Forums » Writing Workshop » Read Thread

Hello everyone, I'm Spellslinger, and I think this is my second time posting here, or so. Love the story games I've read thus far and I'm interested in getting to know this community a bit better.

So, my topic today is on the writing process. Ever since I was a child I really loved story games and felt they were much, much more entertaining than other books. I would often write my own by simply picking up a pen and paper and going for it, with very little planning or forethought past a basic concept. In recent years, as I've become a stronger writer, I've realized that this method, is, of course, flawed, and that pre-writing/planning is essential for producing a good story game.

So far, I've tried a couple different methods to pre-write for a story game (sadly, I don't have any finished project to share today). I've tried my usual method, which is to brainstorm a preliminary overview, define a beginning, middle, and end (in this case, several pre-planned ends), and create some characters. From there I'd begin the process of free writing and refining. However, I've found that while this method is good in order to keep smaller branches of the story open for you to change at any point, it is also rather disorganized and can become confusing or frustrating later on.

I recently tried creating a flowchart that would map out every single page in my story game... needless to say, that didn't turn out well either. My goal is to create something with a reasonably long page count (not Endmaster long, haha), and this method was just too time consuming. However, it is a very clear way to map out a game, so in the end, I may just have to bite the bullet and put the work in.

 

Enough babbling from me, haha. I'm curious as to how you all go about writing your story games, since I haven't quite zeroed in on a method I feel is very solid yet.

Looking forward to reading your responses!

Technically it's your 5th time posting here. :P

 Personally, I just kind of map them out in my head and connect the events I planned as I go. But I have been using a flow-chart for some parts to help me keep track.

For the flow-chart thing, don't do every path. Just make a flow-chart for a single path/choices and a certain ending. Build/write that particular path before restarting the cycle I guess.

"I think this is my second time posting here, or so."

Haha. Anyway, thank you for your response. Mapping out one branch at a time seems like a plausible way to go about it. I could see it possibly being a little difficult to handle intersecting branches, but not much. I'll have to give this method a shot.

When you make a game and it asks if you want to make it an advanced game - do it. The advanced game editor allows very easy organization, and you don't need to know anything advanced to use it. It allows the creation of chapters, which can hold as many pages as you need and you can label them all. The chapters don't need any advanced process, each button is labeled so that as long as you can read and comprehend the "Create Chapter" button - you can organize the story in any way you wish.

My personal writing process starts with Anime (good ones... usually not too popular, but it gives a good imagery) - imagining an animated character from an animated series is a good start, because they already have a personality and character. I can change it through imagination if I want, and the name will usually change in my stories. However - it is not a fan fiction, I simply use the personalities that I think would best suit the story.

I listen to a lot of music (My two favorite genres are classical and glitch hop...it's a weird combination of interests. Though I'll listen to anything with a good rhythm); so my ideas usually come from listening to music and imagining an anime character reacting along (sort of like an AMV). For others, it might be a good idea to start listening to music to invoke emotions and create mental personalities that you can transfer over to a character in a story.

So I spend a couple days daydreaming about the character, and what kind of situations they would be in and react accordingly. It's all just a bunch of daydreaming until I have something I really like, then I put it into a story. Sadly, I end up thinking about the entire story before writing anything and forget about most of them.

My writing process begins with an idea of a character with an established personality reacting to a situation. I then spend 8 - 9 hours writing half the story, before realizing "Hey, there's probably something funny somewhere on the internet I can look at..." then the story sits for a couple months before I come back and write one sentence at a time, each sentence I written weeks apart. Eventually I'll have a story xD

So that's why EndMaster said it takes years to write a good story. 

Well that was certainly a colorful description, haha! Thanks for the reply!

Your process is an interesting one. The consumption of different types of media (and neither of them being books) as a way of creating mental imagery caught me a bit off guard; most likely because I don't listen to music very often.

Creating a character first is also interesting, but in my opinion, doesn't seem to lend itself well to story games. In my opinion, the best story games have blank-slate characters you can project yourself into. This is just my personal opinion, as I'm sure many people prefer to play more defined characters ala Endmaster's Necromancer. I could see where this can work, and I may even try something like that in the future, but for now I'd like to try to work with a character who largely embodies the reader.

Your post did a lot to get me thinking! Thanks again for replying.

I don't read books that aren't full of new information :P I really dislike reading as a whole, but I like reading about physics and philosophy. They interest me more than fiction. (Though, my favorite series of books is The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Sherlock Holmes)

That is certainly a strange response, haha, but perhaps no more strange than my not listening to music. Not reading fiction, as a fiction writer, seems dangerous!

I don't need to use other people's work to use my imagination. It's inefficient and cliché to read a story then use aspects of that story in your own. There are infinite possibilities and people still choose to use the same story told in a different way.

I suspect Ford likes Sci-Fi and 'discovery' type books. 

Also everything you do and think is technically a cliché since it's been done before. Nobody can think of something they have no possible point of reference with, everything was built off something else. 

I personally love using ideas and aspects from stories I have read, it allows me to put that situation into my story and mold it into something that uses both my personal touch and a basic foundation of which to build off.  I enjoy learning more about the background parts of a story and what makes the characters as they are; it lets me think about what I can do with things in my stories.

Course, if you wish to present a story-outline that has not been told/written yet to me then go ahead.

You get the idea, Fireplay!

Just to be clear, it's not as if I was directly suggesting that you should take characters/ideas/situations from books you read and use them (though that seems to be exactly what Ford does with anime...). Reading other peoples' works can be beneficial in many different ways, such as inspiring you to write, expanding your horizons, exposing you to new styles of writing, etc. It is important to immerse yourself in your craft. To me, saying you don't like reading as a writer is like saying you don't like watching anime as an anime writer (to borrow from Ford again). It just doesn't make sense to me.

