Time to Choose or DIE!!!

It's been well over a year since the writers at Choose or Die wrapped their last epic adventure--Ecopocalypse. This week, they've pooled their collective genius and offered up a list of potential storylines for readers to choose from--ten amazing story options to be narrowed down to one (or two).

Choose or Die is an interactive choose your own adventure project written by a group of selected authors. Once the story has been determined the "crew" decides on a writing order. The writer who pitched the storyline will write the first chapter, offering up three choices at the end. The readers vote for their favorite within a short period of time--usually a day or two to keep the story moving and everyone on their toes. The winning option will be handed over to the next chapter's writer, but the losing options are handed to two additional writers and are immediately turned around as "kills". Everything is done rather quickly, and no one knows where it's going to end up. The writers even make a point to make it difficult for other writers to follow. Others will even tie in ridiculous Easter eggs and private jokes. Crazy right?

If you haven't had the chance to check it out, now is the time. Click the image above and check out Season 5's story ideas--vote for your favorite or close your eyes and pick a number. Just vote! No matter which option wins, this season is going to be amazing :)

You can see previous seasons HERE. I am proud to say I've written on all of the previous four seasons--probably more kills than actual chapters, but they were all so much fun to write.

Not Your Typical #CYOA Story

If you haven't heard of Choose or Die, you're missing out--it's an insane interactive reader/writer experience. The website sells it to you by evoking some sort of childhood nostalgia.

Once upon a time (don’t all good stories start that way?), young adult readers of the mid-to-late 80s had far more power than they have now.  They had the power to determine the fates of the characters in the books they read.  I won’t name the franchise of books that foolishly gave these young readers so much power, but let’s just say the reader was asked several times during the course of the story to “make a choice” regarding the direction of the “adventure.”

Now that we have grown up, we find ourselves stripped of power and slave to the whims of the writers who think they know better than us what should happen next in a story.  Don’t tell me there haven’t been times you’ve put a book down and wished the author would have called you and consulted with you about that fork in the road.  If only that had happened, the book wouldn’t have sucked so bad, think you. 

 Well, I think it’s time, finally, to give you back the power to make the next call.
Choose or Die is just that place – but wait, before you become too jubilant and drunk on your own remembered power, there are a few things you should know.

With all great power comes great responsibilities.... right? Here's the skinny directly from the Choose or Die website--how it works:

• Majority rules.
You’ll be introduced to a new story, and, of course, at a particularly heady junction in the action, you’ll be asked to make a choice.  But you aren’t alone.  Your fellow readers are also making choices.  Lo and behold, you are now engaged in a battle of wills.  The more people that choose the option you favor, the better chance you have to see your option advanced in the story.  However, if your favorite choice is not preferred by the majority, you will suffer the disappointment of the loser.

• If you lose, you die.
You won’t always win.  Don’t worry.  The losing choices will be addressed, too – but not the way you want.  Beware the pitfalls of being in the minority, because grisly fates await.  Of course, you can always recruit more readers to slant the voting your way . . .

• There are a lot of Scribblers here.
 Every episode, you’ll be introduced to a different Scribbler, a writer chosen for their propensity towards the humorous and ridiculous.  The style may be a little different from day to day.  We like to keep things interesting around here.

• It’s very likely that multiple tales are being told.
Don’t get lost.  Again, we like to keep things interesting, and Scribblers don’t appreciate standing around, waiting on majority rule.

The story is fast paced and completely unpredictable--even the writers have no clue as to where it's going. Once the weekly chapter is posted, the readers vote--the next writer doesn't know what he (or she) is writing until after the votes have been tabulated. Then, he (or she)  has to write the next chapter. The other two options--the losing ones--are written and spit out the same week. These "kills" will likely blow your mind. The "Crew" are little mad-scientists, looking to kill you off in unexpected ways (last season I wrote a death by chicken wing). This way, you can see what would've happened if you chose one of the losing options--although, no one will know if you fib and say you chose something else.

You'll also notice that the writers like to leave awkward options at the end of each chapter, making it difficult for the next writer to pick up where the story left off, so believe me when I say a good time will be had by all. *insert evil laugh here*

Now, we are on the brink of Season Four, and we're ready to get this ball rolling. As the reader you can help pick this season's story by visiting the website, and VOTING on the story that you'd like to see on Choose or Die. There are quite a few options, but be sure to read them all--some will definitely surprise you (and possibly offend you--if the writers are doing their jobs right).

