The first contemporary waifu is not getting any stories...

>>22220

Then you should fix that. Even if the story is shit, you may inspire others to write Contemporary touhou's too

Every time I think about writing, I remember how long it's been since I updated anything and just shut down. Or I think about all my half-started projects and feel like I'm working on the wrong thing. It feels like I either just fail at everything I do or half-ass it to avoid feeling like it's a failure. I've never spent much time on anything to the point of actually being good, but I'm always conscious of the gap between what I think I want to do and what I'm able to do. That's why I tend to abandon things part-way through. I'm not sure what I'm doing anymore.

Would you believe I'm the guy who started the joy thread?

I feel like my writing is on a decline and this saddens me. Some people like what I write and I'm grateful to them, but sometimes I just want to stop because I think I'm getting worse and worse as a writer.

>>22222
We're kindred souls, you and I. I feel that once I get the ball(pen) rolling, I might start writing again and even restart one of the stories I left abandoned, but that moment seems to be really far in the foreseeable future...

Also, nice quints.

>>22220
I think it's more a matter of when than if. I believe it took quite a while for characters from UFO and TD to become regulars. With some tricky characters like Sumireko it just takes them a while to show up in stories.

However, I do weep for the PC-98 waifus who deserve a nice, completed story.

Someday, Kana.

>>22224
>failed to check 'em
shit

>>22225
does lion even still remember border house?

>>22222
Joy Thread Fag, I have read about half of all of the stories posted here, so it's likely that at some point I've read yours. And unless you're either YAF or Saguya in disguise, I can guarantee that you're no where near as bad as you fear. You should go and at least try to update one of your works. It doesn't have to be a lengthy update, just one to help you get back in the saddle. Ask for critique from your readers, I know they'd be happy to provide. That would likely help a lot with any quality issues, imagined or no, that you're suffering from. Just get out there and write

>>22228
I'd rather not bug him to find out. It's been almost five years though, and I have no hope of it ever getting picked back up. Especially since I don't think he ever even gave Fragmentation of Memories an epilogue.

>>22223
If people like what you're doing, then you have to be doing something right. If I've learned anything from this place, it's that the readers don't pull punches when it comes to pointing out errors and poor quality. Like I told the joy thread guy, ask for criticism, it'll help you.

Also, if you are either Platemask or Clear Sights I'll fucking hunt you down and beat you to death if you stop writing.

>>22230
Man I loved that series. It didn't end like I wanted it to, but at least it ended. That's more than I can say of most stories

Was reading a toehoe doujin and it was so sad and now I'm sad.
The doujin is Take no Hana/Bamboo Flower, and it's an interesting take on Hieda's reincarnation. Bittersweet ending tho.

>>22234

I remember that one. I wasn't able to finish it.

>>22234

Man that was a brutal doujin.

>>22237
At least Akyuu is freed from the burden of being her predecessor's 'reincarnation'.

>>22223
Any time spent writing is time spent improving. Even if the result isn't up to your standard, you're flexing the muscle. Hell, if you're producing garbage, you have a pretty solid goalpost to work toward: Get to where you don't produce garbage. I doubt it's at that level, though. Work through it and don't stop working, whatever you do.

I stopped writing my stories sometime in the fall, and I can't muster the energy to get into them again. My passion for Touhou has dampened lately, and I want to write CYOAs featuring other intellectual properties, but I don't have any places to go for that. I know there are other communities but I've always loved THP's community the most.

I'm also afraid that I'll start writing a new story, Touhou or not... and then just stop. I hate disappointing people, and I'd hate to start another story and then just drop it.

>>22248
The thing about energy is that it's not like a little meter that leaves you unable to do anything when it hits zero. You'd be surprised how much energy you can find to do something you dread, which it sounds like you're doing with writing. The key is tuning out the part of you going "I can't do it/do it tomorrow/I wanna jack-off to chinese cartoons instead" and doing it anyway. It's inertia, bro. Gods know, the rest of us wrestle with it everyday. It doesn't matter if you're writing Touhou or not-Touhou, it's gonna come down to that somewhere.

>>22248
If you don't mind me asking, what other properties do you want to write for? I'm sure most of us would run over to /tg/ if we were interested, like some of us did/do for Demetrious, the fucking traitor just kidding Deme I love you come back and write again ;_;

Like >>22249 said, it's inertia. Get your writan gaem going, and maybe that will bring you back around to Touhou after a break for other stuff. Don't feel too bad, [spoiler]unless you're platemask or clear sights I'LL FUCKING END YOU IF YOU LEAVE YOU GODDAMN FAGGOTS GET BACK TO WORK[spoiler]

We're always going to be here, so if you leave for a while, there's a very good chance that your fans from before will still be here, you tripless writefag you.

I brutally killed a rat by pincering it between a microwave and a wall repeatedly.

I don't feel good about it. But it had to be done. My dogs didn't want to eat it, which is good considering it had a stomach full of ineffective rat poison.

>>22263

That's not sad. Rats carry some pretty gnarly diseases and visibly shit everywhere. Compleatly unlike spiderbros and every other house pest ever.

>>22264
Killing the rat is fine. The way I did it just felt unnecessarily cruel.

>>22266
When I killed a rat in a similar fashion, it cried so cutely that I felt like throwing up

>>22268
Yay, we're unintentional animal torture buddies!

i'm sad thinking about how likely it is that h8flag would have died without completing DtRT, the story that got me into this site in the first place.

we will never know what's in the goddamn box

>>22274

I mean like...it's just a box right? Considering the possibilities, there isn't really anything that strikes me as being worth caring about this long. Granted; I have no idea what story or author you're referring to. I would suggest just making something up to self-complete that particular chapter in your life, no sense dying with needless regrets.

>>22274
What is this about h8flag dying? Has something happened I'm unaware of? Didn't he just update a few days ago?

>>22274
I'm sure that however sad you may be at that thought, it is nothing compared to the sadness he feels at the idea of dying before having a chance to transfer his consciousness into a robot body. Or, failing that, the idea of snuffing it before he has a chance to delete all the porn from his computer.

