Interactive Fiction

By M.L. Ronn

Have you ever read a Choose Your Own Adventure and wondered how the author did it?

In this short book, author M.L. Ronn demystifies the writing process behind interactive novels.

You'll learn:

• How to design, write, and edit an interactive novel
• How to create deep characters readers will love
• How to create decisions that matter
• How to keep readers engaged so they won't stop reading

He pulls back the curtain on his own fiction, showing you never-before-revealed techniques that he used to create his groundbreaking interactive novels. 

If you've ever wanted to write a Choose Your Own Adventure-styled book of your own, this is the how-to book you've been waiting for. By the time you're done, you'll understand how to write engaging interactive fiction.

 

V1.0

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Level Up LLC
• Release date: May 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781386606215

M.L. Ronn

Science fiction and fantasy on the wild side! M.L. Ronn (Michael La Ronn) is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels including the Modern Necromancy, The Last Dragon Lord, and Sword Bear Chronicle series. In 2012, a life-threatening illness made him realize that storytelling was his #1 passion. He’s devoted his life to writing ever since, making up whatever story makes him fall out of his chair laughing the hardest. Every day.

Book preview

Interactive Fiction

Engage Readers and Push the Boundaries of Storytelling

M.L. Ronn

Copyright 2015 © M.L. Ronn. All rights reserved.

Published by Author Level Up LLC.

Version 2.0

Cover Design: Pixelstudio

Cover Art © arrtfoto / Depositphotos.

For more helpful writing tips and advice, subscribe to the Author Level Up YouTube channel: www.authorlevelup.com.

Michael La Ronn is proud member and ambassador of The Alliance of Independent Authors, a nonprofit association devoted to ethics and excellence in self-publishing. Join him today at www.authorlevelup.com/alli (paid link).

Table of Contents

Introduction

PART I: What is Interactive Fiction?

My Journey to the Genre

What is Interactive Fiction?

Myths About Interactive Fiction

PART II: Elements of an Interactive Novel

The Tools

The Parts

PART III: Creating an Interactive Story

Designing the Novel

Writing the First Draft

How to Build Decisions

Creating Logic for Your Novel

Editing the Novel

PART IV: The Finishing Touches

The Importance of Testing Early and Often

Compiling Your Novel

Final Note

PART V: Resources

Writing Resources

Thank You

About M.L. Ronn

Introduction

How do you engage readers?

As an author trying to compete for readers’ attention in the crowded self-publishing space, I asked myself the same question. Good characters, setting, dialogue—those were the answers I accepted.

In 2012, something happened that changed my perspective—I reread a Choose Your Own Adventure Novel. 

If you were a kid like me in the 1980s and 1990s, it was hard not to like Choose Your Own Adventures (CYOAs). They invited you into an exciting, dangerous world where you, the reader, had to make decisions that meant life or death. Pirate ships, barbarian villages, or mysterious caverns—there was no limit to where you could end up. 

Choose Your Own Adventures were popular because they empowered kids to use their imaginations. They made reading cool again. Decades later, it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t recall them fondly.

The CYOA novel was still interesting (even though it was a bit dated), but I wanted more. I wanted the same type of interactive experience, but for grown-ups, with grown-up characters and storytelling. On an e-reader.

I scoured the market for a novel with those elements, but there was nothing, so I decided to write one.

When I told my writer friends what I was doing, they thought I was crazy. They said:

It’s too gimmicky.

You can’t tell an effective story in a format like this.

2nd person POV sucks.

They were valid comments. After all, it’s a fact that Choose Your Own Adventures and the genre that encompasses them, interactive fiction, have never been popular with older audiences.

No one knows why some genres don’t catch on. However, I suspect that interactive fiction isn’t popular with grown-ups because people see it primarily as a children’s genre, and children’s books don’t have the depth that adults are looking for, especially parents. Interactive novels are also a labor of love for authors and publishers. And I mean labor in every sense of the word; it takes a lot of effort to produce this type of novel. Also, when you’re dealing with a print book, interactive novels can get unwieldy when you have too many pages. These problems make interactive fiction a costly genre to explore compared to say, science fiction & fantasy