JUMP OVER AND VOTE FOR SEASON FOUR STORY OPTIONS

We've had a blast with previous seasons. Here are the links to past stories, so you can read them start-to-finish, choosing your favorite options along the way. There's other cool stuff on the website--like video trailers made by the ridiculously talented Steven Novak and information on all of the writers taking part in this season as well as past seasons.

It's definitely been fun, and I can't wait until we officially kick off Season Four, so GO VOTE NOW :-)

~2

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Collaborative Writing and Choose Your Online Adventures (CYOA)

On the eve of CYOA's launch of Season 2: Dust and Death, here's a guest post from the Mystress Weaver herself, Annie Evett.

Pushing the boundaries of collaborative writing

by Annie Evett

On the whole, writers tend to be solitary creative artists. Many prefer to hole themselves up, shutting themselves away from distractions and other people to immerse themselves in their work. Whilst there has always been a contingent of writers who have pooled their skills to work collaboratively on a project, the tyranny of distance and time lags between whatever communication format they use, has meant until recently, that the number collaborations has been relatively small. However, with the progress of technology enabling inexpensive and reliable networking communication, these barriers are no longer the case, opening up opportunities to anyone with an internet connection and a desire to share characters.

In the past, most collaborative writing has involved a pair or more writers discussing a plot and characters and dividing the workload into specific chapters or scenes. There are cases of the plot growing as a chain; where a chapter is written and handed to the next writer to continue, and for it then to be handed along; each team member taking a turn in writing the next episode. Generally speaking, once the chapter has been handed over, the responsibility of the story lays with the writer undertaking the episode.

CYOA (Choose Your Online Adventures) has taken these concepts a step further – and perhaps beyond. After a genre has been chosen and a starter story written, a group of 13 writers come together for thirteen weeks, using skype video and conference calling to create the world, characters and storylines.

The story format follows the popular 80s young adult literature phenomenon – ‘choose your own adventure’; where the main character has a quest or task to complete. The character is faced with a number of options each scene, with many leading to their failure and most often a hideous death.

Writers are grouped into smaller hubs, headed by an editor – who also writes and is heavily assisted by an assigned beta reader. Each hub is assigned an option to then build upon, explore and write. Writers leave options at the end of their stories, swap and continue, taking up a different writers option. Above all of this, ‘Mystress Weaver’ – the chief editor, collates and interweaves storylines across the groups. The plot grows organically, feeding from inspiration from stories across the collaboration. Characters motivations are only discovered as the writing develops, rather than being pre-determined. Stories are retrofitted with details along the way, as writers dip into one anothers text to edit and update threads. Sound like a spiderweb? Its a complex, exciting and interactive way to create an original story, based on trust between the process, the writers and the characters on the page.

CYOA was initiated primarily as a writing project to push the boundaries of collaborative writing. It also set out to highlight the immense influence both editors and beta readers have on a product, heavily involving them throughout the process in decision making and collaboration. Although last , not least, the projects goal is to showcase the writing talents of emerging authors; offering another opportunity for their work to be appreciated and to publicise their other works.

The project also embraces the trends in readership, by publishing online. Readers pay a one time fee to gain access into a separate part of the website, clicking on hyperlinks instead of turning to a particular page. Although this doesn’t ‘stop’ the reader ‘cheating’; unless they have found the ‘winning page’, a reader must continue reading the story forwards – instead of what many of us used to do – and find the winning page and work backwards. Because of they enormous amount of links, cross links and stories, a reader can be busy following separate threads for days, offering excellent value for money in readership. Due to the separation of the writing hubs too, there is very little cross over in stories; something which the original choose your own adventures stories used to do.( and annoyed readers with)

The CYOA project has completed the writing side of two series to date. One has been described as a science fiction infused mystical feminist story. The other, a murder mystery set in the wild west. Writers applied to be part of the project and were only accepted after they had discussed and agreed to the process of collaboration and editing; which is very different to standard practice. ‘Dust and Death’ – the western series is due to launch on Friday the 29th of July.  ‘History’s Keeper’ is due to launch in early October. Applications for the next series – a zombie themed story, will open in late November, with the writing period beginning in February 2012. Interested writers, beta readers and editors are encouraged to check with the Facebook, google + or website for details.