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I've always had this trouble where I can only work on a project for a limited amount of time. After that point my mind wonders off and I'm left with another new project to work on. So I wonder if it's okay to create say... 50 pages a day, as long as I have the time and such. (When you suddenly get a lot of free-time and have no where to put it, stuff happens.)

Anyways, circling back to the main point I have to ask a couple of vital questions.

1) What is your recommended paragraph amount per choice?

2) At what point is having options too much?

3) Is there an easy way to keep focused on a project even if you have others you want to work on?

4) How many pages are too many pages (for a day)?

1) "The Page" - If I select a choice and on the next page I can already see my next choices, then it's too short.
2) Three is probably a good number to shoot for. After that you spend more time closing loose ends than advancing the story.
3) Find something that motivates you to work on that specific project. For example, I play a certain game that helps motivate me to complete one of mine. I've also paused one of Kiel's game to finish later, because it was motivating me to finish another story of mine that I wasn't ready to work on yet.
Alternatively, just get some people to keep you honest and working on your project.
4) None? JJJ wrote Order of the Midnight Sun over like, a weekend. If you can handle it, go for it.

Thanks a ton. If you have any other advice for a first time writer I would appreciate it.

Sure. Aim low for your first story.

Not to say you can't handle an ambitious project, but the number 1 reason people give up on writing/never publish anything is that they imagine writing a massive, amazing first story, which pretty much never happens. What instead happens is they give up part way, because they run out of steam, or ideas, or it's just not turning out how they wanted to.

So make a small, but good first game. Publish it, feel good about accomplishing it, see that if you can stick to it, you can make something good. Then work on a more ambitious project.

Right, thanks man. Have a jolly Christmas if you celebrate it, if not just have a happy holiday!

1) This depends very much on the story in question, how much effort the author is willing to put into a completed story and how much material you have planned to work with. But paragraph number is a poor way to determine page length. Use the word count instead. Typically, it's not a bad idea to keep your pages within a general range of the same word count. Of course, if you have a specific goal in mind with regards to pacing, you can alter this. But again, as far as word count goes per page, you need to consider how large you want your story to be, the amount of effort you want to put into the story and how much material you have. If this helps, a standard page in a novel is approximately 250-300 words. EndMaster frequently has over 1,000 words per page in some of his stories and is very much on the higher end. Seth only has a few hundred per page in Snow, but the story is still beautiful and well conceived. Short and sweet can be just as well done as fat and bulky. And different styles of stories/games may require different word counts.

2) Generally, it is a good idea to let all of your choices bear a significant impact on the plot and outcome of the story. Choice of Games lets you make choices regarding silly and irrelevant things like sexuality, physical traits like hair color and gender. These choices COULD have relevance to a story, but the CoG method gives more of an illusion of choice rather than actual choice. By which I mean, they use scripting to input these features into the game, but they do not have a real impact on the outcome of events. At CYS, most community members would rather have choices that influence the actual meat of the story. So I recommend utilizing your choice options to maximize relevant plot points rather than 'character customization.'

3) There is no 'easy' way. Everyone is different and has their own interests, drives and goals. Find what works for you. For me, I like to work on my stories everyday or at least 6/7 days a week to keep the story fresh and exciting for me. This way the characters feel real. When I take the foot off the gas, they become less real and more like characters. Some people rotate through projects though. It's a matter of personal preference, I think.

4) Again, word count is more relevant. And everyone has different writing speeds. G.R.R.M. will sometimes only finish one page in a day, but he's slower than molasses and a stickler for perfection. Stephen King writes a minimum of 2,000 words per day. I think writing in one solid block of time is more productive than more shorter sessions throughout the day, but that's my preference. As long as you are enjoying yourself, write however much you want in a day. If you don't like it when you're done, you can always revise and edit when the story is done.

Hope this helps.

Definitely. Thanks Bucky. You've been astounding man.

Have a happy Christmas by the ways, since it's right there around the corner ya know?

http://floggingthequill.typepad.com/

This is a fun site to visit every now and again. The guy that runs the site is a huge stickler for immediate story questions and action from the first page. Personally, I think he goes a tad bit overboard, but it is a neat site that has writing tips and other articles. You can check out the first page and chapters of other folks' aspiring novels or stories and see what tends to work or just different styles.

My own personal opinions:

1. Whatever works for the story. If you have a rich, detailed, story, you can go longer here. Just a few sentences is almost always too short (almost). If you have many pages that have just a few words on them, you will get complaints. I have seldom heard complaints that there is "too much to read" (though I have actually gotten that one myself).

2. Never, again, as long as it makes sense. People like options. Some people will get frustrated if there are a lot of options with no purpose, or if they all lead to the same place. Just be sure that you have a reason for the options and that each option actually has some effect on the story. Options just to have options will be noticed and will result in complaints.

3. No. Now get back to work! (What I usually do it have a number of projects going at one time and just keep working on each one so that there is always some progress).

4. 5,204. Any more than that and you're likely to go blind. Any number under that and you're fine. If you do exactly that many in a day, you will probably end up with glasses.

5. Because. If you don't like it, take that up with higher powers.

Oh, also, if you're more interested in telling your own story and you don't care how people will rate your story, then go ahead and ignore all this and do whatever you want. :)