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So I need some tips with how people plan their visual novels and keep them organized. Organization has always been a problem with me as well as motivation.

Questions:

How do you plan for your visual novel?

How do you stay organized?

How do you keep motivated?

Do you use a planner to help?

Is there a site that can help you stay organized?

Do you use a character sheet for your characters?

If not, what helps you make them or give more detail about then?

Do you use an outline or go straight with writing since you have it all in your head?

Any tips?

I'll try to help a bit from my own experience, but technically the games I've finished so far might not be considered visual novels. However, a lot of the basics apply to any type of game, as far as I'm concerned.

How do you plan for your visual novel?

You're probably already passed this part, but when I get ideas I always try to get down a very basic premise. As an example, for my fangame Corpse Party D2: Fatal Operation, I started with "Corpse Party in a hospital, focused on a specific canon character". After that I expand on things, usually by adding in other ideas I got at the same time as the main concept. For CPD2F, I came up with things like "have a doctor as a major antagonist and zombies as an environmental threat". Then I write down why these things have to be the way they are, like noting that the zombies are failed attempts to raise the dead.

Once you have the basic ideas down, I'd suggest opening up a new file to draft a story outline. Some people work well without outlines, but in my experience an outline is always great to have. At the very least, it's a fallback if you forget where you were trying to go. And you can always change outlines along the way to fit changing circumstances. CPD2F had at least 3-4 different outlines before it came to its final form.

How do you keep motivated?

This is a tricky question to answer because it's always personal. For me, I keep working on my big projects because I've abandoned too many projects in the past to let the current ones fall apart. Sometimes I kill smaller project ideas before I can get all the ideas down just so that I can stay focused on the bigger goals. I've also found that releasing a demo of a significant portion of my game usually puts extra pressure on me to complete the project, but not everyone responds well to that kind of pressure.

Do you use an outline or go straight with writing since you have it all in your head?

I always use an outline for my serious projects these days. As I mentioned before, it's always nice to have it at least as a fallback or a way to remind yourself of where you need to go with the story. I usually have multiple outlines for each project, since I like to keep the old outlines around for reference when I inevitably change things.

Another thing to keep in mind: story-heavy games, Visual Novels in particular, take many sittings to write out. Unless you're going to marathon write your game, you'll want at least a simple outline to remind yourself what you're working on when you inevitably take a day or two off from writing.

How do you plan for your visual novel?

Motivation, Inspiration, Application. Probably not the right person to ask here. I just started making my VN.

But if I had to say anything, it's just to be in a state of mind where you feel like you want to do something. Let's say you found out that everyday you have 2-3 hours free where you do absolutely nothing and you want to change that.

Next, be open to the other novels around you. Or even other stories. Make yourself say, "I wanna make one too."

Then after that, actually do something. Get coding. Get drawing. Everything.

How do you stay organized?

I leave a lot of spacing in my code.

I define my images like so:

[character name][eye direction][facial expression][pose][outfit]

So you can easily call them next time like:

show carl me smile normal normal

and then let's say he just looks away with a sad face

show Carl me sad

I keep my images, music, SFX, and everything else in separate folders as much as possible.

Clear your desk, clear your mind.

And if things get a little messy, just keep going until you finish something, as long as it works in the end. Remember, nobody's looking at your code.

How do you keep motivated?

Probably the hardest to do.

I just pester my friends about it and make them play it and constantly ask them what they think about it. Let my friends know that this project is important to me. And in a way, try making it for your friends or for the audience.

If you're introverted however, then just simply open your game for 5-10 minutes everyday. Type a little bit of code that you think is necessary. Add little bit by little bit. Nobody's racing you.

Do you use a planner to help?

I have a whiteboard where I write down important notes, names of .mp3 files, general mapping of the storyboard. It also has a checkbox of things I have to accomplish within the month.

Reward yourself when you finish a whole lot of code. I like eating sweets and stuff while working.

Is there a site that can help you stay organized?

So far, lemmasoft is the best I got. All my social media sites are a mess. But I keep my art in DA just in case.

Do you use a character sheet for your characters?

Of course. It's nice to remind yourself what the character's personalities are, and little facts about them. This is important while writing script because sometimes you just write stuff off on a tangent. Having a character sheet helps a lot.

It also kinda sorta motivates me to continue the story.

