Interactive stories

[AwkwardlySet]

I've seen the announcement and @AlinaX 's question so I guess I'm curious now if anyone has ever written any of these interactive stories? I am assuming it's a story with multiple choices for the reader at several points in the story, and then multiple branching along the way, which means that the author needs to write every single outcome. It all seems so overwhelming for a story of any decent size. I understood Manu's post in the sense that they are working on better and flashier tools, but the bulk of the story still needs to be written in the same way, doesn't it?

I can't help wondering... why would anyone get into writing something like this, except perhaps to try it out once or twice for the fun of it? I mean, it would take much more effort than any regular story, and to me, it feels that the story would lose its soul and purpose; we would give up on our power to make the story progress and end the way we want it to end.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that this could be very fun for a reader to have this kind of control and to steer things according to their personal taste (which explains why Manu is putting the effort into this rather than into something else) but other than the fun of a novelty, I can't see the positive side of investing ten times the effort into creating something that would, artistically speaking, always be more of a game than a story, rather than writing several normal stories where characters develop and act the way we want them to act.

Thoughts?

 

[AlinaX]

I have written three of these now, out of curiosity mostly. Probably I was overambitious in all three because I wanted there to be options and for the choices have consequences.

The first I did on chyoa, but the editor there makes it extremely painful to write anything clever, being designed more for multiple authors to add to a tree of possibilities. I quickly lost all interest in chyoa for the poor quality of the writing.

I've since written two using ink, and in both cases I've struggled with writing all the possible endings. Some endings are fun. Some are kinda tedious. But the rest are just exhausting to write. (So, if A, !B, !C, D, then ... oh, god, do I have to?)

For the third, I think there are still a couple of TODO comments scattered through it waiting for me to kick my muse out of bed and get it back to work.

My advice, therefore, for any newbies like me curious enough to try writing interactive fiction is to have only a handful of significant choices leading to ends that are distinct and interesting.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

My advice, therefore, for any newbies like me curious enough to try writing interactive fiction is to have only a handful of significant choices leading to ends that are distinct and interesting.

As far as I can tell, the problem is that the branches start multiplying so fast. For example, at the first crossroads, you offer, say, three choices. Now, the story/game would kinda suck if you offered just one such moment of choice, so you need to offer a few more at least, but at the next, even if you decide to offer only two choices, you would need to write six different branches and then if you offer a choice one final time, you would need to write twelve branches... and this isn't even a particularly interactive story as the reader was offered a choice only three times in the whole story.

I guess it would be possible to merge a branch or two, but it still looks like so, so much work, and as you said, some of those choices would have to go against your own artistic and erotic taste, assuming that the choices the reader had were meaningful and that they impacted the direction of the story in a significant way.

 

[NightPorter]

It's actually quite fun but yes it is a lot of work. True fork in the road diverts in the story have to be rare because it does double the work for the rest of the story, every time you do it. Thankfully that's not the only thing that ink allows you to do.

1. You can vary dialogue, which is a surprisingly powerful feature. Your reader chooses what the main character says from a list of options and then the person they're talking to reacts to what is said. Then the story continues on like normal. My video game guys and girls will recognize this as a dialogue tree. This adds very little extra work to a narrative.

2. You can create side quests. You divert the story into two separate paths and recombine them later. Creating two different options to get to the same point. Here is a LW example because I know people love that category. Example:

Our husband character is sitting in his favorite chair at home, while his wife is out at a hotel with another man/men. Does he:

A. Continue sitting the chair, receiving texts from his wife, marinating in his cuckold angst while waiting for her to come home.
B. Jump in his car and rush to the hotel she is at and try and peak into the window to see what is happening.

For option A, you write an introspective chapter where the husband worries a lot as he gets increasingly fewer texts from his wife. For option B, you write a wacky side quest where the idiot tries to spy on his wife before rushing home before she gets back. Either way he's sitting in the same chair when she returns home and you recombine the story there.

3. You can create conditional text. Your reader makes a choice and then story will display a comment or an extra description later on, ONLY if the reader chose that option. Let's use the same example:

Several chapters later, the wife has finally let her husband come on one of her dates. She comments that.

"It's so exciting that you finally get to watch Luke fuck me. I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to warm up to the idea." Sara said.

John's eyes widened. Did she suspect something? Did Luke recognize him when they bumped into each other by the ice machine. John started to sweat as he fought to keep his face straight.

"Yeah, baby. I'm excited too." He said.

The bold text will only appear if the "Go to the hotel" option was chosen. Other wise it will be invisible to the reader.

4. You can assign names and other descriptions to a character. This example is a little code-y but you can present the reader with a list of choices at the beginning of the story and then you write the story such that the reader's choice will appear for the rest of the story. So you ask the reader what the main female character's hair color is with some coding attached to it. They chose "blonde."

You write: "Sara shook out her {HairDescription} hair and smiled at John.
The reader sees: "Sara shook out her blonde hair and smiled at John.

-----

I use the words agency and replayability to describe these types of stories. You're giving the reader limited agency to affect the flow of the story to better reflect what they might choose to do. You're also giving your readers the chance to experience their favorite story again from different angles.

