I never seem to get contributions to my stories or threads. I barely even get comments. I have 3 stories I have started (I'm ignoring the clicker since even I never got beyond the opening thread on that one) and none of them have had an addition from anyone but me for over a year. I also have a ton of threads in other people's stories where I got to the end of what I had planned and no one ever picked up on them. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. NOTE: The Fairy Tale branch of Normality is an ongoing collaboration, so it doesn't count since I am working directly with CrossC and DA. Although other contributors are welcome, especially in the normality earrings branch.
I have trouble continuing other people's stories. I feel a tad timid about trying to pick up on the ideas of others. I think some people also use the approach where they expect others to manage entire branches of a story. While a valid approach, I feel an alternating system would be enjoyable as well. It's also the method I'm used to on older collaborative writing sites. Hm. I wonder what if there were some kind of story prompt system asking writers to contribute to a randomly selected thread. As I understand, readers can choose to view a random story, so in a way, we have this already. That'd be complicated when you have an entire series of preceding threads required for backstory, and I have trouble sitting down and writing out an entire post at once in one visit.
I've started to add to other stories a few times, but I'm always worried that the other writers will not like the direction I take the story. I don't like the idea of screwing up someone else's story, so I've stuck to my own. As for writers on my stories, sometimes I do try to alternate with them, but then other writers I give free reign of their branch. Jealco has been adding to my story Shadow Hunters and I haven't done anything with his additions because I know he has some great ideas. We bounce ideas off each other and I'm honestly really excited to see what he does from here with his ideas. As for getting contributors, an idea might be to try and contact some of the people who have left feedback. Start private conversations on here on the forum and maybe one of them will answer and start adding. If they are like me and GreenBanana and feel a little shy about doing so. If given permission and allowed to talk about their ideas, they might be more responsive.
I think, that doesn't matters at all. You can't screw up a story, because it can be just another branch! (and imo that's the basic idea of chyoo) And just imagine, that other writers have the same problem and sometimes getting stuck in some difficult situations (in their mind). So then it could be really good to add sth. which breaks the knot.
If people want to write, they will. If they don't, they won't. It's that simple, really. We can't really force people to do something, and there's no magical answer that would simply increase activity and attract willing contributors...it's all a matter of the right person finding something that interests them and then deciding for themselves that they want to contribute. I think the best you can do is simply share your stories across as many mediums as you can in the hopes that the people who would naturally want to write for it and expand upon it will find it and do so at their leisure. That's all that can really be done about it. It's for that reason that I have my stories linked across all of my profiles on several different sites, instead of just letting them sit on Chyoa and nowhere else. In the end, that's all we can really do, I think. Basically, the lack of contributors for your stories isn't something that you've caused yourself. It's not you or your writing or the stories themselves or the things involved in them or how it's written or anything like that. It just isn't your fault, nor is it anything that you can really fix or adjust. It's just the way the cookie crumbles. It's for this exact reason that I try to not let my own interest and activity in my own stories be based on how well received it is by others or based on how many people end up adding on to it. If I based my desire to write solely on that, it would go against my original mission behind writing in the first place. I write because I feel like writing, because I have ideas and scenes that I want to develop and share. If people read it and enjoy it, awesome. If people decide they want to get on board and add their own stuff, even better. But if they decide they don't want to do it, I don't let that stop me from writing more and progressing my stories further. I don't think lack of contributors or activities should stop anyone from writing and enjoying themselves as they build a story on Chyoa. Yes, the site is based around multiple people being able to work together on a single story and develop many paths and routes, but just because that is something that can be done doesn't mean it HAS to be done. One story with some branches here and there written and developed by one lone author can be just as good as a large, expansive tale strung together by several. If other people want to add on to your stuff, great. But if they don't, I don't think you should let that stop you from enjoying writing and from creating stories. Well, that's how I feel, anyway...I'm sure some people would hold an adamant opinion about feeling that stories without several contributors could be seen as uninteresting/worthless due to the nature of the site, but I don't feel that way. Hopefully this helped you a bit. For the record, I am very much enjoying Normality and am hoping to contribute to it soon, but I would like to see the path develop some more beyond the coffee shop scene it's currently in—I personally find it difficult to contribute to a story or branch that's barely developed, as I'd like to stay as close to the author's original intentions as possible and that's difficult to do when there's not a decent amount of material already laid out. Some others might feel the same, and maybe that's what stops them from contributing, and then by the time that there is enough material, they've simply lost interest or don't have the time to do so...in the end, lack of contributions and activity isn't your fault, so you shouldn't feel it is. In the same vein, it's nothing that has an effective cure or fix, so you shouldn't worry yourself about trying to bolster its activity (beyond sharing it to multiple outlets as mentioned above, since that's all that can really be done), nor should you feel bad if it never comes along. Just enjoy writing as you would normally; there will always be people who enjoy the ride for what it is even if they don't add on to it themselves. well that wall of text ended up much longer than i planned but hopefully that was at least somewhat inspiring or uplifting or something
It'd probably help if plebes didn't shit around on their SmartPhones playing Angry Birds all day and blogging. Pardon my language. The best expression comes from within, but even so, it's discouraging to find yourself gazing back into an utter abyss and realizing, "If I'd just spent the time thinking about all that in my head rather than typing it all out, I'd be a heck of a lot further along." Such is the fate of humanity.
