A place to sit back, hang out, and make monkey noises about anything you'd like.
The Weekly Review - Edition 44
4 years ago
The Weekly Review – Edition 44
FEATURING
Notable News!
Intriguing Interview and Recommended Reads: Chris113022 and When the Music Stops!
Who’s Who: Seto, Kumquat, Solostrike, BradinDvorak and MadHattersDaughter!
NOTABLE NEWS
In Newbie Central CYS members welcome Jieesu and davidhenry to the site!
In the Lounge Djisma has a bit of a meltdown, as witnessed by half the site’s members!
In the Parlour Room Mizal resurrects Avery Moore (Briar’s) fifth interesting comments thread!
In the Creative Corner ISentinelPenguinI’s Sauget Illinois thread remains extremely popular!
In the Writing Workshop AestheticLama asks for plot ideas for his new story!
In the Reading Corner it is very, very quiet.
INTRIGUING INTERVIEW: CHRIS113022!
1: How did you first find this site?
I first found this site in February of 2014 when I was about 11 years old. I was in 4th or 5th grade and had been reading a lot of CYOA books that my library had, and as such I wanted to write my own; so, I did write one, a sequel to the first CYOA book "The Cave of Time". It was small (only took up about two sheets of notebook paper), but I was extremely proud of it. I wanted somewhere to share my masterpiece with the world. I googled "choose your own adventure websites" or something to that effect and found this place, and I quickly transcribed what I wrote onto the site. I published it, immediately pulled it after googling the title and finding there was already a CYOA book with the same name, and then disappeared for like six months only to return and stick around ever since.
2: What made you want to join?
Again, at first I joined to post my own CYOA story, but after returning the thing that made me want to stick around was the sense of community there was. Even back then when there was probably only a handful of people who tolerated me I was drawn into the close-knit community and stories here.
3: What are your favorite aspects, members or stories on this site?
My favorite aspect is probably the editor of the site because of how intuitive it is once you get a hang on it. It's really enjoyable to use in my opinion. As for members, I gotta say my boy Tim36D, who's been my closest friend for the last five years. As for stories, I enjoy pretty much everything EndMaster has ever put out. My tie for favorite story on the site is an eternal (no pun intended) three way battle between Ground Zero, Homo Perfectus 8, and Dungeon Stompage.
4: What are your least favorite aspects, members or stories on this site?
My least favorite aspect has to be the site's aged design. I got used to it but honestly it's extremely eye bleeding. Thank God for Brad's extension (shameless plug: check). As for members, I feel it's best not to touch on that subject. Stories? Well, usually any stories I don't like are culled within the next couple of days after publishing.
5: What inspires your writing?
Honestly? I don't really know. I just get the sudden urge to write every once in a while and I usually keep it going until it burns itself out.
6: What writing plans do you have for the future?
I have a few stories I've been flip flopping between writing on. Among them are a prequel to When The Music's Over titled When The Levee Breaks, a reinterpretation of TechNOIR titled Decadence, and an epic following a gang of outlaws in the Wild West called As The Fire Dies. I think Decadence will be the first to be completed but who knows.
7: Last year you wrote the excellent story-game When the Music’s Over, how did you get the idea and develop this story?
To be completely honest, the idea came about from me reading too much Berserk and wanting to do a gritty dark fantasy starring a hero with a massive greatsword. I didn't want to completely copy Berserk so I came up with the details about the hero's prior quest, wrote two pages, and then left it on the shelf for months. One night I decided to try and write an early version of Decadence, but I checked out what I had for When The Music's Over and felt weirdly inspired to give it another shot. I intended to finish it within the night as a small scale story around the size of my earlier ones. One all-nighter, 5k words, and around ten endings later, I knew I had something special.
8: You have written a number of other great stories including the recently featured Dark Nights; what would you say are your mean influences of inspirations when it comes to writing?
Early on when I was writing all those Question fanfics, my inspirations were mostly comic books featuring the character. I wanted to make something fast and punchy in a grimy noir setting. As I've reintergrated back into the site of the last two years and read and reread a bunch of stories, I gotta say that EndMaster in particular has had a big effect on my writing and inspired me to do more Time Cave style stories. One day I hope to have a game the size of some of his epics, and I imagine that day will be someday soon if I keep going.
9: Any funny stories to relate?
Too many to count (or remember), but one I will always fondly remember is this time in about 2014 when I accidentally hijacked a thread alongside Sent and had him teach me how to "be funny". It was full of so many stupid jokes and him rating all of them with a straight face and the vague recollections I have of it still make me smile.
