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CYS, choices, and sitcoms

10 years ago
Obviously there are a huge number of different ways to write stories, here or otherwise. Those who have read some of my stories have seen a few different ways that I've experimented. I am thinking about another methods, and would love to hear your feedback.

In the more traditional "Choose Your Own Story," the choices you make take you to different places, different events, and different things happen to you, at least to some point. In many stories, making the wrong choice ends up with you (or your character) dead.

In the traditional sitcom, although things happen throughout the episode and story, at the end, or at least by the time the next episode starts, everything has returned to normal, somehow. No matter what happens, the characters never actually change much and always just re-appear in the next episode.

So I'm wondering, would a setup like the sitcom story work in a choose your own story?

In other words, you read the story, you make choices, and different things happen to the main character. But then in the next story, the character is back, ready to make more choices. Obviously there's no way the character can die in any story. Any choices made would have no real lasting effect. In fact, while you would actually make choices that effect the current story, the end of the story would actually be exactly the same, no matter what you did.

Maybe it would be something like The Simpsons: You read about Bart getting in fights, make some choices where he avoids a fight and finds a dead body or something, but no matter what choices you make, it always takes you to the last page where he ends up home in bed with his family. I am picturing different options and different stories so you could even read the story more than once, but I'm wondering what the community would think about a story where no matter what you did, at some point you'd end up at the same place in the end.

CYS, choices, and sitcoms

10 years ago

As long as the stories are different in between, then the end being the same wouldn't be an issue. (It's not the goal, it's the journey)

CYS, choices, and sitcoms

10 years ago

When I think of a sitcom, I think of more than one episode. Is this story intended to be an ongoing series so to speak, so by its nature it has to have every ending return to the "status quo" as it were?

In any case, sure it can be done. Love Sick and Trash are both set up like that. You can't ever die, the journey is different for every ending and you more or less never change things too much.

CYS, choices, and sitcoms

10 years ago
Indeed, I was thinking of a setup where it can be many episodes/stores.

CYS, choices, and sitcoms

10 years ago

It could be comedic if you went  the South Park approach; crazy shit happening and a major character getting killed off, but everything magically resetting to normal.

CYS, choices, and sitcoms

10 years ago
That's true, that would be a little more extreme, but it sure works for South Park...

CYS, choices, and sitcoms

10 years ago
Thanks for the comments, everyone!