Let’s talk about endings (part one)

At the end of this month's release, we will reach a breaking point in the story. From then on, depending on the choices you’ve made, the story should branch off toward a particular conclusion. So I thought it would be a good idea to have a conversation now about how I should go about tackling the endings.

Before that, though, I just want to point out that I’m not necessarily used to creating branching stories. So the way the choices impact the story, and the way the story branch off might not be the best. I’m still--always--learning. Depending on the reception, I’ll try to work on that moving forward (for other projects and whatnot).

Another thing, I usually don’t write stories the way I’m doing with A Promise Best Left Unkept. Normally, I would think of a concept that I find interesting, and from there on I would think up of an ending that I should aim toward. That’s not what I did with APBLU. Because of the limitation that I was faced with when I wrote The Edge Of, I realized that improvising the story from beginning to end would leave more place for creativity, particularly when it comes to sex scenes and hot situations. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to write porn. And compared to normal fiction, a mind-blowing ending in a porn story is not really needed. In any case, what I’m trying to say is that since I didn’t have a clue about the endings, I tried my best to make the journey there worth it. So I’m not sure if people will be satisfied with the endings that I thought of. It’s very hard to gauge. But I want to let people know that I’m willing to add more endings, or alternatives to certain endings. I’m open to do that if need be. Though I do hope that the endings that I came up with are satisfying and I can start working on another project instead of continuing working on an old one (I like a change of pace).

Now that this is out of the way, I want to talk about what’s really kinda stressing me out. Like I mentioned previously, there will be five endings (though some of those have small alternatives). And my maximum output is more or less 20k words. Each ending is at least 1 update long (20k), though some are longer than that (50k+). Also, I haven’t written all endings yet.

So here’s my problem. If I want to work on all endings in parallel, and there are 5 endings, and my maximum output is 20k words, then that means that every update would be divided into 5. So each branch would have 4k words added every update (5/20 = 4). A 4k words update is very small to move a story along. Depending on where we are in the story, there might be zero sex scenes added in one update across the board. On the other hand, there might be a ton of sex scenes. But it just isn’t very efficient and might be very frustrating for readers to have abrupt ends to their reading.

I personally think (as I prefer simple solutions), that I should focus on one single branch at a time. For example, there’s the ‘main’ ending (the first one I came up with) that is at least 3 updates long. It would be much easier to focus entirely on that branch, finish it, and go on to the next one. The only problem here is that it would mean that the choice that you guys have currently made would have no value as you would be forced to play the ending that I want to work on at the time.

It sounds a bit complicated, or maybe that’s just me who’s unable to explain myself properly. But I hope I’ve been able to somewhat convey the problem at hand.

It’s a very stressful problem for me. Which is why I want to open a discussion about it. I’m don’t want to make a poll yet, because I personally think that the simple solution is the best one. But depending on how you guys feel, I can easily change my mind.

So yeah, what do you guys prefer? That I focus on one branch at a time, which would make narrative flow more naturally, but would force you down one path? Or do you prefer if I divide my attention to all branches, which might make the experience more satisfying, but at the cost of the narrative? Or maybe you would prefer that I do two branches at a time, maybe?

Let me know!