Pen Pals

A Pen Pal is a small companion that grows as you write. It lives on the Pen Pals page, and its picture shows on your profile.

Meeting your Pen Pal

New writers meet one during sign-up, on the Meet your Pen Pal step. Skip this goes on without one.

Otherwise, open Pen Pals from the menu, or choose Meet the Pen Pals on your home page.

1. Pick Cheep, Meemer or Slime Chick. Each card shows its type.
2. Choose the button with its name, such as Choose Meemer.
3. Type a name, or use Roll a name.
4. Choose Say hello.

Looking after it

The Pen Pal tab has two views: Today and Letter.

Under Today, four needs fill as you go:

• Vigor: write today.
• Wit: do an exercise or a prompt.
• Heart: give feedback or join in the community.
• Grit: meet your daily goal.

The i beside each need shows what counted today. Under the stage: Play, Show a trick and Tuck in.

Your Pen Pal gains levels as you write. When you have been away it naps, and writing wakes it.

Your daily goal

Daily goal › Edit on the Pen Pal tab, or Settings › Streaks and games.

• Set the Words written and Minutes of writing. Reaching either one meets the words-or-minutes part.
• Under Extras, pick any of: Do an exercise or prompt, Join a sprint, Give someone feedback, Add to a world, Read someone’s piece. The counter shows how many you can add.
• Your goal is met when the words or minutes are reached and every extra you picked is done.

Meeting your goal keeps your streak. Keeping your streak some other way, such as a reaction or a check-in, does not meet your goal.

Reminders

Writing reminders › Edit on the Pen Pal tab.

1. Turn on the switch that says your Pen Pal reminds you to write.
2. Pick the hour and where the reminder reaches you.

Reminders arrive in your Pen Pal’s own voice, in your time zone.

The weekly letter

Each week your Pen Pal writes to you. Open the Letter view and choose Open the letter. A New label shows on a letter you have not read.

Finding more Pen Pals

The Inkubator tab.

Mysteries. Each one has a riddle as its only clue. Do what the riddle describes and it counts in the background. A line under the riddle shows when you are getting close. Go to your chapters opens your chapters, where writers work the riddles out together.

Found. Solving one finds an egg, or a letter for a person. It waits under Found, waiting to go in.

Hatching.

1. Choose Put it in.
2. Do the small feat shown under To hatch it or To open it. It counts only while it is in.
3. When the feat is done, it hatches, or the letter opens.

Take it out keeps its progress. Carry on puts it back in.

Some special Pen Pals arrive with a SpiffLife comic. Choose Read the comic when it arrives.

The Collection

The Collection tab shows every Pen Pal: yours, eggs and letters on the way, and silhouettes for the rest.

Tap or click one of yours to open its card:

• its level, class and type, and what its class does
• its outfit, if it has one
• its comics, to read again
• Activate, to put it on the stage

Active Pen Pal on the Pen Pal tab also switches which one is on the stage. How classes work lists every class and how many of each you have.

Outfits

Some Pen Pals have winter outfits: Snowman for Ribbet and Holly for Salibun. Each outfit has its own mystery, shown in the Inkubator from December to the end of February.

• If you already have the Pen Pal, it gains the outfit. Pick it under Outfit on the Pen Pal tab, beside Everyday.
• If the outfit comes first, the Pen Pal arrives wearing it. Its everyday look is its own mystery in the Inkubator. The i beside Outfit on its card says so.

Classes and types

Every Pen Pal has a class and a type.

• The class is its role in battle: Apprentice, Wordsmith, Loremaster, Muse, Chronicler, Editor or Storyteller.
• The type is Quill, Ink or Paper. Quill beats Ink, Ink beats Paper, Paper beats Quill.
• The three starters are Apprentices. An Apprentice learns moves from how you write: words, exercises, feedback and writing time each teach it different ones.

Spars

The Spars tab. Spars are friendly battles with other writers who said yes.

1. Answer Take part in spars?, or turn on Take part in spars in Settings › Streaks and games.
2. Find a writer and choose how to battle: A spar, Letter by letter, or 3 vs 3.
3. Pick a scene, or Surprise me. Ask for full strength uses real levels.
4. They choose Accept or Decline.

• Letter by letter is a move a turn, sent by crane. Open it from the Spars tab when it is your move.
• 3 vs 3 opens when you have three Pen Pals and another battle player does too.
• Outline: the four moves your Pen Pal brings and when to use each. Use the ready-made one resets it.
• Practice against the Blank Page: a spar where nothing is recorded.
• Write this fight: write a finished spar as a short scene. It is saved as a draft.

Bosses

The Bosses tab. A boss is taken on together for a week: With friends, as A chapter you lead, or as A team.

1. Choose Take on a boss, pick the Boss and who comes along.
2. Everyone invited gets a note and chooses Join in.
3. Writing wears the boss down. A day at your own goal hits hardest.
4. Once a day, choose Send with your Pen Pal’s name to fight it.

Boss health shows what is left. When it runs out the boss is beaten. If the week ends first, the boss wanders off.

Hiding Pen Pals

Turn on Hide Pen Pals in Settings › Streaks and games. Show Pen Pals brings them back.