Advice or help for the newbie?

[InsatiableMe]

Hi! I am a new author at Lit, and just ventured over to Chyoo today. I was wondering if there were any tips or advice any of you veterans felt like sharing.

Don't be shy! Speak up!

 

[Imhotep]

Welcome to our little village Insatiable.

To begin with, I suggest reading some of the stories by the more recently productive authors. People such as Jakelyon, Aaron Webster, Zingiber, ther are many other that will come to mind in moments, but these are good authors.

This is of course interactive fiction, so you'll see many threads contibuted to stories by other authors. If you are considering contributing, I advise that you send a message to the author to see if they are still active here. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask, I'll be help to answer what questions I can, and others here you'll find are very helpful. Flame wars and arguments are scarcely know here at chyoo. - Imhotep

P.S. You are welcome to read my stories as well.

 

[InsatiableMe]

Imhotep,

Thank you for the welcome! (Arnold Valoosal from The Mummy is such a sexy man and now I can't help but picture him when I see your screen name! )

So, I was looking at the page that lists your stories, and I was wondering what the "deepest thread" was. Also, when starting a new story why does it limit only four threads? What does that mean exactly?

Thanks for any help you give!

 

[jakelyon]

Gystex knows best!

Gystex's Wisdom

Read the above link and you will know almost everything you need to know. Gystex said it best.

The only thing I can add is have fun, write for a lot of different stories and challenge yourself.

 

[lilguy2]

Hhmmmmnnn.... Did someone say "flame wars"?????

Mmmmwwwaaahhh hhhhaaa hhhhaaa hhaaaarrrrrrr

 

[gystex]

So, I was looking at the page that lists your stories, and I was wondering what the "deepest thread" was. Also, when starting a new story why does it limit only four threads? What does that mean exactly?

Thanks for any help you give!

CHYOO stories are made up of threads, which are either writted by the original author or submitted by others. Each thread ends with a choice, that leads to other threads.

"Deepest Thread" refers to how far it is possible to get in the story. Another way of looking at it is, what is the longest possible path through the story?

CHYOO limits one to a maximum of four choices at the end of each thread, presumably because they have to set a limit somewhere or stories would get hopelessly out of hand. There are tricks one can use to get around the thread limits, but that's too involved to get into here. Four is usually plenty of options to make for a good story, and any more than that is usually unwieldy. Of course, one may also intentionally limit the number of choices to 1, 2, or 3. A good example of a story that is limited to 2 choices is "The Choices We Make" by Daciasdesire. A story that is limited to one choice will be linear, with no "branching". I have written one like that called "Sex" (link below).

Hope you enjoy CHYOO!

 

[InsatiableMe]

Writted, eh?

Thanks for the info! I think I may be penning (as it were) my first story here (Chyoo) soon.

 

[Sixth]

Actually, I think the best thing to do is write a few threads on other stories first.

That way you'll discover how you prefer one page to end and set up the "what happens next" bit yourself. You'll think "I wish I could have directed the story this way instead..." and simply discover what you'd have done differently. Learn from others' mistakes. And not to be negative; it's also a case of learning (stealing!) from others' successes.

 

[jakelyon]

Word

Actually, I think the best thing to do is write a few threads on other stories first.

That way you'll discover how you prefer one page to end and set up the "what happens next" bit yourself. You'll think "I wish I could have directed the story this way instead..." and simply discover what you'd have done differently. Learn from others' mistakes. And not to be negative; it's also a case of learning (stealing!) from others' successes.

I agree. I think it is a big mistake to dive into trying a story without understanding the unique flow that Chyoo requires. There are too many one or two thread stories that someone wrote without a good understanding of where they were going with them. Come to think of it a couple of them are mine!!

 

[jakelyon]

Hhmmmmnnn.... Did someone say "flame wars"?????

Mmmmwwwaaahhh hhhhaaa hhhhaaa hhaaaarrrrrrr

I hope this is not the start of some weird little guy feud again!

 

[AaronWebster]

Actually, I think the best thing to do is write a few threads on other stories first.

You will also make those writers morally (or immorally) obliged to add something to your story when it finally appears - although that's not an exact science: There are people that I 'owe' and others who 'owe' me.

 

[Sixth]

You will also make those writers morally (or immorally) obliged to add something to your story when it finally appears - although that's not an exact science: There are people that I 'owe' and others who 'owe' me.

Actually. I was worried my post would look like a not-so-sly "post a thread in my story" attempt and nearly ruled out my own just to avoid that.

I think the tit-for-tat (so to speak) posting is a good idea. It tends to ensure that active writers support active writers - but I just can't write for some of the stories I should do in order to complete my side of the tit-for-tat. There's always a catch.