Writer's Blog: Dear Jo, Stop Ignoring Your Personality Stats. With Love, Jo. (Patreon)

Current Wordcount: 365k

Next Update: August 8, will include the rest of Chapter 12

Mind Blind is the first interactive fiction that I’ve ever written, and I’d be lying if I claimed that there hasn’t been a steep learning curve. There are several major plotlines in the game, all of which I’m attempting to juggle. A different, better-organized writer might create a scene-by-scene layout, but my best ideas usually happen at the last minute. I made Mind Blind layouts twice, only to have completely changed directions when I got a different cool idea.

I know the story’s ending (that’s never changed), and I know the motivations behind all character actions (that hasn’t changed either, even if I know understand the characters better). If this were a normal novel, this information would be enough to see me through the story end while still allowing plot flexibility to incorporate sudden bursts of inspiration (like Nick ending up in Button’s head).

With Interactive Fiction, however, there’s the added level of difficulty. As the story has continued, and the branches and character mindsets diversified, the main character became more and more difficult for me to write. Scenes were constantly getting thrown away and rewritten, because the protagonist felt . . . I’m going to go with the eloquent term of “blah-ish.” Button no longer felt as vibrant to me.

Part of this is the fatigue that comes from being in the final third stretch of a long-term project (I can see the end of the tunnel! And it involves copious editing!), but a larger issue was me losing track of my original intentions, which was that Button have a customized flavor of personality (morbid/humorous/confident or a hybrid thereof). I recently refocused on customizing player choices to the personality stats, and am subsequently much more satisfied with the new date scenes in Chapter 12.

This may all sound like abstract writer whining, but I’ve had the nagging sense that recent chapters have suffered due to overall stylistic blandness. Button had grown too “broad” in my head and no longer felt as alive as they once did, and my writing suffered for it. Instead of trying to preempt every possible response, I needed to focus on choices that are well-written and correlate to the personality stats, and then have open ears to hear what else you guys want after these "core" choices are already implemented. Your personality stats were always supposed to matter in this game, and recently I’ve been largely ignoring it.

This version of Mind Blind is an alpha draft, and I often have to remind myself of that. It’s okay if I don’t have every eventual option available right away, so long as what options I do include are strong. I can always add more choices later in response to your feedback. Heck, getting reader feedback is the whole point of sharing the alpha draft!

A few weeks ago, I made a post on character motivation, and how learning what a character wants inspires me to create their larger personality. Despite being a playable protagonist, Button is also a semi-preset character and not a “blank slate.” Button is still customizable, but I'm pulling the choices more back to the original stats to make sure that they still feel real.

Speaking of motivations, let's talk about Button's. This part in no way tie in with the earlier personality monologue, but I wrote this down for myself earlier and thought it was interesting enough to share.

Button’s Potential Motivations For Investigating Vengeance

Option 1: Getting Nick’s body back. If Mind Blind were a traditional novel, this would likely be the hero’s primary objective. Saving a loved one is a tried-and-true plot point which dates back to . . . probably since people first started telling stories! The reasons for Button wanting to recover Nick are:

a) They love their brother and don’t want him to die.

b) They want Nick out of their head.

c) They feel guilty that Nick got injured by a bomb they planted.

d) They want to prove themselves as an MIV.

e) Some of the above.

f) All of the above.

This motivation applies to the majority of Buttons, even those with tempestuous relationships with Nick (so long as it’s above 2%). Apprehending the Ment behind the bombing is still a motivation, but it’s secondary to saving their brother from a terrorist cell.

Option 2: Button doesn’t care if Nick survives (and may even be actively rooting against that outcome), but they want to get revenge on the Ment who made them plant the bomb. This Button, known as Nover!Button due to a coded variable, is not their brother’s keeper, thank you very much. Their primary concern is making sure that they don’t get brainwiped again and get payback for it ever happening, which means helping Unity apprehend Noh.

More than perhaps any other decision you make, Button’s prioritization of which is more important, rescuing Nick or apprehending Noh, will have huge ramifications on the story’s end.