Writing an interactive.

This forum revolves around interactive vore stories. You are free to promote interactive stories on this site and other sites and discuss them here.

Writing an interactive.

Postby Throku » Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:30 am

Generally, if you want to start an interactive story, and not an add-to story. Then you the starter have to write a decent amount of chapters first, something that makes for a backbone, establishing the world and feel of the interactive. It is from this backbone that the story then will emerge from.

An add-to story is more of a jump around rp, people adding in line after one another. I don't personally like them so I won't take up the matter here.

Anyway, interactive are built on people adding to them, so please do, however, there are a few things to keep in mind. Many of the people who add to these stories put great effort into their chapters, so please do so yourself before clicking the add-chapter button.

I'm not saying that you should be a great, or even good writer to add to them, just that you try to make a good chapter with whatever skill you may or may not possess. It is irritating to see people adding crap, generally half made sentences and only one or two of them too and call it a chapter, ending with choices indicating that there should be good stuff in the following chapters, presumably the kind of stuff they like, but they want someone else to write it for them.

So what I'm saying is, that a chapter should move the story along, there's no need for vore in every chapter, that would be weird or force the chapters to be little stories in their own right spanning many pages each. Sure such chapters are much appreciated, but not necessary.

So a chapter shorter than half a page is most often belonging in the trash bin, just so you know. If you don't bother trying to write a good chapter, then why should anyone else?

Use a spellchecker, I write all my chapters in word first, sure it doesn't find all the faults I come up with, but it sure helps a lot. This of course includes using as proper English as you can, meaning no "u so ROXx0r" and other shit like that. Note that slang belongs in conversation only, but you still write "you" and not "u" but things like "ya'll" and "gonna" are perfectly acceptable, since that's the way many people speak.

Also read through your chapter before posing it, you'd be surprised at how often your mind has left your writing in the dust and what's actually been written isn't quite what you thought.

Try to stay true to characters, meaning if they are afraid of heights in a chapter in the thread you're adding to, then they will most likely still be it, if they haven't gotten treatment for the phobia along the way.

But to repeat what I said initially, the most important thing when you write a chapter is that you try, if you don't try, you won't ever improve. We were all beginners once and I'm one among many who still have lots to learn. I always keep my trusty dictionary close by and try to improve my writing, steadily making my language fuller and more varied and hopefully more interesting.

Lastly if you have something to add I hope you do so, if lets say there were twenty people reading a story and everyone wrote a chapter, that'd make it one you'd have to write and nineteen you'd be able to sit back and enjoy.

People say write what you want to write, I say add what the heck comes to your mind, doubtless your head has sent you wandering after finishing reading a story or chapter, in an interactive you could write that spinnoff down and post it for others to enjoy and add to.
Last edited by Throku on Sun Nov 26, 2006 12:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Throku » Tue Nov 01, 2005 5:30 am

Oh, one more thing I thought of now.

At the end of a chapter you usually can give two alternatives for readers to follow/artists to add to.

Try not to dictate what it going to happen in the next chapter, that ruins the surprise for the reader and limits what any author has to work with when adding.

Examples: "Try to eat her." is better than "Eat her." because you don't know if you're going to succeed or not, it's all up to the writer of the next chapter.

Usually stories are written in second person perspective meaning that the reader is supposedly the character in the story, so listing the options as choices for the character is usually a great way of giving the reader some indication and still leaving the chapter mostly open for the next adding author.
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Re:

Postby Madnes » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:05 am

Intresting - I'm very poor at speeling and grama but reading and writing - game typing and MSN have allowed me to get better at it and im still trying to get better at my own ideas :D

Thanks for help
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Re:

Postby Throat_Wolf » Sat Mar 22, 2008 5:20 pm

I'd just like to note that on Ficlets.com you can write interactive stories without being limited by writing.com's insistence on only two alternatives at the end of a chapter. With Ficlets, people can branch the story in as many different ways as they want.
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Re:

Postby Rat_Guy » Sat Mar 22, 2008 6:08 pm

Madnes wrote:Intresting - I'm very poor at speeling and grama


did you do that on purpose? (rhetorical question, don't answer)
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Postby Iyeru » Fri Aug 01, 2008 8:57 pm

Throku wrote:At the end of a chapter you usually can give two alternatives for readers to follow/artists to add to.

