To end or not to end, that is the question.

For reasons that escape me, when I started writing on CHYOA I abandoned the tried and tested story format of beginning, middle and end and instead went for open ended ongoing chapter driven stories.

Now though, I'm looking at some of my stories and thinking 'hmm, this could do with an ending'. I've got several good scenarios worked out for endings, it's just a question of do I actually do it?

It's a remarkably tense issue that has become a far bigger deal than it should be. I'm rambling here in the hope that others have experienced similar 'to end or not to end' problems.

 

You can do both, that's the beauty of a CHYOA. I can understand if you want to have one feel like the "canon" ending, but TBH endings on CHYOA are novel enough that I don't think people would mind to find more than one.

 

I work very hard to ensure that all my stories do have endings, or if I don't actually finish them, that they at least work towards an ending. I've talked about the value of finishing stories at least twice before, so I won't redo that lecture all over again, but long story short: yes! Go for it!

 

I've written several hundred endings for Lois Lane's Night Out, so I'm a big fan of endings in general - they complete a story.

The good news being, if you don't want a story to end...you can just write another branch and keep going.

 

I've never written branching stories, the idea of tackling it scares the hell out of me! Maybe one day in the future I'll write a branching story.

 

I've got no idea why I started writing them this way, I really should have stuck to what I know works. I've written a few short stories as part of a group on here, like the valentines or summer incest collections. They all had endings and I enjoyed that a lot. I'll give some thought to how best to end the story I'm thinking of.

 

I guess like everything I do this'll be rambly. I've been thinking about this lately too, possibly because I'm new here and the branching is so beautifully novel to me and I love it so much that I've gone on kind of a self-indulgent ride so far. It's kind of surprised me how insanely enriching and satisfying I find it, to be able to use so many of my ideas for characters and interactions. If it doesn't fit into one, I can jot it down and use it on another thread. So for now at least, I absolutely love the branching possibilities for the freedom of exploration they give me. However the obvious downside to that is the resulting sprawl can get a bit unmanageable. I know you mentioned you haven't delved into branching at this point, so I can for sure see why you'd hesitate calling something ended when there's only one thread. But I second everybody who said go for it if you have an idea for an ending. Just because your story hasn't branched yet doesn't mean it can't now. I think you can have your cake and eat it too in this case.

Not sure anybody cares but in the spirit of sorta "thinking aloud" I thought I'd discuss my thought process about controlling thread-spread and considering my tendency to branch and anticipating the need to control for that. In my first story I start with a single evening and then have a lot of threads splitting off with some degree of spread where most of them lead toward something intimate with her brother, this going variously better or worse depending on MC's choices, and some of the newer ones trend toward possibilities where the brotherfucker thing doesn't get off the ground but here's this other guy, blah. It's been on my mind how to get these under control and so far the approach I've been most drawn to is a technique I saw in Amanda Clover's Suburban Sex Kitten doorstop masterpiece, where absolutely all kinds of different story threads get yoked together at time intervals, i.e. MC fucks hobos in a boxcar or gives the convenience store clerk a titty job or fucks her elderly neighbor in his backyard, but as long as she doesn't get knocked up and earn a BAD END, all threads funnel to a "Continue" point when the morning ends, and new threads branch from there. Same with the evening.

I've been loosely keeping track of certain things like "does her brother know who she lost her virginity to" or "how frankly have they talked about what their actions mean for their relationship long term" or "how many irresponsible creampies can one desperately horny teen couple get away with before get themselves in real trouble" for my various threads in the hope that I can route them roughly into several thematic buckets depending on where the characters are situated relationship-wise, who knows what, and how reckless they've been, etc.

So, thus far my plan is roughly to attempt bringing all these threads up to a certain point in chronological time (end of spring break week say) and link each of them to one of a handful of scenarios where we resume. This is a huge if really considering how bad I am at reining in, but I guess where I'm really going with this longwinded shit is that I feel your indecision keenly and offer you my moral support if none of this was actually worthwhile.

TLDR: I see you Dansak

 

That was a wonderful ramble!
I did briefly try a branch, but even the few chapters I tried confused me, too many variables. And I have enough trouble remembering what I have or haven’t got them doing in one thread, let alone several!
However, you raise a good point. I could easily end it, and then go back and branch off at an earlier point and take it in a different direction. That way I’m still only dealing with one thread at a time, which I can cope with.
I’ve also considered ending it and taking some of the characters off into their own spin-off story, which could also work.
I think that’s why I was hesitant, I didnt want such a long and established linear story ending and then nothing else after. I never considered fully that I could actually end it, but carry on, as you say, I can have my cake and eat it!

re your other point about branching threads. Wow, the thought of that set up as you’ve explained makes my head hurt! Im in awe of anyone that can manage to keep multiple branches going like that. For me it’s like hurting cats.