>>22275
>I mean like...it's just a box right?


oh boy you have no idea

>>22284

>>22276
Is he... dead?

>>22286
>>22276
What that anon means is that it's entirely likely that h8flag could die before completing DtRT.
Probably.

>>22295
To that anon, I say that death could come to any writer at any time. That's why we must persevere while we can, so that we have no regrets.

I have a very close friend who knows all my passwords, tasked with reporting my death to each community I'm a part of. He's also supposed to clear my browser history and wipe my porn folder.

>>22295
>fucking up a sage

Now I'm even sadder.

>>22296

What a bro.

I'm immensely sad that I couldn't go to Reitaisai for the third year in a row. Last time it was work interfering. This time and the time before, funds were the problem. Sometimes I feel like I'll never actually go to Japan.

"But you don't have direct experience in this industry!" they say.

Unfortunately, my only experience is at a brand-name company that spans so many fields that I can't just conveniently pigeonhole myself into some vague notion of "industry". I don't have any specialisation, so I'm as good as dead to these people.

Fuck job-hunting so much.

So I've decided to go vote in every active story, and it looks like the number of active stories is ridiculously low. There are posts from 2014 on first pages of /youkai/, /underground/, /forest/, /eientei/, almost every other board (with the exceptions of /th/, /others/ and /at/) has posts from 2015, and most mind-boggling, on /border/, there's a post on a first page from no-shit 2012.

This is kind of worrying.

>>22457
It's a vicious cycle of few people actively checking the site leading to an overall lack of interest from the writers in writing, which in turn causes few stories to be active and fewer people to bother checking. It's not necessarily a death spiral, but it's not a problem that can be easily fixed either.

>>22457

Yeah, it's sad. I come back after stopped writing last year, and find that my story is still on the page one of the board. I want to write again, but I find my skills rusted after not writing properly for a long time, added the fact that English is not my first language means I would only produce low quality story with mistakes all over the places, which means less readers, and votes, which will affect my will to finish the story.

>>22465
>low quality
>mistakes
We had the words carnival last year where that was half the point, and people responded to all the stories better than any other time.

More than that, though, while there are people who sneer at stories they deem "low quality" around here, most people paying attention are just happy that a story is active and updating. It sucks when you fall out of practice; I've been there myself and still struggle to drag myself out of that hole. Don't let a fear of mistakes keep you away, though.

I remembered the times I was going to be at Comiket and didn't make it because life is a shit.

>>22465
>English is not my first language
>using this excuse, ever
Guy wot wrote the Banki shorts recently and was given quality praise here. I'm a Slav. I learned my Britongese from video games and books. Your excuse is shit and you should feel like what your excuse is, that is to say shit, for using it. Your only limitation is time and practice, and given your posting here I take it you've a fair share of the former of these. Now get the latter, you hiney hobbit.

Alternatively, if you are so insecure about your frilly magical girl fanfiction, go read a book. Go read it, and take note of everything that strikes you as well written. Then see what of it isn't nailed down, and steal it. A big part of acquiring proficiency at ANYTHING is imitating the more experienced specimen.

Language isn't copyrighted. Children learn it by osmosis through listening to their environments, and you can learn its more advanced levels by listening to better writers. Such as me. Ahem. So listen to me and get out there and write, damn you.

>>22518

>hiney hobbit

I don't see no nails, so I'mma steal this for my own stories!

As of right now, I have been medically depressed for two years.

>>22221
Hopefully whoever does that has more luck than the attempt to spark more Wriggle stories.

>>22458
Yeah, as for one it depends on things working as they should. That and people actually finishing stories as the original decline began with the 'great ones' getting into the habit of dropping stories like WW2 bombers dropped bombs.

>>22465
Even if rusted, it won't get better with inaction.

I really miss forest LA, a yan Marisa is something I didn't know I wanted.

I get worried every time I sage, because I'm scared it won't work and I'll end up necroing a dead thread.

>>22625
I think we all know this feel

Even though I was one of many to finish NaNoWriMo last year, I won't be able to even participate this year. I simply don't have enough time and this really saddens me. I'm not even mad about it. I'm just wallowing on my own despair.

>>22648

Just do something that doesen't require you to think or write in advanced. A Touhou Q&A panel with different TUHUs every week for example. Or maybe even Twowho Truth or Dare.

I mean like, I don't know what your life is like, but spending 20 minutes everyday in order to not be sad seems like a fair trade.

Unless of course you do this and nobody except me throws out any questions or dares. Then you would be like...double sad. I apologise in advanced if that happens.

>>22652
I dunno, I generally have content planned several updates ahead of me and I'm still churning out unwritten idea work for the main meat of the fanfic.

(That's why I suddenly had to rewrite an update slightly once SKOOLATOON showed up.)

You know, let's take a moment to be sad for the ones that never made it home.

That is, stories you loved, but either went on indefinite hiatus or were outright cancelled for one reason or another.

Anyone remember that one old Doom story? The one where Doomguy could get unique guns from the 2hus for some reason? That's legitimately the story that made me find this site in the first place.

>>22669
There was that neat one about the crusader.

It wasn't particularly special (GET DROP IN GENKOJO WAT DO), but it holds a place in my heart.

>>22669
Fairy. On. Scarlet. Lake.

>>22667

Do... you have nothing planned beyond those couple updates?

>>22669

Imouto shitposting wars: The Thread
Patchy quest
Beast returns to Gensokyo

>>22669

Superstitious and Cowardly Lot

>>22674
Re reading, thanks.

>>22669
Norseman in Gensokyo

Everything I paste here from my google doc has an extra line. This fills me with sadness.

I'm not the only one, either, and I'm not sure what to really do about it.

>>22683

If the sadness generated by an extra line actually registers on your sadness radar, I'd say you're doing pretty good in life.

>>22683
I don't think that really matters, to be honest. I think the site removes any extra line breaks if there's nothing following it. Granted I don't know, so I'll add 5 lines after the end of this post to test it.

