The writing, editing and scripting process for Samurai of Hyuga went mostly the same way Fatehaven’s did. Choose-your-own-adventures require a unique blend of creative and logical thinking, and a decent one is going to take a serious amount of time. When approaching any quality project with the intent to finish it, a method is required. You don’t have to get it from a book and you definitely don’t have to get it from me, but writing down your steps can make the entire process less fuzzy.

General

In a world of ideal schedules, and in risk of offending all my polyphasic readers out there: get up at 6. If you’re tired from staying up past midnight, keep in mind that nothing of value happens after 10 (including all those in-private browser tabs). Get up at 6 and write, which ought to be the most daunting part of the process. Editing and scripting follow a set of rules, and are essentially automated process which compilers can help you out on. Becoming a better editor and scripter will severely cut down your turnaround time and are valuable assets, but the rules they follow should come naturally over time.

Writing

In comparison, against the blank page you are naked and defenseless and alone! But you aren’t entirely alone and that page isn’t entirely blank, because you’ve already sketched out a rough outline. A coherent story with drama-building moments and smooth transitions needs a blueprint to follow. And there’s good news: as an exception to everything else, outlines in interactive fiction are actually easier than in regular fiction. Your pages end in choices and your text can never stray too long lest you attention-deprived audience gets testy!

And that kind of limitation breeds creativity. Make those bullet points into choices and write a sentence or two for each. Take note of which stat the choice will depend on or alter, and keep that choice in mind so you can reference it later. The bulleted list structure is great for small branches, which (for a CYOA wanting developed characters and a major plotline) will be the size of the majority of your branches. I like to use pseudo-code here, like ‘if(attractedTo = female)’ to help make the scripting transition easier.

But that scripting transition? For me, it’s months away. I write in a word processor (Google Docs) instead of a text interpreter because it’s more visually similar to reading. Again, scripting is an automated process which eventually becomes little more than copy+paste, especially if you organize your variables and branches into your writing. Another benefit of postponing the scripting process is that scripting forces you to re-read every sentence and every word. Every pronoun and every character name can be a variable. This attention will force you to see other errors you might have missed during editing.

Editing

Writing without restraints is necessary if you want to establish a personal tone and get any decent amount of words down. It takes courage to willfully write imperfect sentences, with too many commas, which are far too long, and probably contain entire segments and maybe unnecessary words that could only be described as a ‘lamentable timidness’; more suiting for a middleschooler than someone of your irreproachable esteem! Ahem. The truth is that if you hope to get any sort of enjoyment or happiness out of writing, you have to not give a shit.

At least until you need to. Editing can be postponed for months, and some of it should. Some of it shouldn’t wait past lunch while the rest shouldn’t wait beyond the carriage return for your next paragraph. Some edits require another person to sit beside you while some of it requires that they be many miles away (for their safety). Since you’re an experienced author both mature and witty, amuse yourself at their criticism. The common folk—the dirty, sullied non-creators—can give this world little more than their two cents. Do them the courtesy of acknowledging their existence!

On a more serious note, quick editing for obvious spelling and grammar mistakes is a great way to build momentum going into the next paragraph. Don’t worry about perfection. Read your words inside your head and make sure they make sense. After lunch but before your evening Bud Light, go back over today’s hard work. Speak the words aloud and make sure it flows correctly. So many wordy sentences and awkward syntax errors can be fixed this way. Being unable to do this at a fluent level is probably the single greatest disadvantage non-native English CYOA writers have.

Now that the sentence flows like a babbling brook, make use of the 21st century with a grammar checker. I use StyleWriter 4, and copypasta each and every sentence in there. Good grammar programs give recommendations and offer alternative words, keep track of sentence length and so on. This can be a laborious process but it will separate you from the herd.

No piece of software can replace the need for another pair of eyes, however. It is far easier to change today’s direction, pacing or tone then it is weeks down the line. Getting a human to give you input as fast as humanly possible will make changes and cuts less painful and time-consuming. Just make sure they know they’re editors; a mistake far too many interactive fiction writers make is to ask for creative input from the masses. Therein lies the path of trying to appease the unappeasable–a detour that not only can take years, but turn your creation into the worst thing imaginable: something different then what sparked you into writing it in the first place!

Part 1 Conclusion

Writing is hard work that requires discipline above all else. Motivation? Inspiration? Silly and short-lived like a highschool romance. Don’t rely on cosmic forces or stars to align to find a good time to put words down. Force yourself to write and if you don’t find it fun, you are most likely giving far too much of a shit. Keep distractions away and set yourself up for success: my muse is a cup of piping hot Folgers, and my music is the silence of the drabbest den around.

If you have any intention of building an interactive tale of 100,000+ words packed with branches and character customization and a coherent plot, you’ll need to create some good habits first. This is the heart of the method!

Part 2 Here