Would Katawa Shoujo have worked as a written novel?

[yipyapper]

Jeez UncleJellyfish, that's ambitious. Good luck.

[UncleJellyfish]

Jeez UncleJellyfish, that's ambitious. Good luck.

I've started transcribing it. Only been at it for about half an hour, but I'm surprised at how far I've gotten. I'm thinking that, if I ever do manage to finish this (I'm doing Lilly's arc first, since most would agree that it would be the true route), I'll post it up on Create Space. Anyone would then be able to get it at a reasonable price. I myself wouldn't make any money off of this (so as not to break copyright and whatnot), but because they print as you order, whoever wished to purchase a copy would have to pay for the shipping, handling, printing, and processing. I believe it's no more than $8-$10 USD, but it may vary based on how large the final product actually is (in terms of page count). I'll post links and stuff when it finally happens, if ever.

Also, if anyone is willing to proofread for me, that'd be great. I have to make minor tweaks here and there as this will likely not have any pictures, so explaining some scenes requires a bit more writing, but for the most part, it's word for word with the original work. Proofreading would mostly be looking for typos and such. If you're interested, PM me with an email address that I can send it too. It's a Microsoft Word 2010 document, but the final product will be in PDF.

Updates and such to be expected. I have no schedule for this; I work when I have time and am able. I just had a baby, so working at home is probably not going to happen much, but at my job, I have free time throughout the day to sit down with my laptop and type out a few thousand words.

EDIT: I've gotten about 1,200 words in about 40 minutes, including one bathroom break and taking care of two customers. 400,000 words doesn't seem too bad, especially because I can copy the beginning bit (up to the first decisions with Shizune and Misha at lunch) for each of the other novels.

[Althamus]

I think it would work really well as a normal novel, BUT would more than likely need extensive re-writing and/or editing. As people have said, it was written with the intention of making it into a VN, and trying to pick it up lock-stock and drop it into a novel just won't work I don't think. Although having said that, it would be interesting to read it transcribed and see how easily it translates.

There are such books as adventure books (or whatever they're called) where at the end of every page (or so) you will have a choice, which will take you to a choice of pages. By working your way through this, you can eventually get 'through' the book and reach a conclusion, which will be one of many many that the book has. I thought KS would actually be like this when I first heard about it. I don't think anything like this would work with a transcribed KS, as it has far too few choices in it (and the choices affect the storyline in Acts2+ far too little in most cases).

I wouldn't mind proof reading a bit, I've also gotten a bit of free time on my hands at the minute. PM'd email address for you to send to if you wish.

Also, I would've thought that the story could have pictures in it every now and then. There are after all perhaps 15 drawn pictures per arc. Every now and then, a flavour picture page in the story could work, and help to tie the story in to KS, as well as help any new people who hadn't read KS to visualise the characters.

[UncleJellyfish]

I wouldn't mind proof reading a bit, I've also gotten a bit of free time on my hands at the minute. PM'd email address for you to send to if you wish.

Also, I would've thought that the story could have pictures in it every now and then. There are after all perhaps 15 drawn pictures per arc. Every now and then, a flavour picture page in the story could work, and help to tie the story in to KS, as well as help any new people who hadn't read KS to visualise the characters.

I've been thinking of ways to add art in, likely at the beginning of chapters or something, but the size of the page means that the picture will either be too small to see clearly (unless I use less complicated pictures), or leave too much white space on the page. I'd probably use the art from the VN for that. Also, if anyone could help with cover design, that'd be wonderful. I can do it myself, but if there are any talented artists out there that think they are up to it (front and back cover only, I'll take care of the spine), that'd be fantastic.

[Althamus]

In older books from perhaps 20-50 yro, the pages themselves would be made of matte, cheap paper, but they would sometimes have maybe 5-10 pages in them which were made of glossy paper, and had full-page colour pictures of them, showing a scene giving some visualisation to the story, without it being a picture book (I myself have a version of The Hobbit which has I think 6 pictures in it like this).
That would be more what I was thinking of for it. Bad side is that these are almost always portrait to fit the book, whereas the KS pics are landscape to fit a screen.

