What is the difference between linear and branching stories?

The difference is that a linear story follows one fixed sequence of events for every reader, while a branching story splits into different paths based on choices, so different readers experience different versions. A novel or film is linear: the plot is the same each time. A choose your own adventure, most narrative games, and interactive fiction are branching: your decisions change what happens, which scenes you see, and how it ends. Branching adds replay value and a sense of agency, at the cost of much more writing, since every path is content someone has to create. Many stories mix both, staying mostly linear with a few branch points. If you want to try branching, you can map one visually in the Visual Builder.