That said >>22684 is right. It's such a small inconvenience compared to, say, finding a job or any other form of remotely stable income so you can stop leaching off your parents despite not having any debt at all. Or dealing with your mom passing out whenever she tries to stand up, due to malnutrition, which then takes a toll on her mental health and causes her to go into a lesser state of depression, which is only driven further by her midway crisis or whatever the fuck it's called when people try to cope with the fact they're getting old.

But what do I know. We all have different ways of dealing with different problems, to varying degrees of success. Maybe I just deal better with extra lines than you because I like to add a little extra after most of my updates.

This wasn't aimed at you, or anyone else for that matter. I just needed to get it off my chest

>>22684

It's not just a single extra line. It's an extra line after every single double line break. Sorry, didn't realize how vague I was. And seeing as I update daily, and am going to be updating twice daily for NaNoWriMo, it's gonna be a rather large inconvenience that I found no means to fix.

Plus, I do like my line breaks.

They are enjoyable.

It's either deleting a couple dozen of them one by one, or just bearing it with a twitching eye, in the end. Mainly just wanted to bring it to attention, as it does sound like some form of issue with the site, minor or not, and it only recently cropped up. Not just me.

Anywho, happy NaNoWriMo~

...Merry?

Joyful?

Ehh, I'll work on it.

>>22686
Just make 2 posts. 1 with corrections and 1 without. Then we'll tell you if its something you need to bother fixing.

>>22687 Eastern Tale Thread 5 spoilers ahead for anybody that cares.

Anywho, tell me which version is the best of linebreak. Thanks~

"So, how about that date?" Your new arm undulates happily.


The bird-headed woman stares at you blankly. "You were just screaming for five minutes straight." She doesn't seem quite so sing-song anymore.


"Pleeeease?" You give her your best pout, earning a sigh. All the while your Rumiaa bit is drooping sadly.


Mystia gives Rumiaa a dirty look. "Did you have to give her that arm...? That's cheating!" Or, at least as dirty a look as a bird can. Animals making human expressions are weirder than you expected.


Rumiaa droops drippily, her eyes blowing up to a massive size. Seriously, they're like sad beachballs. "But... but food..."


Mystia sighs with a tweet. "Fiiine~"


You beam, your arm whapping about like a snake with a sugar rush. "Awesome! Let me just invite mom!"


"Wait, what??"


— - — - —


Renko
Day 3
Lv1
HP16/20
DT23/28
Base DT14.2
Sprained Ankle
Fishy Rose Scent
Insanity Aura
Not Gagging
Flying


100G


Equipment 40D/90MD/15A/75MA


1 Head: Moist Grandma’s Hat Lv2 10D/10MD/0A/5MA
2 Outfit: Sumireko's Default Lv5 0D/50MD/0A/50MA
3 Weapon: Full Bodied Unsharpened Chest Lv1/5D/5MD/0A/5MA
4 Foci: Mysterious Big Fan Lv1 0D/0MD/15A/15MA
5 Accessory:
Left Ring:
7 Pockets: x25 Lv2/25D/25MD/0A/0MA
8 Right Ring Arm: Snuggly Shoggoth Spawn...?
Necklace:


Magic


0 Ice Magic11/100
-O Umm Sign: Maybe Something Ice-based 5MA
2 Flight Magic15/100
-XXX No Cards Made


— - — - —


Mom will date...


[ ] Rumiaa
[ ] Mystia
[ ] Both...?
-[ ] Wait, who will you date?
--[ ] Your right hand!
--[ ] Flowey!
--[ ] Write-in








"So, how about that date?" Your new arm undulates happily.

The bird-headed woman stares at you blankly. "You were just screaming for five minutes straight." She doesn't seem quite so sing-song anymore.

"Pleeeease?" You give her your best pout, earning a sigh. All the while your Rumiaa bit is drooping sadly.

Mystia gives Rumiaa a dirty look. "Did you have to give her that arm...? That's cheating!" Or, at least as dirty a look as a bird can. Animals making human expressions are weirder than you expected.

Rumiaa droops drippily, her eyes blowing up to a massive size. Seriously, they're like sad beachballs. "But... but food..."

Mystia sighs with a tweet. "Fiiine~"

You beam, your arm whapping about like a snake with a sugar rush. "Awesome! Let me just invite mom!"

"Wait, what??"

— - — - —

Renko
Day 3
Lv1
HP16/20
DT23/28
Base DT14.2
Sprained Ankle
Fishy Rose Scent
Insanity Aura
Not Gagging
Flying

100G

Equipment 40D/90MD/15A/75MA

1 Head: Moist Grandma’s Hat Lv2 10D/10MD/0A/5MA
2 Outfit: Sumireko's Default Lv5 0D/50MD/0A/50MA
3 Weapon: Full Bodied Unsharpened Chest Lv1/5D/5MD/0A/5MA
4 Foci: Mysterious Big Fan Lv1 0D/0MD/15A/15MA
5 Accessory:
Left Ring:
7 Pockets: x25 Lv2/25D/25MD/0A/0MA
8 Right Ring Arm: Snuggly Shoggoth Spawn...?
Necklace:

Magic

0 Ice Magic11/100
-O Umm Sign: Maybe Something Ice-based 5MA
2 Flight Magic15/100
-XXX No Cards Made

— - — - —

Mom will date...

[ ] Rumiaa
[ ] Mystia
[ ] Both...?
-[ ] Wait, who will you date?
--[ ] Your right hand!
--[ ] Flowey!
--[ ] Write-in

>>22689
Stick to single line breaks (line, empty line, line). It's the closest to normal typesetting's line spacing we can get on an image board. Alternatively, keep dialogue lines in one big clump if you feel it conveys the tempo better that way.

I can't speak for other readers, but browsing THP on mobile a lot of the time, double-and-above line spacing makes perusing your stuff a physical exercise. And let me tell you, exercise isn't something I have in mind when I take to reading frilly magical girl fanfiction. Unless it's porn.

>>22669
There was this short one involving a Shoggoth meeting Marisa and being curious about everything. I think it stopped on a cliffhanger too.

Fallout Gensokyo, I hope the author is still okay at least.

