#when i used choicescript i did use the code mainly to note down everything

[northern-passage]

Thinking about how many choices we can make so far in TNP that can lead to variations that you have to keep track of sounds incredibly daunting.

How do you keep track of something when you realise it's going to become a variable? Do you have a document where you keep track of everything? Is it something you highlight in the code (idk how coding works, this is me being small brain).

Or do you write it down on a sticky note and add it to a massive board of sticky notes that you re-arrange to look like certain tnp characters? (this is big brain me).

i do, i have a spreadsheet for all of my variables! i have one for the prologue & chapter 1 and then a second one for chapter 2. i plan to keep making separate sheets for each chapter, it's just easier that way for me to search through and find what i'm looking for rather than scrolling through one massive one.

i also have various "note" files, like i have a "combat notes" where i wrote a bunch of random shit down while i was working on the fight scene, which included ideas for all the combat specialties as well as noting down certain dialogue/key moments i wanted to make sure i included throughout the fight regardless of what choices you made. i also wrote ideas i wanted to carry over for the fight scene i'll eventually have to write for the highfell route, too. then i have a similar "blackwater notes" file that again i use to note down anything significant that i need to make sure gets addressed in this route before the end of the chapter, or jot down certain dialogue/choices i want to remember so i can track them and recall them later.

then i have a "tnp edits" file where i'm writing down everything i plan to eventually go back in and edit later. this is mainly stuff in the prologue & ch1 at the moment, since my writing has evolved so much since i started, there's a lot i want to fix up in those first 2 chapters but i'm not worrying about it until i get through the majority of this first draft.

i'm honestly not very good at noting things down, though. i definitely suffer from "i'll remember this" hubris.... i have a private discord server for my writing and sometimes i'll send out of context messages to myself that i look back at later and i have no idea what i'm talking about. there's a lot of incoherent ramblings in my notes....