Tips, tricks & discussions: How to make your story better

[fcukforcookies]

sry. I was reading it, so decided not to include these stories, I’ve read until at least half.

[loveyourself]

Thank you! I’ve bookmarked this thread!

[fcukforcookies]

Short post on the choices.

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Choices. Thoughts and prayers. high five for dramatic title

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I’m might be not the most reliable person when talking about choices in Episode.
Why? Because I’m completely fine with the story without choices.
So while I totally appreciate the author’s effort in making choices, point system etc., I am totally fine with no choices at all. So we established that.

Here’s a TOP 5 LIST of choices authors do, that I hate with all the fibers of my soul (?)

Do you think I have a soul?

• Nope. No way. Nonono.
• I really want to believe it.
• Of course, you have, Cookie.

The top is aligned with my hate level.

5

• Choices for secondary characters.
  I really don’t get why people do them. And yes, I know, sometimes we have more than one MC, and it’s totally fine. But why would you make choices for secondary characters? First of all, I don’t know them enough to care, or to understand the perks of some choices. Secondly, choices are meant to connect you more with the MC. Why would you do it for secondary characters? If we have MC/MCs, we play as him/her/them, it is legit to have power over them. Why would you give that power for secondary characters? They are supposed to act indifferently.

4

• Choice with no meaning.
  It’s fine to add choices that won’t matter in a long run. You can add conversation choices (where the only difference would be dialogue line or two) to show MC’s personality, as well as other character’s personalities. But when you give me a choice on freaking food… I don’t care if you give me ten options choices on coffee/latte/tea with vodka if the only difference would be my character saying it while ordering in a cafe. Well, if u want to include it - work a bit more, change some dialogue lines at least, to show some reactions.

3

• Choice without a context.
  This pisses me off when putting with the point system. You introduce to me some characters, let’s say. They have an ordinary convo, and you put a choice on being rude or nice. Why do you make me pick something, with no information on characters, possible situation consequences - this is just either beyond idiotic or beyond evil. Now I don’t mean that I have to know the possible consequences on every choice, no. What I mean, is that the reader should know enough information to have some idea about possible consequences, or reasons to act according to each choice’s option.
  Very exaggerated example.
  Story starts. I see my character, maybe 16yo. Her parents argue, and I have no backstory on them or my attitude. And suddenly one of them asks - decide who do you want to live with, and this is an impactful choice. This is the choice, that won’t be driven by any of reader’s opinions, impressions etc., just a guess.

2

• Tricky choice.
  For example, the author gives me a choice to go or not to go on a date. Let’s say I hate the prick and decide not to go. And… I STILL HAVE TO GO! Like what the hell dude? Why do you give me a choice to screw me over, when I pick an option u were too lazy to code? My hate is so strong for this, that I exit the story, regardless of my love for it. Cheaters don’t deserve a second chance, may it be your gf/bf or an Episode story writer.

1

Yeah, I kinda have only 4 things to mention, but TOP 5 sounds way cooler, than TOP 4. Top 4… how lame is that?

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That’s all I could think of Take it or leave it.

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[Maria.StoryWritter]

And taking more notes.

[Marshmallow_O]

she’s baccccc

[fcukforcookies]

Who. Who’s back?

[Marshmallow_O]

bahahaha you sis i love these posts

[fcukforcookies]

Oh, yep :DDD Excuse my dumbness :DDD I’m tired

[Lonse]

Omg! This had me laughing so much.

I agree with you though, especially with number 2.
I need to know- with number 3, do you mean that if you get a choice that matters, that you would like to know? (Yep, I’m that evil (or idiotic ) that I want people to choose without me telling them if it matters or not ) or do you mean that you get a choice that counts when you just met a character you don’t even know yet?

[fcukforcookies]

@Lonse

Omg! This had me laughing so much.

@Lonse

I need to know- with number 3, do you mean that if you get a choice that matters, that you would like to know?

Okay. Here, I don’t mean that you should give the reader an insight on choice consequences. This is mostly about authors making seemingly important choices so early in the story, that I have no idea bout people around me, my own character, drives/ likes and dislikes and many more things, that would give me a possibility to make a thoughtful choice.
Very exaggerated example.
Story starts. I see my character, maybe 16yo. Her parents argue, and I have no backstory on them or my attitude. And suddenly one of them asks - decide who do you want to live with, and this is an impactful choice. This is the choice, that won’t be driven by any of reader’s opinions, impressions etc., just a guess.

[Lonse]

I get it and I agree with you. Thanks for elaborating.

• and yes, you are hilarious.

[lizzy.writes]

Thank you for providing these resources! Very helpful. I’m bookmarking this page for further use <3

[fcukforcookies]

:DDD will on Saturday with drinks. lots of them

[MoreTeaMustBeSpilled]

Hey, that’s why I’m called SpillingDaTea!

[fcukforcookies]

sneaky sneaky ^^

[Jayl]

Bump?

