Hadiya Nuriddin shares examples of how the structure of a story shapes the audience's understanding of the content and the overall message. Note that Hadiya isn't talking about the "hero's journey" or some other overarching classic structure here (which I often find more problematic than helpful for scenario-based learning, especially branching scenarios). It's more about how information is revealed and how the action is organized in the story. In this article, she summarizes three versions of a story where a secret is revealed at different times to show how the structure affects the message.

Hadiya Nuriddin continues her series of tips on writing stories with "show, don't tell." Specifically, she talks about adding descriptions to focus on the emotional aspects, not just over-explaining what things look like. Hadiya includes several examples.

20 sample prompts for scripting animated videos. 5 of these are specifically in their L&D category; some of the HR and other prompts are also relevant to training. The most useful part of this article may be the Sample Script Makeover at the end though, showing the process of using ChatGPT for a first draft but also explaining how to revise and improve the script. That's how many of us will be using these tools: as a first draft that we need to revise.

Teachers in New Zealand are learning how to use Twine so they can teach their students how to create interactive stories

Tips for improving writing by using dialogue to show character, describing action, and more.

Conference paper by Miranda Verswijvelen, Ricardo Sosa, and Nataly Martini on what we can learn from how game designers write narratives and apply that to scenario-based learning.

A writing prompt tool to generate two characters, a setting, situation, theme, and character action. This could be a fun way to start scenarios if you're feeling stuck. h/t Jean Marrapodi

Examples of games built in Twine

Tips for writing stories with internal and external conflict from narrative design in games

In branching scenarios, descriptive choices "You tell him he is right" feel very different than active choices ""You're right!" I agree with the author that there are no hard and fast rules in branching scenarios; there are times that both can be used effectively.

We all probably know we should use easier to understand language in instructional writing, but this article provides more specifics on how to actually do that. The before and after writing example shows what a significant difference it can make.

Common mistakes and pitfalls for writing scenario-based learning.
1. Not tying the story to the learning objectives.
2. Getting preachy.
3. Avoiding the gray areas.
4. Writing robotic speech.
5. Disguising info dumps as conversations.

Paste difficult to understand text into the yellow text box, and this website will give you a simplified version. While this is intended for people learning English vocabulary (or teachers helping students), it might be helpful as an instructional designer. It doesn't do anything for absurdly long sentences (in fact, sometimes the simplified version is longer), but you could use this to take a first pass edit on complex SME language.

Tips for writing dialogue, with examples from novels

Tips for writing better dialogue like "every line of dialogue should serve a purpose." While this is aimed at general fiction writing and not learning, most of this applies to writing scenarios for learning too.

APA Style guide principles for reducing bias in writing. This would be a good resource for elearning style guides too.

While this is about writing, this relates to instructional design as well. You start with a solid foundation of skills and an understanding of how to write for different audiences. You do research and work with a SME. Confirm details during the project. Batch your questions to SMEs to use their time efficiently.

An extensive collection of resources and archived presentations by Brian Dusablon regarding accessibility for elearning

Karl Kapp, author of several books, shares tips for the writing process. Think about your energy levels during the day and what's the best time to write versus doing all the "assembly" and other tasks needed.

I'm a supporter of the serial comma, especially for voice over, but there's a good point here. Weak sentence construction can't be fixed by simply adding a comma.

Avoid passive voice, use parallel structure, vary sentences, and remove unnecessary words

In addition to providing guidelines for identifying plagiarism, this article differentiates between types of plagiarism like copying from yourself.

This article explains content chunking from a usability perspective, but this applies to writing for elearning too

Tips from Cathy Moore on writing scenarios:
1. Put dialog in quotation marks.
2. Ask, "Why aren't they doing it?"
3. Branching? Start with the end in mind.