Hi there folks! I have a bunch of story ideas in my head, and I was hoping to gauge interest to see which of those ideas my fellow Chyoa denizens would be most interested in reading. Each story will have mostly vanilla kinks and sexual content, with the exception of non-consent which will be addressed per story below. Brief summary of poll options: Fantasy war with a large cast What makes it unique: Follow a large cast of characters in a fantasy world where war is being waged between a holy order, the tribesmen of the plains, forest dwellers (elves, beast people, etc. unified by a common cause), and a group of mercenaries with no loyalties. Power in this world comes from powerful relic weapons or pacts made with strong physical or spiritual beasts. A linear story with one ending. Use of game variables: None Estimated depth: 750-1000+ pages Amount of smut: Mild, likely with a few non-consent scenes Father and his three adult daughters What makes it unique: Though the concept isn't unusual, what would make this story unique is the use of game variables and conditional text to allow players to be a good dad, bad dad, or something in-between. Stat checks determine which chapters a player has access to. Bad ends also included. Use of game variables: Moderate-Heavy Estimated length: Highly dependent on player choices, but 200-350 pages at its longest Amount of smut: Heavy, non-consent is optional. Romance visual novel What makes it unique: An anime style romance where the reader will progress visual novel style. This means there will be a common route in which the player gets to know each heroine, with several choices interspersed using variables to track affection. At the end of the common route, the reader will be locked into one girl's romantic story, which can then branch into multiple endings per character. 5-7 main heroines, with several shorter side character routes chosen by readers in polls. Use of game variables: Mild-Moderate Estimated length: 50-100 page common route, followed by a 200-300 page main heroine route. Common route can be skipped after the first read. Side character routes anywhere from 25-100 chapters. Longer pages with 2000-2,500 character counter per page at the longest. Amount of smut: Moderate, but backloaded into heroine routes besides a few mildly risque situations per heroine in the common route. Very unlikely to have non-consent. Desert island survival thriller What makes it unique: A handful of viewpoint characters (male and female), and nobody is guaranteed to survive. Things get quite intense as the story escalates. A lot of people think of Lost when they hear 'desert island', but I haven't seen that show and won't be knowingly borrowing elements from it. Use of game variables: None, but there will be a few different branch splits and bad ends to give the reader room for interactivity. Estimated depth: 300-600 pages with some variation depending on which story path the reader chooses Amount of smut: Mild-Moderate, with some unavoidable non-consent scenes. Middle-aged private detective murder mystery What makes it unique: A twisting murder mystery narrative taking place in a small town, possibly a period piece. Anyone except the protagonist might be the murderer, even people he's sleeping with. A very serious story partially inspired by a visual novel called Kara no Shoujo (small aside, but this is one of the most well written visual novels I've ever played). Here is the opening for that VN, to give you an idea of what the mood/vibe of my story would be Kara No Shoujo OP (don't watch past 2:14 if you are squeamish, there's a rather violent image at the end). Use of game variables: None. A linear story with short Bad Ends strewn throughout. Estimated depth: 250-500 pages Amount of smut: Mild-Moderate, with non-consent scenes in some Bad Ends. Sci-fi space crew What makes it unique: Lots of varied locations as the crew visit new planets. Should be a mostly fun, balls to the wall space metal adventure with spaceships called "Casings" that have very little machinery and are powered entirely by the ship's two designated mages. Very heavily inspired by the vibe of the anime called Outlaw Star, with lesser inspiration drawn from Cowboy Bebop. Not a fan fiction. Use of game variables: None-Mild. I'd be trying something odd here, where there would be several main story scenes, and then the player would have the option to choose a planet to have a self-contained adventure on. Kind of like picking and choosing episodes of an episodic story-of-the-week anime or TV show. I may use a smattering of conditional text, but not a ton. Estimated depth: 500-750 pages. Amount of smut: Moderate-Heavy, and I may experiment with the occasional bizarre trope of "comedy rape scenes" that Japanese media (and others, I'm sure) sometimes uses. Might be a little offensive to some people, so beware. Strange house with doors to other dimensions What makes it unique: The protagonist moves into an old house in the middle of nowhere, but discovers that strange visitors come and go through doors connecting to other dimensions. This story would stray pretty far from conventional fantasy, and would have wacky characters designed after various cultures' myths and legends (Youkai, Celtic creatures , etc.) and some straight out of my wacked out mind. A comedy story with smatterings of drama and romance. Use of game variables: Mild. Probable use of some conditional text and maybe some kind of stat tracking. Estimated depth: 200-600 pages. I have no clue where this off the wall idea would go or how long it might go for. Amount of smut: Moderate-Heavy, probably with some absurd or weird scenes just for the hell of creativity.
