Writing problems

[Gumaster]

Tenses, huh? That's a tough one, our writer has a lot of problems with that xD
(I play the tenses drinking game when I'm editing it, everytime he screws something up, I take a drink [of water, or else I'd die of alcohol poisoning])
It really depends on the situation, but I would say present tense is more common, simply because most stories are seen from the view of the protagonist and are happening in real-time.
Personally, I think of myself in that situation, and decide whether I'd think about it in present or past tense. For example, if she's taking her hat off in front of me, I'd think 'she's taking her hat off.'
If i turned around and saw that she was no longer wearing her hat, I'd think 'she took her hat off.'

[curry nochi rice]

guys, could you tell me what should i instruct to my path writers... please, i'm having a hard time trying to put into words how they should write the script...

i told them that, when you right the character's path, it should be able to re-branch with a common event or a version of a common event.

and fore every choice you make, a path is open up, and one should write the scenario for every branch that the choice opened. and those branches should as well re-branch....

[Blue Sky]

Well, I can't really explain it either, so why don't you just show them these examples of branching paths? http://hyperbunny.com/blog/

[curry nochi rice]

this is one good link, thanks, but it's for point-based endings right?

[dizzcity]

Essentially, you're talking about this structure, right? Each writer writes their own character's story, with choices, but they must all come together at certain common events before branching out again. And you, as head writer, have to determine the common events.



Aside from that, I hate to tell you this, but you are probably taking on more than you can handle. Writing this many characters - especially if you're using multiple writers each controlling one character's path, is a huge task to organise. You don't see it at the high-level overview right now at the beginning, but once the writing starts, you'll realise how complex it can get to have a unified story... especially once writers start to contradict each other in their own paths. My suggestion would be to simplify tremendously... cut down on the number of characters and interactions between characters that you have to manage. This kind of story is extremely complex to write, and unless you and your friends have had a lot of experience at in-depth forum role-playing (which is probably the closest equivalent to this), you'd be better off working on a very short, small story to start. And by that, I mean less than 5 characters in the entire story. And that 5 includes both main and side characters.

The "cut corners" comments probably refer to not cutting corners when planning -i.e. don't get lazy or leave it till later, make sure you plan everything out in the story beforehand. If you want to still go ahead and do this, then you MUST, at minimum, have completely planned out every branch and path, common event and ending, as well as what will trigger each ending. Do this before you start writing, so all your writers have a common idea of where the story as a whole is headed. That means the diagram up there should be expanded to involve your full story, and that you should have at least 1-2 sentences in each story box that describe what that portion of the script is going to be about. The individual writers can then expand on your 1-2 sentences and write a full script for each box up there.

-Dizzy-

[curry nochi rice]

thanks guys, I'll try an illustrative and direct approach to explain the story to the writers...
those story boxes will be placed right with dates...something like a list fated to happen at that day...

guys, the result of your advices:

.PDF file
http://www.mediafire.com/?o1zdujwzywt

.DocX file
http://www.mediafire.com/?txmyogfmj4z

the characters:
,PDF file
http://www.mediafire.com/?omtmwom2dm2

[dizzcity]

Good, this looks better and slightly clearer, though of course this is just the first draft and I'm sure it can be better organised. I would suggest splitting the red common recess event box into individual boxes for each of the smaller events that happen after the character choices as well. (The Common Event: Recess should actually be the blue box that says Sept 2 AM, which should branch out into the four characters' paths.) You can leave the boxes of the individual character choices blank if you want to leave the actual events up to the writer, but you should make sure that the space is at least shown on the diagram, so that no one forgets about it and that you can get an accurate measurement of the size and complexity of the story. Already I think you're starting to see how complex it can get with 16 possibilities for lunch.

-Dizzy-

[curry nochi rice]

how about this version:

http://www.mediafire.com/?2yoyzumw1yz

back-up (damn erorrs)
http://www.mediafire.com/?mlyzglzewvm

[dizzcity]

Err... no, that's not really what I had in mind, but never mind. Your diagram is workable as it is... I guess you don't need for it to be perfect before moving on. You should probably just stick with what you've got so far and move to plan out the rest of the days to get started. You can revise it later.

-Dizzy-

[MightyPeanut]

Tenses, huh? That's a tough one, our writer has a lot of problems with that xD
(I play the tenses drinking game when I'm editing it, everytime he screws something up, I take a drink [of water, or else I'd die of alcohol poisoning])
It really depends on the situation, but I would say present tense is more common, simply because most stories are seen from the view of the protagonist and are happening in real-time.
Personally, I think of myself in that situation, and decide whether I'd think about it in present or past tense. For example, if she's taking her hat off in front of me, I'd think 'she's taking her hat off.'
If i turned around and saw that she was no longer wearing her hat, I'd think 'she took her hat off.'

I mess up the tenses on purpose because you never drink enough water. I do it because I care.

Jeez, you can't satisfy anyone these days.

Jokes aside, if you want to write something in past tense in a particular scenario, at least make it clear what perspective it's told from. Sometimes I jump tenses when the perspective shifts and it's more of a "recall" or "interlude" kind of feeling.

Sometimes I jump tenses because Gumaster isn't drinking enough water again.
That jackass.

[curry nochi rice]

hahaha...my final format for doing branching and stuff!

you know, you can use this if you want.

if two choices are locked and it leads to a merged ending of a heroine....it means that there are no choices and that path is linear.