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Creating Need...

15 years ago
For most all CYOA's, there is usually a main goal. However, How do you create urgency? What i mean is, when writing up a story, how do you create purpose for the reader? Let me know if you dont understand, its 4 AM, im a bit tired.
nate

Creating Need...

15 years ago
Is this for an open-ended storyline? 

Creating Need...

15 years ago
are you meaning like, how do you make them want to go do stuff without plotwagoning them?

Creating Need...

15 years ago

Impose a deadline.   Mention it often.

Creating Need...

15 years ago
Describe stuff in a flash. Write so that everything is vague except for that "if they don't get out of here soon, they're dead."

Creating Need...

15 years ago
I dunno, tell them, in the beginning of the game, that you'll kill them if they don't finish it quickly... Or, make it so that they lose after a set amount of pages.

Creating Need...

15 years ago
or just threaten to show up at their real houses with an axe unless they pretend to feel urgent and  give you high ratings. . .

Creating Need...

15 years ago
I've done that. ;)

Creating Need...

15 years ago

that was YOU!

Danmit.  I shoulda known.

Creating Need...

15 years ago
Why come to their house with an axe? You should go to their mom's house wielding two axes. Always endanger the family, never the person. Well, actually do both, and make it extremely painful. That's my torture interrogator/terrorist/boss creed.

Creating Need...

15 years ago
seth, its for any story.
corinth, yes, thats what i mean. i just wanted to know what tricks people employed to get a reader interested.
nate

Creating Need...

15 years ago
To get one interested?... I'd say only good writing would do that.  The way you structure and word you sentences... What kind of read do you want to attract?  Someone who reads well and often might like a story filled with a bunch of obscure words and descriptions, and someone who isn't too big a fan of reading, yet enjoys a good storygame now and again would like some sort of narration where it draws the reader back out into reality and tells them that they're still playing a (story)game(ex:  Not too much dialog per page)... Or, do the exact opposite, and draw them into the story simply but using the word "you" instead of the main character's name. 

Some people are usually just turned off by a long game... Not really too much you can do about that; not if you want to make a really good storygame, that is.  Like me, I don't want to read a long one because I've still got this retarded book I've got to get through.

Creating Need...

15 years ago
You gotta hook them and then keep them emotionally invested. Use some familiar aspect of the Human condition and then present a unique example/picture of it. Love, grief, regret, doubt, duty, family..... These are recognizable and (can be) interesting (if you avoid cliches). Use some Object to hold the focus (doesnt have to be an item, of course- could be a character's Reputation, or Confidence.....)

Let's call it the Puppy- this is what you give the reader to care about. Now you can do all sorts of things.... puppy is sick... puppy gotta pee... puppy chases cat.... and so on. Be careful not to go to far at first: "puppy ran away...." wont work till they actually care about Puppy.

There is no sense of urgency or sense of danger if the reader doesnt care. Once they care about something in the story, then you can threaten it to cause tension. In most fiction this is usually the main character; in CYOA in second-person perspective with "you" as the hero, it doesnt work so well. (it simply isnt as immersive as it seems it should.) Starting a story with "..or you will die!" does not engage the reader because they dont care yet weather "they" live or die.

Conflicts will seem flat if the reader doesnt know who to cheer for; or why.
And making one of the characters "them" with "You" isnt enough.