Advice? I don't know what I want to do with a plot line I made up ⋆ᶿ̵᷄ ˒̼ ᶿ̵᷅⋆

General
1

So I’ve been working on a long story ever since I could actually think but the three biggest issues I faced were this: (ó﹏ò｡)

  1. I’m lazy (๑ゝڡ◕๑)
  2. I procrastin- well, maybe I should finish writing this later… ɿ(｡･ɜ･)ɾ
  3. For the life of me I cannot figure out a format. (。ヘ°)
    I originally wanted to write a book in a narrarator PoV, but that was boring. (◕⌓◕;)
    The next I thought I’d just write is as a script and play it out as a CoG, but I want visuals and damn it was gonna take a long time to code. (;ↀ⌓ↀ)
    And another idea was to make it a visual novel but I dunno where I would post it and how I could earn the muni off of it. (°◇°;)
    Keep in mind I legit do not have ANY idea of how I should write my Mc, should I make it customisable? Basic? Interesting? Relatable? A blank slate? (,꒪꒫꒪,)
    I’ll maybe draw some art to show you guys what I mean but I dunno… (◞‸◟；)
    Any advice? ٩̋(•᷄◟̵◞̵•᷅‧̣̥̇)’`~✧

(Gunna copy & paste my summary from below)

A short summary,

Mc (Main Character) has amnesia and wakes up in a 19th century rural magical world were they want to gain their memory.

Now prepare yourself for a longgggggg summary.

The concept is of a mc (gonna use female pronouns for now) who regains consciousness only to find that she has no memories, (some rolling down hills later) she rolls onto the street and get saved by two guys (an angel and devil) they both try to restore her memories and you get to choose a magical element, skill and a weapon in the memory world (a few gay devil-angel moments and painful magical war memory later) she sets out to find her memory, she does quests, gains friends, set people up (You kinda get nudged into the right direction based on people’s compatibility,) get confessions (which you can reject) e.c.t e.c.t main protagonist stuff, (you can choose to be good or evil, powerful or weak, who is your friend, who you gunna frickle frackle, yigg yigg, romance e.c.t) and then stuff happens, if you were mostly evil you’d turn out to be really good (in your lost memories) and vice versa, if you were mostly weak you’d be really powerful (again in the memories of your past) and vice versa. You’re friends dislike you a little from then and you are mostly isolated to hone your skills (shit goes down, stuff happens) There are multiple endings but the gist is that you defeat a controlling ruler named ‘chaos’ (or you fail and get defeated by him)

If I make this into a game- I think I could probably make another in a more modern setting.

1 Like
2

Creating a “plot” is simple. Let’s say… you have a stack of paper notes. Or a book. Or multiple notebook.txt

Just write down whatever “scenario” that you come up with, Right At That Time. If you write it later, there’s 99% you’ll forgot it.

Later, when you have a big free-time (not those “small clusters” of free-time), sit down, try to think of the “big plot” of your story.
Never mind your “scenarios stock.” Just plan a good plot and dedicate a bigger paper to write it.

When you’re done, all you need to do is to assemble your “scenarios stock” to your “big plot,” just like a puzzle :ok_hand:

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But first thing first, tho, you’ll need the skill to write, first :thinking:

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Thank for replying~ ʕ•̫͡•ʔ♡*:.✧
That wasn’t exactly what I was going for tho. ⁽͑˙˚̀㉨˚́˙⁾̉
I have the idea and a basic plotline, I kinda know how to write it thanks to your comment but… I don’t know if I should write it as a book, visual novel or a CoG game. ʕథ౪థʔ

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What is the story concept

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Don’t worry, you’re not the only one lazy.

I procrastinate too.

I just started with ChoiceScript this June, so I may not be able to give you a lot of advice. But I can only say “Enjoy what you do.” If you enjoy something, then you will pursue this and you will never get bored. Make a story you enjoy, that’s all I can say.

If you’re conscious of your writing skills, then don’t be! Not all of the people here in the Forum has English as their first language. You can still develop your skill. :slightly_smiling_face:

That’s all.

2 Likes
7

They all have their merits, it’s just how you see your plot going.