That one CYOA involving a doctor and Eirin had an interesting start. Too bad it only had that.

The two oldest ones I remember and enjoyed were just "X in Gensokyo wat do", one involving a viking, and the other one was a soviet pilot hanging out with Suika.

>>22683
>I'm not sure what to really do about it.
Regex.

s/\\n\\n/\\n/

Textpad and Notepad++ support regex in find/replace. Put "\\n\\n" in find, "\\n" in replace, check the regex box, and replace all

>>22693

Err... I only have Wordpad. A large part of why I use Google Docs, honestly.

Well, that and multiple editors at once, but still.

Not entirely sure what happened, but the first time I reformatted and reinstalled on this computer it kinda... had less of the standard stuff. I can't even open PDFs. Kinda irritating to be forced to do it in Chrome, but ehh.

So, uhh... I guess I'll go and see if either of those are free...? I mean, Word is for birds, and far as I've found, it's not really understanding what the heck a n/n/, or what have you, was. Honestly, I'm more concerned for others than myself. My ancient ally does have certain... writing motivation issues at time, so if I can grease those bearings even just a bit... well, that'd be wonderful.

>>22694

"\\n" commonly denotes a newline character. Doing a find-and-replace of "\\n\\n" with "\\n" in a text editor or word processor which supports working with hidden characters should replace any instances of doubled newlines with single ones.

Mind, if you're using Word, you have instead paragraph marks, which look like this—"¶"—when shown, and which are denoted in search by "^p". For the current purpose, they're functionally identical and you'll achieve the same result.

>>22694
Both of those are free, yes.

They're replacements (much more powerful) for Notepad, not Wordpad, so you probably wouldn't want to install them for writing here. It'll work, it just won't look as nice. But you can just select all your text, paste it into Notepad++, do a find/replace there, then paste it onto the site (or whatever).

If you do want a free version of Word, there's OpenOffice and LibreOffice. They have different interfaces and don't work exactly the same as Word, but they're close enough.

Also, for PDFs, just install Adobe Acrobat Reader.

>>22697

I would not recommend Openoffice. It's spelling/grammar checker utility is complete garbage.

>>22697
I would recommend against OpenOffice. It's more or less deprecated thanks to shenanigans that are not worth going into here. For active development and support, there's only really LibreOffice. It's what I've been using for years to write and what I'd generally recommend to anyone wanting a free non-online word processor.

I'm a little curious; don't people pirate Word anymore?

>>22700

Please don't suggest theft so casually sir. We pride ourselves on being law abiding citizens here.

>>22700
It's a pain in the dick, since updates have a way of borking whatever crack you use. Sticking to Google Docs or using any other free alternative that can open or export doc/docx files is easier. At least, that's been my experience.

Kinda bummed that Titanpad's on its way out. Yeah, there's Piratepad and others, but that doesn't change the feeling of an era coming to an end, you know?

>>22724

Assuming Titan pad is, as it's name implys, some sort of writing engine/application/utility; there are probably superior alternatives out there. Don't waste your tears on the dead, Anon. Find the hip, new pad and embrace it. It's what Titanpad would have wanted.

Kinda bummed that I might be the only one still doing NaNoWriMo daily updates, two of the fallen being stories I enjoyed.

Anyone outside of /th/ still at it? Just curious. /th/ is the only beard I regularly check, so it's hard to tell.

>>22726
You are the sole survivor. That might make repopulation efforts... difficult.


Sucks that no one else had the time/effort.

>>22727

Yeesh... Ahh well. Not like it'll hurt my stride. Two updates per day I decided and two updates per day there will be.

And there will be cake!

>>22728
Wait, really? The last gal that told me about cake didn't exactly prove herself trustworthy

>>22729

Yes. But you won't be here to enjoy it.

Because you will be dead.

But in all seriousness, yes. I figured I'd bake at least one cake to celebrate, as I feel that it's a sort of right of passage to complete a full month of daily updates for two stories.

It's nearing the end of my first year on this site as an author, and I want it to feel special to me. Been here since my ancient ally jumped ship, and I've always been curious of how I'd do in the contests and the like, but always too afraid to try, as I felt my writing wasn't up to snuff as of yet.

>>22726
If I'd thought about it, I might have tried, but my writing's not real conducive to fast or easy. Alas.

>>22731

Better late than never, if you ask me~

>>22726
Sorry friend. I was going to participate this year but real life has been shitting on my plans this entire fall and winter. It's a real shame because I managed to complete NaNoWriMo last year. Fuck, I'm just sad thinking about it.

>>22732
I have a hard enough time updating two stories once every "it's dead, isn't it?" months, and not for lack of the, y'know, actually working on them part. Nah, it's not happening this time around.

>>22733

So much this.

>>22726

[Insert excuse here]

>>22726
I'm just waiting until this site starts enters the second stage of it's slow, painful death. Then I'll start a story and maybe I'll even start updating bi-weekly. Yes, that's what probably will end up happening.

>>22726

I failed, but I sure as hell ain't droppin' the story 'till the end.

No tears. But still sad.

>>22738

Hooray! Which story, might I ask?

>>22738
That's the spirit.

My family can never be happy during the holidays. This particular year is even worse since my sister is getting a divorce.

Any other anons have difficulties around this time of the year?

>>22762
Luckily my family drama has been minimal in the last few years. But not having any money to buy or do anything sure sucks. I can only hope that next year is better than this last year.

I'm rapidly approaching thirty and am still dependent on my parents. I've only ever had one job in my entire life, and it means next to nothing on my resume. There's no real field that I work in because I don't have any particular education or experience in anything, so I don't even know where I'm supposed to look for work, either. Everywhere I apply to, I get "Why would you want to do this?" questions followed by silence or just silence outright. I've tried everything from retail to teaching English abroad to temp agencies, you name it. None of them want me. The longer I go without a job, the less likely it is anybody's going to want me. All those years I spent floundering in university were a goddamn waste. I'm fucked, pure and simple.

Sage for blogging.

>>22871
Maaaan, I'm mid-uni floundering right now, and I feel like in ~6 years you and I are going to have a lot in common.

