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Hi people,

I've been somewhat of a lurker for a couple weeks on here and thought I might as well introduce myself. Discovered Endmaster's Eternal at work and didn't get anything accomplished for a few days (hopefully none of you reading this are my co-workers, but I'll bring you down with me if you are lol...)

New to the whole storygame thing and I'm finding it amazing. Also, been finding the forums quite entertaining as well. As a noob, any sort of info or guidance is welcomed.

Nice to meet you guys 

Welcome to the site. I do hope you enjoy your time here.

Guidance? Oh what? Writing? Rating? No matter, check out the Help & Info page, that's a great place to start.

Hey, welcome to the site. As Ogre already said, the Help & Info section, while certainly not perfect, should answer some of your question. If you ever need feedback on your writing, feel free to post it on the forum. Since you liked Eternal, you should check out End's other stories, especially the newest one, Rogues. Don't be an idiot and have fun!

Welcome

Welcome to the site ^_^ I would recommend checking out the Articles if you're looking for advice on how to get started. EDIT: It seems that has already been recommended. Anyway, best of luck!

Hi, welcome! This site does have a ton of awesome storygames. If you would like, I will use copy and paste to share with you the list of awesome stories/games I have read/played so far:

I especially recommend the works by BerkaZerka, Ogre11, and EbonVasilis. So far I have only been able to read some of each of their impressive works in the limited time I am here. I suspect all their works are awesome!

BerkaZerka’s Dead Man Walking (Zombie Survival) is extremely well written [I managed to get the best possible ending!] and kept my eyes glued to the phone I use (though it does have violence/gore and some language), he has also got great puzzles and games (Some of which I have still not completed. They’re awesome!). Ogre11’s awesome works I have read/played so far include: Spy Mission (You gotta see the different endings), Cryogenic Failure (Again, you gotta see the different endings), UFO at School, Alien Abduction, Finding the Muse (this will definitely help aspiring writers). Of EbonVasilis’s works, so far I have read his epic A Chosen Hero (I’ve got to read more of his works!). I have also played DavidG’s The Tower of Rowena, played Zephyrme2847’s & mudshadow63’s [and they, amazingly, were only 11 and 4 when they created this!] Kittens of FAT, played cMitchell3’s Get out Alive, read Will11’s true story Climbing Beyond The Clouds, read MinnieKing’s inspirational message Addition, and read the short mouse hero story by pinkalily21, Alone in the Forest. There are great writers and future great writers to be found on this site.

I hope you have an awesome time on the site!

Thanks for the welcome, everyone. I'm slowly working on my first storygame and using the Help & Info link as guidance. One of the recommendations was to aim small for your first story with around 20 pages or 5,000 words. Is that a good length for one branch of a story or the entire thing? Maybe that depends on the individual? I'm a slow writer. Basically, I sit and think about each sentence before typing. Also, do you recommend writing each branch of the story at a time? 

It's a tough question to answer: "What should I do/write?"

The reason for that is because it sort of depends on why you're writing in the first place. Are you trying to get high ratings? Are you writing to please the general site audience? Are you writing because you want to write? Do you want to annoy people? Do you want to get good feedback from readers?

If you write a very short story, you will get comment that say, "Yeah, that was too short." How short? I've seen that comment on stories of 30,000 words. But then you can get into a discussion of story length with branches: I have one story that contains 16,000 words, but because of the number of branches any read through will not be more then 3,000 words! So what's a good length? For me, it is one where the story is complete. There's not a firm amount there, but certainly under 3,000 words as a read through is pretty darn short. And then we could talk about page length and how many words on a page is correct: and if you ask 10 people here how many words should be on a page, you're going to get 10 different answers. So to me, more important than the number of words, is the story itself. Does the story have a beginning, a middle, and an end? Is the story complete? Does something happen in the story? If so, then it's a decent story, no matter how many words there are. If you really want to focus on word count, you can, and sure, 5,000 words should be fine if your story is complete.

As for the branches of the story, once again you could ask 10 authors on this site how they write their CYOA stories and you can get 10 different answers. There are some authors that write their entire story, then go back and write different branches. There are some that spend a good deal of time before writing a word planning out all the paths, breaks, and directions. There are others that do a combination of those two. Personally I don't think I've written more than two the same way -- it depends on the story. Sometimes I write with specific paths in mind and plan them; other times I just write a little and see where there's a break point, then write down the different paths (and sometimes that just expands exponentially and I end up with so many paths I can find the way out!). So I guess the best advice is to just try something and see how it works. If you like planning, plan out the paths and choices, then go back and write the story. If you're more involved in the story, work on writing the story first and look for ways to change it as you go through.

Hope that helps!

Thanks, Ogre, that's extremely helpful!

Here's a story that was received pretty well, at less than 3000 words.

A lot depends on your writing style and of course the actual story you want to tell. Everyone has their own way of approaching writing, but if you know about how many words you can write in a typical session and how many words you put on an average page, with enough planning of the plot you can have a rough idea of how long a story will take you to write. Even then a CYOA can kind of get away from you if you're not used to them though, so your first couple stories will likely involve a lot of trial and error until you find a system that works for you. (For instance I know that I can reliably crank out a complete storygame somewhere between 4000 and 7000 words in a day if it's otherwise clear, but I've also got to have a really clear vision of exactly what I plan to write ahead of time.)

Anyway, being a slow writer sucks, I feel your pain there. It's a constant struggle for me to get in a place where I can just write without overthinking and rewording every sentence. Having had to rush things out to make contest deadlines has helped get over the unrealistic perfectionism, and honestly, the most important thing is just slapping down words and moving the plot along. It's always quicker and easier to go back and edit later than to sit there and struggle forever with the first draft.

From reading Ogre's and your response it seems like the best course of action is to just do it (insert Shia LeBeouf meme). The first run-through obviously won't be perfect. Most likely will be a train wreck. But at least then I can find what works for me and build on that. Thanks!

I mean, you can anyways edit the train wreck after writing but before publishing it. Spray some nice shiny paint on that bitch, hide the mangled bodies and no one will ever know.

I'm a newbie too! I just started as a writer for a stroy called watchers telling about god and creation July 19, 2018

MARQUES FINCH AGE 36  living in a  boarding home making plans on getting help to get out and be more self reliance and make myself better or by doing good by myself. bye