There was also this time during my days as a regular Forum Games GM that I ran a superhero roleplay. Tim was in it, playing a physically enhanced anti-hero character, who had just killed a crime lord and stole a shitload of drugs from his home. He used them to throw a party which was promptly interrupted by the cops. I don't remember how I justified it but I guess the cops somehow knew he had superpowers because they began to drive him to the compound of the local superhero team; Tim, knowing what I was trying to do, decided to give my railroading the finger. So high as fuck on cocaine, in nothing but his boxers, and with handcuffs behind his back, he fucking kicks the door off the cop car while it's going like 40 MPH and jumps the fuck out then runs away. The Random Number God was on his side and he managed to get away with only a bullet wound to show for it. It was one of the craziest things that ever happened during all my time wasted in FG and a story I'll never forget.
10: Finally, any words for new authors?
To close this off, I guess I'll give the most generic advice I can: don't give up. Even if you suck at writing, just keep trying, and eventually you'll get there. I've spent six years on this site and I've only become semi-competent in the last two, and all because I kept trying and trying and trying until *eventually* I got it right. Just having the willpower to keep going is all you really need. Other than talent, of course.
RECOMMENDED READS: WHEN THE MUSIC’S OVER
A Fantasy Adventure story with a Difficulty of 1, Length of 6 and Maturity Level of 7.
Chris has really developed as a writer in the last few years and When The Music’s Over is a masterpiece of a story, written from a very interesting perspective exploring heroism and what it really means to be a hero. Chris has written some very interesting branches of the story that really pay off taking the time to explore and find all of the different endings. This is an excellent story I would recommend to anyone who wants a refreshingly new and well-written perspective on the generic fantasy hero character.
WHO’S WHO: SETO, KUMQUAT, SOLOSTRIKE, BRADINDVORAK AND MADHATTERSDAUGHTER!
16: Seto
Joined: 2016
Last Active: 2019
Top Stories:
Notable For: Seto was a very fun member who was an active and welcome presence on the forums. One of those members who do not write stories he is one of the few who read and rated all the stories on the site at one time as well as having a lot of involvement on the forums, including helping me with the Review for a while. He seems to have vanished recently but hopefully he’ll return at some time, as some site members do.
17: Kumquat
Joined: 2008
Last Active: 2017
Top Stories:
Notable For: Kumquat is the absolute king of the daily points feature. Despite just four posts (all in 2009) and few stories rated he used the daily point feature relentlessly for nearly a decade to jack up one of the highest point totals of any member on the site. This sort of commitment deserves some sort of recognition I think but he is the perfect example of why it was got rid of as clicking a button once a day does not actually help the site.
18: Solostrike
Joined: 2002
Last Active: 2017
Top Stories:
Notable For: Solostrike was one of the first members of the site and during his time he was extremely active as both a forum poster and a reviewer. He wrote the brilliant story Cryptode which, for a long time, was featured in the Modern Adventure category. Solostrike is part of the site’s history now but firmly belongs to that excellent first generation of site members who built the site up into what it was and his collection of trophies attest to all the hard work he put into the site.
19: BradinDvorak
Joined: 2013
Last Active: Currently Active
Top Stories: Various
Notable For: A bit of a technological whiz Brad had been an active and helpful member of the site for a very long time. His skills are many: a gifted writer, a prolific reviewer and a welcome presence in the forums perhaps his best contribution has been the development of a number of pieces of technology for modernizing the site and making the layout more attractive. I would recommend all users to use the technology he has developed and made freely available on his profile page.
20: MadHattersDaughter
Joined: 2013
Last Active: Currently Active
Top Stories: Edithe Zilonis
Notable For: Equipped with one of the most interesting names (in my opinion) of any site member MadHattersDaughter has been a presence on the site for several years, rating, reviewing, posting and writing. Recently she has written an excellent Mystery story called Edithe Zilonis and is something of a master writer in her preferred genres. This site member is also a very talented artist and occasionally is kind enough to share some of her genuinely fantastic artwork with the site.
CONCLUDING CREDITS
Notable News: Jieesu, davidhenry, Djisma, Mizal, Avery_Moore, ISentinelPenguinI and AestheticLama.
Intriguing Interview and Recommended Reads: Chris113022.
Who’s Who: Seto, Kumquat, Solostrike, BradinDvorak and MadHattersDaughter.