>>22871

You could always lie through your teeth and become an actor to work at McDonalds.

>>22871

Join the military if you aren't a whale. If you are a whale, then lose weight and join then join the military.

>>22871
Same, except that I worked instead of studying. Now I'm stuck on dead end jobs until I finish my studies in a cheap, garbage college (which will take forever because I don't have much free time and I waste what I have) unless, of course, I get laid off. Then, I'll have like two months to find a job or a bridge.

>>22874
See the world, they said...

>>22876


don't listen to military recruiters or commercials. The only things guaranteed in the military these days is a shitty job, a free place to live, and free college education.

Oh, and also you can elect to have the military pay off existing college loans instead of giving you money for college.

You know, that discussion at Quiet Magician's story has reminded me of how much time has passed since I last checked my stalled stories list. I did and I cried inside.

So yeah if yesterday you saw a lot of saged posts in stalled stories that's me trying to kick at least some of them back alive. We all should do it more often, to let authors know we are waiting.

>>23185
Just bump them instead. Who the fuck is gonna see a saged post?

I don't know why people get so buttmad at bumped dead threads. Okay, yeah, you 'got your hopes up'. But so what? Is that 3 seconds of excitement you got really worth all the swearing and insulting of random people? Do you really care that much or are you just doing it because "that's what we do around here"?

I think it's worth a bump to try and bring an author back. If they're one of the ones who stopped writing but still reads, you're much more likely to get your post seen.

>>23186
Bumping a dead thread is an executable offense, if you want to get the author to come back and write, bully them brutally on the IRC.

It worked for space marines, for a while at least.

A warning that bullying a writer into writing doesn't always lead to writing and sometimes leads to the writer retreating further into inactivity out of shame and/or spite.

I won't name names, but I know this first-hand.

>>23185
Aw. Mind if I ask which stories were on your list or which you posted in? Maybe we can commiserate with you.

>>23188

If a writer doesn't want to write, he or she should say "Hey everyone, this story is stalled." It only takes a few seconds and an atom-sized piece of common courtesy.

>>22669
AWiY

>>22673
>Imouto shitposting wars: The Thread

One of the most hilarious shitstorm I've ever read

>Patchy Quest
Oh God no. Fuck that story.

>>22871
It's okay anon. Suicide is always an option.

>>22874
I'd rather kill myself than join the military tbh. I've enough bad experience with their methods.

And I'm not really a patriotic person. I'd rather flee in a war over fighting.

>>23190
Yep, this. It's so simple, I don't know why no one does it!
>>23191
>Patchy Quest
>Oh God no. Fuck that story.
Why? I enjoyed it, it's nice. Still waiting for it to return, with other ones.

I miss old /jp/ so much. So fucking much.
Good god, you can't post anything even remotely questionable anymore without it getting deleted. 500 posts about Sanae sucking a billion dicks, that's a-okay, but whoa there son, that picture somewhat tangentially implies something sexual, why don't you sit down a minute.

At least Goddamnit Yukari revived!

>Animating Gensokyo

There is hope. Anon may have locked himself out of any satisfying conclusion but the writer is strong willed. Maybe he'll ignore everything and pull a happy ending out of his butt. I hope so.

>Fallout Gensokyo

The author is not okay at all, afaik.

>Touhouvania

The author is alive and eelk, but I'm pretty sure he is over this site (the writing part at least)
In his defense, he did tries to revive the story but the overhyped Sakuya mirror match didn't end well at all.

>>23189
Reposted since I forgot a couple ones.
Late reply, but here it is. It's quite long, and in no particular order.

>Seven Sensual Sirens
>Just a Tail or Two
>River of Life
>Fairy on Scarlet Lake
>Little Soldier Lost
>Animating Gensokyo
>Stardust Halley
>Montouhoumon Adventure
>Diabolic Tome
>Touhouvania
>Wintertime Alchemist
>Marisa's Magically Magnificent Maktaba
>Patchy Quest
>An Enchanted Evening
>Heads Up!
>Marisa's Magical Misadventure
>Fallout Gensokyo (hope the guy is alright after his surgery)
>An Amnesiac's Fantasia
>Roll the Dice
>Winemaker's Journey in Gensokyo
>A Heart-Broken Trio Called Second Nature
>Alice's Life (Sucks)
>Beast Returns to Gensokyo
>Do The Right Thing (although this one is gonna move again soon apparently)
Plus this one >>/at/38139 since it's a neat idea.

And this does not count all stories that has almost no possibility of being updated again, like old HY stories (I still have this unachieavable hope of seeing a rerun of EoSD one day, along with other ones resuming...)
I feel depressed a bit.

>>23202
>An Enchanted Evening
I can't speak for others, but I definitely don't see saged messages in old threads since I don't use the watched threads thingy (it's kind of rubbish). The surest way to get a response from me is to poke me on IRC. I'm connected to it nearly at all times, even if I'm not physically at my PC, and don't mind at all if people ask me about updates or stories. I'll give you as honest as an answer as I can about what's going on. Of the thp-related channels I'm on only on #eientei on rizon but you can just pm Zer00, too. If I'm just being lazy (which is sometimes the case, but not always) I can usually be motivated/shamed into writing somewhat easily. Otherwise, if you just bump the thread, I'll probably see it anyhow since I check the frontpage fairly often but then you get "muh board culture" types complaining. They're silly, of course, but it is what it is.

I miss this place. I miss the way it was nine years ago. God, even five years ago. I miss when we were refugees out of /jp/, spinning this crazy new idea to higher and higher planes with every experimental idea. I miss the vitality in the stories, the comradeship, the fun. I miss the way the IRC was before it went insane. I miss swapping theories and plots with other writers. I miss the speed, the drive, the energy. I miss the audience. I miss the good stories.

I miss you.

>>23311
There must be a way to make this place better again right? I never saw those days directly and I want to do something!

>>23312
The best thing any of us can do is encourage people who create activity by reading and voting. And donating to the Patreon, I guess.

