Getting started - Help out a writing newbie?

[JessieK]

Hey guys, I've recently decided to actually "go for it" and start making a visual novel I've been wanting to do one for about two years now but I've always found an excuse to put it off over and over.

I recently sat down to play out the events I wanted to happen in the story, and to start listing off the characters I wanted, along with designing them.

Now what?

How do I go about actually writing the story? Is it just a case of writing a traditional story and then every time there would be a choice also write out the alternatives?

Basically I am asking for any advice you guys might have to help out someone new to this sort of writing. Maybe even software you can recommend to help organise things would be fantastic!

Thanks very much for any help in advance.

[Taleweaver]

First of all, don't buy any special writing software. You're not going to need it for your very first project.

So how do you go about actually writing the story? Here's how.

Sit down. Now.

Open up any text editor. If you can already program in Ren'Py, open up the editor that comes with Ren'Py.

You're sitting? Your program is running? Great.

Now write.

Yeah, just like this. Write. Start with your first sentence. Any sentence that comes to your mind. Needn't be the perfect first sentence. Any first sentence is fine.

Now write the second sentence. Then the third. Write. Keep on writing. Just write as long as you feel like it.

Once you think you've had enough, stop. Save your written text and turn off the text editor you were using. Then do something else for the rest of the day. Don't bother about what you wrote until tomorrow.

Tomorrow, open up the text editor and actually read what you wrote the day before. How does it sound? Does it make sense? How do you like it so far?

Depending on your opinion, continue or just start over. This time, you may write more time than once that day. Also, every time you take a break, read what you've written. Redo what you don't like, keep what you write.

Write every day. You don't have to write a lot every day, but you should at least write a little. Progress is important. It keeps you motivated. Don't worry if there's a day where you wrote for hours and only produced one decent sentence. These things will happen. There'll also be the days when your story suddenly quadruples in size and is even better than you thought it would be.

If you wish to include choices in the story, you should have planned those out in advance. Write them where they naturally occur but don't write them any differently than you write the rest of your story. If you have trouble connecting back from a choice to the main plot fluidly, don't. End the scene where the choice occured with at least a bit of a resolution and pick up the plot with a new scene. No one but you will know it wasn't intentional.

Continue doing that until you're done with the whole story.

[gekiganwing]

How do I go about actually writing the story? Is it just a case of writing a traditional story and then every time there would be a choice also write out the alternatives?

Take some time to read the TVTropes article So You Want to Make a Visual Novel. Then think about it, and consider taking notes.

When you're learning how to use Ren'py for the first, be sure to save your .rpy documents every few minutes. Then test in order to make sure your program won't crash. If you have trouble figuring out why a crash / error occurs, or if you have difficulty using Ren'py, ask for help.

As you write, think about what the reader will see on-screen. For instance, let's say the reader of your visual novel is going to see a person standing in a room. In that case, you won't need to use text in order to describe the appearance of the person or the room. You can use text to describe things which won't be obvious, such as temperature, humidity, or scents.

... I've been wanting to do one for about two years now but I've always found an excuse to put it off over and over.

I know what that's like. Here are a few things to consider...

* How interested are you in telling your story? Do you want to convey a message? Do you already care about your fictional world and its characters?
* Can you make time for writing on a regular basis?
* Are you prepared to deal with perfectionism? In my opinion, this is a common cause of procrastination.
* Are you prepared to deal with distractions? There's a huge amount of entertainment that can keep people from writing. How will you stay focused?
* Can you set deadlines for when you'll finish writing your story? Consider taking inspiration from National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo), and determine that you'll complete your story in about thirty days.

Maybe even software you can recommend to help organise things would be fantastic!

There's a recent topic on writing software. Going along with what Taleweaver said, I do not think you'll need to purchase any programs.

[deltë]

Writing is a very important asset of a visual novel. If you're a bad writer, nobody is going to be able to read it, but if you're a good/alright writer, then chances are people are going to read your visual novel. It's called a visual NOVEL for a reason.

But for your first project, all you need to focus on is the game itself, such as the code, mechanics and 'gameplay', and you don't necessarily need to be a good programmer to create a VN. All you need to do is sit down and write. First type of story plan or sentence that pops into your head. You don't need to use all the literature skills like similies and stuff, just write.

People are going to criticise you on your writing; you simply cannot deny it. But you will be thankful if they give you constructive criticism, because that sort of criticism is what helps you improve.

TL;DR - First thing that comes to mind, you write. Always acknowledge constructive criticism. No advanced literature skills needed.

[JessieK]

Writing is a very important asset of a visual novel. If you're a bad writer, nobody is going to be able to read it, but if you're a good/alright writer, then chances are people are going to read your visual novel. It's called a visual NOVEL for a reason.

But for your first project, all you need to focus on is the game itself, such as the code, mechanics and 'gameplay', and you don't necessarily need to be a good programmer to create a VN. All you need to do is sit down and write. First type of story plan or sentence that pops into your head. You don't need to use all the literature skills like similies and stuff, just write.

