Hi, guys. As you’ve probably realized from the title, I’m in a rough spot right now, not because I don’t want to direct two different outcomes ever since episode 1, but because I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do.
My story, starting from the title to the concept, is supposed to surround a bunch of friends, grieving over another’s suicide.
BUT, if the reader picks the right choices, that other friend just might live. I want make choices actually matter, but if the character does end up surviving, will the title even make sense anymore?
I’d feel bad just getting rid of a character from the very first episode, especially because no reader will think “What a shame! I’ll miss that character”, simply because they had no attachments to that character. I also want to make the first episode pretty long, just so the story won’t drag on for long while the reader is not gonna know what they’re talking about. I dislike it when stories pull things like “The incident changed us” and they never explain “the incident”, or they explain it a couple of episodes into the story, especially because this event WILL be the focus of the story.
I really like the idea of having the two outcomes because it makes it more interesting. You could make a different tragic event happen to that character instead of death? Maybe she could be depressed and try to hurt herself, and I don’t mean this to promote suicide but people will turn to self harm. Or someone close to her has a tragic event happen to them.
That’s also a good idea. I don’t want to promote suicide either, but it’s not like a few choices made during the time you can interact with her in the present will change it.
That’s the only reason I added points, honestly. I also thought of adding a few flashbacks in which you can choose whether you’re caring and nice to her or you could be careless and apathetic. I’ve only added two so far, but I’ll add more just so the reader will be able to gain as many points as possible whether they were mean to her, or nice to her.
I thought of making the amount of points needed to prevent that 8 or 10, but I’m guessing I should lower it if there’s not at least 15 chances to gain/lose points.
I guess I will make 2 outcomes now.
I was reading the guidelines about suicide/self-harm, and as I was reading the “but must be presented respectfully, maturely and in a non-glorifying way.” part, I just kept thinking about Danny Devito saying “it looks like he making the suicide, suicide is badass!” and I just started laughing. I was reading those guidelines just to make sure I wasn’t breaking any rules by including this. I just wanted to say this because I wanted to possibly share a laugh.
