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Hey you,

Recently I've been working on my first story on this site. I have finished the main story but am yet to add in branches and different endings. Now I've read up on the requirements for a story before it is added and I was wondering if there is a specific amount of decisions I need to aim for. (I don't want all my work to be deleted for not having enough choices.) All information I can find on the subject is this line: "Story is deleted if there is a lack of important decisions." It doesn't quite help me.

The story is about 34k words long on the current path. (No clue if that is 1/8 or 8/8 length either.)

Maybe I'm overthinking it but I'd rather not post a lacking in choices story to the choose your story site. :)

There needs to be choice links every couple of pages at least or readers will start to get frustrated. Now this doesn't have to be "true" branching every time, you can get away with scenes of alternate dialogue and whatnot or have short side paths that either end the game in reasonable places or else fold back into the main branch.

It is possible to overdo the "fake branching", but it will hold the interest longer than just clicking page after page with no options given.

At minimum you're going to want two obviously different paths going in different directions though or the game will feel linear.

While there isnt really a minimum, its a good idea to have a choice every two or three pages. You can even flavor this with links to an optional worldbuilding page (like Necromancer) that cuts back to a previous page. A similar thing can be done with dialogue options for having the protagonist learn about the other characters.

Just dont over saturate your story with choices like this otherwise the comments would be flooded with "FAKE CHOICES 1/8"

Unless your storygame is cave of time style, then every choice.is a real one.

Not every story needs a high level of branching to be successful. The following story game to mind as an example:

http://chooseyourstory.com/Story/Edithe_Zilonis.aspx

That being said, since this is a choose your own adventure there should be choices. I try not to string more than 2 pages in a row together without some kind of choice. That can be a gauntlet style choice, where you continue or die; a "fake choice" like Mizal talks about; or a branching choice that leads to a different storyline. You may find that your story already has natural places to make these choices, or you may have to rearrange your page breaks to fit them in...

I would read a few to see what style you like.