It'd be an entirely different story, but I wouldn't be against doing such a story in this setting, but with my own characters: A mysterious tree known as Yggdrasil would often appear in the world of the humans, releasing many small orbs into the human world. A small proportion of the orbs are special ones known as "Time Fruits". If a Time Fruit enters a female, she becomes Immortal. If a Time Fruit enters a male, he becomes a crazed winged being known as an "Angel". Rin Asougi is an immortal who runs a private investigation agency in Tokyo's Shinjuku district alongside her assistant, Mimi who is also immortal. Rin often converses with a mysterious unknown individual on the phone. She is often being hunted down by an assassin named Laura who was hired by Apos, an angel who persecutes immortals and is the current guardian of the Yggdrasil. Or this setting, again with my own characters and a female protagonist: Speed Grapher follows the exploits of former war photographer Tatsumi Saiga, who investigates a secret fetish club for the ultra-wealthy called the Roppongi Club. Saiga soon becomes entangled in this secret underground society and the powerful and corrupt Tennōzu Group mega-corporation that operates it.
I watched first few episodes of Mnemosyne a while ago, but never got to finish it. Interesting premise, cool protagonists and I love the yuri relationship. Maybe I'll continue watching it later.
Thing is, the two choices I selected I'd much rather read, but I'd probably not come to read them on this site. Because I don't expect to find that kind of well written story here.
While I’m definitely an amateur writer by all accounts, I do take my writing seriously and put forth quite a bit of effort. I’m no Brandon Sanderson, Tolkien, or any of the other greats. Not even close, obviously lol (I assume one of your choices was the fantasy story?) but to what limited abilities I possess, I want to make something at least readable and consistent. Like, I have a software I use for story outlines and consistency tracking etc.
You guessed right. That's nice to hear that, Also I'd be interested in hearing what software you use for your outline. I only like to write on a recreational basis but have a bad habit of turning stories into heavy plot. Anyway, the chapters that usually grab my attention on this site are the chapter where the protagonist shows some level of selfawarness, where they reflect on what has happened to them/ what they've done, capable of possessing mixed and complex emotions emotion and using those emotion's to cast hopes and plans forward even if they helpless to the games and plans of the author. If that happens on this site, I'd likely read it regardless of what it is. It's nice to hear that you put so much dedication in your work. I guess we all judge basses on what we do ourselves, I manly use this site for relaxation purposes where I don't feel any pressure on quality or chapter length, and as a side-benefit, because I'm not overly invested in what I write I can vent, some odd inhibitions and surprise myself in what direction the story brings me.
Yeah, it started off as a piss take of shows like She-Ra, Steven Universe and Legend of Korra but has now grown into it's own thing.
Did you pick which one you are doing? The story summaries all sound pretty good. I like your approach to each; it gives me confidence that you can do a great job with whichever you choose. Father and 3 Daughters could be interesting in so many ways. It gets tricky to manage on CHYOA, but it would be neat to see the girls’ attitudes toward each other change depending on the father singles one out for rewards or punishments, making her his princess or his pet. I adopted a sci-fi story a while back that has a great setup, has a couple elements in common with yours, and is just begging to be built upon. The tone is fun and wild. Whoever started it included ship diagrams and star maps. It’s been a back burner project for me, and I’d love to collab with someone. Let me know if you have room for a side project discussion. https://chyoa.com/story/Star-Bound.26415
I love the space crew idea, and if I had a third vote I would pick the island thriller. Something about being isolated in an environment like that is exciting. Plus beaches tend to lead to bare feet, and those are fun. For some reason the dad with the daughters made me think of this old British comedy. Do you keep what you do with one secret from the other? How long can you go without getting caught?
As you know from the way your (and every other author's) views drop off immediately at Chapter 2, the correct answer is I (and every other reader) would probably start reading pretty much any of them if it looked interesting, but if it didn't hold my interest as I kept reading, I'd move on to something else. The question you should be asking is which one do you personally want to write first? There are no good ideas. Only good executions. Pick something, anything, and crank out a chapter per day with long-term MC motivation established up front, solid writing, and plenty of sex scenes along the way. Occasionally re-read your earlier chapters and fix the glaring errors as you notice them. Quality > Premise. Git Gud. Master your craft, and it won't matter what you write! Write a poor-quality version of something we said we wanted? And it also won't matter what you write.
This. Romance is a format that implies a specific tone and purpose. VN/Dating Sim is a structure. Most of the rest of the things on the list are some combination of genre/theme/MC/setting. Romance why you're reading, not what you're reading about. VN/Dating Sim is how you're reading it. (I'd also argue that a true Visual Novel experience is impossible on a website like this one that doesn't support full-screen graphics, but I'm assuming they meant a text-based story, perhaps with some images, structured like a Visual Novel, not an actual full VN with music and UI elements and a saved game system.)
I’ve been writing the three daughters story, but haven’t published it yet because I’m tinkering around with the variables. Hopefully that’ll go up sometime this month, and I’ll link it here. I could potentially be up for the collab. I read the first two chapters of Star Bound just now, and I think my biggest concern with collaborating on it, is that the crew (and therefore the protagonist’s sexual partners) are all family members. I’m not against a good incest story (obviously lol) but my current story - Soul Links - focuses on an incest romance, and I’ve been writing out the three daughters idea. So I’ve been writing a lot of incest content as of late, and I don’t think I would want a third incest story on my plate at this time.