If not, what helps you make them or give more detail about then?

You give them a simple personality, and give that personality a name. Mine goes like, "Passive", "Manly", "Bitchy", "Quiet..." so on and so on. And simply try to base the next thing a character says based on the personality I gave them.

Do you use an outline or go straight with writing since you have it all in your head?

It's nice to have an outline. A storyboard. At the very least, know how your story begins, how it ends, the important scenes, and then you can improv the rest. Just connect the dots.

How do you plan for your visual novel?
First I start with a preliminary design containing technical details such as (projected)word count, cost, genre and use those to remind me of the scope of what I should be doing.

How do you stay organized?
I usually list things that need to be done. Usually there are three lists: Coding, Writing, and Assets. I would then spam stickynotes on things that need review.

How do you keep motivated?
Got me through hell and back, 10 hours at a time. If you have a social life, you might want to use that.

Do you use a planner to help?
If you can consider a Gantt Chart as a planner then yes.

Is there a site that can help you stay organized?
I don't.... really go online for this stuff. My experience in college has thought me the necessary know-how in running (group) projects. Yes I hate them to the core.

Do you use a character sheet for your characters?
Of course I do! At least for the backstories and technical data.


Do you use an outline or go straight with writing since you have it all in your head?
I went straight to writing and it became a trainwreck.

Any tips?
Since you're developing a software per se... you might want to use a development process... and a philosophy in case you're practically lost in thought on how to deal with certain issues in design/implementation.

How do you plan for your visual novel?

I generally break things down into progressively smaller pieces until I have a clear plan for a game, in all respects-- plot, assets, how to approach the work.

I start with either a high concept or a set of elements I want to include, and start off by drawing the basic links between them or creating some more specific information.

For example, with a game outline I've been working on recently:

High concept: midway through an epic quest, the protagonist disappears and their girlfriend takes the lead role

What were they doing?
Trying to defeat a stereotypical evil sorceress

Why is she the new lead?
Because the other members of the party have elected her as the protagonist's replacement

Why is this a problem?
Because she's got crippling social anxiety and devalues the few adventuring skills she has

On and on until I've answered all the important questions about motivation, personality, major characters, plot trajectory, etc.

How do you stay organized?

I usually have some really clearly organised folders+subfolders with codes/titles that make it very easy to find what I want. Here's a screenshot to show what I mean by that.

How do you keep motivated?

I'm not very motivated from day-to-day, but I manage to keep working on the same projects in the long term mostly by pouring most of my money into the assets so that I'll have wasted thousands of dollars if I don't finish them. AHAHAHAHA. When I am properly motivated to do a lot of work on something it's normally because I've either had a good idea for how to execute something and I want to put it into practice, or because another team member has turned in an asset and I really want to put it into use. : )

Do you use a planner to help? + Is there a site that can help you stay organized?

For one of my VNs I'm using Trello at the moment, which is pretty handy. Here's a shot of the site layout. Basically, you can make multiple to-do lists for a single topic/project, and move tasks between them. So, what a lot of people do is make a to-do list (or a bunch of them, in my case), and then a WIP list, and then a completed list. Moving stuff from to-do to WIP to completed is really satisfying and it's great seeing the completed stuff pile up.

Do you use a character sheet for your characters?

Nope. Tried to once, didn't work at all. Most character sheets tend to encourage you to think about random fluff detail for your characters rather than the meat of what they think and mean-- for example, is your character's shoe size important to the story? No, probably not (unless they're Cinderella). Stop thinking about that, at least until you've built up their important traits first. It's like eating dessert before dinner. : I

If not, what helps you make them or give more detail about then?

I usually create a central trait or two for each character (personality, role, situation, etc) and then rationalise it from there, kind of like my planning process above. To take an example from one of my current projects...

Werewolf knight

Why is he a werewolf?
He was cursed for being overzealous in his knightly duties.

What did he do as a knight?
Hunt down magical creatures/people with the dedication of Inspector Javert hunting Jean Valjean.

Who put the curse on him?
The magician he hunted most enthusiastically. When they met for the last time, the magician got the upper hand and decided that for the knight's 'dogged' determination in hunting, he would become a literal dog-man.

