Quote:
Originally Posted by Moejoe
There are definite problems, one of which is how exactly do you make it so that the choices are logical and not overwhelming to the reader. From my own experience with the books there was always the possibility of 'death' depending on the next choice. The 2nd person narrative along with the making of choices gives the CYOA/M style a potency that doesn't exist in other, more traditional forms. You, the reader, 'playing' the character can die within the fiction...and you have to start again, or at least from your last choice.
So the fiction itslef becomes a game, you have to find the right path, follow the right clues, and ask the right questions to find the murderer, survive the book. Of course this would need careful planning, and there would have to be multiple routes through to the end, each logical enough to sustain.
Whatever problems inherent, the actual challenge more than makes up for it. I think I'll see if I can apply this methodology retroactively to one of my short stories that I have on hold and see what happens.  |
Well, I think there are two main types of CYOA type books:
In one, the book attempts to become a game, as you said. In this mode, with some regularity seemingly mundane tasks must be offered as possibilities to the reader, to give the impression of "doing".
The other type is where the story branching is used to add literary depth... in effect permitting the author to write several stories out of one. Such stories would not offer choices whose results are trivial, but would instead offer them in literarily/story-development-wise/character-development-wise significant places/ways (and presumably far more infrequently than in the first type).
Type 1: Do you open the box on the table, or do you check behind the paintings for a hidden safe?
Type 2: Do you give Zoltan the benefit of the doubt, and meet him as he asked, or do you search for evidence that he is behind the robbery?
Does this make sense? The former aims for primarily out of
what happens, whereas the second realizes that the
how is almost as important, and cannot be left to the reader's whims to be strung together in whatever order, lest they fail to convey what the author intends.
- Ahi