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Christine D’Abo Gets Interactive with Choose Your Shot

Choose Your Own ShotAs a kid, going to the bookstore was an event. We didn’t actually have one in the small town where I grew up, which meant I’d only get to go once a month when we’d drive to the big city to visit my grandparents. I was a huge fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure books and would immediately seek them out the moment we set foot in the store. That month’s worth of allowance was quickly (and happily) spent on books I knew would pull me deep into the story.

Those books got me through a lot of pre-teen angst, and taught me a few things about life. You can’t always predict what the end result of your decisions will be. You can only make the best choices based on the information you have on hand. On and you’ll fall off a cliff or get eaten by a bear.

Those books were the inspiration for me writing an interactive book of my own. I have to admit, I was very naïve when I started this project. I’m not much of a planner, and thought I could approach this the same way I do my other book. Oh how wrong I was!

Here is a quick snippet of the flow chart I ended up creating, the tool I needed to get me through to every possible decision point and ending. Yes, this is only a small part of it. 🙂

 

Tegan enters Mavericks and begins to explore (Beginning)

  • I. Tegan goes upstairs (Going Up)
    • Orgy room (All For One) (Voyeuristic Tendencies)
      • Goes to clothing room (Clothes that Make the Man)
      • Goes to fucking machine room (Fucked If You Do)
      • Goes to dungeon (alt start) (Doing The Dungeon)
      • Finds Eli (Searching for Eli)
    • Clothing room (Clothes that Make the Man)
      • Goes to orgy room (Voyeuristic Tendencies)
      • Goes to fucking machine room (Fucked If You Do)
      • Goes to the Wax Play room (Wax On, Get Off)
      • Goes to dungeon (alt start) (Doing The Dungeon)
      • Finds Eli (Searching for Eli)

 

As you can see, I had to map out how everything fit, even before I had the story fully plotted. I had to create alternate chapters with similar feel to others so that the various jumping in points made sense. I didn’t want to pull a reader out by having the wrong flow if they came in at a spot I hadn’t anticipated, and yet, I didn’t want them to lose out on the chance to have the story flow the way they wanted, when they wanted it.

Planning, writing and rewriting.

I knew I couldn’t just go willy-nilly with this plot, so I did my best to simplify it. Tegan would have three main paths – interacting as a Domme, interacting as a sub, interacting as neither and engaging in kinky sex. With each track, I had to pair up an appropriate hero. These men turned out to be very different from one another, and some will gel with certain readers more than others. That’s fine! It’s the point of putting the reader in control. Rather than me writing a book someone wouldn’t finish, this gave them the opportunity to try a different approach.

Yes, this turned out to be a lot more work that I’d originally intended, but man did I have fun writing it! I hope readers enjoy wandering around Mavericks with Tegan and I hope they’ll come back for seconds.

Choose Your Shot: An Interactive Erotic Adventure is now available at Carina PressAmazon, Kobo and B&N.

Christine d’Abo is hooked on romance. As a novelist and short story writer with over thirty publications, including the immensely popular Long Shots series, the imagination is always flowing. She loves to exercise and stops writing just long enough to keep her body in motion too. When she’s not pretending to be a ninja in her basement, she’s most likely spending time with her family and two dogs. Please visit her at http://www.christinedabo.com.