# New writer still figuring things could use tips **URL:** \ **Category:** ChoiceScript Help\ **Created:** [January 22, 2019, 12:41am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157 "2019-01-22T00:41:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![King14936](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/king14936/32/81858_2.png) [@King14936](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/King14936)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 12:41am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/1 "2019-01-22T00:41:07Z")
One thing I’ve come across so far is when you write a choice does it have to end the scene or can you continue the scene? ---
**Author:** ![MeltingPenguins](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/meltingpenguins/32/255855_2.png) [@MeltingPenguins](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/MeltingPenguins)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 12:52am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/2 "2019-01-22T00:52:48Z")
A choice comes in two flavors: ``` *choice #an option *goto a_label #another option *goto b_label ``` And ``` *fake_choice #an option Maybe some text. #another option This is where the game text will continue. ``` So the answers is no: unless you want a choice to move on to the next file on the scene list, you can either use labels (when having a \*choice) to go to different bits, or use a fake\_choice with maybe some flavor text if it all goes to the same bit of text. There’s also something called implicit control flow that removes the need for gotos in choices and if/elseif/else trees, but this is not recommendable for beginners. For later, if you trust yourself with it and want to give it a try, @GoldenSilver can explain it. ---
**Author:** ![King14936](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/king14936/32/81858_2.png) [@King14936](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/King14936)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 1:04am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/3 "2019-01-22T01:04:34Z")
Thanks, I’ve been thinking of starting this for a while but I find the coding difficult sometimes. I’m learning mostly from videos on YouTube but that only does so much. ---
**Author:** ![King14936](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/king14936/32/81858_2.png) [@King14936](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/King14936)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 1:04am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/4 "2019-01-22T01:04:37Z")
Could you explain what a fake choice is for? I’ve played a couple CoG games so if you got an example it would help. ---
**Author:** ![MeltingPenguins](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/meltingpenguins/32/255855_2.png) [@MeltingPenguins](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/MeltingPenguins)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 1:20am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/5 "2019-01-22T01:20:58Z")
A fake choice looks like a regular choice, but all choices go to the same bit of text. So you won’t need a label and goto, and you can still set stuff like stats and other variables, plus have some flavor text. I’m currently on mobile, so I can’t copy paste one well, but, here’s a file from my own game: [https://dashingdon.com/play/meltingpenguins/curious-cuisine/mygame/scenes/6\_apeculiarparty.txt](https://dashingdon.com/play/meltingpenguins/curious-cuisine/mygame/scenes/6_apeculiarparty.txt) ---
**Author:** ![DanielleW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/daniellew/32/106077_2.png) [@DanielleW](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/DanielleW)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 1:24am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/6 "2019-01-22T01:24:13Z")
The ChoiceScript Wiki is also really helpful if you need more information. > **[Fake choice](https://choicescriptdev.fandom.com/wiki/Fake_choice)** > > The\*fake\_choice command is an alternative to the\*choice command. To the player, a\*choice and a\*fake\_choice appear identical. However, there is one important difference: unlike the standard\*choice command,\*fake\_choice does not actually require the use... ---
**Author:** ![King14936](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/king14936/32/81858_2.png) [@King14936](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/King14936)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 2:42am UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/7 "2019-01-22T02:42:50Z")
Thank you both for explaining things ---
**Author:** ![GoldenSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/goldensilver/32/110153_2.png) [@GoldenSilver](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/GoldenSilver)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 1:59pm UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/8 "2019-01-22T13:59:25Z")
Most of the examples that have the \*choices ending on \*finish or \*ending just for explanation purposes; on most cases you would use \*goto to go to any \*label that is placed on your file where you want to redirect the player to. Or as was said before, you can use \*fake\_choice that has it simply continuing down after a choice was picked. Here are some wiki articles: > **[Choice](https://choicescriptdev.fandom.com/wiki/Choice)** > >     The \*choice command is the fundamental command of ChoiceScript, defining the options by which the player interacts with the story. Ordinary (non-conditional) options should be preceded by the