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Q&A Are there tools that can aid an author in writing a branching storyline?

I would like to know whether there are any tools that would help an author write a branching storyline. Usecases may for example be: campaigns for Pen and Paper games visual novels Choose Your O...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Secespitus‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T23:01:19Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/32467
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T07:40:03Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/32467
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T07:40:03Z (over 4 years ago)
I would like to know whether there are any tools that would help an author write a branching storyline. Usecases may for example be:

- campaigns for Pen and Paper games 
- visual novels
- _Choose Your Own Adventure_-style books 

The common thing is that there are people who will interact with your work by choosing certain paths, all of which you have to account for.

The problem with writing these things in Word is that you can very quickly lose track of where exactly you wrote what and which events predate the current state you are writing about. Overlooking paths you have already accounted for can happen quite fast. Putting new paths you haven't thought of before into the document is quite difficult. Making multiple files can lead to a lot of files and thereby it becomes difficult to keep track of everything again.

Of course often you have certain decisions that lead to branches and then merge the branches for key events again, but most the problems I mentioned are still there.

Is there software that would help me overcome these problems? Preferrably the software should be free.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-01-10T20:12:47Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 11