As I've shared before, I've been using a “Draw” program--found in the free OpenOffice.org wordprocessor—to map out a flow chart of the dialogue choices you'll have in the game. It has helped me organize things a little, but I've also developed a method of writing this character script that mimics what I'll need to do in the visual novel software. It's all very vertical in the text, so I often have to scroll back up to the last set of choices to find the next choice in line, write all of the text for that choice, then go back up for the third choice. It can get confusing when I'm writing out the text for choice 2 and more choices come up just for choice 2. I then have to make sure each one of those branches is addressed and flows well. Writing a story this way is tricky, because you have to imagine a number of branching timelines that stem from each choice you make along the way. Some choice branches converge, but many go off on their own tangents. Ultimately, I want a story to be told, but things can happen differently along the way so I'm really writing multiple realities. In the end, you won't notice it much while playing the game—unless you decide you want to play through again or reload from a previous save and try a different option. The biggest challenge for me is making sure that it's a great story throughout, no matter what choices you make!
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