How does he cope with the curse?
He is plagued with self-loathing, but continues his hunting. He has an almost suicidal approach to it now, wherein he hopes for one of his targets to kill him. His pride won't allow him to throw a fight, however.

Eventually, I work my way down from concept to details, and I end up with the specifics you'd get in a character sheet. So for this character...

Name: Samir Petrov
Nationality: Azerbaijani
Age: 30 (how long has he been 30: a while)
Appearance: beautiful but unkempt, covers all his skin save for his face, starves himself and refuses to cut his hair. Faintly lupine even when there's no moon out.
Personality: severe and solitary; refuses to evaluate his actions-- takes an 'ends justify the means' approach to life so unless the end is bad, why care about how we got there; normally very practical but prone to hoarding things that make him seem intellectual (books, maps, charts); likes writing.

By working this way, all the superficial details players will catch right off end up really emblematic of backstory, role, worldview... etc etc... and get to act as windows into something deeper, rather than cool window dressing.

Do you use an outline or go straight with writing since you have it all in your head?

I outline extremely thoroughly. If I can't write an outline for a piece, then why would I be able to write it in full? It also helps me keep the pace when I'm doing my first draft-- even if I don't stick to an outline perfectly, if I get stuck I can refer to it and the answer to what comes next and why is already there. It means I can focus on the dialogue, the quality of the writing, and making the characters shine... rather than just figuring out what the heck is happening.

Any tips?

My last suggestion (though this is a pretty subjective/personal one) is that if you're stuck it can be a good idea to make a playlist of songs that reflect the characters/themes/setting/whatever of your story and then let the songs inspire you to work. Whenever I'm stuck on Seven Stories, I slap on a playlist I made for it and one or more of the songs will get me going.

How do you plan for your visual novel?
An idea grows over time and as it grows, I notice plot points, characters, and things I want in it and write them down.

How do you stay organized?
With setting tentative deadlines for myself.
Especially earlier, I had a huge tendency to wander around thinking of the setting and characters and events, which is a good thing to an extent, because it helped me flesh everything out. Things have really changed since the inception of my project, and I'm glad for those changes that I don't think I would have thought of if I didn't spend so much time wandering about the story and its characters in my head.
But with a deadline, a lot of stuff became clearer to me. "Do I really need to say all that", or "is this really necessary?" "Wouldn't this work better like this than like that?"
Without any kind of pressure I know I would play with sand (minor details that aren't too important) and stones (Important parts of the story) and it's hard to tell them apart, but with a deadline, somehow they separate and I can focus on the stones first without worrying about the sand, and then the sand just comes naturally. I hope that makes sense.

How do you keep motivated?
By wanting my project to get completed.

Do you use a planner to help?
I've tried to mark things out on the calendar for individual days: writing Wednesday, music composition Thursday, drawing Friday... things like that, but they've never really helped me.
I think you just can't force creativity. If I try to force myself, nothing comes out and I feel upset with myself. Instead, I just sit in front of the computer and do whatever I feel like doing related to the project, but again, I try not to force anything.
Eventually, so long as I'm making content that's going to be used, it'll come together.
Edit: Though, I have found that it helps writing down what I did every day on my calendar. That way, I'm not telling myself I have to do something, but I end up doing work anyway because I feel encouraged seeing the days I did accomplish stuff.

Do you use a character sheet for your characters?
I've tried to define my characters in character sheets and such but it felt kind of fake to me.

If not, what helps you make them or give more detail about them?
Honestly, again, time. The more I write, the more each character comes into their own.


Do you use an outline or go straight with writing since you have it all in your head?
I have a general framework for what I want to happen in the story, but the skeleton is vague and flexible enough that I just write whatever I want to with the direction of the next plot point in mind. I write down events on physical cards some times and it helps me rearrange them in an order I like, and helps me separate them into separate routs. For example:

Start wrote: Billy is going to school and such.

Can lead to Emily's Rout, Jessy's Rout...

Start> Emily's Rout wrote: Billy and Emily hang out and date and such.

Can lead to Emily Tournament, Emily Beach...

Emily's Rout> Emily Tournament wrote: Emily studies under you and participates in the kendo championship

Can lead to Tournament Good Ending, Tournament Bad Ending...

Like that.

Any tips?
Enjoy and create.

Okay, I just got introduced to yED thanks to Morhighan sharing it in one of her posts.
It's very useful for planning branching plot points and stuff. I recommend using it.

