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Creating Your First Story

This guide will walk you through creating your first interactive story in the Living Stories Portal.

Overview​

In this section, you'll learn:

  • How to create a new story project
  • Understanding the basic story structure
  • Adding your first scenes
  • Creating simple interactions
  • Testing your story

Step 1: Access the Dashboard​

After signing in, you'll land on your dashboard. This is your central hub for managing all your stories. There are two lists: Stories you create and Stories that have been shared with you.

Step 2: Create a New Story​

  1. Click the "New Story" or "+" button on your dashboard
  2. A dialog will appear prompting you to configure your story

Story Configuration​

When creating a new story, you'll need to provide some basic information.

  • Title: Give your story a descriptive name, you can change this later in the editor
  • Interaction Mode:
    • Single: For stories where every interaction uses the same interaction mechanisim
    • Multiple: For stories where interaction types might vary in different moments
  • Input Device: Configure the expected input method (more options coming soon)
  1. Click Create to initialize your story

Step 3: Understanding the Editor​

Once created, you'll be taken to the Story Editor, which consists of:

  • Map Canvas: The main workspace where you design the flow of your story with visual nodes
  • Toolbar: Tools for creating scenes, notes and changing navigation modes
  • Mode Bar: Switch between Map view and Document view, open the Notebook for saving your thoughts

Step 4: Create Your First Scene​

Scenes are the building blocks of your story. Each scene should contain narrative content and is typically scoped to a location or moment. A group of scenes create a sequence.

The first scene is added by default and can't be deleted asi it is the entry point of your narrative.

Step 5: Add More Scenes​

There are two ways you can continue your story.

  1. Create a new scene within the sequence by clicking on the + button next to the scene and selecting "Scene Block".
  2. Create new scene from the button in the toolbar. This will create a new loose sequence that you can place anywhere and later connect to your story.

Step 6: Create Your First Interaction​

Interactions allows the audience to make choices that affect the flow of the story. Interactions are meant to be parting points in your narrative, the options given to the audience here will result in very different outcomes that requiere distinctly different sequences to continue.

  1. Create an interaction after you sequence ends by clicking on the + button next to the scene and selecting "Interaction Moment".
  2. Configure the interaction by selecting the type, the choices and descriptions neccesary.

Depending on the choices you defined, your interaction will display the number of points required. By clicking on each point, you can start writing a new sequence for each or connect it to a loose sequence.

You can head over to the Interaction for a deeper dive into the topic.

Step 7: Create Your First Influence​

Influences allow you to define moments where the audiences can make choices in the story, they are basically interactions. The main difference is they are meant to be subtle moments, the influence doesn't neccesarily create an immediate effect on the story that requires distinctly different actions to continue.

It can create light, cosmetic changes on the action or just create a moment that will be important later. The results of influences are stored as variables that you can acces and use later.

Influences are created within the scenes.

  1. On any scene, highlight a section of text, which will reveal two buttons to the left of your scene. Select the Pink Flag Icon.
  2. Configure your influence like any other interaction by selecting the type, the choices and descriptions neccesary.

You can find the a list of all variables created by the influences in the Interaction Drawer by clicking on the Navigation bar Flag Icon.

You can head over to the Influences for a deeper dive into the topic.

Basic Workflow Summary​

You have created your first interactive story! To continue, a typical workflow for creating stories:

  1. Plan: Outline your story structure
  2. Create Scenes & Sequences: Add narrative content blocks
  3. Add Interaction or Influences: Define audience interaction moments
  4. Expand Flow: Expand your story endlessly
  5. Test & Preview: Verify the story by playing throug it in Preview mode

Next Steps​

Now that you've created your first story, explore:

Tips for Beginners​

  • Start Simple: Build up your story linearly first before adding complex branches
  • Use Descriptive Names: Clear titles help you navigate large projects
  • Test Frequently: Check your story flow regularly
  • Save Versions: Consider documenting major changes in the notebook
  • Explore Examples: Look at shared stories for inspiration