Also, the pictures originally are pretty damn huge. There will be no quality problems for them in terms of them being pixellated. I'm not sure how large a book you're thinking of, but if you're looking at a book roughly 5" wide by 8" tall (normal paperback) I shouldn't have thought there'd be a problem.

I'm pretty good at manipulating art, but terrible at drawing something from scratch. I could probably make up a front and back cover for it using the images from the game, which is probably what is needed anyhow. New art = bad when there is so much to pull from which is already of such good quality.

[UncleJellyfish]

Using art from the VN is what I intended to do (Photoshop FTW!) when it came to the front and back covers. As for the picture pages in the middle of the book, I fear the problem with those is that you either see pictures that are from scenes you've already read, or pictures of scenes you've yet to read. Adding black and white pictures directly into the story itself, every couple of "chapters" or so would probably be much better.

The final product, as was stated in a previous post, would likely be around 350 pages in length. Standard paperback size probably wouldn't cut it, but I'm not sure if Create Space does hard covers, (I haven't worked with them in a few years, things might've changed), so having a larger book that is also paperback might be somewhat strange.

[Althamus]

The picture pages could be added into the book at any point. At the scene where Hisao confesses to the girl, have a page spread of the confession alongside etc.

Basically, what you meant by the B+W pics every couple of chapters or so, except I had imagined them full page and in colour. I guess it depends a bit on whether the pictures will work portrait, and the printer's requirements.

350 pages would fit a standard paperback depending on the billion and one factors. It's not unusual to see paperback books in excess of 350 pages. Although having said that, 350 is only an estimate anyways, currently KS is written in lines rather than paragraphs, and a lot of it is written as speech, which will create more white space on a page than normal, and mean less words/page than normal. Also, I would have thought that it might need to be minorly edited to accommodate it to a written novel rather than a VN, which I would expect would add more words than it would remove.
So yea, it might be prudent to look into finding out about larger forms of print. If the "words in KS ~ 350 pages of a normal book" is true, I wouldn't be surprised if each book turned out to be 425-450 pages long once all's said and done, which is starting to get a little large for a book.

[UncleJellyfish]

So, close to 2 hours of transcribing, including two bathroom breaks and five customers, got me through the entire prologue and up to the first line of Act 1, Gated Effects. Roughly 2,500 words and close to 6 pages (Times New Roman, 12 point, 1.5 spacing). This is mostly for reference for myself, but it'll give others an idea of my progress as well. I'll continue to post in this thread as I work. I probably won't get any more work done tonight, but it's Sunday tomorrow, which is even slower than Saturdays in the evenings (and I work for 10 hours, weeeeeeeeee), so I'll probably get even more done.

I must say, though my hands ache, I'm really enjoying this.

[yipyapper]

So, close to 2 hours of transcribing, including two bathroom breaks and five customers, got me through the entire prologue and up to the first line of Act 1, Gated Effects. Roughly 2,500 words over close to 6 pages (Times New Roman, 12 point, 1.5 spacing). This is mostly for reference for myself, but it'll give others an idea of my progress as well. I'll continue to post in this thread as I work. I probably won't get any more work done tonight, but it's Sunday tomorrow, which is even slower than Saturdays in the evenings (and I work for 10 hours, weeeeeeeeee), so I'll probably get even more done.

I must say, though my hands ache, I'm really enjoying this.

If I can assist in any way, Pm me and I'll help. I'd love to help.

[UncleJellyfish]

My biggest concern with having others help with the transcribing is that any sort of added text (as in, it was added in order to provide fluidity to the story, since the original text in the VN was lacking when moved to a novel format) will be different depending on the person transcribing it. This will cause writing style inconsistencies in the final product unless I were to read through and either change or double check that everything is similar in writing style so that it doesn't throw the reader off. At the pace that I'm working at, it may take even longer to read through and make changes to someone else's transcribed product than it would be to simply do it myself.

As an example, think of different chapters of the same manga being scanlated by different groups. The style change and adaptations can differ so much that sometimes it's hard to tell what is going on. For now, I'll stick with proofreaders and cover art, but if I do need any other help, I'll be sure to let those that are willing know.