>>23313
>donating to the Patreon
While I plan to spend some of those funds on advertisement for the site, it's not the primary purpose of the Patreon. Don't get me wrong, it's really helpful to have money I can spend on various things to improve the site, just making sure that people understand the limitations of money as well. Even big corporations see limited returns on marketing, sometimes. Give if you can but I think the number one thing you can do is to read and vote (and possibly write), and encourage others to do the same.

>>23312
As an individual user I think that the single most important thing that you can do is be active yourself. Vote in stories, participate in the various threads on the site that aren't necessarily stories, recommend stories. Generate activity and encourage others to do so as well. Not that I'm accusing you of this but I've heard complaints about lack of votes from people who don't read anything themselves. Activity begets activity. People read things when they see they're active, they discuss when they see others are discussing and they are incentivized more to update when they know there's people eagerly awaiting more. You can't expect there to be a positive activity feedback loop if you're not doing anything in the first place.

For a non-exhaustive list of practical things you can do:

-try giving stories that you passed up another chance if they're still ongoing, since it often takes a while for them to get into a groove.
The number of times I've heard people say something along the lines of "it didn't seem like my kind of thing" after only a post or two is disappointing. Personally, I only really decide these things after reading most of a thread.

-Recommend to your acquaintances or people from another community who you think would enjoy this kind of stuff, stories on the site.
New blood is key and the personal recommendation is probably the strongest way to get people.

-If you're on IRC, poke someone about reading or writing.
They're not going to bite you if you're reasonable and not annoying about it (like bringing it up every 5 mins). And if they do, they can just go fuck themselves

-Read stuff on more than just one bloody board
A lot of stories on other boards get neglected just because they're not on /th/ or the one board someone checks. Over the years I've noticed that posters are heavily segregated per board (lesser extent, story) with little overlap. Expand your horizons, you'll find that there's interesting stuff everywhere.

There's more but these are things anyone can do. If you got time to bitch about it, you got time to do something about it, nerds.

>>23311
I still do the swapping of ideas with others on IRC, albeit it's a smaller group than I'd like. You can only work with what ya get. And there are good stories now as well despite the more general lack of vitality.

I caught snippets of Felix again while flipping through old logs and goddamn I miss that old bastard.

Fuck.

Fuck a goddamn fuck.

2017 is a fucking cursed year. First Trump, then Irma, and now Kadosawa has axed everybody that was involved in Kemono Friends.

I'm crying, I'm furious, I wanna kill people, I've lost all interest in just about everything, and I am dead inside. I'm completely ruined.

All those people... gone. Fired.

... I want to die, but I'm downright horrible at killing myself.




... I need oni booze.

>>23413
Melodramatic.

Try rembering happy day instead.

>>23413

You remind me of that college dude who killed himself because the SJWs succeeded in abolishing men's week at his college.

>>23413
There is nothing wrong with Trump nor Irma. Kadokawa firing the director is a waste, though.

Stop acting like a faggot.

You guys shouldn't discuss politics, it is a controversial issue.

>There's nothing wrong with Trump.

Even more so when you don't know shit about it.

>>23418
>it is a controversial issue
>but you don't know shit and you're wrong
Dude.

>>23418
Clockwork.

>>23419
I'm gonna level with you: de-escalation was never my intention.

>>23421
Then we're in agreement. Fourth Reich must rule the world, all jews must burn and 2hu must once again receive a golden age.

>>23422

I saw mention of Touhou, so I shall blindly agree without further scrutiny.

>>23413

>Implying anyone should give a shit about Kemono Friends

>>23424
Oh well screw you too, you anon phleb scrub.

... 's not like most of us can give a shit about anything anymore, though...

>>23425
With all the controversy, I thought about giving it a look. But I will, right now, just for you.

In exchange, if you want, you can keep in mind that names are commonly reserved for authors. If you are one and I'm being retarded, give me a link so I can check it out.

The current update speed in this site has left me in despair.

>>23426

He was one, though it was getting no votes after it jumped the shark like a rope.

>>23426

Found the link. Here ya go:
>>/others/62248

>>23428

Actually, I meant >>/th/188519 I didn't even realize he made another story.

>>23428

>.......that's a horribly underwhelming update and it seems your writing is getting worse.

Damn son. I always just assumed his credibility as an author wasen't worth much. Thanks for removing any remaining doubt.

>>23425

Look nigga you've got to update within the past year or you lose namefag privileges.

>>23432
I was the author of that one Touhoumon story, too, but... then Trump got elected and the whole thing just crashed and burned.

>>23434
My symphaties.

>>23433
Your story is great, dude.

>>23434
Wait didn't that one had a ton of writers? And more /at/ content you could wave a stick at (IYKWIM)?

>>23437
No, that one was co-written by Bread and Nobody, if I recall correctly. His had a much shorter run.

>>23434
Of all the reasons I've heard for writers dropping their story, this one definitely is the most pathetic.

>>23437
I believe he is referring to the touhoumon story in >>23429

>>23434
This is why I voted Trump. Just as planned.

>>23437

Not that one.

>>23434
I'd never thought I'd say this but thank god Trump won.

Wish the site was more active. It's a bummer to refresh and see almost nothing has changed. Even off-topic stuff like this thread can be nice when people are going back and forth about stuff.

>>23444
Look above the shitposting at what Teruyo said last. The answer lies in there.

>>23444

Then say something that people can reply to, or write something to cause activity.

>>23446
I am by posting here, aren't I? Short of bumping story threads that are long-since dead, doesn't feel like there's much else I can do.

>>23447
There are discussion threads on /gensokyo/ that could always use activity. It can be as simple as rambling about a story that made an impact on you. You never know what might be a conversation starter, so don't discount any particular topic as too trivial.

Anyway, yes, your post here did generate a response, so good job on that. Not being sarcastic.

>>23448
Don't have anything to recommend that I haven't already, have talked about the latest game and posted in many of those threads already. It takes two to tango.

Incidentally, I'd take you more seriously if you weren't saging posts on an inactive thread on an equally inactive board. Comes off as do as I say, not do as I do. This ain't /jp/ and there's nothing else going on.

