Thank you Amirali. I'm about 2/3 of the way done. I'm kind of anal retentive with spelling errors, so I keep checking, but I've got a sneaking suspicion some will still slip through. I'm also doing some last minute tweaks with mechanical issues to try and make the challenge level about right.

Have any of the writers here (or anyone, for that matter) who's tried to write a gamebook also written any long fiction? My impression is that writing a gamebook is more difficult than standard fiction, due to all of the story threads that need to remain consistent. But perhaps not- any thoughts?

duffmeister
Tue Aug 19 21:14:31 2008

Depends on your definition of what's 'long,' are we talking 1,000 page epics or anything larger than a postage stamp? Personally, I've written some gamebook-length fiction in past and find gamebook writing harder. First there's the multiple storylines required for gamebooks, then rules, stats, continuity (i.e: if opening the red door or the blue door eventually leads to room X, the references in room X cannot specifically mention either door) and the fact that writng rules, stats and suchlike can be quite dull, making gamebook writing more tiring.

Still, gamebooks have a few bonuses. Being more action based, you can get away with less description and character depth...which can, I supose, also be a flaw...

Anyway, I feel like I'm whining, I'm just saying, Gamebooks are harder to write, in answer... at least, that's how I feel.

Darn, this is getting kind of meandering now. I feel like I'm concluding a conclusion about the conclusion of my conclusion. Either I finish here, in which case this stuff is kind of pointless, or I ramble till I get a conclusion, by which point it won't be worth it...

Oh, what the heck, I'm finishing here. Sayonara all!

Ulysses Ai
Tue Aug 19 23:15:21 2008

Amirali:
What are sandwiches for in PotS?

SPOILER

END SPOILER

Gaetano:
I have written or am writing some long fiction stories (all on hold while I get this gamebook nostalgia out of my system). I think writing good long fiction is harder because the demand for quality of plot becomes higher, as well as for things like dialogue. Gamebooks have an inherent 'hook' because they are interactive, so the plot doesn't have to be quite as good. Imagine if the average gamebook was written up as a read-only story...

"...Xarglot proceeded through the maze and came upon a junction of corridors, offering him the choice of north, south, east and west. Xarglot chose to go west. Yet he had not gone far when he came to a door in the wall. Should I open it, or keep going? he mused. He decided to open the door, and go inside. Suddenly he was under attack from a zombie gargoyle! But luckily, Xarglot had procured a Gem of Warding from that wizard he saved from the grumpy tree-demon in the forest, and was able to drive the monster away! The zombie gargoyle had been guarding a treasure box. Do I open the box, or just leave? Xarglot wondered..."

Exciting Stuff.

duffmeister
Wed Aug 20 09:49:46 2008

Admittably, Ulysses, converting gamebooks to long fiction would make for dull reading, however the same could be said in reverse. Novels about tortured pianists realising that their love of music has seperated them from the people they love would end up as:

You find yourself in a restaurant with your estranged wife. There is a piano in the corner and a menu on your lap. To play your wife her favourite turn on teh piano, turn to 7. To play the piece you are working on, turn to 52. To order garlic bread turn to 19. Finally to ask her if she would escuse you and allow you to go to the bathroom, turn to 81.

Not really gripping stuff.

The point I'm making is that long fiction and gamebooks can't swap places (Gamebooks becoming fiction and vice versa). Also, while your mention that long fiction requires more dialogue is true, this is in some ways a benefit. A story purely built of action dialogue would be harder than one with action, speech and description.

Finally , plot changes are easier in long fiction. For example, compare 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Crypt of the Sorcerer', if, upon finishing, Tolkein decided to rewrite the end (eg: Frodo and Sam travel to Gondor, send an army led by Gandalf and Aragorn to tear open the Black Gates. They then enter Mordor and, accopanied by the army, destroy the Ring) he could simply remove the original ending and replace it. If Ian Livingstone decided to change 'Crypt' however (eg: Instead of needing 5,000,000 items you randomly found, you need all your companions in certain conditions) he would basically need to re-write the whole book, removing all the 'pick-up-able' items which were now useless, and replacing them with something else.

Oh, and on the sandwich subject:

SPOILER

END SPOILER

duffmeister
Thu Aug 21 15:16:30 2008

Silence...Mysterious, hmmm? Why have the conversations ended? Who knows what nefarious scemes are growing...

duffmeister
Thu Aug 21 19:34:09 2008

Say something, please, someone, justSAY SOMETHING, before the silence kills me!!!!!

Ulysses Ai
Thu Nov 13 22:29:50 2008

Gaetano:

I've actually finished the next three installments, but they are currently under review.
Al Sander, who provided me with an excellent and comprehensive proof-read of Planet of the Spiders is once again helping me out with Episode 3; but episode 3 is longish and he is quite busy at the moment.
Episode 4 is also being proofread, and I have already decided to make some minor changes to it.
Episode 5 hasn't been seen by anybody else yet, but I think I need to rewrite some parts of it as it is a bit comedy-deficient.
In terms of a time-frame, Episode 3 may be out sometime in Late December, with Episodes 4 and 5 out in January.

