Right around a year ago, I tried to start something I called “Choose Your Adventure”. You know those old books where at the end of a section it said “go to page 77 for this or page 56 for this” and it would alter the plot?
Well, I tried to do that with polls. I started with a prewritten portion of the story and there would be a poll to decide what I wrote next. It lasted about two polls before I lost my will to live write because no one was interested (probably because I was inconsistent).
Well, I decided that I needed to potentially overwhelm myself once more with a third mini project (in addition to PFN and 2nd Story). This will be my Halloween, though not super creepy, story for the month of October.
I’m thinking of it as a palate cleanser for when I’m feeling brain fried while focusing on the main events. So in an act of good faith, below you’ll find what was already written on the Choose Your Adventure Story, plus a little fresh that hadn’t been shared yet! Enjoy and keep your eyes open for the redux!
On my Facebook Group, I’ve begun an adventure I may never return from.
A #pretentfantasynovel was started when I decided that I needed to do something to keep my brain from going all mushy.
The first poll.
I rather enjoy polls. They’re only available as a post option in groups, on Facebook. At least on mobile. That’s the number one reason why I’ve kept the group. I get more interaction with people there than I do on my main page, which I’ve had for YEARS.
On my group I irregularly (if you know me then you know) post polls under #pretendfatasynovel topic. Each poll asks you to choose different elements of the story.
The Story So Far
Our main character is a woman who is reluctantly thrown into an adventure she regrets.
Our heroine has a talking animal or animal like sidekick.
This talking sidekick is animal that we’d see in real life. The talking bit is, so far, the only magic part about it!
TBH, those two polls about the animal sidekick are mildly confusing. So we’re going with a non-mythical creature who can talk.
Our main villain is in fact the last person you’d expect. This particular villain is going to be the worst one, but perhaps not the only one? It is a fantasy after all!
Our female hero, with a talking animal companion, who is a normal talking animal, carries a great sword as her weapon of choice! There’s a backstory to this, I just know it!
In every fantasy there’s always a constant background battle shadowing the active plot. Yes, we have a villain, but what’s the motivation? What’s the thing that’s threatening everyone, including the baddie? It’s some task that must be completed to prevent the end of times! We’ll have to find some sort of artifacts and gather them!
But this, the best part of it all. The fact that I got to use the names of all (twelve) of the people who have participated in the polls, with absolutely no promise of an actual story.
At the time of this post, the poll is still open. But I can see, unless a lot of people decide that they need to vote, there’s a clear winner.
Welcome to Arynthel
There will be more polls coming (now on Monday’s and Wednesday’s), including polls to help choose things about characters and other aspects of the story!
I’ll probably continue using the polls throughout the writing of the story.
But the people who have participated regularly in the polls up until this point(I know who they are) will be rewarded for their help. I don’t know if it will be the kind of reward they’d prefer but it’s what I have right now.
I’ll also post updates here on my site for anyone interested who doesn’t follow the polls, or my page. So stay tuned!
Starting tomorrow at 11:10am on my Facebook page there will be a poll with two options to help choose aspects of a character! Each poll will run for three days. On day four, the winning option and a new poll will be posted! When the character is fleshed out I will write a short story about the character!
Help me and vote on this character! My favorite part of writing has always been character development! Share with me!
Crash Landing 