I know that the low-tech answer is "use your eyes and your brain and just look through the story map" ... but I was wondering if there was a feature anywhere about finding loose ends. What I mean is -- chapters that don't have any follow-up chapters or links. Chapters that either should be "the end" or where to pick up and go the next step. I think it would be interesting to do this to my own work (and see where I've left things stranded) ... but also helpful for public stories so that prospective authors could more easily see where threads have been left hanging, and where they might feel inspired to continue the story.
Lol the answer is "almost all of them." CHYOA is packed with loose ended story branches, and I'm as guilty as anyone.
Usually I see this handled in-story by one of the following two methods, if it's desired: 1. Include a bookkeeping chapter or include some info in the introduction that says "these branches are finished"; or, alternatively, "these branches are in progress." 2. Include a tag such as (Complete) or (In Progress) in the branch title. I don't think there's a way to reasonably track this from the viewer side. It would open up the question of "What is an ending?" Is it any place that was left open for future potential writing, regardless of whether it reaches a "conclusion?" Or just places that leave off without actually reaching a conclusion? I think it could be potentially useful to have an "ending" toggle for the writer on posted chapters. It would be off by default, but if you checked it, it would indicate that the chapter was intended as an ending and would display differently in the story map. Might be useful for drawing readers who aren't interested in anything less than a completely complete story.
I like this idea a lot. When I'm searching for something to read, I would like to have a checkbox in my search for "does this story have an ending?" ... As a writer, I'm intent on concluding my narratives, and as a reader, I think I prefer the same.
