Delightful Dilemmas: Writing For Choice-Based Narratives
summary
Practical, example-rich session on making choice-driven story moments: starts with warmup techniques like morning pages and breathing, then gives prompt tricks (notebooks, tarot/cards, the dice method, cut‑ups) and concrete prototyping advice using Twine prototyping and delayed branching to avoid exponential bloat. Recommends 3–5 options per junction, forces real consequences, and offers the 50/50 choice exercise to craft morally split dilemmas. Includes played examples from Divinity Original Sin 2 (shoot a rabbit → meat + companion attitude; disgusting condor choice → unique companion reward).
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chapters (20)
- 0:00Start
- 1:59So, what's this?
- 3:35First, breathe.
- 8:38The Secret Weapon
- 9:46Trick your subconscious.
- 11:41The Dice Man Method
- 13:00Cut-Up Technique
- 13:38Prompts
- 16:46Move your body.
- 20:38STRUCTURE YOUR NARRATIVES
- 21:06What is story?
- 23:52The Hero's
- 25:23How does interactivity change stories?
- 25:33CHOICE.
- 30:03MEANINGFUL CHOICES
- 31:56Physicality
- 33:04Inner Turmoil
- 34:15Consequences
- 36:38Character Reactions
- 43:45LAST THOUGHTS
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