People are going to criticise you on your writing; you simply cannot deny it. But you will be thankful if they give you constructive criticism, because that sort of criticism is what helps you improve.

TL;DR - First thing that comes to mind, you write. Always acknowledge constructive criticism. No advanced literature skills needed.

I should be very clear, this is not the first thing I have written, I've had a couple of webcomics one of which got big enough that I got a fair amount of critique that helped me a bunch, it was purely writing a visual novel that was more after feedback for, which I have also got a lot of I am very grateful for that, I will tackle this project as I have other projects, and as you guys have said, sit down and get to writing, a little every day!

[MoonByte]

Also as an advice:
If this is your first VN, KEEP IT SMALL.
Even short games will take a looot of text and a long time to make, if they should sound and look good. If you have a big game in mind, consider doing something smaller first. Da Vinci didn't start painting by making the Mona Lisa, so you should do a few "test games" first. Think of something small and fun and make that. Get used to how Ren'Py works, get people AWARE OF YOU. If you make a 10 hour epos, but other than a 3 minute demo and a few screenshots nobody has any idea who you are, chances might be that people do not have the patience to try your stuff out. If you have one or two short games as a prove of concept that you can actually make interesting things, it will also help you later with bigger projects.
Maybe try out a game jam (there's always a game jam going on somewhere, look at Game Jolt or something), those usually give you a time limit and a topic that you can use.

Other than that:
what Taleweaver said.
If you want to know how to get started with writing: start writing.
Be a writer first and a critiquer later. You can't improve your writing, if you haven't written something first. Just start and you either get into the flow or see where you have problems and fix them.

Finally a personal advice:
Ren'Py allows multiple rpy-files as long as long as a label connects between them. If your story has chapters or something like dateable characters, I personally always find it easier to keep each of those seperated in different files.
As in: one rpy for Chapter 1, one for Chapter 2, etc. Or with a dating sim one for the main events and then one for Brandon, one for Mischa, one for Steve, etc. It will also help you keeping the scope of your game. If you have 24 rpy files, you MAY want to reduce it a bit. And if Brandon's file is five times the size of Steve's, you may either want to reduce Brandon's plot, enlarge the one of Steve or maybe just drop Steve since you seem to have no idea what to do with him.

[JeremyBenson]

I like to write a script first. This includes images that will be shown, text, and dialogue. You can write out a textual skeleton of each chapter, and then write the script for each actual chapter.

You can check out what I've started for a draft. Might help.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CmA ... sp=sharing

[hoihoisoi]

I personally think that whats important is that you start putting pen to paper first (In the text editor that is - not literally using pens and papers). Starting it off and getting the feel of what you want to tell your audience and the kind of story you want to create is important. At this point you should know that having a script and having ideas are two totally different things. Ideas are usually short events playing out in your head, most likely key events of the story you want to tell. This forms the critical success factors of your story but they will not be the bulk of your story. The bulk of your script however will be from character building, relationship building and random daily events here and there. So my first advise is to start writing and getting a feel of the entirety of the story, the skeleton of it if you will. The style, the tone, the characters, the setting, the relationships, you have to get a rough feel of it. You don't need to have all the ideas in your head laid out in the very beginning or right now, what you need now is everything else other than the ideas to form the basis on which your ideas can be showcased upon and can shine through and through.

Next, is the consistency you have to put into your project. You'll have to keep yourself going somehow because writing is like a long distance marathon, it requires stamina not just a quick burst of energy to finish the race. You'll have to try and write if possible every day, it doesn't have to be long, just 500 words to a thousand a day. If you decide to stop for a day or two or maybe a week, that's still fine, but never go past a week, you have to write something within a week to remind yourself that this is a project you want to complete. If you're free however, try about 2000 to 3000 words a day, that way you'll get more progress on the road and this leads me to my next point.

Next, is the quality of your writing. To maintain good quality writing it's good to keep in mind that the key to achieving it is usually consistent writing rather than burst style writing. Now I probably sound repetitive at this point but hear me out first. Being consistent with your project is crazy important but sometimes you may think that you have plenty of time during the weekends so you will just shove all your weekend time into writing and this may pose a problem depending on what kind of writer you are. Burst style writing can cause burnout unfortunately (This is for my case), going past about 4000 words, I find my writing starts to dip in quality. The story I tell starts to drag and sometimes even feel wrong. You may find that you're writing for the sake of writing at this point and that's not what you want. You want to write a story that has quality writing in it, messy writing will only drag the story down and cause further problems down the line during editing and the likes.

So in essence, like the story of the hare and the tortoise (Or turtle), slow and steady wins the race. Quality writing along with consistency is needed. Speed is important if you have a deadline to meet but if you're doing it as a side project, just go slow and steady first.

The writing process is just long, it takes time and commitment but if you're up for it, then by all means, go the distance. It'll probably not just improve your writing when you reach the end, but you'll possibly discover things about yourself you never knew you never knew. So good luck and godspeed. Also, have fun with it all as well, this project is meant to be fun and a way to unwind, not to create more stress for you. D:

Hopefully this post will help you somewhat. Well then, Good luck again!