Precisely. Choices in a general sense are quite hard to create if you want your story to be heavy plotwise. It’s not impossible of course, but for you to create different paths that’s of equal worth and that at the same time will give the readers an impression of a unique experience, you’ll have to give it your all. Because no matter what, not everyone will be satisfied with the ending(s), nor the choices leading up to it. It’s like that with everything. You can’t satisfy everyone, and that’s fine. It’s a known fact.
I say write your story for yourself initially. Because in the end, every author wants to create a story that represents something that they would be proud of. A story that they would also at the same time appreciate to read themselves. By doing what feels right for you at the moment - choices, no choices - you’ll be able go your own way and in the end, create a story that you have carved your name on. Because having many choices or none accroding to me, doesn’t decide whether or not it’s a great story.
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Overall, I think there’s an art to crafting good choices in an Episode story. It’s creating choices which seem impactful without giving up too much of your power as a writer. How do you do this?
Well, make sure that all of your choices lead to the same event. For example, I have a seemingly huge choice in my story where you can choose which one of your friends you hang out with However, throughout the choice (and later on in the chapter), you find out the exact same information from all of your friends - they just tell you in their own way!
The beauty of that is that the reader has all the information that they need for the story to continue without me having to branch too much. All of the characters talk to the MC about her current problems, all of them have a little information on how to make them better and then all of them suggest that they should do something (like watching a film) to take their minds off things. The reader thinks the choice is huge because, unless they play my story more than once, they have no clue how close the other choices are.
I use the gains that I placed in those choices every once in a while later on, just in passing, so that the MC mentions who she spent time with and who told her the information she needs. That keeps up the facade of important choices for the story (the reader thinking they made the right choice on who to speak to), when in reality, I just add an extra line here and there with gains.
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There should never be a choice included in a story segment just for the sake of having a choice. The choice should always have at least some kind of an impact to the story. If not immediately, then by the time it reaches it’s conclusion. And I think the choice should be something more important than “which dress will you wear tonight?” It should have an impact on your character’s development and the story they will go through.
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I actually disagree. I love as many choices as possible. I like it when I can give the MC some character, decide on their personality and choose how they react to things - whether or not its important overall.
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I definitely agree with Fallen Angel, especially when I am reading an adventure story. Unless the choice is about my character’s love interest, I stop reading the story if the choices matter
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It might be fun and all, but in the end it’s a waste of time and the character you’ve wrote suffers. Having a character with a stellar personality is more important than having a billion potential choices and never quite succeeding to write a multidimensional personality.
Of course you CAN write a good character with a ton of obsolete choices in theory, but I don’t think it’s worth the effort. That’s why I personally rather focus on the story and put choices in places where they’re actually useful. That means there could be an episode full of choices or one that doesn’t have a single one.
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If you write the character well, allowing someone to make a few personality choices here and there won’t impact the quality of the character as a whole. In fact, if you allow them to make these choices, it may mean that their decisions on the bigger ones make more sense as their choices throughout have been in line with a specific character. We all have many different options when it comes to how we choose to act. We are still the same person regardless of whether or not we choose to be suspicious of someone or not. It keeps the reader engaged and allows them to get more immersed in the story. Not obsolete at all!
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I disagree. Most of the stories on here are a fine example on how monotone their characters are after flooding one meaningless choice after another… OK, the writing may not have been too great to begin with, but that’s beside the point.
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I think it’s entirely the point. The mark of a good story and a well-rounded character is being able to put your characters in different scenarios and have them react differently but consistently.
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Thank you guys so much for replying on this topic, feel free to share your thoughts more! I would like to hear opinions from both authors and readers.
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Choices can be very aggravating at times. Especially for Episode author’s stories. Not everyone can afford to have a really good voice be worth 15-100 diamonds and all we get is 1 diamond back each chapter. Also as previously stated choices can put a lot of pressure on both the reader and writer. The writer might have a mindset for the story but somehow has to incorporate choices into it whereas the reader is trying not to mess up their life in the story. I prefer when everything is already but however I do enjoy the important things like choosing who I end up with for example.
Which is why one should know their limits as a writer. Me personally, I’m pretty new to this episode thing anyway and I’m already somewhat in over my head with my current project. If I knew it was going to consume so much time and energy, I would’ve started with something a little easier.
Yeah, I guess I’ve been reading Episode for about 5 years and writing for a year. It’s quite easy for me to get into the mindset and get a good grasp of what kind of thing people are looking for on here. I mean, the ‘Choose Your Story’ aspect is important. Being able to choose your character’s personality is what makes this app so unique when compared to other storytelling platforms. It’s all about the interactive aspect.
A word of advice though: if this is your first story and you’re attempting to make all of your choices count, you may find yourself in a mess of branching issues. The more often you include massive, impactful choices, the more stories you’ll find yourself having to write, as you’ll need to individually write each scenario and its outcomes.
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That’s exactly what I’m working on… Which is why I keep getting slower and slower episode by episode. It’s also quite exhausting to be honest… Well, it it isn’t ambitious, it’s not worth doing.
It’s certainly ambitious. It’s not done often with stories over three chapters long, since most people do want at least a choice or two per chapter.
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Actually about that, I need help! Because I want to let the readers have choices but I also want to keep my story as one and not have three or two different stories I have to write for one story. I want to let them have a good amount of choices but also not so little that it makes my story look bad. Do you people really care about choices and how much they get?? Any feedback would be great!
Gains are definitely your friend in that case! I’m currently on my break at work, but I’ll give you a little more information as soon as I get back home!
I read a lot of stories daily and I also review them.
There’re different kind of choices:
- Completely useless one which spent our time and energy (Which coffee to order?)
- Choices that lead to different scenes (turn left, right, go to park, go to shop) but in those scenes you learn/read same things (unimportant choices!)
- Choices that lead to different scenes, but in every scene you learn/read something different.
- Choices that lead to different outcomes/ endings…
If Writer asks reader- what’s your favorite color - I expect to have all dress options in red, if my favorite is red. Otherwise don’t ask me if it’s not important.
Stories can be very good without any choices at all, and if Writer doesn’t know how to include important choices (branching), then better not use any choice at all.
As for customizations - if those are not updated- they become useless.
I personally enjoy in stories that are branching and in those without any choices. If story uses unimportant choices, that annoys me.
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