admire her determination to gain at least part of the education opportunities she’d lost when she’d had to forego her college acceptances to take refuge here?
No doubt she could’ve used her telepathy to find out. But now that she’d received Institute training, it felt like a violation of his mental privacy. Maybe letting it remain ambiguous was the best course, especially as her peculiar role here at Sparta Point developed.
In the meantime, she might as well keep trying. Back when she was still living with the Alandales in Silicon Valley, she would’ve started looking for spoiler files. But as long as the Feds were still looking for her, any foray onto the Internet, however brief and focused, could betray her - and Sparta Point.
It was frustrating, because she had no idea what could be keeping her from the grand finale. She’d cleared the paths to all four capture targets, but all four endings she’d seen so far were visibly incomplete. Which suggested there was either a hidden capture target or a hidden path she’d completely missed.
Back when she’d first started playing otome games, she’d struggled for days with a similar incomplete ending, only to discover that if you actually used the love potion you brewed as part of the second side quest, the final quest never unlocked and the best you could get was a partial ending.
So what was the equivalent to that love potion in this game? Although it was based upon Plum Blossom War, which she’d been able to keep up with in all its various incarnations - manga, light novels, and anime - it had sufficient significant differences that knowing the storyline in other media didn’t necessarily give one an obvious guide .
The sound of a door opening pulled her from her thoughts. She looked up just as Lisa stepped out.
No, she was not going to attract Lisa’s attention. While Lisa would’ve been as happy to get her spoiler files as the latest issues of her favorite manga, it felt too much like cheating. Finding spoiler files was part of the challenge of getting yourself unstuck, since most of their creators would give them file names that required understanding of the game to find.
Which meant there was nothing to do but brute-force it. Go back to the beginning and try all the options of each character interaction until she either revealed the secret or lost interest from the sheer tedium of the process.
============================================================================================
It's just a sketch, mostly because it's well into book four, when books one through three are still just collections of notes (other than an extremely early version of book one that I wrote decades ago, which is only a shadow of what it needs to become).
I also thought of a possible scene from Phoenix in Cyberspace in which Roger and Toni are trying to sort out a malfunctioning love potion in one of the fantasy games. However, with me on the road for two different conventions, there just wasn't time to work it out.
I wrote my story for the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Writing Challenge back on Sunday, because I knew I'd be far too busy yesterday and today.
As always, if you'd like to participate in Odd Prompts, just send your prompt in to oddprompts@gmail.com to be assigned a prompt of your own. Or if you're not up to the commitment of trading prompts, you can always check out the spare prompts and see if any of them tickle your creativity.
There will be a new word and picture prompt up at Indies Unlimited on Saturday. Until then, the polls will open tomorrow for voting on the Readers' Choice Award, and will close at 5PM on Thursday.
In the meantime, keep writing.