So, a big appeal of CHYOA is obviously the fact that you start a story and then writers contribute to it. I recently did so as well writing chapters in https://chyoa.com/chapter/Introduction.618190 But now 83 word pages in i started to wonder if what i'm doing is even considered proper etiquette. You see i already namedropped a bunch of characters from other writers on my path and i do intend for them to have minor and bigger roles. My main objective with that is to reach a certain consistency between paths. Would you say it's proper to ask for permission from the original author first before starting to include their characters or is that a needless worry? The same question basically goes with writing paths, is it considered poor form to just add a path to any given chapter? I'm sure adding to introduction is fine, but if someone is clearly in the process of publishing a story it feels wrong to just dump your own stuff onto it. I just want to get some input from the experienced writers here about what is considered proper form.
It's an interesting question because I've always chosen to build my own branches in public stories to avoid that. I didn't see a writer's guide chapter off the intro which is usually the best place to start. Another thing to check is when you click add chapter there may be some writer's guidelines on the right-hand side if the person controlling the story added some. I don't think there are any hard, fast rules for adding chapters or using other characters from other people's entries. Usually, if I have questions on a public story's rules, I'd message the story owner and ask. Oh course I'm fairly new around here myself so I may have missed something. I wish I had a clear answer for you, sorry.
First up would be to discuss it with the stories author. By the looks they've been approving your chapters so it doesn't look like they have any real concerns. I know in my stories and my own personal experience I love it when other authors drop a chapter in out of the blue or go one for one. It helps me be so much more creative or gives me inspiration fire to put out a bunch of ideas all at once. I love it! In other cases you mention I completely fine with another author taking my characters from other branches and adding them into their own. I also love cross overs from different authors stories coming into mine and interacting with the characters in mine. I actually just did that in return with one of mine going back to the other authors story after a crossover event. If I'm less than enthused about what someone adds to my story I can either just chose not to accept it but I don't think I've ever had to do that. I may just give it a grammar clean up to how I like my punctuation style to be or I'll just ignore their branches and let them go out on their own with what they're writing and not add in any of my own work. In summary you may be over thinking it too much. Just check with the original author for guidance
Heh, I recognise this because I have had the urge to do the same. Pretty new around here too, and I remember choosing a story which had other contributors to it but hadn't been updated for a while (OF course I liked the premise too). The author also encouraged in the rule section to be creative. Haven't quite gotten to the part where I make references too other characters in the story aside from the ones that were mentioned in the introduction though. Just like Dacias desire I really loved reading what another writer wrote when they continued a branch. It was fascinating to see how they portrayed a character I'd ended up writing a lot about, as well as how they chose to flesh out their intentions. But I noticed that to some authors their stories are like their baby and they prefer to be the sole writer raising it or have strict ideas about what should and should not be included. In which case it's best to respect that and not contest them if the chose not to publish a chapter you wrote for their story. Though I haven't used it much yet, I think messaging the author privately is a good to ask any sort of question about the story. It's a Chanel of feedback and most authors love that connection to the reader. Myself included!
The story is public now, not moderated, and the original creator is gone. The current owners are akikuka and Durzan (who I presume opened the story up). Both are active members of the site, so if you're worried about anything regarding the story, there's no harm in messaging either or both of them. If a character is introduced in another writer's branch, then yes, I'd message that writer to ask about anything more than a passing reference to them. The story is public, which means anyone can add anything. I don't believe the original creator is actually on CHYOA anymore, so I guess they don't particularly care what happens to the story. As far as etiquette goes, I would only suggest you avoid adding onto the end of someone else's branch without first asking. This is because readers usually follow the top-level option to follow a particular author's branch, and interrupting this might upset the author if you do it without their knowledge. This is quite difficult to achieve without at least reviewing new chapters. If you're concerned about consistency, you should probably consider starting your own private/moderated story (private is both simpler and more challenging). As it stands, you'll be playing wack-a-mole with every new chapter, trying to fix your canon so they all make sense together. There's already nothing you can do about style and quality differences between branches.
Thanks for the replies, seems all fairly reasonable so far. I will definitely go for the contact the Writer approach. Worst case scenario i can always change a name. Yeah definitely. I am very protective of my own story i'm currently publishing, thats why i made it private, but if someone where to add something to my path in the story mentioned here it would probably make me very happy. Really is a case by case basis. I wish people would be a bit more eager to comment, but given that i never commented once in im my years of reader only i can hardly blame them lol True, completly consistency is something that is pretty much impossible, as there are bound to already be contradictions(for example in this story there are already two different school nurses) I won't really beat myself over the head with it to account every minor thing, but hey for example one writer in the story gave the by the original writer yet unamed mother a name, another portrayed as a complete psycho, i really like building on top of stuff like that. You made a good point about not adding to to the last chapter of a path, especially since that was exactly what i did, lol. I definitely will try to avoid that.
This is one of the reasons to consider participating in the NaNoWriMo: Chyoa Edition projects. It’s a good exercise for authors to practice playing with other people’s characters and ideas, and getting comfortable with your own ideas being taken places that you hadn’t intended. I found it pretty exciting.
As there is no username shown, the user has deleted their account. I don't see any problem in using characters from the same story. If you introduce an existing character in another branch, it might be good to describe the character as the reader might not be familiar with the other branch. Do not copy the description from the other author's chapters without their permission! To reach a certain amount of consistency, I would also suggest only using characters who are already established to a certain degree in the other branch so the character doesn't act completely different in the branches. But there are different viewpoints, so some see it as an advantage if every branching point creates a new universe with different unknown pasts. You could also ask them if they already have created a draft chapter at that position. (The chapter that gets added first will be the uppermost, even if it gets published later.)