Is it something that can diverge and be moulded by the player choices? Then maybe an interactive fiction or visual novel would be best.

If it’s a story that needs to be linear to have its full potential shown, then maybe a novel would suit it more.

Visual novels are a lot of work- you need not only visuals, but music, sounds, and graphics too. I also find that visual novels tend to do better when the focus is on the player choices which effect the main character, rather than necessarily the plot (not in all cases though).

Interactive fiction is great because you can have the player mould both the main character and the story- but this can also get quickly out of hand with coding, lol.

If you’re lazy, then why not just try writing something first and seeing how it flows, before deciding on what medium to use?
Try writing the same scene in all 3 different ways (novel format, interactive fiction format, and visual novel format), and seeing which you like best and which suited your writing style more?

(You can post visual novels on itch.io, where you can sell it or offer it on pay-what-you-want).

Hope that helps a bit! Good luck with it :slight_smile:

3 Likes
8

Hmm… I see

:thinking: Hngngng…
How you want to approach your story?
I mean, yea I’ve read your reasoning up there. But what do you want to emphasize on the story?
What story it is?

Book tends to tell stories with massive :world_map: worldbuilding elements. As the result, it’s not uncommon to find books with many serials :books: . And as you said, books are commonly written in 3rd person (or narrator PoV).

VN, on the other side, is great for story that explores human’s emotions and relationships.
And it seems you’re already pretty familiar with it, so I won’t ramble on that :sweat_smile:

And then… HERE WE ARE
IF
dem :sparkles:Interactive Fiction :sparkles:

Where you as the player are plunged into the story itself, where you as the player can actually romance (or kill) NPC you’re fancying at, and where you as the player can feel good at doing all of it :smiling_imp:

1 Like
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xx@Centralrouge
Okay a short summary,

Mc (Main Character) has amnesia and wakes up in a 19th century rural magical world were they want to gain their memory.

Now prepare yourself for a longgggggg summary.

The concept is of a mc (gonna use female pronouns for now) who regains consciousness only to find that she has no memories, (some rolling down hills later) she rolls onto the street and get saved by two guys (an angel and devil) they both try to restore her memories and you get to choose a magical element, skill and a weapon in the memory world (a few gay devil-angel moments and painful magical war memory later) she sets out to find her memory, she does quests, gains friends, set people up (You kinda get nudged into the right direction based on people’s compatibility,) get confessions (which you can reject) e.c.t e.c.t main protagonist stuff, (you can choose to be good or evil, powerful or weak, who is your friend, who you gunna frickle frackle, yigg yigg, romance e.c.t) and then stuff happens, if you were mostly evil you’d turn out to be really good in your past memories and vice versa, if you were mostly weak you’d be really powerful in your past memories and vice versa. You’re friends dislike you a little from then and you are mostly isolated to hone your skills (shit goes down, stuff happens) There are multiple endings but the gist is that you defeat a controlling ruler named ‘chaos’ (or you fail and get defeated by him)

If I make this into a game- I think I could probably make another in a more modern setting.

1 Like
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OK wow … um were do I begin that sounds amazing I understand why you can’t decide i would love to see this as a novel or choice game

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I really don’t have any advice for you, I just came on here to say that you have really nice emojis.

I’ll be going now.

4 Likes
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i agree with him <3

your thinking a lot… try writing without thinking any of those maybe? if you dont like it well try again different format.

everyone is, i once slept for 15hrs straight…

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How are your art skills? If you are good at drawing characters, backgrounds (there are free ones available, so not a big deal), and Cgs or can commission someone to do all or some of those things for you, make a visual novel. Music can be obtained free by public domain.

Visual novel pros are that they are more story based so long blocks of text are acceptable. Well defined protagonists are acceptable. Few choices and choices that mostly don’t change anything are acceptable. The bad thing is you need lots of pictures and music and stuff. Look at https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/ for a good VN engine and examples. They can be sold in itch.io or the phone app stores, but I don’t know if you need to pay to use software for profitable games.