Try not to dictate what it going to happen in the next chapter, that ruins the surprise for the reader and limits what any author has to work with when adding.


This also means that a choose your own adventure styled story (with pre-written endings for each choice) is not the same as an interactive story.
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Postby Throku » Sat Aug 09, 2008 7:34 pm

Iyeru wrote:
Throku wrote:At the end of a chapter you usually can give two alternatives for readers to follow/artists to add to.

Try not to dictate what it going to happen in the next chapter, that ruins the surprise for the reader and limits what any author has to work with when adding.


This also means that a choose your own adventure styled story (with pre-written endings for each choice) is not the same as an interactive story.


That depends on how you look at it. I for one would argue that it isn't much of an adventure if you know what's going to happen. And as I said listing the choices at the bottom as choices for the character instead of synopsises for the upcoming chapters is my preferred way to go.
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Re:

Postby Carni-vore » Sun Aug 17, 2008 6:42 pm

This was very informative for helping me design my Interactive, thank you very much.
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Re:

Postby Throku » Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:44 am

Carni-vore wrote:This was very informative for helping me design my Interactive, thank you very much.


My pleasure ;)
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Re: Writing an interactive.

Postby serpent deity » Wed Jul 08, 2009 12:54 pm

ok i have 1 question how do i get a interactive story of my own in to this site? im kinda confused.
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Re: Writing an interactive.

Postby temporos » Wed Jan 06, 2010 11:05 pm

Maybe I'm completely unobservant, but I can't find a way to create my own interactive on Eka's. :?

Can someone post technical instructions on how to actually start one?
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Re: Writing an interactive.

Postby Fragtagonal » Tue Jan 26, 2010 9:06 am

I just have to add some stuff to this cause I've been browsing writing.com for about an hour now and some of these stories infuriate me!

The cardinal sin of an interactive story is not describing what options the reader is getting to choose from. An interactive that's first chapter is, "Choose a story, 'Option 1, Option 2, Option 3, or Option 4'," is like a brick wall for your reader, its an interactive story because the reader gets to pick what is happening in it.
I also hate when a writer leaves a third option entitled "Writer's choice." This is pretty much the same mistake but it causes a different problem, now the characters and story that have been developing for the past so many chapters are just tossed in the air. It breaks focus when your choices are, "Eat her, Don't eat her, and Writer's Choice." The reader should get engrossed in the story until he or she gets to a dead end and enjoyed the world you, and others, created, and feels like he or she needs to add more.

A close second for the easiest way to ruin an interactive story, and to make me pop a blood vessel, is to have a giant decision tree in the beginning that sorts readers into all these different characters. "Do you want TV, Movies, Video Games, or Comic Books?" "Do you want Batman, Superman, Spiderman, or Wonder Woman." This is bad for two reasons, number one is that it has the reader thinking about choices and other universes other characters other people, when they get to your first real chapter, which ruins immersion. The second reason is that instead of having your story start at one point it now starts at 10+ different points. Most people would think the variety is good, but the point of the interactive is to have people read it like a real story and hopefully add to it, but with so many different places to start, the additions get spread all over the place and a story that contains 100 entries will be 4 "chapters" from start to finish. Plus no one wants to jump all over looking for the right place to start a story.

