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So I'm working on my first story and am trying to decide how to do it so everything matches up. When you guys write stories, do you usually write straight into the editor, or do you use an outside writing program, like MS Word, then copy the finished story into the editor?

the editor is your best friend.

^ This right here.

*Nods in thanks*. Also check out the editors threads and the writing workshop for INVALUABLE advice and tips on how to code things.

Yeah the advanced and basic editor is fine but it may glitch and not save so save often

Welcome to the site and good luck with your story  =)

Thanks

Microsoft Word and transfer it all when its done.

I've tried writing in MS word then transferring it, but tbh it was more effort than it was worth. With the spellchecker functional now, I find no need for an external program.

I can't just write into the editor. I tend to plan so much stuff out that I need to access the various docs that I've made notes and laid out paths on and that's easier for me to do when I have everything right in front of me rather than clicking back to various links.

Then there have been the times I've been in places that don't have internet connection, but I still want to work on my stuff.

I feel the same way.  My story has a strong puzzle element to it and writing it into the editor would make it hard to keep track of what clues the reader has already been given.  Hell, even in Word it's tough after the fourth or fifth choice.  I almost want to write everything on cards so I can arrange them visually.

This is my first storygame.

http://chooseyourstory.com/story/wednesday

This is mine

http://chooseyourstory.com/story/three-keys

Showing off your storygame, Vics?

I'm stuck with this tiny iPod with a broken screen. Extremely difficult to do anything XD

btw didn't the game that was obviously dedicated to me  Endless Eight come first?

I wrote Three Keys first but I published Endless Eight before that ( AND IT'S NOT DEDICATED TO YOU ).

My first and only http://chooseyourstory.com/story/the-make~2dbelieve-sandbox

Yea, yea, I guess I'll ignore the fact that my name is in all the pages and even the title (^^)

Good game

Necro...

Oh geesh, just the fact he's thinking ahead enough to post in the forums has to mean its going to be better than Coolett's.  :)  Hey, I give you a 2!  I reserve 1's for trolls and incompletes. Hopefully you write another story with a bit more..oomph.

Eternal is incomplete i dare you to rate it a 1 :)

Reads part of Eternal....

That was amazing.... WAIT INCOMPLETE! "rates 1"

Given that I've gotten tons of 1s for far sillier reasons, getting a 1 for being incomplete wouldn't surprise me, though unlikely since the average wandering reader believes it's finished as it is still a self contained story in its current form with no incomplete links.

Silly reasons being?

Complaining about too much swearing seems to be the main silly reason. It's not so much silly that they don't like the swearing (I get that some don't like swearing), but silly due to the fact I put the highest maturity ratings and warnings on everything to begin with and they went and read it anyway!

I still argue I don't have any more gratuitous swearing than a Quentin Tarentino film or most R rated movies in general actually. I've never used swearing in some effort to be "edgy" or "cool." Given that a majority of the characters in most of my stories aren't exactly the most squeaky clean, I see the swearing as perfectly natural for them.

Once again I like Stephen King's views on the matter, basically he just said if you grew up in an environment or hang around with a people who swear, then don't bother to avoid it. Just write what you know.

And hell even he gets hate mail for some of the excessive profanity in his stuff, so I figure I'm in good company. Lol.

Complaining about the story being too short is another one. I can only guess it didn't occur to the person to click "back page" when they reach an ending or something.

Complaining about the story having too many words is actually pretty funny. It's like the person didn't mean to stumble on a site that required reading.

Then there are random people that just vote one for the hell of it. Pretty sure a quick look into even some of the other top stories around here (Like Berka's stuff) and you'll find that someone rated it a 1 probably on purpose.

Those Fickle Fiends!  ;)

(it must be hard to rate a game with just one hand...)

If you are writing a character who needs to swear to fit his Persona, censoring his vocabulary is a discredit to the life you have woven onto the paper. Never be afraid to make a character as life like as possible. If it is an incestuous redneck beer guzzling piece of trash, then drive that point home. Make the reader feel like they are sitting on the torn up floral print beer stained couch right next to em. 

(this wasn't directed at Endmaster just a statement about characters in general.) 

It sounded like you were talking about the storygame "Trash" and not Endmaster to me at least.

haven't read it.

You haven't lived yet

I meant incomplete as in you can't play the story because none of the links work, looping, or there are only 4 pages and then it says "well, that's all I wrote so far hope you like".  For example Pokemon 1999 before it was unpublished because there was no way to finish the game or Surviving High School which lets you make choices on how your character looks, then goes to a page that says "Not finished yet but wanted to give y'all something to do."

I certainly have nothing against stories that are part of a series, split into parts, or even that leave you hanging but at least give you a good story first.  And not to be an EndMaster fangirl, but, he could do no literary wrongs in my eyes.

Is everyone advertising their storygame?

Sure looks like it =P

Dont mind me then, http://chooseyourstory.com/story/fireborn-

Well, since this month old thread just got bumped, I guess I might as well pitch in my two cents in response to the OP: I've just falled absolutely in love with a program called Twine recently: http://www.gimcrackd.com/etc/src/

It's a great way to visually map out stories, either an outline or just writing the entire thing right there in the program to transfer here once it's finished. It even handles scripting in a (IMO) really intuitive way. Once done can port the whole thing over to a plain text file for proofreading, or compile the whole story into a standalone html file anyone can load up and play.