Writing Prompt Reader Interactive Novel?

[Bloodbath_Voracity]

What's your thoughts on a reader interactive novel where the readers can vote what fate will happen to the characters.

It's not like the readers are in control of the characters choices and consequences. They can simply choose what will happen to them (or we can call it fate).

 

[ElijahRyne]

What's your thoughts on a reader interactive novel where the readers can vote what fate will happen to the characters.

It's not like the readers are in control of the characters choices and consequences. They can simply choose what will happen to them (or we can call it fate).

Writing/dropping something similar. It is good when/if people interact, but that rarely happened with my current one.

 

[Tyranomaster]

They can be fun to participate in (See D&D and Pathfinder), but generally don't make good reads in retrospect.

 

[Bloodbath_Voracity]

Writing/dropping something similar. It is good when/if people interact, but that rarely happened with my current one.

Readership aside, is it possible to write? I mean, you basic have no predetermined plot. Won't it get confusing?

(Can you drop the link of your book?)

 

[Tyranomaster]

Readership aside, is it possible to write? I mean, you basic have no predetermined plot. Won't it get confusing?

(Can you drop the link of your book?)

As long as you put general guard rails in the book and keep an internal world running, it's basically just running a D&D campaign, and those have been working for decades.

 

[Corty]

Its prerequisite is to have a large, active reader base. That is the hardest part of it.

 

[ElijahRyne]

Readership aside, is it possible to write? I mean, you basic have no predetermined plot. Won't it get confusing?

(Can you drop the link of your book?)

No, you create your settings and general plot points, and then go from there. It is also a master course in pantsing. On my end I structured my story a bit different where the readers were supposed to be detectives trying to investigate a case that had already happened, so idk how useful it would be. I also have a second interactive story that I dropped, but it had only one character, the narrator, soo… Anyway here are the links.

The Thread Tree (Interactive Story)

An archive of the events surrounding the before, during, and after of the Thread Tree incident of 1547. You are part of the Detective department. You are looking into the Thread Tree incident of 1547. You can send memos to the archive department, the exorcist department, the monastic...

www.scribblehub.com

An Interactive Alchemy Textbook on Planar Travel

What is this for? The title does enough, although do feel free to ask questions. — — — Like seriously if you don’t ask questions this will be a fairly dry textbook. You would not want to do that to your friendly interplaner alchemy teacher would you?

www.scribblehub.com

 

[Tyranomaster]

It is also a master course in pantsing.

I find that to be very interesting as a take. I see it as a master course in world building and planning, rather than pantsing, though from experience, I do know that both work. I've played in D&D campaigns with DMs who did both styles and it works. I personally run D&D campaigns in a meticulously designed world that is then a sandbox for players to do stuff in. Ultimately, I think it works for any writing style, but in either case, it does take some experience to make it good as a story. D&D works so well because everyone is bought in from the start, since people have characters.

 

[ElijahRyne]

I find that to be very interesting as a take. I see it as a master course in world building and planning, rather than pantsing, though from experience, I do know that both work. I've played in D&D campaigns with DMs who did both styles and it works. I personally run D&D campaigns in a meticulously designed world that is then a sandbox for players to do stuff in. Ultimately, I think it works for any writing style, but in either case, it does take some experience to make it good as a story. D&D works so well because everyone is bought in from the start, since people have characters.

I would say, with my limited experience, it is a bit different for an interactive story since the readers are, typically, not going to be regular characters in the story. A person might pop in in one random chapter and then stay silent for the rest, they might be frequently active, there may be multiple people going in different directions, etc. also you are not face to face as you typically are in D&D, a reader might post something while you are asleep, for example. Therefore it is a bit harder, imo, to structure then for a campaign. At the same time it is also a bit more difficult to pull off without railroading, imo. Long story short, I think you should prepare your settings, a handful of characters, and a few plot points before pantsing your pants off. Although that isn’t too different from DMing…

 

[BigBadBoi]

They're fun if you're staying for the ride and participating but it's not really interesting if you're reading from the beginning. You have to also understand the key flaw of democracy.

 

[John_Owl]

What's your thoughts on a reader interactive novel where the readers can vote what fate will happen to the characters.

It's not like the readers are in control of the characters choices and consequences. They can simply choose what will happen to them (or we can call it fate).

First off, I actually asked this not too long ago. It's good as long as it's not your first story. Your very first novel will likely just see a handful of people for the first couple uploads. I did it as my 5th, after I already had a decent reader base, and surprisingly, doing it gave me a good boost. but i've seen others flop because they didn't have a starting reader base to jump off from.

the bigger question is this: Are you willing to allow your readers some freedom? I always offer at least 1 smut-related option in my polls and they invariable ALWAYS vote that one by at least 8+ more than the next option. ScribbleHub is very horny. if you plan to allow readers to have any say, be prepared for that. or make it known early on that you don't plan on writing that, so they know what to or what not to expect.

Writing/dropping something similar. It is good when/if people interact, but that rarely happened with my current one.

My experience was fairly different. My most recent chapter (last week, I'm currently working on the next for this saturday) routinely gets 30+ readers in it's first day and by the end of the 4 day poll, at least half of those have voted. But my secret? I hyped it up in my main novel beforehand, I mentioned it here, AND I continue mentioning my other works (usually every 3-5 chapters, I'll toss in a "don't forget to go check out my other series if you enjoy this one!").

Readership aside, is it possible to write? I mean, you basic have no predetermined plot. Won't it get confusing?

(Can you drop the link of your book?)

there are tricks. I've been a DM in DND on and off for 10 years. I approached it similar to that. basic plot points that must be met, create the general world, and learn to improvise. and always, ALWAYS keep notes. beyond that, it tends to have a little more structure than a DND session because the readers (players) can't just blurt out what they want to do. they have to rely on your stated options, though they can use comments to ask or offer suggestions.

and here's where it gets tricky - You have to offer them the freedom to feel like they have some say while also keeping it on track and not going outside of your comfort zone. which, as said above, if why you should state your boundaries BEFORE they even start reading it.