I hate so cite a specific story, especially one that I like so much, but My Life as a Teenage Voraphile is quite guilty of this. It splits into 5 starting chapters and then each of those splits into 5 other chapters, but none of them have any story development. It gets away with it because of how well the world gets set up and all the character bios, but if I ever go to read the story I totally ignore 4 options and go right for "Licensed Teenage
Girl." I really love the story's setting and writing and everything but there are so many options that are like 2 chapters deep, but if those options didn't exist those chapters would have probably added to a longer line or a branch farther on when the reading is more involved in the story.

The other big problem is really really short chapters, but Throku already covered that really well. Its not to say any short chapter is a bad chapter, some situations require very little text before another choice is presented, but it should happen very often.

My final gripe, I hope, is when some one will add to a story line and pretty much ruin it completely. Its about proper pacing people! I just read 4 chapters about a girl discovering that she has the power of vore, and stalking a target, and bla bla bla. Then someone just throws a chapter on that she eats her target, oh yeah and she eats her whole cheer leading team too. Not only does it break the pace that the other writers were building, but where do you go from there? You've now got a girl with 20+ girls eaten stuck in a locker room. You always have to think about what the next step is when you add to an interactive story, because a new chapter, even a well written one, can ruin a story line if the writer doesn't consider what can happen next. That's what these stories are supposed to be about, getting to decide what happens next.

Phew, Sorry you all had to see that. I just really think we have a great community but some pit falls ruin great stories.


Oh one last thing, consider your audience. This rule pretty much holds true for anything you create ever for anything. Vore is a fetish, so people are turned on by it, try to keep that in mind while writing your chapters. I'm not saying every chapter has to be some huge sexual fiasco, but embellish the details when it comes to the actual act. It goes along way, at least I think so.

Last addendum, I swear, this one is more of a personal gripe. I hate when I'm reading an interactive and I've been reading it for a while and then all of a sudden some one just says, "Oh wait I have the power to reform my victims after digestion! But I didn't mention it previous cause it wasn't important." That's just my hatred of stuff like reformation etc. Also when I pick an option and the writer decides to write about something completely different, or add a bullshit chapter like "Are you sure you want to do that?" just so they can hijack a story, I go ballistic. These kinda things make me stop dead and usually just close the story, but that cause I'm a jerk.
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Re: Writing an interactive.

Postby Deathworks » Tue Jan 26, 2010 3:20 pm

HI!

Fragtagonal: Allow me to point out a few interesting details.

The "Writer's Choice" option you are talking about does actually have a historic background. As far as I know, the first real major successful interactive story was the Unending BE-Addventure (still alive and kicking with more than 700,000 options all in all). It was there long before stories.com/writing.com was even created. Allow me to quote guideline number 5:

It's usually nice to add a "something else" link as a choice. If you make an episode where you end with the phone ringing, and you want to have the reader decide who's on the phone, don't just put "Sharon" or "Sally" -- also add a third option like "Someone else". This lets writers with a lot of creativity add fun and interesting twists you didn't expect into the story.


So, the something else was a feature that was originally actually encouraged.

Actually, the original set up of the interactives at stories.com should have been to your liking (I think they have changed it by now): While the first two layers allowed for several options, anything beyond layer 3, I think, could only ever have 2 choices, no more. So there was no space for the something else.

While I think you are absolutely correct about the stories that never start because they only consist of starting choices, I think you are going a bit overboard demanding a single story right from the start on. While it is a good standard option, depending on the story type, having a few starting points (one set of maybe 5 options on the first layer) can actually be quite interesting. But as you pointed out, things should start going soon as having large stories that have no content are not really inviting (^_^;;

I have to object strongly against the audience rule you are suggesting, though. Even if you wish to take the fetish nature of vore into consideration, that does not dictate any specific focus. For some people here, the hunt is the essential part, others care about humiliation while others want to see intense love and care. Likewise, some people want a realistic display while others want it fantastic and some want lewd characters while others prefer them a bit more decent. Thus, I don't think you should really care much about the audience, but simply should write the way you feel the story should be written.

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Re: Writing an interactive.