 

[AlinaX]

I think the Sliding Doors approach could be easily doable, so that one single event has repercussions throughout the following story. Or Love Wedding Repeat, which has the place settings at a wedding influence the story and which makes entertaining use of a sleeping pill.

 

[alohadave]

As far as I can tell, the problem is that the branches start multiplying so fast. For example, at the first crossroads, you offer, say, three choices. Now, the story/game would kinda suck if you offered just one such moment of choice, so you need to offer a few more at least, but at the next, even if you decide to offer only two choices, you would need to write six different branches and then if you offer a choice one final time, you would need to write twelve branches... and this isn't even a particularly interactive story as the reader was offered a choice only three times in the whole story.

I guess it would be possible to merge a branch or two, but it still looks like so, so much work, and as you said, some of those choices would have to go against your own artistic and erotic taste, assuming that the choices the reader had were meaningful and that they impacted the direction of the story in a significant way.

Look at the old Choose Your Own Adventure books. What they did was had several 'stock' ways that the story ended, and multiple choice lines that led to them. So they didn't need to come up with an exponential amount of endings. There were groups of branches that all had similar outcomes.

It's also kind of like video game flow. You have one main preferred ending, and various endings that result from the choices made. You don't need an infinite number of branches and endings, just enough to make it enjoyable and to allow for varied experience for multiple plays/reads.

 

[AlinaX]

The fundamental problem with allowing the reader to make choices for the characters is that it is the author's job to get into character's heads and think through the whats and whys. If you offer a choice to the reader like:

A. Continue sitting the chair, receiving texts from his wife, marinating in his cuckold angst while waiting for her to come home.
B. Jump in his car and rush to the hotel she is at and try and peak into the window to see what is happening.

then, based on the decision, you must then try to justify that decision in the character's head, which inevitably feels a bit redundant, or accept that you're not actually in control of the narrative.

Better, thus, to have the reader make choices that don't speak to the characters' motivations but that they then do have to react to.

 

[AlinaX]

My memory of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books is that as soon as you wandered off the main thread the narrative was brought swiftly to an end, so that the reading experience soon became one of backtracking to find the path you were supposed to take.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Look at the old Choose Your Own Adventure books. What they did was had several 'stock' ways that the story ended, and multiple choice lines that led to them. So they didn't need to come up with an exponential amount of endings. There were groups of branches that all had similar outcomes.

It's also kind of like video game flow. You have one main preferred ending, and various endings that result from the choices made. You don't need an infinite number of branches and endings, just enough to make it enjoyable and to allow for varied experience for multiple plays/reads.

I had one of those books and hated it. I think it was a Goosebumps book. Actually... now that I've been reminded; these things are a big reason why I avoided trying to read anything on SOL for so long. They were so popular for so long, I had to fuck off from there.

 

[alohadave]

these things are a big reason why I avoided trying to read anything on SOL for so long.

I didn't know that SOL did CYOA style stories.

 

[AlinaX]

I guess that's the challenge for us here. Can we make interactive stories with quality writing that sustain eroticism?

 

[alohadave]

I guess that's the challenge for us here. Can we make interactive stories with quality writing that sustain eroticism?

I have enough trouble making a single quality storyline.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I didn't know that SOL did CYOA style stories.

Yeah, it was years ago. I know because around the time I joined Lit in 2012, SOL and WritingCom were the only other sites I found and joined for writing for the longest. You couldn't blind click on a story without opening one. I'm sure it wasn't WritingCom, because they only give you ten free slots to write.

 

[AlinaX]

Could make some fun collaborations, though.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I guess that's the challenge for us here. Can we make interactive stories with quality writing that sustain eroticism?

The real question is: Is it worth making all that effort just to answer that question?

Maybe I am being cynical here, but it feels like this is being implemented purely in order to stimulate the creation of content that readers would enjoy, even if it's something that requires much more effort from us and gives less in return than a regular story. Let's be honest here, as hard as it would be to create such a story, its artistic value would be doubtful, and I assume that is something that is important to many of us.

It goes along with the whole philosophy of Lit I guess, and it just makes me want to boycott the whole thing. Just my opinion.

 

[AlinaX]

The computer programmer in me (oi, silence in there!) finds the possibilities exciting. The author in me dislikes the need for detailed plotting ahead of actually writing the damn story and finding out where the characters want to go.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

I could imagine my plot bunnies enjoying this. But maybe in vain since I'd never finish anything.

 

[Devinter]

Sometimes the choices don't have to be as significant as we authors perhaps prefer either. For instance, the choices only affect the sexual parts of the story. Option 1 could be: Blowjob / Vaginal / Anal. You write three different 'sexytimes' about 1000 words long, then they all end up at the same point regardless. Remember, some of the readers don't care much about influencing the actual plot; they just want the characters to do the things they're into.

More examples:

"Put on the blindfold / don't put on the blindfold" - even half the sex scene could be using the same words here, one just focusing on sight and the other on the lack of it.

Missionary / Doggystyle / Girl on top.

