Choose your own adventure

I wrote one in secondary school, as part of a workshop thing on writing choose your own adventure books. I lost the book (which wasn't much of a loss), but the methods for constructing it were useful.

I'd write one again if I thought I could sell it, but all the ones I've seen recently were part of a franchise.

Carina press has them listed in their list of publishables. I've heard they've been written and submitted, thought about them, but never tried writing one myself.

jennontheisland said:

Carina press has them listed in their list of publishables. I've heard they've been written and submitted, thought about them, but never tried writing one myself.

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They're the only press I know who wants them for adults. That's a lot of work for a story with only one potential buyer.

I am so far out of the know....what is this thing you speak of? A personal adventure? I don't know what this is. Is it also called something else?

CACTUSWENDY said:

I am so far out of the know....what is this thing you speak of? A personal adventure? I don't know what this is. Is it also called something else?

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Umm, yeah, me neither.

Oh this brings back memories of D&D choose your owns.

dpaterso said:

They're "interactive" books whose descriptive sections are numbered, so when you the reader (2nd person adventurer) have to make a decision you can "Go to 55" or "Go to 79" etc. depending on your choice. The narrative goes off in many different directions, but all the possible storylines ultimately lead to successfully finishing the adventure. And buying the next book.

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Except the one I read where the dragon ate me. That didn't have another book, because I was eaten.

I made a logical choice too. It wasn't fair, eating me like that.

dpaterso said:

If you were eaten, how can you be posting here??

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I got better.

Also, I flipped back a few pages.

It did teach me something though: foreshadowing is a good idea. The reason I remember that book is it asked the fatal question without any setup, so it was entirely random. It didn't have much plot either, other than trying not to die at each random choice. That was how not to write a Choose Your Own Adventure.

Polenth said:

Except the one I read where the dragon ate me. That didn't have another book, because I was eaten.

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Bummer!

I made a logical choice too. It wasn't fair, eating me like that.

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It was rather rude of the dragon. Poor Polenth.

I have fond memories of choose your own adventure books.

Oooh I used to love these things when I was a kid! Never tried writing one though.

Oh my goodness. I wrote an epic CYOA story in high school. It was called "Lord of the Band Flies." (Band Flies were these huge lazy houseflies that hung out in the band room. They were hideous and enormous.) It's been fourteen years since that masterpiece was penned and circulated throughout the band, and people still cherish their copies. At the ten-year reunion, I had so many people tell me they still have their copy, and have tried to make their spouse/significant other/children understand why it's so hilarious.

It was my first bestseller. I recall that it was really fun to write.

Yeah, I've been considering (i.e. half assed plotting) a Regency erotica one.

A friend actually gave me an old sweet romance one that she had when I told her about my erotica. I'd never seen the romance ones, just the fantasy ones. I loved those when I was a kid.

Polenth said:

They're the only press I know who wants them for adults. That's a lot of work for a story with only one potential buyer.

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Well, if one press sees a potential market for them... surely there's a reason. And a niche can be filled by more than one occupant.

Pretty Little Mistakes (published by HarperCollins) is the only adult CYOA novel I've seen in recent years. The author has another one coming out this spring. I loved CYOA books when I was a kid!

Polenth said:

They're the only press I know who wants them for adults. That's a lot of work for a story with only one potential buyer.

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Not sure what you mean by this, but many genres only have one potential buyer: people who like that genre.

I don't know what's up with you people and all your nice memories of CYOA books. I was always getting my ass kicked by something. Somehow I even chose to fall off a cliff once too. I was very annoyed, as I recall, because it wasn't apparent in the choices that turning to page 38 equated with jumping head first to my non-descriptive demise. Though I did one time save the world from space vampires. That was pretty cool.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Not sure what you mean by this, but many genres only have one potential buyer: people who like that genre.

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I was talking about markets, not readers. Carina is the only press I've seen with it in the submission guidelines. I've yet to see an agent asking for them in their guidelines. The number of those books on the shelf in the bookstore is very limited.

It's the kind of project that might be fun... but if I like eating, it's not a sensible first project.

defyalllogic said:

have you ever tried to write one? what happened next?

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If you found that you couldn't stop writing because all the choices you kept including needed more pages, and you ended up at 400,000 words with no end in sight... Go to page 16

If you finished writing one, started to research publishers and found that the last one looking for Choose Your Own Adventure books closed shop in 1982... Go to page 212

If you've never tried writing one because those things are for geeks... Go to page 42

If you're thinking, just now, "I am a flashlight!"... Go to page Orange

If this post makes no sense whatsoever to you... Close the book and walk away.

I loved these as a youngster, and I too had a whole shelf for them. My favorite was about robots - but I cannot remember the name of it!

I wish I still had them, but my parents threw them out while I was away at university!

I would love to read the robot one again.