SelLi wrote:Okay, I just got introduced to yED thanks to Morhighan sharing it in one of her posts.
It's very useful for planning branching plot points and stuff. I recommend using it.

Thank you so much =). And to everyone else as well. I've read this thoroughly and am really grateful for all the help you guys have given. Thanks again everyone ^^.

For planning, I'm using Game Design Document Template I've found in some sites. That's how I put everything organized, from concept, gameplay, play flow, screen flow, all the details together in 1 document. If there's any update, I'll update it as well. It will take much of your time to do it, but if you're a person that can't track what you've done or what will you do next, just like me, I think taking your time to build this document will really help you a lot.

Also, I'm using Microsoft Project or simply Excel with these fields : Task, Working Time, From When, To When, Condition, Assignee, Progress, Description (if needed).
For example : Document Making, 1 month, 2015-02-12, 2015-03-12, If story outlining finished, Ernestalice, 25%, Making story document based on story outline.
Basically, Condition is something that you must finish before making the current task, so you will know what you must do before and after the tasks.

This also needs time to do. But for me, this will build a stronger motivation and base throughout the entire project, especially when the project is big. If not that big, probably you don't have to use this method.

For outlining story and character setting, I usually do a lot more of the character's background and character development setting than anything else. However, if you want others to make the arts for you, you should create a document stating all the details such as : name, gender, age, physical description (hair, height, weight, birthmark/scar or something like that, clothes, weapon), personality traits, ability (if any). Of course, not only characters, but you should make for backgrounds, too.

But honestly, not all people is suited to this style. Mostly does. But, some people can only make stories without making the details too much (they really can't make story from details setting, not because they don't want to). And some genius people perhaps can do both.

I'll give you this for reference : http://www.mangahere.co/manga/claymore/v23/c155.1/

It's not a chapter for that story, but a chapter that explained about how the author made this story, so I think it's well worth reading.

I use an app called "Self Control" and block all time wasting sites (Facebook, twitter, etc) from my computer for 24 hour periods.

How do you plan for your visual novel?:

Just like any other project I work on; Write everything down. Who are the characters, what are their traits, why are they that way? What's the back story, what world are they living in, how does the world they live in affect what happens in the story, do the characters work with the environment? Just questions that help me generally check if the story will stay consistant.

How do you stay organized?

Charts... Everywhere. I keep charts for my characters, some I put on my walls so that I can track things visually for whatever I might be working on at the moment, some I keep filed away and keep a file for the world that my story is taking place in, as well as the characters in case I'm not sure if my idea for what I want a character saying or doing lines up with their actual personality, or what their personality might grow into.

How do you keep motivated?
I write down everything I need to do, whether it's planning, plotting, artwork, music, writing, whatever it is I write it down and see what I have to do. The more things I see checked off that list, the more it makes me want to check off more things and when the list is all checked off, whatever I'm working on is for the most part, complete.

Do you use a planner to help?

Kind of, I use a lot of calenders to keep myself on track and a lot of whiteboards so I can write down what I plan to do everyday and change it easily without wasting paper. It

Is there a site that can help you stay organized?
I don't use a site, so I don't personally know

Do you use a character sheet for your characters?
Yup, I sort of made my own up to fit my needs, but you can searh them and find one that will work for you, I've seen a few floating around online that looked interesting.


Do you use an outline or go straight with writing since you have it all in your head?

I use a rough outline and then start writing no matter what I do, any flaws in the story that I missed in my rough outline, I usually pick up on them when I start actually writing it. I feel that whenever I've gone straight to writing anything in the past, there were holes in the story or little issues and that's actually what rendered a lot of my early projects (writing in general and visual novels alike) unusable >_<

Hope I've said something helpful

Well, a fellow writer and friend of mine linked me to this guide last night, and I plan on using it every chance I get. I don't know if somebody else has shared it already---I apologize if that's the case---but I thought everyone should know about it.

Mad Harlequin wrote:Well, a fellow writer and friend of mine linked me to this guide last night, and I plan on using it every chance I get. I don't know if somebody else has shared it already---I apologize if that's the case---but I thought everyone should know about it.

Jeeze, thanks to this one, I completed a plot in a matter of hours. Just curious, how would you consider adapting this method to branching plots?