Katawa Shoujo Forums

If possible, I would like to coordinate with some of the character designers and writers in an attempt to help flesh out the characters and added much more detailed descriptions of what they like, who they are, what they think of themselves, what they would do if a meteor fell to Earth, etc. Essentially, I want to use my exquisite grip on the English language to help add flavor to this already-flavorful game.

Moreover, I personally am in the midst of designing my own graphic novel and would be willing to [privately] show some example of what I am capable of doing. Oh, and I have a BA in English, but that doesn't really mean much of anything nowadays.

Please note that I don't want to disrupt the rhythmic flow and dynamic of the writers and designers -- all I wish to do is help provide them with possible angles with which to expand on what they have already established. For example, Lilly likes tea, yes? Why? Is there a special reason? Is she secretly a super hero that is fueled by tea? Did she perform some sort of body-for-power exchange with a tea-related demon from realms best left unmentioned? All jokes, of course, but you get the idea.

As I mentioned in my thread in the Public Discussion, I feel that many visual novels are very vague about their characters, and those novels simply try to shove archetypes down our throats. Whenever I see a new manga/anime character that I enjoy, the first things I think of are: "If she made a fruit, salad which fruits would she pick up without giving it a second thought? How would she react if I said 'Ha! You like pineapples and cranberries, eh?!' ? Would she be surprised? Would she head butt me, causing a large contusion from which there is no recovery? Would she simply say that there is no superior choice possible?"

A character exposition specialist? Damn. Thanks for the interesting offer, but if we ever feel the need to do mass public exposition on the characters, I'm sure that the five staff writers who are intimately familiar with the characters can just bust out their secret writing notes and canonical biographies to the public.

However, we probably rather not because this kind of thing is unnecessary and uninteresting (the opposite of its suggested goal). Example: Lilly drinks tea because she likes its taste and because she is addicted to caffeine like everyone who drinks tea/coffee is.

You don't see character biographies and exposition in real books, because the story itself is meant to tell everything you need to know about the characters. I know that anime subculture characters, who tend to get heavily obsessed over more than average novel characters, are popular for this kind of thing but it still doesn't make me want to do exposition about unnecessary details. I guess I just like to leave things up to readers' imagination.