[yipyapper]

My biggest concern with having others help with the transcribing is that any sort of added text (as in, it was added in order to provide fluidity to the story, since the original text in the VN was lacking when moved to a novel format) will be different depending on the person transcribing it. This will cause writing style inconsistencies in the final product unless I were to read through and either change or double check that everything is similar in writing style so that it doesn't throw the reader off. At the pace that I'm working at, it may take even longer to read through and make changes to someone else's transcribed product than it would be to simply do it myself.

As an example, think of different chapters of the same manga being scanlated by different groups. The style change and adaptations can differ so much that sometimes it's hard to tell what is going on. For now, I'll stick with proofreaders and cover art, but if I do need any other help, I'll be sure to let those that are willing know.

I didn't necessarily mean just that, just anything that can help for it.

[Althamus]

Oh cool. My biggest concern with adapting it to a novel was that if the text as a VN was put through verbatim, it clearly wouldn't make enough sense, and would need fleshing out to properly describe what was going on. It's good to see that's happening.

Although how are you dealing with choices in the game? For Act 1, presumably you're going by the flowchart to choose the Lilly route 100%, but the story is written to give the reader a few choices which go nowhere, or lead to a few lines of dialogue difference. Presumably you're picking the good ending, and the 'better choice' for all the 'irrelevant' choices inbetween?

[ICEheaven102]

It wouldn't really work because one, you have to technically right a new book for every character's route. Two, certain scenes like in Lily's good route where she come back to you and that music box plays will lack the music that goes with.

[UncleJellyfish]

It wouldn't really work because one, you have to technically right a new book for every character's route.

I was already going to do this.

Two, certain scenes like in Lily's good route where she come back to you and that music box plays will lack the music that goes with.

I've thought of this, and although there won't be music, I'll be doing my best to describe the tune both during the time when Hisao gives it to her, and at the time in the hospital where he hears it playing.

Oh cool. My biggest concern with adapting it to a novel was that if the text as a VN was put through verbatim, it clearly wouldn't make enough sense, and would need fleshing out to properly describe what was going on. It's good to see that's happening.

Although how are you dealing with choices in the game? For Act 1, presumably you're going by the flowchart to choose the Lilly route 100%, but the story is written to give the reader a few choices which go nowhere, or lead to a few lines of dialogue difference. Presumably you're picking the good ending, and the 'better choice' for all the 'irrelevant' choices inbetween?

I will be going through with a flowchart and picking all the right choices, however, depending on the route I'm taking, I may make different choices at different times (for example, Hisao introducing himself to the class, which I plan to do for Lilly's route, but not for Shizune's). I'll be going for the "pure" good ending, so every choice will be made correctly (no roundabouts, like when you have 2 Shizune points in Act 1 and then race Emi, you can still get on Shizune's route instead of Emi's if you make the right choices. I'm not going to be doing that).

[Althamus]

I will be going through with a flowchart and picking all the right choices, however, depending on the route I'm taking, I may make different choices at different times (for example, Hisao introducing himself to the class, which I plan to do for Lilly's route, but not for Shizune's). I'll be going for the "pure" good ending, so every choice will be made correctly (no roundabouts, like when you have 2 Shizune points in Act 1 and then race Emi, you can still get on Shizune's route instead of Emi's if you make the right choices. I'm not going to be doing that).

Artistic license ftw. I agree that certainly with Act 1, you can take liberties with the script in places. A good example will be that you probably won't say Hanako is cute in Lilly's route (despite that being a good way to GET to Lilly's route in the game).

However, I think Hisao introducing himself to the class in Shizune's route is important. After all, Shizune is very outspoken and believes strongly in strength of character and taking risks to achieve her aims. Hisao introducing himself IMHO perfectly personifies this characteristic in him, which Shizune would like.
By contrast, Lilly isn't even in Hisao's class, so whether he introduces himself or not, she wouldn't even know. I guess it wouldn't hurt if his character had a slight bent towards being strong and forthright as it would in Hanako's arc, but I see far fewer benefits than for Shizune's arc.