Incidentally, I have been trying to think of a name for the series. If anyone wants to suggest a series title, that would be appreciated.

Ulysses
Sun Feb 1 22:22:13 2009

Duffmeister:
As a fan of mythology, the title The Achaeid is appealing to me, however, this is a more appropriate title for the series as a whole rather than the first installment.
Personal taste being what it is, and not neccesarily of any value to anyone else, Acheon the Prince sounds to me like a fairytale title.
If the Fates are to feature significantly through the series, which I seem to recall you saying have three parts, you could include one of their names in each of the three titles. For example, the first installment could be called: Clotho's Dread or something.

Everyone:
On the matter of names, I'm up to Episode 6 of the Wrong Way Go Back series; but still don't have a proper name for the series. Any suggestions?

Al Sander
Mon Feb 2 08:48:19 2009

Twisted tales? :)

Stuart
Mon Feb 2 22:37:31 2009

Wrong Way go back seems a bit like Hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy kind of humour. I'm terrible at titles, but maybe something to do with getting a girlfriend and being a teenager as the hero seems like a normal teenager who has to save the galaxy.

Kee
Sun Feb 8 10:59:12 2009

The 'Wrong Way Go Back Saga?'

Ulysses
Tue Feb 10 02:44:27 2009

Hi everyone.

Sorry for the late reply. I've just spent a week in hospital having part of my small intestine removed.

I have read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy so its influence was in there somewhere.

The ideas I had for the title were:
The Wa! Chronicles - A "saying-nothing" kind of title
In Space No One Can Hear You If You Don't Have a Girlfriend - I like this one, but it's just too long.
And I have considered just calling it the Wrong Way Go Back Septology since it will have 7 episodes, culminating in either the achievement of boyfriend-girlfriendness, or death.

duffmeister
Tue Feb 10 16:58:18 2009

In Space no one can hear you if you don't have a girlfriend is a FANTASTIC name, but I agree it is pretty long. It could do as a subtitle for a book, or possibly be involved in a book in some way or another, perhaps as the first or final line of a book, or even just mentioned by a character at some point.

Also, a seven part series isn't called a septology (Hope you don't mind me mentioning this, thought it'd be better to mention it before the series is named) it's a heptalogy. Not complaining here, just thought i'd better say (Also, four part series are not called 'quadrilogies' or 'quartets' but rather 'tetralogies')

I look forward to the series' continuation, and will see if i can think of any good title ideas. Also, sorry to hear about your operation, hope all went well.

Finally, on my mythical series. The series was planned to be similar to ancient story cycles (The epic cycle and theban cycle, for example) which is planned to be thus named similarly, the Yaethyr cycle. I have chosen to name the first book The Achaeid using greek titling techniques. I avoided naming the series 'The Achaeid' because i felt this avoided the theme of such series' being 'cycles' in the original ones. Thanks for the advice on titles all, since this steered me from what i now see was the rather awful 'Achaeon the Prince'. Until later, fare well!

Ulysses
Tue Feb 10 22:02:59 2009

Duffmeister:

Thanks for the correction. I was just making it up, which is inexcusable given I have access to a world of information via the internet.

Ulysses Ai
Tue Apr 28 02:07:20 2009

Hi Jordan, thanks for the compliment.

You don't need a tissue to defeat the Spider Queen. The only connection between tissues and Phisphodia is:

SPOILER

END SPOILER

To enter a spoiler manually, just type (S) using square brackets to begin, then (/S) using square brackets to end

mercs
Sun Aug 23 08:13:15 2009

Anyone know how to survive the planet of the spiders. keep getting instant death whatever i do. great book mind, love the dark humour and the pointlessness of it all...

just want to know how to complete it!

Ulysses
Sun Aug 23 09:16:29 2009

Mercs:

Thanks for the comments.
Where do you seem to be getting stuck?

mercs
Mon Aug 24 07:29:46 2009

Ulysses, no matter what route i take, i keep getting instant death when i go up to the palace. i have gone through the imprisonment route, found out what the queen doesn't like and met the shrivelled up man, i've gone down the tortoise route, found the things i thought i needed and ended up getting instant death too...

it's a great story and makes me laugh, just wish i had some clues on which route is advisable...

Ulysses
Mon Aug 24 11:29:09 2009

Mercs:

I see... I think I know what you are having trouble with and the partial answer is:

SPOILER

END SPOILER

Hope that helps

mercs
Mon Aug 24 21:21:31 2009

i follow you now :) nice one mate. i will try that straight away...

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