>>23449
Fair enough. I've found it hard to get replies when I've posted myself. Probably down to the number of people on at any one time.

Personally, I consider saging to be a polite default, but I'm an old-school kind of guy from a 2ch/textboard background, so that's values differences for you!

I'm sad that I can't write for shit to meet my own standards!

>>23451
Do you actually have standards, or is it merely just a mind trick you play on yourself so you don't have to get anything done? Think about it.

>>23452

I don't think your advice is quite as deep and meaningful as your probably imagining. His post is perfectly logical. In fact, I'd even say not meeting their own standard is the main reason would-be writers don't become writers.

Now I want someone to follow up with the "b-but Anon-senpai! All writers start off on a level below their standard!" counterargument so >>23451 can think up a non-bullshit excuse.

I highly doubt any author would be like "yea everything I write is both great and above my standard. Get on my level". Being shit is just something most writers have to live with.

THP just seems to be in a slump the last few weeks. I'm sure it'll perk back up soon enough.

>>23451

I can't write for shit to meet anyone's standards, and I'm writing anyway. Why the fuck anyone would consent to sneeze on my turd-glacier, let alone give it a vote, I have no idea.

But they do.

>>23451

Writing is about meeting your standards halfway between them and your skill. Haggling of a sort. As your skill increases, your standards increase with it, making for perpetual settling for the silver medal. However, as you improve, so too shall that median, improving the quality you end up with. The way I see it, so long as you are constantly doing your absolute best to get better, giving 100% to every update is less important. The 100% of today may be the 1% of tomorrow after all.

>>23454
>I can't write for shit to meet anyone's standards
If you are being read, someone’s standards are being met. Not their preferences or ideals, perhaps, but standards are a baseline, not the desired target. Mediocrity is, by definition, not bad.
>THP just seems to be in a slump the last few weeks.
Academic year just kicked off, and for those of us older than school age, Fall season is giving us rheumatism. It’s a miserable existence, but we try!

>>23456
>Fall season is giving us rheumatism.
Not to mention Seasonal Affective Disorder's probably kicking in too. Gotta account for all the head-sick around here.

>>23456
>>23457
If it's not the autumn, it's saturnalia, walpurgis or the launch of a big-name game. It's almost as if people find excuses to be lazy and unproductive no matter the time of year!

>>23458

Excuses to be lazy and unproductive you say? In the context of authors who donate their time and effort to this site and it's continued existence? Damn Anon, your sarcasm cuts me deep. All the way down to some unidentified, but vital, part of my soul. I'm not sure we can continue being friends after this.

>>23459
>donate their time and effort
Yeah, those poor authors, saintly martyrs who ask for naught in return. Respect is a two way street, chuckles. The time I "donate" reading, voting and commenting deserves consideration too. Semi-regular updates aren't always possible, I get that (I occasionally write updates myself), but at least a fucking explanation after a few weeks would be nice. But no, let's allow these same people who spend hour upon hours on IRC talking about the latest flavor of the month game off the hook because they're selfless angels who are just misunderstood and without their divine grace occasionally descending form the heavens we would be stuck on a dead site.

Oh wait. Maybe calling a spade a spade isn't such a bad idea after all?

>>23460
I wrestle with the idea of explaining a late update every time it happens, but it happens most of the time and people would get tired of seeing "I can't afford to treat my depression, so I feel like shit too much to write."

>>23461

I mean, if you have a new excuse, then I don't see why not.

Finally got around to reading Palingenesia and Border House.

I'm in despair.

>>23460
>but at least a fucking explanation after a few weeks would be nice
Hope dies last.

>>23461
Treating depression is just escapism, anon. Why don't you do what you have to instead of what you want to?

>>23463

Dead stories are just a fact of life on this site, sadly.

>>23473
Even the “live” stories are looking a bit past expiration date. It’s all rather im-Moral, if you ask me.

Ahem.

>>23474

Most of the posts since the last one I made saying how much I miss how THP used to be have only reinforced my feelings.

>>23535
It doesn't work if it doesn't rhyme before the punchline, dummy

Spending your birthday alone is depressing.

>>23550
You're not alone. I'm here with you.

>>23550
Fuck you, anon. There's always somebody there with you, even if you can't see or hear em.

It's snowing /blue/

>>23555
Sad girls in snow?

I'm still kinda sad about how the critique thread killed so many stories.

>>23702
It did?

>>23702
> critique thread
> Kogasa pic

It did? Which?

>>23702

We had a critique thread?

>>23707

Over in >>/gensokyo/14857 isn't it?

>>23708
WAIT "This was a mistake" DIED BECAUSE OF THAT 4CHIN FAGGOT? THIS SHOULD BE ON THE RAGE THREAD.

>>23713

I very much considered putting it there, but my rage has long since cooled. No tears now, only sadness.

>>23713
It went on for another three months before stalling out, so I don't think it's necessarily because of harsh reviews.

I thought the twinge of guilt I feel every time someone mentions my story would stop when I finished it.

I was wrong.

>>24129
What about it makes you feel guilty?

>>24136
The lack of updates.

>>24139

Well then...I mean...why don't you just...like...update?

I swear you authors can be so silly sometimes.

>>24139
Well, either you update or just deal with the guilt.

>>24140
> I swear you authors can be so silly sometimes.

Yeah, it's not like we actually have lives that take priority over writing or anything.

>>24142
If you have time for snark, you have time to write. Unless you're literally dying, being evicted from your home or being hunted for sport you can find a few minutes each day to write a little. I mean, you found the time to post here, right?

It doesn't matter how much time it takes so long as you haven't convinced yourself that it's impossible and given up.

>>24143
> If you have time for snark, you have time to write.

Snarking takes two minutes, tops, while writing an average-size update takes me a minimum of eight hours. In case you can't do math, that's enough time to shipost well over two hundred times.

Since I haven't shitposted that many times this year, what do you suppose the problem is?

EDIT: fuck you Teruyo for making me repost this. Fix the post number links already.

>>24144
>continuing to whinge instead of writing
Feel sad all you like but it's not going to change until you try to do something about it.