 

Uh yeah you are not wrong. Like I'm still treading water but the ladder's getting farther and farther away because I keep paddling the wrong fucking direction. This is the super sloppy spreadsheet where I'm currently very half-assedly keeping track of it. I've been trying to decide what my best bet is. I've been drifting around getting acquainted with the forums and earlier I saw a post from somebody, not that I can remember where, who said they like to focus on one thread so you can keep your shit straight. Yeah. That's the smart way to do it. I'm doing something... else? hahah

It is totally this whether that's a typo or not! And I strongly suspect it's ultimately going to prove unsustainable but I figure, I'm having fun and I haven't gotten any "OK really this is getting fucking old reading 10 different versions of this same evening for the same POV character" type comments yet from anybody so hey. I'm just leaning into the insanity for now.

 

I use a spread sheet to track Lois Lane's Night Out too!

 

Heart. Warmed as FUCK.

 

I use a different format, since I mostly track likes/bookmarks to determine when a chapter gets a sequel. White means it hasn't hit the threshold yet, green means it's hit the threshold, yellow means one sequel has been written, orange means the second threshold has been reached, and red means two sequels have been written. They're organized by chapter depth, bookmarks are represented by asterisks ("with a bullet," as I like to put it.)

 

That's a considerably more coherent design than mine. Using the links is a smart move. I feel like I'm yanking poor Dansak's totally valid thread way off topic so I'll try to keep it brief. I have some half-assed mostly false starts created from experimenting with different options for staying organized in a branching story which I haven't done before. I have Aeon Timeline for a different thing and tried that out, I'm honestly not sure I think it's the ideal tool for the job. I also messed with Twine a little but it felt like work to have to add all the little nodes and then stuff didn't seem searchable and at what point do I want more notes so I can keep track of my crazy details and try not to contradict myself even though I'm definitely already contradicting myself and hoping to be forgiven for it.

In my bigger branching story I've started to run into the problem of "OK in which of these 25 fucking chapters did I make that stupid Elvis Costello joke" or "wait did they have sex in a room visible from the house next door?" and being unable to simply text search or analyze shit like, which words for semen am I possibly definitely overusing. At the end of the day I'm toying with maybe dropping story text into an Access database for searchability? Then tomorrow I'm sure I'll be evaluating "what if I just got a lot of post its and then used different colored stars for maintaining X story conditions" and next week I still won't have an answer and I'll have compounded the problem with more chapters that will haunt me with the vague feeling that I'm starting to repeat myself because how many ways can I describe cocksucking and still sound original?

Gasp. Okay. Well I'm enjoying this forum tremendously and I'm going to go vape some cannabis. If anybody hasn't checked out Aeon Timeline, I'm not advocating it because I have no fucking idea if it's a valid expenditure for anyone's given hobby use case, but if you happen to try the free trial my opinion is the software is dope as all fuck.

"I'll try to keep it brief" < hah

Edit: I think I'm going to steal your idea of using likes to help decide which threads to focus on. I was planning on starting a post sometime later asking about people's approaches to that.

 

Oh
I’m so sorry, definitely a typo! That should have been herding cats! I love cats, mine is on my lap right now! Auto correct got me good there.
So long as you’re having fun, that’s the main thing. I write for me because I enjoy the process, it’s kinda cathartic, I’m just amazed anyone else reads and likes my stuff. And I love the characters too, they’re almost like old friends now.
I don’t use spreadsheets on chyoa, but for the novel I’m trying (and failing) to write I’ve got a couple of spreadsheets, they’re so useful.

 

I feel you; I've occasionally screwed up and had to go back and move or rewrite chapters because I missed details. Once, I fucked up and forgot Lois was supposed to have been turned into a dickgirl and wrote a dozen chapters with her with a vagina; instead of going back and trying to add a dick, I ended up embracing the controversy and making her new lack of dick a plot point that got its own branch.

Which is why, in my Next Story Project (curently on hiatus because I'm busy as fuck, although I have the complete outline done), I'm going to use keywords to tag chapters in the spreadsheet so I can better keep track of branches.

 

I'm so validated right now because your dickgirl controversy embrace is 100% how I wound up with a whole Future Man/Fringe the timelines are at war! style thread I now just think of as "the crazy thread." Now it's the repository for all the very dumbest shit I want to play with.

To be clear (ooh I love the illusion of clarity, maybe it's why I can't shut the fuck up!) I 100% did not suspect you of a hurting a cat.

Me too. I get a lot of emotional mileage out of this.

 

For anyone morbidly curious, see Wait, What Did Happen To Lois Lane's Cock?

 

This is a winning line.

 

I'm someone who's never really embraced branching. In my head, there's always only one story line that's correct. I have a goal in mind, and the plot line that gets there is right, and the ones that don't (or do so inefficiently or weirdly or or or) are wrong.

"Why are you telling us this, TheLowKing?"

Because even in a single canonical story line it can be impossible to keep track of things. For example, in the most recent chapter of the story I'm currently working on, the protagonist goes to a masked royal ball. Except halfway through I forget everyone's masked! Ever tried eating someone out with a face-covering ceramic mask on? Oh, and during which encounter was it again that his lover lost her anal virginity? Was that before the big bad appeared or after? And why is the character ostensibly pretending to be a slave chatting with high aristocracy like they're equals?

Oops.

And so I respect the hell out of everyone who can keep even 2 separate branches consistent, let alone dozens like some of you crazy people.