Writing a Choose Your Own Adventure Story in Twine
- 1. A N N M A R I E H U R TA D O PA S A D E N A P U B L I C L I B R A R Y O C T O B E R 1 3 , 2 0 1 8 W R I T I N G A “ C H O O S E YO U R O W N A D V E N T U R E ” S TO R Y I N TWINE
- 2. T W I N E R Y. O R G First, go to Twinery.org, and select whether you’d like to download the software or use Twine online.
- 3. Click “+Story” to start writing your new story, or “Import from File” to use a story you’ve already been working on. S T A R T A N E W S T O R Y
- 4. Give your story a name, then click “+Add”. The story’s name can be changed later if you want.
- 5. W R I T E YO U R F I R S T PA S S AG E . Give it a title (your reader won’t see this). And give it a scary or interesting opening to grab your reader’s attention! Now take a look at the words in double brackets…
- 6. L I N K I N G The words you put inside double brackets will instantly become the title of a new passage, linked to this one!
- 7. L I N K I N G Here is what your reader will see. Note that the reader will not see the brackets, or your title, or your tags. Those tools are for your use as you design your story.
- 8. YO U R N E W S TO R Y T R E E Once you click outside your first passage window, you’ll immediately see you have a story tree—your first passage leads to three other ones. Double-click them to start filling in the text that the reader will see for each option.
- 9. N E X T L E V E L Once again, you can put some words in brackets to that the reader will be taken to your next screen. In my sample story, I decided to make all of the options end in the reader answering the door.
- 10. T H E S TO R Y T R E E G R O W S … My story tree now has three tiers. You can see that all three options from the first passage will lead directly to the passage titled “answer the door.”
- 11. S TA R T I N G A W H O L E N E W PA S S AG E If you have an idea for a passage but aren’t sure where it will go in the story yet, you can click the “+Passage” button to create it anyway.
- 12. S TA R T I N G A W H O L E N E W PA S S AG E You can also search your passages for specific text (if you have forgotten where you wrote it) and click “Test” or “Play” to test your story out.
- 13. A F U L LY G R O W N S TO R Y T R E E Now you can see all the options that have developed. You can click on each passage and drag it around so that its connecting lines are more visible.
- 14. M O R E O P T I O N S A stylesheet tells a website how to display text with fonts, colors, and background color. You can edit the look and feel of your story by clicking on your title and then clicking “Edit stylesheet.” You need to know CSS coding to make it work. For CSS tips, visit: https://twinery.org/wiki/twin e2:change_the_font_colors_o r_appearance
- 15. M O R E O P T I O N S I changed my stylesheet to have a red background and black text.
- 16. P U B L I S H TO F I L E Once you’re ready to save your story, click the title at the bottom of your screen and click “Publish to File.” Have a USB drive ready to save it to.
- 17. M O R E CO D E S YO U C A N U S E Want to put words in bold or italics? Want to display special characters? Here are the body text tips, which you can see by opening a new passage and pressing CTRL and Z together.
- 18. QUESTIONS? C A L L O R E M A I L M E A N Y T I M E ! A N N M A R I E H U R TA D O, L I B R A R I A N PA S A D E N A P U B L I C L I B R A R Y 6 2 6 - 7 4 4 - 4 7 2 5 A N H U R TA D O @ C I T Y O F PA S A D E N A . N E T