Haha, alright then, Ford. I'm not trying to get into an argument or anything. I just know that many famous authors are also avid readers and I doubt that's a coincidence. That said, do whatever works for you. I'm glad you've found a process that compliments your creative style.

My process in 9 easy steps.

1: Come up with a plot, flesh it out in detail in your head.

2: Write it.

3: Seek inspiration from related media when it slows down.

4: Write it.

5: Hit rut.

6: Writer's block.

7: Grind brain across the screen in mentally constipated fury.

8: continue grinding until you get to the point you wanted to write after the rut and get going again.

9: Repeat from step 2 until finished.

Haha! Delightful, Mr. Penguin. Simple and concise, though sadly, it doesn't help me very much.

Maybe I should clarify a bit. I'm interested more in how people deal with planning and pre-writing in relation to the writing process. How you go about actually writing the thing is important too, of course, but my main issue is finding a balance between too little and too much planning. Thank you for your response, though, made me chuckle.

Oh, to go about pre-planning the plot, just do what I do in step one. imagine the characters in great detail, start illustrating backstories that fit into what you're writing, give them personality features, any quirks you desire, any mental illnesses, IQs, the works. Then put one or two or all of them, (or any number in between) in a little mental room together. put whatever else you want in the room, make it as big or small as you wawnt, give it any backdrop, wallpaper, or other situation you want, and then make them start interacting. It might take a Math Class or two, but you might get an awesome scene or two out of it to work towards.

Well, that's a fun way to look at it! I'll really have to give that a try. Thanks for the constructive feedback.

He's a penguinite. :D

I think of the main plot points, then write it from start to finish, adding or removing things as I go.

I don't even write down the plot points either usually, since I just go blank if I try haha.

Also I listen to music while writing.

Ah, so you're more of a minimalist, then. I used to be able to write this way but in recent years I've found writing without organization usually degrades rather quickly...

Thanks for your reply, Killa Robot!

Anything I've ever tried to plan out in advance, I didn't end up writing since I already knew how it was going to end.

The best things I've done for this site I just started writing.  

For example, Haunted I knew I wanted to play with items, and I knew I wanted to try and complete the entire thing in one day.  So I started with "you've inherited a haunted cottage, convince the ghost to move on."  Then I began making descriptions for the items, and using them to influence the ghost.  About 3/4 of the way through writing the endings, I suddenly realized something really important about the ghost and the protagonist.  So I went back and edited a few things to make it flow a bit more coherently.  

The important thing is, I didn't know anything about who either of the characters were when I started writing.  It seems to have worked out all right.

That is... huh. Part of that I can relate to and another part, not at all. 

I understand the idea of planning backfiring because you already know how it's going to end. This used to happen to me as well. Part of writing, for me, used to be "discovering" where my story was going as I wrote it. However, I quickly realized that my stories suffered because of it. For me, neither extreme works. I can't write a story that I feel is really good without any planning whatsoever, but I would also never try to plan every little thing out. I reconcile with my old self by defining things rather vaguely; for example, I'll define a broad beginning, middle, and end, but the way each section actually plays out is left up to me as I write (this is for non-story games, I should note). This way I can write something structured and coherent, with potent foreshadowing and a feeling of unity. 

The things I don't understand are trying to write a story game in a single day (!) and knowing nothing about your characters/ghosts before you start writing. I just can't imagine not having at least a notion of the characters you're going to be using before you start; of course, as I said before, the main character in story games is a different beast altogether, in which case I'm actively attempting to have him/her be shaped by the reader.

That's why the phrases "Ass-pull" and "plot-hole" exists, lol. Some people just don't think about where they're going in a story.

Exactly, Mr. Robot. I try to avoid pulling of the ass and plotting of the holes. Haha. 

"The things I don't understand are trying to write a story game in a single day (!) and knowing nothing about your characters/ghosts before you start writing. I just can't imagine not having at least a notion of the characters you're going to be using before you start;"

It was just for fun.  The first bit happened because I thought it would be interesting to see if I could do it, and what kind of story I ended up with if I tried.  

I do usually have some idea of the characters when I start a story.  

Honestly, I'm more likely to ass-pull something when I have a set ending in mind.  Then it's a case of "well, I have to get from here to there, but I've got no clue how that's going to happen, so I guess. . . . THIS happened!"

With Haunted, it was more like, I'd written some of the "bad" endings, and I sort of wondered why the ghost was so angry with the protagonist, and combined with what the items ended up being (which was mostly because those were the things I found stock photos for quickly) I just sort of realized, hey, the only thing that makes sense with this evidence is this particular plot twist.

That makes a lot more sense to do the one-day-challenge for fun. It sounds like something entertaining, and that I may even try in the future (looking at a rather small-scale game, of course).

Regarding your comment on ass-pulling in order to reach an achieved ending, that's why it's good to work out an idea of the middle section of the story that leads from the beginning to the end. That way you have an idea of how that ending will be achieved. Of course, since we're talking about story games, it gets a little more complicated than that, but it's still possible to map things out vaguely and accommodate for multiple endings.

Loving the conversation thus far, everyone! Has really got me wanting to write! 

I think I'm going to start writing one of my many story ideas now. I already have the basic pre-writing done, and I think I'll start trying to write without mapping out any of the specific branches/pages beforehand. What I have written is a general overview of the story, a beginning/middle/end(s) structure, main themes, and then random notes on the back story. We'll see how this goes with that much pre-writing!

Writing a story is a lot like driving a car. You need to have a very clear idea of where you want to go and what you'd like for your passenger (reader) to see. What places will you take them? What characters will you introduce them to? I think for starters, thinking up of a good plot is a good way to start any story. You need to know where your story is taking place before you can figure out how you want it to progress.