It’s funny. My mom has a choose-you-own-adventure story I wrote as a kid. Whenever you were presented an option in the story line, you were also asked to grab some randomizer and use it to select your path. Literally, you had to roll a die or flip a coin to move forward in the story. My current choose-your-own adventure story involves solving a puzzle to move forward. The correct answer moves you to one path, while the wrong answer moves you to another. I’m also now roughing out a larger game where events decide the path of your story.
It turns out, though, that developing the puzzles and the structure is the easy part of developing a choose-you-own-adventure. The stories has been…stressful…but I think it’s because I’ve been overthinking the situation.
To truly succeed in developing a choose-your-own-adventure story, you really do have to have an open mind and be willing to not drive the story. You have to build to a place where the story could go one of multiple directions, and then write down what would happen if the story went each of those directions.
I think part of the problem with my current puzzle set-up is that the story just moves the characters between the puzzles. There’s no build-up. There’s little solid character development. The characters simply move. As a result, when you move from one scene to either of its following scenes, the story makes almost no sense or feels like it’s running in a circle.
Planning out a choose-your-own-adventure story is almost the ultimate creativity exercise. It allows you to explore “what if”s without fear of failure.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 1:31 PM EDT
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Still pursuing my investigations into educational media, I recently started learning about interactive fiction and visual novel games.
Interactive fiction is, as its name implies, is a story you can interact with. Some of us may remember the choose-your-own-adventure books from our childhood; these are a simple form of interactive fiction. If you play video games, many of the epic story RPGs are also a form of interactive fiction.
If the reader can affect their story in some way, it’s pretty much interactive fiction.
From the writing standpoint, these stories are challenging. Depending on the format, the storyline has to be written in a way that can be read regardless of what order the reader encounters them, or it has to have multiple storylines running.
I’ve already been experimenting with the interactive fiction style through a game I have been working on off and on over the past few months. It’s been a bit challenging trying to play the “what if” game while driving the story toward intended conclusions. It’s really overworking my problem-solving capabilities, and I’m enjoying the challenge.
It’s also triggering all sorts of memories from my childhood. This isn’t the first time I’ve worked through these issues before. I’m just starting to wish I’d kept up the habit.
Posted by Administrator as Uncategorized at 7:41 AM EDT
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One of the hallmarks of good writing (at least in this century) is “tight” writing. This is writing that doesn’t belabor a point, that says what needs to be said succinctly and moves on.
Sometimes, tightening your writing just justs down to your word choices. This article highlights some trouble spots for students, but most adults could benefit from reviewing this advice, too.
Writing more isn’t always saying more. Say what you mean in precisely the language necessary, and let it go at that. You’ll find your writing stronger and better received.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 7:25 AM EDT
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I was recently directed toward this series of videos, an interview with Ira Glass. If I’d been thinking about it, I’d have taken notes, but I was simply too enthralled to do much more than just listen. I need to sit down and do that later this week.
His thoughts on storytelling, on development…there’s something in there we can all learn from.
In the mean time, though, I need to go work on my volume of work so I can get to the step beyond.
Posted by Rebecca as Resources at 8:12 AM EDT
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Among the skills I’m working on these days is developing characters with clear, individual voices. The other day, I read this article on how to control how you sound, and it occurred to me that it would make a great guide for starting to find a character’s voice, too.
What helps us distinguish ourselves from each other is what can help us create distinguishable characters. It suddenly makes those self-help gain-a-personality books suddenly look useful, right?
Posted by Rebecca as Resources at 8:04 AM EDT
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I wrestle with this constantly.
I’ve been blogging for four years next month. I’ve saved up interesting links to share. I’ve talked about my personal and professional life. I’ve covered hobbies and situations that just make no sense to me.
Am I writer?
Those who are paid to write, not blog, would say that I’m really not. I put words together. I self-publish them to a self-owned space.
Oddly enough, my technical writer friends and other bloggers all would say that because I do those things, because I organize my thoughts and commit them to some media, I am actually a writer. I may not be a terribly good one half the time, but I’m still a writer who takes a chance by sharing her thoughts in a semi-permanent way.
I’m even blogging a book these days, and I’m still not sure whether or not I’m a writer.
I think Troy is right. This one’s academic, and going to be debated for a long time.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 7:56 AM EST
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There seems to be this endless struggle within the writing community centering around when and how much to describe.
Some camps are strongly of the belief you should paint a picture in words, but only by “show, not tell”. The minute you suggest that Hatless Harriet was a stuffed shirt, you’ve crossed this line and insulted the reader by giving them too much information.
Other camps suggest that you paint just enough of the picture to allow the reader to get a feel for your world and then insert their own imagined images. Except then the book gets turned into a movie, and everyone is up in arms because the book doesn’t match their concept of the book’s world. (Or even better, it’s a series of books-turned-movies, and a repeated change in directors causes the world to come to life in a different way nearly each time you step into the book’s movie version.)
I like the idea that you shouldn’t spell out everything for your reader, because that’s honestly half the fun of reading, but where do you draw the line?
I think this article actually does a nice job of delineating when description is a good investment. Describe that which might be unfamiliar. Describe that which might make a strong connection with your audience. Don’t describe just to build up your word count.
Posted by Ceara as Uncategorized at 7:47 AM EST
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Although i don’t do nearly as much as I did a year ago, I still feel like I spend a lot of my time beta reading. I have my set “clients”, occasionally picking up a new one when somebody reads my work and decides I’d be the best person to help them with certain aspects of the fandom.
I enjoy it. Most of the people who ask me to beta for them know they struggle with grammar, and so they ask me to help with that. My inner editor has a field day with the story chapter. Some of them also say, “Hey, you know *character* well. Can you tell me if he seems in character, or how to make him seem more in character?”
It’s a large analytical game where I get to react and give advice.
I personally don’t have a beta. I did briefly last summer, and he was wonderful. He offered better word suggestions, and found the character and plot gaps in my story. I was sad when he seemed to vanish off the face of the earth. He gave me what I really wanted. He actually did the job of a beta reader.
Too often, I hand my work over to someone and ask them to tell me what’s wrong with a piece. To tell me what works and what doesn’t. More often than not, what I get back is a useless love fest. I get heaping praises, which makes me angry (especially if I know the piece in question has serious problems). Sometimes, I get a scathing response where it’s obvious the person was looking to tear me personally down rather than address my work.
If you are asked to read someone else’s work, find out why they want you to read it, and then give them that. Don’t give them unearned praise. Don’t use it as an opportunity to attack them for stealing the last twinkie. If you feel you can’t consider the piece on its own merits, then don’t agree to read it.
Posted by Ceara as Uncategorized at 8:20 AM EST
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