IF Seal Archive
Here's the question and answer archive for my advice blog, IF Seal.
Have a question of your own? Ask it through the Tumblr blog or this anonymous form.
Getting the story down
Planning and outlining
- I have trouble coming up with plots!
- How do I plan the parts between the beginning and end of my project?
- Can you share some worldbuilding techniques?
- How do you manage huge branching scenes?
- How long is an average chapter for an IF?
- How can I include breathing room in my IF?
- Should I outline everything at once in detail?
Player agency and protagonists
- What if my MC ends up hostile to all their romantic interests?
- Exploring blank-slate vs set-in-stone protagonists
- How can I get players to care about their MC's motivations?
- How can I balance the story being driven by the MC vs external forces?
- How much agency should a semi-set MC have?
- How should I reveal aspects of the MC's past?
Characters
Player investment and engagement
- How can I get other people invested in my story when they don’t know all the fun things that will happen in it?
- Do you have any advice about marketing?
- What might encourage people to ask questions about my work?
- Should I write my WLW story even if that might limit appeal?
- What if I don’t know what to say to an author?