Veterans on writing paths

[deviltales]

I'm confident on my writing. I won a few awards at my school for both fictional writing or essays. However, that applies to one-side story, with no paths, no nothing. Give me an idea and I'll write a KN for you. Give me a VN idea and I'll encounter troubles. My art becomes decent, and I really want to resume writing. But EVERYTHING crashes at a point.

Usually I write the main path, then I add the variations for the others, but I'm making no progress.
a bit of help? :3

[Fairy Godfeather]

What's your difficulty? Are you hitting writers block? Or are you getting overwhelmed by too many paths/ideas? What is causing your crashes?

[SundownKid]

Try writing a single path story that changes depending on what you choose. It doesn't have to have 10 "bad ends" to be a good story, you can use variables to modify different dialogue or relationships instead.

[modesty]

TL;DR

Use a chart to map the various story paths.
It might be better to write the story, pause whenever there's a chance for branching, write out the different branch options, pick one then continue writing that path until you come to another good stopping point. This way you at least have the other options in mind and can compensate for them.

I love writing branching stories, but it can be hard to let go of a little bit of "control" the author has. I spent some time last night thinking of how to approach branch writing and here are a few methods I've come up with.


Method 1) Write a scene where the character has to react or do something. Then write a list of ways the character can react or do something. Then pick 2 or more options that you think would be interesting to follow.
Sample

Scene: Sue finds a love letter in her locker.
She can: read it right away, throw it away, leave it alone, put it in her pocket, put in another locker, Squeal with excitement, Drop the letter, Eat it, etc.

Method 2) This sounds like the method you're using, but you write the main storyline first, highlight points where the character made a choice, use Method 1 to come up with more choices, figure out what that affects in the main storyline. For this method it helps to start backwards from the end. Going with my love letter story...
Sample 2

Sue finds the letter and reads it. The note tells her to meet at the library after first period. She goes to class and tells her friend about it. Sue's rival overhears that Sue got a love letter and makes a comment out of jealousy. After class, Sue goes to the library to find the school's idol waiting for her. She approaches and he confesses to her. He asks her to the dance. She agrees. They go out together.

Red are choices made. Blue are things that happened because of those choices.
Start from the last choice and think of another one.

She agrees to go out with him or She disagrees.

Simple enough but it will impact the ENDING where they go out. IF she refuses the invitation, Sue stays at home to play video games instead. Viola! You have another Ending to work with. Other things can funnel into this ending nicely.
For example say she, never approaches him but chickens out. She never knows if he likes her and she doesn't go to the dance. She goes home to play video games.
After you play with the last few choices in the story, switch to the beginning and figure out how the FIRST choice affects the rest of the story.
Say she throws away the note. Then the classroom scene can change. Sue never tells her friend about what was in the letter. Instead her rival finds it and tells her she's going to meet him. Instead her rival goes out with the idol and Sue goes home to play video games.

This can turn into a bunch of WHAT IF scenarios which you the author then have to tame down and figure out how to handle.

Method 3) This is how I usually go about it. I start writing the story like normal, but when I arrive at a point where the character can make a choice, I stop and do Method 1 or the quick and dirty Bioware formula and move along. (I'll talk about the Bioware Formula in a bit.) Generally I do this in the outlining stage or rough draft stage.
http://seacurse.wikispaces.com/file/det ... _part3.jpg
As you can see there's a LOT of information I need to keep track of but most choices flow back into common events. BUT, choices may trigger the branching LATER. For example: in my chart there's a yellow box that says "Talk to Queen about Magic". There's an orange box that says Magic Basics. The orange box means that THIS flag has already been triggered because of an earlier choice in the story thus Rachael has a new menu choice (the diamond) to skip the beginner stuff. The Green box means that if that choice is selected, then Rachael will trigger the flag Magic Basics. If she refuses, No new triggers are made.
(Because of my game design background, I think in terms of flag triggers, variables and conditions.)

Extra Tips:
The RPG Formula: If you play story heavy RPGs, you'll know that the main storyline is mostly intact and only superficial things can change. BUT these superficial things MEAN a LOT to the player. Romance options, recruiting secret characters, a unique weapon, side-quests with humor, and so on all make it a richer experience to the player. This is generally how I model my own branching stories. (With varying levels of success).

The Bioware Choice Formula: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect use similar systems of the types of choices presented to the player. When the player is given a choice he/she has generally 3 flavors of options: Good, Bad, Neutral (Light Side/Dark side/No Side; Noble/Evil/Neutral; Paragon/Renegade/Nothing). Rarely does the game give you a simple Yes/No. When writing it's kind of an "easy" way of thinking up and handling responses.
The difference is of course that the effects of said choices are not usually obvious with how they affect the storyline. It's not necessarily a TRUE BRANCH. In fact it hardly ever is. However, it's a handy little way of thinking if you're having trouble.

True Branching: Choose your own adventure books are what I might consider a true branching story. The choices take you to a different part of the story branch and ends somewhere. Seriously, the charting helps here too though.

Keep the End(s) in Mind: It's really best to funnel the branches to one or two endings.

I read a lot of choose your own adventure books as a kid and I LOVE branching dialog in video games. And because I love to mod games I actually got the toolset for bioware games to get an intimate look at HOW their branching dialog works! (walkthroughs can help with this too.) Dating sims can help with how you think of branching too.
http://www.sakevisual.com/realistair/ is a good free one. It also has a walkthrough right on the site where it will tell you what certain choice options DO in the story.

Gah...that's a lot of info dump. I could go on but I don't want to overload you. Good luck!

[Boomsickle]

I think it's easier to use the methods that are already set. Common Route followed by a junction which diverges into a characters own route. Period is my favorite VN so drawing some inspiration from that (using point system)
http://tlwiki.org/index.php?title=Period:Walkthrough

You could also use a diverging point in the beginning followed by choices that change the outcome.

Steins;Gate has a good system (as other games use it as well)

Chapters with diverging points along the common path at different points that lead to different routes.
http://ibm5100.net/steinswiki/2011/10/2 ... ievements/

I'd recommend looking at some walkthroughs for other VNs as it gives a sense of how they structured their routes.

Using a flowchart system will help you visualize the way the branches will work and how they will connect. There's some free flowcharts but i like lucidchart. Good luck!

[deviltales]

thank you everyone . Now I'm more acknowledged .