The good thing about text based games like CoG is that there is a dedicated selling platform for COG. You can insert some title graphics or character portraits if wanted ( see this demo for an example: https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/the-war-for-the-west-wip-medieval-intrigue-noble-simulator-update-03-08-17/ ) The bad thing is that people expect highly customizable characters, lots of choices with no text walls, and lots of ending and images are sometimes hard to display on different devices. As for coding, I find it difficult if you’re trying to do complicated things like save systems and inventory despite the tutorials, but adding choices and images and conditional variables is OK. If you see a neat system in a demo or game and you want to copy it, you can look at the code and ask the author of you can do something similar.

I suggest to try coding in the different engines like CoG, renpy, Rpg maker, or whatever you decide and see how easy it is to make the game you want with images and then make the plot work with the platform.

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I had some thoughts. I’m not sure any of them will help, but maybe? Here’s what I was thinking:

If this is important to your plot (and it sounds important!) then you may want to consider a format with a fixed story instead of one that can be altered through interaction. A novel instead of a multiple-choice game, for example; or a “kinetic novel” instead of a “visual novel” for another example. Readers are unlikely to object if a character experiences a major change because she was cursed, or because a curse was broken. However, players will have worked to get those stats, will have worked to get those personality traits, and may feel insulted if that’s all taken away. Players may even feel as if you’ve stolen their time or “their” characters, depending on how it was presented.

This doesn’t mean you can’t or even shouldn’t have such a plotline in an interactive format, but rather you’ll need to be very careful how it’s presented to the players. A narrative that effectively tells players "Ha! You were wrong, this is who your character really is, and really has been all along!" is unlikely to go over nearly as well as a narrative that says “Your character has been attacked and mind-controlled! Now it’s time for her to resist until she can destroy the controller and free herself!”

There are multiple endings but the gist is that you defeat a controlling ruler named ‘chaos’…

To make an ending like this satisfying for your readers (or players, if you choose an interactive format,) it’s probably wise to introduce Chaos early, but then limit interaction between Chaos and the MC. Think about it: in the Harry Potter series, Lord MoldyButt is introduced as “You-Know-Who” in Book One, but isn’t defeated until Book Seven. Seven! And in the Star Wars films, Darth Vader is introduced before any of the leads—Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, and Han Solo all show up after he does in the original 1977 film. Yet Vader isn’t defeated until near the end of the third film, released in 1983. Six years later!

Perhaps Chaos is an evil king or queen, and starts causing trouble for the MC not because they want to hurt the MC, or even know who she is, but simply because they’re writing evil laws. This allows Chaos to hold position as primary antagonist while still providing the MC with some level of protection—Chaos can’t send a death squad until they have a target. Perhaps Chaos doesn’t discover the MC until after the big reversal… but that big reversal may also give the MC what’s needed to resist and overcome.

Oooh, here’s another thought! If the MC starts weak and timid, but becomes strong and aggressive as a result of the reversal, she (or her players, if you choose interactivity) will have to make a Big Choice™! Use the power and anger to defeat Chaos—but lose them in the process—or join Chaos to keep the power. Readers love when MCs face difficult choices, and lots of players love making them too!

Again, I’m not sure how helpful those thoughts might be. Hopefully there was something useful in that mess, but I apologize if there wasn’t.

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I already love it! :heart_eyes:

I think the main thing to think about is how many choices you’d want to put in. Lots? Go for a choice game. Only a few? A VN could work, if you’ve got the art skills. None? Just write a book. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Hey do not worry about that (most of them here are lazy so it’s normal :v ) you do not have to narrow yourself down to get the book fast take it smooth and without pressure (and from the codes you asks @Szaal for help he is very good in that :wink:)

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When first diving into writing the best thing you can do for any POV is to write it from your perspective with your own words.

Meaning, if you were the character what do you think you’d pay attention to. Sights sounds voices smells textures. And write how you would speak it aloud ‘as if you we’re trying to describe it to someone else.’ Using words and phrases you don’t normally use will feel awkward and often find themselves sticking out to your reader as just that ‘awkward’ .

That’s how I first started leseimg how to write. Putting myself into the story and later learning to understand the perspectives of other characters.

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Advice:
Well I may not be the best writer out there but why don’t you start practicing with fan fiction (AU). Since the characters are already established, you can focus on the plot and flow of the story.