hash # symbol as in the following example:... > **[Goto](https://choicescriptdev.fandom.com/wiki/Goto)** > >     The \*goto command is used for "jumping" from one line to another within the same scene file. (For loading a completely new scene file, see the \*goto\_scene and \*finish commands, respectively). \*goto is always used in combination with a... * * * > [@MeltingPenguins](#): > > There’s also something called implicit control flow that removes the need for gotos in choices and if/elseif/else trees, but this is not recommendable for beginners. > > For later, if you trust yourself with it and want to give it a try, @GoldenSilver can explain it. Just wanted to clear up that there’s nothing about this feature that is “not recommended for beginners”; if you like it’s effects @King14936, feel free to use it. It’s a pretty simple feature to use or enable or disable; there is nothing “advanced” about it. Here is the wiki article: > **[Implicit Control Flow](https://choicescriptdev.fandom.com/wiki/Implicit_Control_Flow)** > >    Implicit control flow is an optional modification to the way ChoiceScript behaves. It changes ChoiceScript's requirements by removing the need for \*finish, \*goto, \*goto\_scene, or \*ending at the end of \*choice, \*elseif, and \*else. Devblog... ---
**Author:** ![MeltingPenguins](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/meltingpenguins/32/255855_2.png) [@MeltingPenguins](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/MeltingPenguins)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 2:29pm UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/9 "2019-01-22T14:29:40Z")
To clarify my comment about beginners: should you be uncertain where and when to use \*goto \*finish \*go\_sub etc, ICF is not recommendable (yet) ---
**Author:** ![jasonstevanhill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/jasonstevanhill/32/198375_2.png) [@jasonstevanhill](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/jasonstevanhill)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/10 "2019-01-22T15:28:13Z")
Meeps, you had a misuse of a \*line\_break in your sample code. 99% of the time, HG authors misuse \*line\_break. The only time you should need a \*line\_break is if you’re trying to show something like lyrics or poetry. (Or if you’re trying to space things out on the stats screen.) ---
**Author:** ![MeltingPenguins](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/meltingpenguins/32/255855_2.png) [@MeltingPenguins](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/MeltingPenguins)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 3:53pm UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/11 "2019-01-22T15:53:26Z")
My intend was to have it look like this (in the hypothetical): ``` flavor text. Regular text. ``` Is formatting like that not allowed in general (outside of lyrics and poetry)? As in will I (and maybe others) have to re-do all of what i/we have so far? (see the linked sample code. I use line\_break a lot) ---
**Author:** ![ashestoashes018](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/ashestoashes018/32/144436_2.png) [@ashestoashes018](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/ashestoashes018)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 5:11pm UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/12 "2019-01-22T17:11:41Z")
I second this question. I usually just double enter, but I’ve been getting in the habit if using \*line\_break more. ---
**Author:** ![Szaal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/szaal/32/112202_2.png) [@Szaal](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Szaal)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 5:39pm UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/13 "2019-01-22T17:39:30Z")
I personally combined both my flavor and normal text in a paragraph. Heck, even most of my flavor texts are multireplace. YMMV, I think. But as a note, I hate `*line_break`. `[n/]` all the way. ---
**Author:** ![Mary\_Duffy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/mary_duffy/32/5311_2.png) [@Mary\_Duffy](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/Mary_Duffy)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/14 "2019-01-22T22:38:57Z")
A post was split to a new topic: [\*line\_break and proper CS lineation](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/line-break-and-proper-cs-lineation/50213) ---
**Author:** ![will](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/choiceofgames/user_avatar/forum.choiceofgames.com/will/32/132033_2.png) [@will](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/u/will)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 9:31pm UTC](https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/new-writer-still-figuring-things-could-use-tips/50157/15 "2019-01-22T21:31:45Z")
> line break versus N slash I’m using some weird syntax to represent sign language for one character in my game. Since there isn’t any actual punctuation, each new sentence is a new line. It looks like this: > HELLO - FRIEND > LONG TIME - NO - SEE > QUESTION - YOU - AGREE - NICE - DAY There are two ways of doing this: ```choicescript HELLO - FRIEND *line_break LONG TIME - NO - SEE *line_break QUESTION - YOU - AGREE - NICE - DAY ``` or … ```choicescript HELLO - FRIEND [n/] LONG TIME - NO - SEE [n/] QUESTION - YOU - AGREE - NICE - DAY ``` The second one is a lot nicer and better mimics the final product. `[n/]` all the way. Was gonna second the recommendation to split topics but internet’s dodgy in this motel. Should probably move this comment over to the new thread too!