Played any good books lately, Part 3

This is the Forty-third article in a permanent column for Stroud Arts that appears in the Stroud American. The mission of these articles is to inform, educate and inspire you, the reader, to Make Art Happen in your life and the life of our community.

This week we wrap up how to write your own adventure…unless I think of something else by next week.

By this point you have selected your genre, sketched out a storyline, picked some endings, created lists of character contacts, possessions, abilities, goals achieved, enemies and interesting obstacles to overcome.

Now let’s put together some examples of descriptive text followed by character choices and see how the Interactive Fiction Novel comes together. I will use a Gothic Horror setting as the genre for my novel and the hero is an intrepid Monster Hunter.

Beginning paragraph of the Novel: ‘The Coachman brusquely throws open the door to the passenger coach and in his poor English urgently pleads to his passengers, “You must schnell into der Coach House! Nacht ist here! Schnell! Schnell!” You and your fellow passengers exit the coach and you momentarily take in the majestic beauty of the Carpathian Mountains as the setting sun paints their jagged craigs a beautiful rose red.

In his haste to unpack the Coach, a servant boy accidentally drops your travel bags into the damp cobblestone gutter and you hear the sound of shattering glass. The Coachman yells at the boy and raises his fist to strike!

If you physically stop the Coachman go to Paragraph 142. If you shout at the Coachman to cease, go to Paragraph 17. If you let the boy take his lumps for damaging your property go to Paragraph 45.

As you can see, the opening paragraph provides basic information about the setting but ends with a choice the character must make. Each choice of the reader, creates a separate storyline that will further define the character the reader finds most interesting. In a way the Choose Your Own Adventure format could be seen as asking a hypothetical question ‘What would you do if you were in this situation?’

Looking at the choices at the end of the above story path paragraph, the reader will decide if they want to follow the path of a character who protects the weak and solves problems by physical solutions (Paragraph 142), mental or social solutions (Paragraph 17), or if the character has motivations other than protection of the weak (Paragraph 45).

Now we will examine a paragraph text that would appear further into the story and will refer to a previous choice.

‘The thick clouds part and the yellow light of the moon reveals the ancient, disused courtyard. In the moonglow you can see that this was once a place of beauty, probably occupied by the ladies of the castle, but now only riotous shrubbery and diseased trees occupy this sad, neglected place. Your eye is drawn to the reflected moonlight as it illumes a mournful statue of some beautiful lady who once dwelt in this garden. The soft glow seems to be brighter on her sculpted face and light holds your attention for long minutes. Is it a trick of the light, or is the light now shining from her eyes? Is she calling, beseeching you to come to her? You reach for the latch to open the window.

If you received the gift from the Servant Boy go to Paragraph 93. If you have the Talent: Strongwilled go to Paragraph 81. If you have the Personality Trait: Adventurous go to Paragraph 13.

As you can see, choices made early in the story should have impact in later paragraphs (You should have been kinder to that Servant Boy.) By following this basic format, you can write your own Interactive Fiction and the more stories you write, the more you will grow as an author.

If you have any questions about writing your own stories, please contact me through Stroud Arts on Facebook or through this newspaper.

Until Next Time… Make Art Happen!