June 5, 2009: Choose Your Own Adventure
First, I was happy to read on the forum that many of you are finding Cowrite to be a valuable learning experience. There are some obvious parallels between the contest and the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series of books that were first published in 1979 by Bantam Books (Thank you Wikipedia).

I read through one of the books yesterday and I found it to be an interesting learning experience and a good exercise for screenwriting. If you don’t have any of the books handy I think it’s worth a trip to the book store to spend some time with a few of them. They’re really quick reads.

When you get to your first crossroads/choose I think it’s a good exercise to stop and really think about which path you gravitate towards more. Think about why you find that one more interesting and why the other one doesn’t appeal to you as much. There’s not really a right or wrong answer, it’s just about what’s more interesting to you, but I think you’ll find some consistency in the paths you prefer. If you understand why those paths keep you more interested than the others, it could translate to improved structure in your storytelling. Another good exercise is to try to come up with a third or fourth path not utilized in the book.

Finally, I think it’s worth paying special attention to the immediate, unexpected event(s) (conflict) the character encounters down each path. Nothing goes exactly as he/she planned and then ultimately they find themselves at another crossroads. This is, of course, how it should be and how a story unfolds and keeps a reader interested. I think it’s done pretty well in these simple books…which I understand (thanks again to Wikipedia) have been republished by Chooseco.

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