Hello, lovely people! I'm working on one story (Innocent Devil, Naughty Angel), and the way I've been writing has been one branch at a time until a certain event, then continue with another branch until the same/similar event, and so on. And it got me wondering: do you prefer an author to focus on one branch completely before continuing with another? Or would you rather they posted on every branch before any ends? Or do you just not care about the order?
It depends on your story and story structure. In a Game Mode story you might want to offer the reader a choice, resulting in two options that might merge a few chapters later. So it might make sense to progress them in parallel as readers with active Game Mode can't switch the branch and thus only can read the branch of their choice. After reaching a new decision point, you could then go back and add additional choices. (Though given the possibilities, it could even be structured as one branch.) In a branching story, immersion (for the reader and the writer) might be better when you focus on one branch. Then the waiting time might be longer for the reader, though they could easily switch to the other branch and continue reading there. Well, it's probably best to do just what works best for yourself.
Agreed. Writing is hard enough as it is. Personally, I like to write at least 1 chapter in each branch so that I've got a jumping off point for future additions.
I enjoy writing parallel branches that cross over each other -- things like multiple perspectives of the same event. So with those, I tend to try to write all branches simultaneously so I can maintain the parallel structure. When it's just two branches that are kind of like alternate universes of a thread, I'll write one entire one before shifting over to the other. When publishing, I sometimes offer chapters in pairs so that both branches are growing at the same rate. (I realize that this offers me less front page visibility, but oh well.)
I'm new to this, and I've been jumping around from branch to branch. I like having the variety, and I feel less bogged down and constrained by having to keep to one story line, and can add to branches as different ideas come to me. Part of the appeal of CHYOA is that I don't have to settle on one course of events for a story, but can experiment with multiple parallel plots. Is my poly-curiosity showing?
You asked what the reader prefers, not the author. I usually won't invest a lot of time reading unless I can see there is enough chapters to get to at least some sex already. But favorites and bookmarks, etc, are useful for checking back later if a story that is brand new looks promising enough to check later. But, if doing it a different way works better to generate good content in the long run, that's what's most important.