MC has sex with person 1 / MC has sex with person 2.

In other words, simple stroker stuff really.

 

[AlinaX]

It has been six months now. You

decide to forgive and forget, and go out and get a life
renew your vow to get bloody revenge and reach for the scissors​

 

[StillStunned]

You can give the reader the illusion of choice.
"Do you want to fuck the blonde, the brunette or the redhead?"

And you'll only ever need to write the "redhead" version.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I've seen the announcement and @AlinaX 's question so I guess I'm curious now if anyone has ever written any of these interactive stories? I am assuming it's a story with multiple choices for the reader at several points in the story, and then multiple branching along the way, which means that the author needs to write every single outcome. It all seems so overwhelming for a story of any decent size. I understood Manu's post in the sense that they are working on better and flashier tools, but the bulk of the story still needs to be written in the same way, doesn't it?

Yep. There's a nice article here about the structure of the original Choose Your Own Adventure stories: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cyoa-choose-your-own-adventure-maps

As you've noticed, one of the big challenges of interactive fiction is that you have to write much more text than anybody will see on one read-through. The original CYOAs were something like 140 pages altogether, but the longest single story path as mentioned in that article is about 60 pages (not counting a few that can loop forever), so over 60% of the content is "wasted" on a reader who only goes through once. I've seen several different approaches to that problem:

• Write a huge amount of text. Not so viable in dead-tree publishing, a lot easier in electronic form. Computer RPGs are in some ways the heirs to CYOA; the full dialogue script for Baldur's Gate 3 runs to something like two million words.
• Restrict the number of choices, so there are only a few major storylines to explore (but then why bother writing a CYOA in the first place? Just go write a novel)
• Empty choices: reader gets to pick between "run away on foot" or "get away in the car", but if they try the latter, the car won't start so they end up running away on foot after all. (This generally leaves me feeling cheated, though I've read one story which made good use of it.)
• Roguelike: there are lots of choices but many of them lead to swift endings, leaving space for a few long storylines. A reader might need to try several times before they find the "good" paths.
• Write a story that people will want to re-read, so eventually they will explore most of the text.

Some of the best interactive fiction I've read depends on people exploring multiple branches. In Kim Newman's "Life's Lottery" there are a few points where the protagonist encounters weird things which aren't explained on a single read through, but which turn out to be caused by interacting with other-branched versions of himself.

I can't help wondering... why would anyone get into writing something like this, except perhaps to try it out once or twice for the fun of it? I mean, it would take much more effort than any regular story, and to me, it feels that the story would lose its soul and purpose; we would give up on our power to make the story progress and end the way we want it to end.

Depends on what kind of story you want to tell. If the point is to reach "the way we want it to end", and you already know how you want that ending to go, then no, interactive fiction probably isn't the right option. It works best when the mindset is explicitly interactive - reader choice isn't just a challenge to be worked around but part of what the author wants to play with.

It's a bit like asking why I'd want to have sex with another person, when my hand is right here and I have total control over it. I know just what I like. I can get myself off exactly how I want to. But sometimes it's nice to involve somebody else in the process, even if it means more effort and less control.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

It's a bit like asking why I'd want to have sex with another person, when my hand is right here and I have total control over it.

Found the Dom(me?).

 

[SimonDoom]

I haven't worked on one of these stories and have no plan to, but theoretically I could imagine an entertaining, if perhaps masochistic and sadistic, project where Part 1 sets the story up as a cheating wife story, and the reader eventually gets four options: 1 turns it into a revenge against the cheating wife story, 2 turns it into a reconciliation story, 3 turns it into a humiliated cuckold story, and 4 turns it into a stag/vixen story.

To make it even MORE sadistic, the reader chooses an option by selecting a choice to be made by a character, but the reader can't tell which choice will lead to which ultimate outcome.

Strikes me as the ultimate bear-poking opportunity.

 

[Bazzle]

I've seen the announcement and @AlinaX 's question so I guess I'm curious now if anyone has ever written any of these interactive stories? I am assuming it's a story with multiple choices for the reader at several points in the story, and then multiple branching along the way, which means that the author needs to write every single outcome. It all seems so overwhelming for a story of any decent size. I understood Manu's post in the sense that they are working on better and flashier tools, but the bulk of the story still needs to be written in the same way, doesn't it?

I can't help wondering... why would anyone get into writing something like this, except perhaps to try it out once or twice for the fun of it? I mean, it would take much more effort than any regular story, and to me, it feels that the story would lose its soul and purpose; we would give up on our power to make the story progress and end the way we want it to end.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that this could be very fun for a reader to have this kind of control and to steer things according to their personal taste (which explains why Manu is putting the effort into this rather than into something else) but other than the fun of a novelty, I can't see the positive side of investing ten times the effort into creating something that would, artistically speaking, always be more of a game than a story, rather than writing several normal stories where characters develop and act the way we want them to act.

Thoughts?

I've got two!
Both have not really worked

https://literotica.com/s/moths-to-a-flame-1

This one the options are in the story

And https://literotica.com/s/life-decisions-lauras-route-01

You've got separate stories that you need to look for!