i've been a reader and a lurker for a looooong time, first on chyoo and now here, i'm writing The Pendant https://chyoa.com/story/The-Pendant.7260 which is my first story of the sexual kind and the interactive type, so yeah, i am somewhat inexperienced. Now, my question(s) would be, what do you think is better: Focus on the main story line, and add threads for side stories and different paths later on? Divert my attention away from the main storyline for a bit and create different paths? Also, are there any fetishes you guys tend to avoid because it generally isn't liked? personally i'm not too into waterplay, scat, pregnancy and such
Welcome to the fold and good luck with the story! Your first question depend on if you are doing a standard 2nd person choose your on adventure story or a narrative story with different paths. With Choose your own adventure their will be a lot more branches. You will constantly end the chapter with what will choose A, B, C, or etc... Standard 1st and 3rd person narrative your branches will generally come at act breaks where your protagonist is forced to make a hard choice. I stick to narrative story telling so I generally focus on the main story and fill in the side branches while I'm stuck on working out what to write next for the main line. If I were to write a 2nd person choose your own adventure I would constantly be filling in side branches as I went along the progression of the story. As for avoiding fetishes that is up to you as the writer. Be prepared though. The more fringe the fetish the smaller your audience will be. It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it but you should be prepared for less likes and favorites than if you were writing something with broad appeal.
thanks for the reply, i'm writing 3rd person narrative, and currently i am 21 chapters deep into the main storyline, with one other author having written one thread.
This is a case of what's right for one person, isnt always right for the next. In the case of story branching. People like to see forward progress, or deeper threads (I personally will rarely even consider starting a story until its about ten posts deep) in a story. But at the same time, you can find long linear stories on any fanfiction site on the internet. For myself, what I like doing is I'll try to get one thread of the story +5 posts deep. Once that is done, I will write branches for some of the more interesting ideas I can come up with. Now, these extra branches are not always more than a couple of posts deep, at least not right away, but it does go to show the intent to branch out the story, and shows what way(s) I intend to do it. Additionally, I've found that other authors will sometimes start writing from those branches if one catches their eye. All the while, I try to focus at least half of my attention on making forward progress with the longer threads of the story. In other words, keep your eye on the goal, but take a moment to add some options along the way to show that you plan to expand on what's there at some point. As for fetishes, everyone has their own kinks, write what you love, and the people who enjoy similar kinks will have fun reading it, or possibly even contributing to it. Best of luck with your story.
Yeah, that does make sense. i've just been getting the feeling that i've become a bit too consumed by writing the main storyline, and it's very linear path, so perhaps i'll add a different path to take soon.
Another nice thing about starting a couple of extra paths, it gives you somewhere else to start if you experience a bit of writer's block, or just want a change of pace.
It can also be used as a form of dramatic irony. Letting the reader know exactly what will happen if your protagonist chooses poorly in the main thread is a great way of upping the stakes.
