How I Finished My Book: An Experiment/Interactive Novel

I wrote an interactive novel. What that means is that, as you finish reading a section, you are given choices. You get to choose where the story goes and are told which page to flip to in order to continue on the path you are choosing. I decided to write a novel in this style that incorporated contemporary/literary fiction elements, alongside transgressive themes.

            It happened quickly and kind of unexpectedly but now it’s published and alive in the world. In this post, I’m going to explain how this experimental idea I came up with went from an imagined idea into something I love.

Why I Didn’t Write Novels
As a kid, I read books. A lot of books. As a teen, I still read books, but novels since short stories were not frequently marketed to youth. The only short stories I had experience with were ones from my text books in English class, and they were of no topics or styles I was interested in, so I thought short stories were boring.
 
I also loved writing. So what my reading experience taught me then was that, as a writer, I was going to write books. And I tried. A few times, but I never got to the endings. Partially because I lost interest after too long, and partially because I am indecisive.
 
As an adult, post English degree, I read for fun for the first time in forever and, oddly enough, I fell in love with short stories. Short stories allowed me to read things quickly, and with a busy schedule, not worry about if I couldn’t get back to it right away and forget it. I also found the short story’s ability to focus less on plot and more on creative elements alluring. This ignited my passion for reading and writing again.
That was over ten years ago. As a writer, I’ve since only been writing short stories (some recently published ones can be read here). I could dive in, finish them quickly, and easily revise and edit them. It was great. Also, after a few failed attempts at books when I was younger, I didn’t think novels were in the cards for me.
But then lightning struck. After thinking about unique forms for a book, and feeling inspired at the right place and right time, I ended up writing and publishing a book.
 
What Inspired My Novel’s Style
In the last few years, I’ve been very inspired by multimedia, different ways to tell stories, and the music industry’s heavy use of collaborations. What if more author’s collaborated? What if stories weren’t just typical stories, but used a variety of ways to tell them?
What about “Choose your own adventure?” But good?
Look, I never read Choose Your Own Adventure stories (or interactive novels like them) as a kid, but I’m aware of them. I am aware that the brand acts more like a game. It’s not about the writing, but about the choices and many options they provide (I have in the last few months bought a CYOA book, and can confirm it’s no literary fiction). But… what if, it was about the writing? Think about your favorite book by your favorite author, and being able to reread it in many ways? Dive into the characters as they go through different experiences you didn’t originally read? What if you had any kind of say in what they did, and could make your own story?
I have a document where I keep all of the ideas I come up with for writing, because otherwise I’d forget them all. When I imagined a literary fiction, CYOA book, I added it to my writing inspiration document. Still, it was a faraway dream. I’m not a long-story writer. How do you decide on endings?
But then I did it. As a teacher, I had two weeks off for winter break. I looked at my writing inspiration document and at that possible titles I’ve come up with. I looked at Raising Women and know it wasn’t a short story… I knew what I had to write, and just… started doing it. After years of being unable to write a book, I found that within two weeks, most of my interactive novel was written (then I finished it off two months later, and then spent the next few months revising).
 
Why My Novel’s Style Worked for Me
I found that this style worked for me. Like really well. I found that I really loved it. I found that this felt like the most “me” thing I’ve ever written, and I very quickly decided to independently-publish it. I suppose these are the reasons why I was able to finish it.
To accomplish this type of book, you have to do planning and mapping ahead of time. Otherwise you can’t know what scenes you’re jumping to. This process worked for me because it gave me an idea of where I was heading, so I knew what I needed to write. There was no writing just to write and hope I got there (which is how I previously tackled books and obviously one of the things that hadn’t worked for me).
This interactive novel process made it feel a little like I was writing a bunch of short stories, which kept my focus easier. Additionally, it felt like I could worry less about complete plot consistency since the story didn’t work as a whole. After a car crash years ago, I struggle with memory and added to the reasons I didn’t tackle long texts. In the interactive style where we’re jumping scenes and experiences, I didn’t have to worry as much about consistency. Just about writing that new scene as its own story; however, because each scene was about the same characters and connected to a bigger story, it could turn into one that was much longer than a short story. This meant instead of writing a short story, I could finish a book.
Also, picking an ending is hard. How do you pick one? Which is the best? I told you – I’m indecisive. Conveniently, with this interactive novel style, I didn’t have to pick one. I could pick as many as I wanted, and I could play with them. This made me feel much better than feeling like I was working towards an ending that I was stuck with or didn’t feel great about.
This experimental style also allowed me to experiment in other ways. I love flash backs. This story wasn’t quite linear, or at least not “this happened, then this happened, then this happened” because of the jumps, which allowed me to pull in a lot of flash backs to supplement the scenes I was building, which helps the reader feel like they are still getting exposition.
This type of story made me rely heavily on the characters. There was plot, but because the plot gets broken up into different scenes you can jump to, the plot could be different for different readers so it wasn’t really about the plot as much. And honestly, exploring characters in so many short scenes that were heavily focused on the characters really made me love them. It made me want to explore them more and write more. It was easy to keep going.
 
Things to Be Aware of
The way I organized this story was not linear.
 
It was not like this:

I did it more like this:

(except it was a little bit more wild because there were a lot more scenes). I admit, it was wild and a lot of work, but this passion project was worth it to me.

This meant that some scenes would come up in different pathways – not just one. Which meant, I couldn’t describe things that referenced something that happened in, say the scene before, because it may not have been the scene before depending on where the person jumped from. The story ended up with 24 possible pathways, but a lot of those pathways were made up of a variation of the same scenes, just in different orders and some unique scenes.
I also frequently couldn’t describe setting. This was because of the same issue as before. For example: there might be a scene in the church that gives you the option to jump to two girls having a conversation. A scene in the bedroom might also jump to the two girls having a conversation though, so I couldn’t describe where they are sitting, having a conversation, because it may be totally different depending on the story you’re reading based on your choices.
This all made beta readers very important. Beta readers, who had never read the story, were very helpful in reading one pathway and letting me know if jumps didn’t quite make sense in a pathway, or if things got referenced in a scene that were never talked about in their previous scenes. I had to make sure that every pathway was able to be read, on its own, and make sense as its own story.
BUT, the really cool thing is, you can read the book over and make other choices, and learn even more about the characters because you’ll find that other secrets and experiences get revealed in other pathways.
 
My Process:
The steps I took to sketch out and write the novel:
The title
Idea of the opening scene
Thinking about which other scenes would develop from that
Sketch out a map with short scene summaries that I could draw arrows between to show pathways
Figure out different endings
Write!
Revise a ton
 
Conclusion
In the end, I wrote a book I wasn’t expecting, and I did it because I wrote in a way that worked best for me. I’m sure this process sounds convoluted, and maybe like a lot of extra work than a linear novel might be, but I loved the puzzle that it was, and that it incorporated many of my strengths. I love Raising Women, and am so grateful I get to share it with the world. If you’re interested it out, and have fun making terrible decisions!

You are a sixteen-year-old, Midwestern girl who finds yourself unable to identify with other girls, let alone women, mothers, or wives. Then you meet Roman, an ex-convict, who introduces you to the dangerous and honest side of womanhood that no one else has been able to. As Roman unapologetically places you in undesirable situations, you begin to make self-destructive decisions. Depending on which decisions you choose, you may challenge the desperate attachment you have to Roman, or get caught in an undeterrable open relationship with the charming, older Evan – all while you try to understand what it means to be woman, or real, or both.
 
In this interactive novel, readers have twenty-four possible pathways with four unique endings to explore the wild that is growing up girl.

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