[fcukforcookies]

hehe :DDD I’m sorry, I am beyond busy with EVERYTHING literally. I have my story, plus one more colab story in production stage, plus reviews, plus this, plus art… I’m going nuts X_X

I didn’t even get done the review on Episode story like I promised X_X

[fcukforcookies]

It is 11pm sharp as I started writing, but hey who needs sleep when u have coffee and energy drinks.

As I and @Cheyara_Skadi are doing a collab story now, we are at the stage of going through character questionnaires.

Yeah, I know, I am telling about this in like every other post. But now I mean it.

The Power of Questionnaires - Part I

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We are on the first questionnaire, and it took days to get over with this one. I guess cause it’s about the MC, but anyway.

It is a second time I do this thing, so I kinda forgot, so now I have a moment to appreciate this process, and share it with you.

First of all, when we started, we had a very subtle idea about the plot, and characters.
At this point, we are almost done with MC questionnaire and…
WHOLE PLOT AND CHARACTERS CHANGED DRASTICALLY. I mean it. We got the main plot changed and formed, roughly, but still. Plus a lot of minor plotlines are developed.

I’ll go through with questions and comment on how this question can help, why it’s important, in regards to our story.

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• Name
  I know, what’s so special about the name? I see dozens of these annoying threads, where people ask for names. First of all, heard of Google?
  Now we actually decided to give more to the name and made the MC Spanish suddenly. So we were searching for Spanish cute names and surnames. So you get what we have here? We made some part of the backstory while picking a name, plus we formed her look.

In case you are curious, check out this cutie <3

• Age
  Yep, at this point, we decided on what MC’s occupation is. Just be sure to correlate your chosen age/occupation/country. Some countries have a difference in finishing school/college time. Keep it real.
• General physical description
  Well, it was partially formed at the name tab, but still. Think about how her body is for example. 'Course you can’t choose body type in Episode yet, but you have Narrator and other character’s thoughts about this to point. Maybe your character is skinny, or curvy. Don’t leave it out.
• Hometown + Type of home/ neighborhood
  Here we formed almost the whole backstory of her family, and also a bit of her family background, how they got here. Also, added some traits, that were affected by the neighborhood type. For example our character whole her life was at the dominantly black district, kinda poor and with the high crime rate. Don’t think I am being racist here, as we chose the city where MC lives, and I just scrolled through most poor districts and found one. The place is real.
• Relationship status
  Yep. Don’t have to say why it’s important.
  Is your character single/dating/hooking up/married? We also thought a bit about her previous love relationships, that helped us forming MC and reason her traits. Here we create more characters as well.

• Friends
  Friends. Who are they? How did they meet? What bonds them? Like really bonds, their history and traits, that make them a good match as friends. It is important to do, so that you can show their chemistry. Maybe this friend/friends is/are toxic and MC doesn’t notice. Think what fits your story best, and will help to move the plot forward.

• Family background (parents, previous marriages, etc.):
  Who is present in MC’s family? Divorced, or maybe mother/father left the family/died? Brothers/sisters/aunts? Think about what the relationships in the family are?

• Other close relationships
  Maybe MC is helping some old granny with her chores? Or maybe gives a few dollars to a homeless guy on the street every day and chats with him? Small details matter, and allow you to show MC (and other characters) personalities.

• Relationship with men/women
  This is very important. Mostly we act a bit/a lot different with men and women. It should be reasoned tho. Maybe your female character dislikes other women and is quite hostile to them because her ex-best-friend stole her boyfriend? Thinkthinkthink and reason.

• Job
  OK, maybe MC is a student. If MC has a job. What kind of? Why she/he chose this one? Does he/she enjoy it? Is he/she good at it? Do your research on the chosen job, to portray it realistically I’m so fucking sick of seeing writers putting any “cool and edgy” job for MC and then just ignoring everything this job is about -_-
• Dress style
  Here I can only advise. Pick some specific dressing style. Don’t just combine a lot of clothes, so that different readers will have something they will like. Dressing style also reflects your personality.

• Religion + Attitude to religion
  Maybe MC is a follower of some specific religion. Maybe not, but still believes, or just doesn’t believe. Maybe doesn’t believe, but forced to fake religiosity? Just don’t go with something you have no idea about. If you don’t know much about religion you want to incorporate - ask people here, or Google.
• Favorite pastimes
  What your MC loves doing? Maybe she/he watches reality shows after coming home from work? Or does some early morning’s runs? This will affect MC daily routine. And it is also important, cause I see a real lot how writers don’t put anything other than school/job and partying, and create blank dull characters.

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OK people, it’s 12am here, and it’s one long-ass post already, so I’ll continue soon.
Not sure it was really helpful actually, but maybe it will give u some ideas on ur character/plot.

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[Cheyara_Skadi]

Definitely a helpful thing that I recommend

[fcukforcookies]

did u even read it :DDDD