IWT8: Science Fiction

[donteatpoop]

Also Batcountry, 20 room minimum for the contest.

[BatCountry]

Locke, Endmaster and donteatpoop (awesome name) thanks for getting back so quickly with answers! Yeah you were right Endmaster I was thinking about adding my Pierce Darkblade story due to the fact it fit into this contest so perfectly.

I don't mind starting a new story though since I love science fiction so much. I need to start writing new things anyway. Considered me entered into this contest!

And to Locke, you are actually correct on both counts, my name comes from mainly the book Fear and Loathing, but I do like the song from Avenged Sevenfold alot (plus I am an A7x fan). Obviously Avenged Sevenfold was inspired from the book so I'll give the book most of the credit.

[donteatpoop]

I had a basic concept for the "non human character" angle from the get-go, but I'm finally starting to develop some plot notes. So it's definately a go for me. Hopefully I'll write it all ahead of time like I did for the last one, that way I don't have to worry about it and rush at the last second.

Then again, I've been putting a lot of work into my novelised version of Arena and I don't really want to stop that unless I get utterly burned out on it.

We'll see. I just hope no one else takes my type of non-human character. Because that would suck.

[Usoki]

I have a question for you all, since last I knew I had been voted the person in charge of receiving ratings. Or, rather, I want to change the ballot, and I'm curious what everyone's reaction would be.

Plot/Creativity - unchanged
Enjoyment - unchanged
Writing Style- formerly spelling/grammar, this one is inspired by mizal. This allows for things like pacing, description, dialogue, ect...

I also want to add a category, at least for this contest, which would simply be "Theme". Since this year's contest also hinges around choosing three sub-themes from a grab-bag, I wondered if people would want to rate the originality and usage of these themes.

I'd still use the personal emphasis, too... because then we'd have 10/10/10/20, for a grand total of 50 points. It's a great number, and it would make things a lot easier to score.

[End Master]

Sounds okay to me, I've asked if we should add theme category (How close the story stuck to it) in the past, but everyone usually said to dump it into the creativity category.

Might as well expand spelling/grammar seeing as it's not one really taken seriously in its current form by most. As long as you weren't writing in leet speak it was basically a free points category.

[Locke]

I like the "writing style" change.

As far as "theme" goes, the question is probably always going to be "how effectively were the themes implemented?" and not "does the story use at least three of them?". I went back and forth over this because of overlap, but even the existing categories overlap and affect each other to some extent. Our breaking it down at all is sort of arbitrary (but entertaining).

This contest is a little different, anyway, and it feels right to change up the ballot like this. I'd personally like to spotlight IS features (wording of choices, how they affect the action/whether the consequences hit immediately or five rooms later, room pattern/intricacy, etc) too at some point, but the four category/50 point thing makes a ballot I can live with (extensive enough to keep it interesting, but not so long as to make it a chore).

In short, yes; I think this helps keep it fresh and enjoyable.

"Writing Style" (and maybe even "Theme") may draw some of the "personal emphasis" from "Enjoyment," too, which is nice.

[End Master]

Okay, since nobody else had any objections to this suggestion, I just went ahead and made the changes to the first page.

[donteatpoop]

Update: My story is currently at 0 pages.

[Dragavan]

Update: My story is currently at 0 pages.

You're beating mine by nearly twice as much.

[donteatpoop]

You're beating mine by nearly twice as much.

You sir, are on a roll.

[Crunchyfrog]

Whew. Then at least I'm in good company. Only 6 months to go...

[Cat2000]

Unlike last year, my story is actually above the required number of rooms. Had to give up on the other contest, though. I've got far too many things to focus on.

[mizal]

I'm starting to think maybe I just don't have what it takes to write CYOAs. I can't seem to complete anything no matter how hard I try, there's just too many branches, oh God they never end.

Maybe I should just say screw it and go back to linear fiction, I don't know.

[Usoki]

Yeah... that's why (on the ones I've actually finished) I tend to have a lot of branches which loop back into each other. If you let the branches go off in entirely different directions, it gets overwhelming. Doing that is usually bad, unless you're writing a random comedy or a massive Collab work.

A lot of the time, I set aside a narrative backstory which will always happen. Having the other characters pre-scripted helps to write for the one character who branches. No matter what the main character does, the other characters will be doing the same thing every time. They all have their fun, and the characters meet up again at a hub point to repeat the process.

Or, another approach I meant to use that never got past bare scripting- the group of characters forms the trunk of the story, and each 'branch' of the story is just the same story told from the point of view from one specific character. You have to read all of the branches to get the full story, but the CYOA serves as a filtering plot device. It also lets you write in a very linear fashion- the CYOA doesn't actually create branches so much as it determines which character the narration is focused on.

Heck, you could even write a linear story, where the break points have the 'continue' option, and then one or two 'immediate dead end' options serve to make it feel CYOA.

[mizal]

Or, another approach I meant to use that never got past bare scripting- the group of characters forms the trunk of the story, and each 'branch' of the story is just the same story told from the point of view from one specific character. You have to read all of the branches to get the full story, but the CYOA serves as a filtering plot device. It also lets you write in a very linear fashion- the CYOA doesn't actually create branches so much as it determines which character the narration is focused on.

Huh. I never thought of this but I really like it. Definitely going to have to try using it in a future project.

At this point in my current project (the fantasy one for CYS) the paths are going to be diverging enough that looping is not really an option, even though I did make use of it here and there in the beginning.

For now though the best solution I can come up with is to write out the missing main branches in a straight shot along the 'ideal' paths, then go back in and fill in the blanks with choices and side branches when I finally feel ready to tackle them. (I'm going to attempt to avoid the "went left instead of right? welp, you're dead!" situations as much as possible though because I hate those.)

I just feel so...burned out at the moment, I'm writing whenever I can but the plot is just inching forward. And I've still got this sci-fi story to think about, yeesh.