Postby Fragtagonal » Thu Jan 28, 2010 8:29 am

I'm sorry deathworks I don't think I was really clear about what I meant when I said, "consider your audience." I've seen plenty of stories that have a great lead up to the "vore" part and then there are like 2 sentences about the vore itself.
"She put his feet in her mouth, and swallowed him whole!" Something like that kinda ruins the whole vore part of the story ya know? Thats all I meant.
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Re: Writing an interactive.

Postby Deathworks » Thu Jan 28, 2010 12:48 pm

Hi!

I see. However, I think that would be a problem only if it means a break in the style of the writing (after long passages of good and intense descriptions, the vore part is only a quickly written gulp). I can see how that can be frustrating.

However, there are a few things I want to point out:

First, some might do this actually because of the audience. Knowing that we get our kicks from the concept of getting swallowed whole/swallowing someone whole, they realize that even such an abstract description can be enough for people to get their kicks.

Secondly, this can be done actually for artistic reasons. Disappointing reader expectation can create some really great effects. My favorite example of that is the original end of the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" anime series, which was just awesome in my book (even though the revised version had a sexy GTS scene).

Besides, graphic descriptions of the vore scene may not be the thing the readers are interested in, even here. I, for one, am more interested in the characters and the situations as they are what makes the scene erotic for me (or not if they are not the things I hope for). The actual process is only secondary for me - knowing that it happens is enough.

So, I think it is still a somewhat difficult field.

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Re: Writing an interactive.

Postby PrinceKisaian » Sun Apr 17, 2011 2:15 pm

I'm trying to think what my Characters are... Would a Character Profile Story work?
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Re: Writing an interactive.

Postby ZdarLighT » Tue Jul 31, 2012 11:58 pm

A great site has been started that makes interactive story writing really easy. I'm not sure if many people have seen it yet or not. It's called Inklewriter, and it has a fairly comprehensive tutorial. http://writer.inklestudios.com/
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Re:

Postby Myconid32 » Fri Aug 02, 2013 11:46 am

Iyeru wrote:
Throku wrote:At the end of a chapter you usually can give two alternatives for readers to follow/artists to add to.

Try not to dictate what it going to happen in the next chapter, that ruins the surprise for the reader and limits what any author has to work with when adding.


This also means that a choose your own adventure styled story (with pre-written endings for each choice) is not the same as an interactive story.

Are we allowed to write Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories on this site, or do we have to leave some threads open for others to contribute?
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Re: Writing an interactive.

Postby Saftkeur » Fri Aug 23, 2013 8:58 am

Myconid32 wrote:
Iyeru wrote:
Throku wrote:At the end of a chapter you usually can give two alternatives for readers to follow/artists to add to.

Try not to dictate what it going to happen in the next chapter, that ruins the surprise for the reader and limits what any author has to work with when adding.


This also means that a choose your own adventure styled story (with pre-written endings for each choice) is not the same as an interactive story.

Are we allowed to write Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories on this site, or do we have to leave some threads open for others to contribute?

I'd like to second this question, since there doesn't seem to be any particular set of rules for the Interactive Story portion of the site. I've had a bit of interest in creating a (relatively simple) Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story, but finding a venue to write it on is tricky! deviantART can work, if you put the choices in the deviation description below the story (and upload each chapter separately). I haven't used Writing.com before, but as far as I'm aware, that has all the tools you'd need. Both of them have rules regarding story content, though, if I'm not mistaken.
Writing things up right here on Eka's seems like it could be the best choice (minus the inability to have comments or favorites on your story), but is there an option to prevent others from adding to your story? Can you just go and delete additions you don't like? And what's the etiquette on doing so? I wouldn't want to use the Interactive section to write a not-so-interactive story unless that's something that's absolutely okay, it feels like abuse otherwise.
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Re: Writing an interactive.

Postby asbage » Fri Aug 30, 2013 4:49 am

i agree with it
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