Story plotting method

[Seppukudoll]

I'm not really sure how to phrase this question but what is your preferred method of plotting a branching storyline for interactive fiction? I'm not a very good organizer and am much better at brainstorming and tweaking at details but not at the actual organization of the bigger picture.

Do you use a program for this? Have you got a good method to keep all these story ideas formatted and easy to track?

I've considered using excel but I'm not really sure if it's ideal for branching plot points that lead to a recycled plot device.

Any tips? Suggestions? Care to share your template or own way of organizing these stories?

[Fawkes - Feathered Melody]

I've never planned a multibranch story before, but I can see using an outline format with IF a is TRUE then go to part II(b). Probably flag important events with bold text. I do all my planning in a standard word processor.

Code: Select all

I. The Beginning of My Day
   a) Wake up
   b) [Decision] Take over world?
       1) If yes, then go to IIa.
       2) If no, then go to IIb.

II. Some things happen.
   a) Yay, I took over the world!
   b) Just another ordinary day.

IIIa. Conclusion A.
   
IIIb. Conclusion B.

I can see this getting very complicated if you get branches that intertwine.

[Counter Arts]

I suggest you organize your story into episodes or events. Then group those events together that are related.

Events like...

Character Events
Background story events
School events
etc...

[papillon]

I don't think most of us can handle writing TRULY branching stories of the CYOA variety in which almost every choice sends you to totally unique new text and every ending is different. The combinations get out of control rapidly, and it's hard to make every different story be interesting and non-forced.

So most of us are going to do things like stories that split and rejoin, or that appear to run almost straight for long periods of time only to fork at the end.

Imagine that you wrote a game about going on a tour of a museum. You could be led around the museum in a very fixed order, and at each exhibit be asked a question about the object which you might get right or wrong. No matter what you answered, you'd move along to the next exhibit, and only at the end would you split off into different ending stories based on what answers you got right or wrong. That's what I mean by "almost straight".

On the other hand imagine a game about a week at school, and every school day would start off with classes and then your choice of three activities. What happened in the activity you chose would be different but the next day you'd still go to school again and the same classes would happen no matter what activities you did. That's what I mean by "split and rejoin".

There are lots of different ways to structure a story so that it doesn't branch out of control, and you probably want to think about the shape of the story before trying to get all the details in. How will it begin and end, how will events within the story be paced, are there things that should happen on all playthroughs?

[Nafai]

Two possible ways:

(1) Flowchart: There are programs you can use for this, but nothing you can't emulate with paper and pen. Make a box per event, another shape for a choice, ten literally branch off from that to new events. If you want to keep things tight you can have these flowcharts in the middle of a grid so that you know which events would occur specifically, concurrently or alternatively at certain times, but that kind of micro-management is less feasible the less similarity there is between your branches.

(2) True then Parallel: This is what I'm trying to use for my current project. I'm writing the 'true' path first, marking where choices will be given, and which choices would lead to major or minor branches. That way what you end up with is a map of the potential alternative stories/paths you can tell, and since you hold off doing those paths until you have the entire true branch finished, you can make them more consistent.

[dizzcity]

Yeah, I use flowcharts mainly... or even Powerpoint slides. I find I can quickly mock it up using a slide to describe what happens in each section, then including hyperlinks at the end of each slide to simulate the choices.

Of course, this only works mainly for stories which either need no conditions for choices, or which use flags (True/False) rather than points ("If Relationship > 5, Choice 3 appears").

-Dizzy-

[monele]

http://meesoft.logicnet.dk/DiagramDesigner/

Great free soft to make story diagrams ^^

[DaFool]

I just create chapter arcs and write for each. That way whatever nice idea that comes to mind gets to have writing time. Then I sit down in front of all the arcs and find out which stories might be joined together to create a larger arc if I just change a character or setting or two. I also choose which arcs lead to other arcs, and which ones have to go to the backburner for now to see the light another day, another project.

It won't make the best writing -- I'm no writer -- but at least there's something on paper, more than enough to start scripting a game.

[Taleweaver]

I also create flowcharts using Powerpoint, plus another Excel table for variables. (I LOVE using variables. ) I usually number my scenes after having completed the flowchart and then work at them from 1 to infinity (or as high as it gets). Decision trees become scenes of their own, numbered with the same number as the decision before, plus an added "a". So if Scene 8 features a choice, the choice itself becomes scene 8a. Makes putting everything together easier if you're not the programmer.