Nashville native Toiya Kristen Finley is a writer, editor, game designer, and narrative designer/game writer. She holds a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from Binghamton University. With nearly 70 published works, she has over 20 years of experience writing in a range of genres.

In 2011, she co-founded the Game Writing Tutorial at GDC Online with Tobias Heussner and served as an instructor in 2011 and 2012. In videogames, she has worked as a game designer, narrative designer, game writer, and editor (or some combination of the four) on several unreleased and in-production indie, social, and mobile games for children and general audiences. Some of these projects shall stay locked away in dungeons for eternity (hey, that's the game industry for ya). Some published games include Academagia: The Making of Mages (Black Chicken Studios), Fat Chicken (Relevant Games), Verdant Skies (Howling Moon Software), and Siren Song (Stardust Works). She co-authored The Game Narrative Toolbox (Focal Press, 2015) with Jennifer Brandes Hepler, Ann Lemay, and Tobias Heussner. Most recently, she edited and contributed to Narrative Tactics for Mobile and Social Games: Pocket-Sized Storytelling (CRC Press, 2018). Her current work includes writing and editing for various interactive fiction projects and narrative design and game design for Digital Myths Studio.

Previous Publications: The Game Narrative Toolbox, Narrative Tactics for Mobile and Social Games: Pocket-Sized Storytelling

Acknowledgments. Glossary. Chapter 1 In Less Than 10 Years... Section I Visual Novels and the VN Audience. Chapter 2 Choice-Based Games and Visual Novels. Chapter 3 Visual Novel Genres and Platforms. Chapter 4 The Visual Novel Audience. Section II Designing and Writing Visual Novels. Chapter 5 The Story Delivery of Visual Novels. Chapter 6 The "Novel" Part of "Visual Novel": Perfecting Prose. Chapter 7 Designing Branching Narratives: Choices, Variables, and Relationships. Chapter 8 Choice and Consequence Design: Actions and Reactions. Chapter 9 Character Development and Routes: Writing MCs and NPCs. Chapter 10 Dialogue in Visual Novels and Choice-Based Games: Choose Your Words Carefully. Chapter 11 Writing for VN and Other Choice-Based Apps. Chapter 12 Developing Your Own Visual Novels and Choice-Based Games: A Quick Guide. Chapter 13 Resources, Planning, and Processes. INDEX.