Do I dare attempt a gamebook?

[happydalek]

You know those books you read occasionally as a kid that were usually written in second-person and at the end of each chapter you had a choice of what direction to take the plot?  I called them "pick-a-path" or "choose-your-own-adventure" books.  Turns out, the technical name for them is a "gamebook."  I've been thinking for a few months now that it would be a really ambitious, interesting project to attempt to write one, what with my fondness for plot twists and alternate endings.  I feel like Doctor Who is a blatantly, screamingly obvious choice for a project of this type.  Talk about timey-wimey!  I'd love to twist it so that various plots and storylines would double-back on each other in interesting ways and have a really cool influence on established history and Who canon, and posting such a story online would make the whole thing easier to do.

The problem is...where to start?  And why am I even considering this when I have tons of half-developed projects already screaming for attention?  I could also see a project like this being open to multiple authors, to tackle all the branching plot points and different endings.  it could be epic.   

Comments

[tawabids.livejournal.com]

Brilliant idea! I wrote one about five years ago as a birthday present for a friend, starring her as the "you" and beginning in the real world but gradually getting more and more absurd as about 20+ fandoms and tv/movie casts meshed with the various plots. I think I found it a lot less difficult to write than I expected - basically I just started from page one, and gave 2 - 3 choices every page or so, occasionally linking choices to previously written stories and killing "you" off when it felt like a plot was stalling. It ended up being about 15,000 words, but the whole process was so absurd and unpredictably it didn't feel like a chore to write.

Of course, a canon-compliant, single-fandom story would be a lot different I imagine. Nevertheless, it sounds like SUCH a fun idea. My one piece of advice would be DON'T think ahead - don't try and plan where the stories are going. You'll find they grow in wonderfully unexpected ways and entwine together on their own.