>>24145

Wise words, but not exactly applicable in this situation. The sadness thread was created to help sad people feel better by letting them vent, so his response is just going to be more replies about how his sadness is stronger than ours.

>>24144

You must be the same dude that takes 30 minutes to write four sentences.

>>24146
Yeah, I know people are just venting. Still, as someone who has written and been busy and sad and all that other stuff I know that sometimes a good kick in the pants is the way to get someone out of a slump. They're free to disagree but it's still my opinion that trying is better than nothing. Even if it's just a sentence or a short paragraph a day, it still beats feeling shit about not updating.

>>24147

Isn't guilt tripping him a really selfish way to get him to write? It's kinda like whipping a slave in that he's only working to assuage the immediate negative feeling. What we need is some way to motivate authors in a way that positively rewards them for providing us a service.

>>24149
>Isn't guilt tripping him a really selfish way to get him to write?
I wasn't aware that I was guilt tripping anyone. The guy feels bad about not writing and that's definitely not mine or any third party's fault. All I'm saying is that he try to do something even if the going is slow. Maybe he'll feel better, maybe he won't. If he does nothing, it's more certain that he'll continue to feel bad.

His problem is not motivation and there's nothing more I could do about that anyways. I read, comment and vote in the stories I like and occasionally recommend them to others.

>>24149
>What we need is some way to motivate authors in a way that positively rewards them for providing us a service.
I don't think patreon/monetary incentives is relevant for any author below the tier of 'E-celebrity' in terms of active fan-base, of which there are none of thp. The most popular current stories would scrape pennies at best. Speaking as a writer of a functional though not at all popular story, I'd rake more profits looking for dropped change in a supermarket.

>positive rewards
As I am writing an interactive story, I look at the virtue of my story and work as a function of both how much I personally enjoy the story and how much readers engage and interact with it. It gets complex when you consider how the readers can influence a story, and other factors. The best external 'positive reward' I can get is having people being interested in interacting with my work, which they are. Failing that, it implies an issue with the audience and/or quality of the story.

>>24151
And I will add there is also the factor of writer effort. The amount of effort per yield (of story and reader interest) has a great effect on how much I value my story. For example, if I inputted one unit of effort for 1 unit of enjoyable story and reader interested, it is better than if I inputted two units of effort for the same thing. The audience does not, nor should they, see or appreciate the effort unit. They only see the enjoyable story unit and react to it.

So if I input 10 units of effort for 2 units of enjoyable story and reader interest, then even if the readers love it, they don't love it to the proportion of effort inputted therefore making it a 'bad deal' for the author regardless.

Convert effort units to hours writing/thinking/etc if you want.

I'm simplifying, though this should get my point across.

>>24152
What constitutes an acceptable sacrifice of effort will obviously change author to author.

>>24150

>I wasn't aware that I was guilt tripping anyone

Well that explains it then. It's good that we can get to the heart of the matter without the need for 50 back and forth posts. Authors feel guily when they don't update because they feel as though they have broken a promise to their readers. Kinda in the same way a parent to poor to afford Christmas presents might feel guilty.

There's usually some life related reason authors don't update, and you telling them to update isn't going to fix that reason. It might guilt trip them into writing in the same manner a crying child might guilt trip a parent into working overtime, but it doesn't fix the problem.

His problem is motivation. The return on happiness generated by votes/discussion isn't higher than the pain of writing. clearly there's only so far he's willing to go into the red before he admits the life of an author isn't for him.

>>24154
Nah, I reject your premise. And I say this as an author myself.

If you feel like crap about something, doing nothing isn't going to change that. Trying to do something may help. I'm not saying that he has to update but I am saying that falling into the trap of "it can't be helped" isn't going to help anyone.

Everything else like "return on happiness" in your post is you projecting and irrelevant, sorry.

Getting things done has fuck-all to do with how you feel if you actually have a good work ethic.

Uh, guys? You all seem to have missed that the story I'm guilty about is finished. As in, I came back and updated the hell out of that sucker. I still cringe on reflex whenever anyone mentions it because, well, shame lasts longer than a hiatus or three.

Guilt-tripping me into writing more is A-okay. The reason for the delays is still around, shitting on me from on high like someone slipped Kanako a year's supply of laxatives, but when it does let up I do sometimes need a reminder that I'm (allegedly) a writefag.

As opposed to, you know, pic related.

Wish I had more time to write. youkai jesus knows this place could do with more activity.

It's over. Sadpanda is finally imploding.

Where do we go?

Where do we get our porn now?

>>24321
From the smutty minds of authors here. Hope you like teasing and orgasm denial, because you'll be waiting forever for the climax to those stories.

>>24322

Yea, I'm not exactly holding my breath until the next Lotus Pavilion tier story comes along.

That's why I buy so many 2hu porn commissions. So much easier than depending on people who have lives outside of writing.

>>24323
Where... are these commissions? Asking for posteriority.

>>24324

On my hard drive.

>>24325
zOMG TORRENT PLZ!!!1

Kinda sad that some authors are actually putting legit effort into this November thing, while others are just sweet potato.

I'm not making an actual point here as the same parallels of author participation could be drawn for reader/voter participation. Just wanted to experiment with alternative sads other than the kind that's been posted in this thread before.

>>24402
I look forward to seeing what new cutting-edge sad you bring out next, dear artiste.

>>24402
Nothing wrong with Sweet potato. It's fast and loose, I appreciate it.

>>24404
This. It's fine for there to be stories of all types.

>>24402
November is a shitty month for some of us in some lines of work. What can I say? February/March, and I would have been all over it. November leaves me an overworked pile of meat six days out of seven, though.

>>24410
Don't make me start FeNoWriMo so you can put your writing where your mouth is!

>>24412
FeNoWriMo more like MaNoWriMo lmao gotem

>>24412
I legitimately intend to do "not-November-nanowrimo" in March

>>24414
Good. If you don't do it though, I will!

Nobody here says "Thanks for the chapter" like they do on other fanfiction sites.

>>24466
Votes are a more meaningful show of appreciation than ass-kissing.