#CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE HOW TO#
#CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE FULL#

You can instead give the book to another class. The disadvantage of doing it this way is that everyone in the class knows the possible routes, so they can’t go through the story as a reader with a natural and honest progression. Once you’ve finished, assign each page to a student (or pair of students), who will then write out the details using complete sentences.įinally, compile all the pages, and put them in order according to page number (which may not be the same as a chronological order). Next, randomly give each scenario a page number (except that the very first scenario should be page 1). I might create a diagram like the one in the image above, but you don’t have to just keep asking, “if this happens, what happens next?” and make a note of each step along the way. Perhaps the easiest option would be to plot out the story as a class. Planning & Writing OPTION 1: ALL TOGETHER If you don’t drink the potion, the witch will likely get very angry with you. If you drink the potion, it might turn you into something hideous. “Here, try some of this potion,” says the witch. “Oh good,” she says, “I’ve been expecting you.” You then realize that she is a witch. For example:Īs you enter the wood cabin, you find an ugly old lady in the kitchen, dropping some strange ingredients into a cauldron. It’s only on the page they turn to next that the result is explained in detail, and it may not play out as expected. Write them as conditionals (mostly type 1, but perhaps some of type 0) that includes not just what the reader could do, but what the expected result would be.

#CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE HOW TO#

I’d encourage you to do the same, but you may choose not to.Īfter each scenario – at the end of each page – readers are given two options on how to respond. The FormatĬhoose Your Own Adventure stories are typically written in the present tense and from the 2nd-person perspective. From there, have your students think of possible options following each scenario and consequences following each decision. You’ll want to set up the first level, maybe the first two, either by yourself or together with your students. If you’re looking for some inspiration check out story prompts. You can go heavy into the fictional route with a story of dragons or aliens or pirates or wizards or detectives, or you could start with something a little closer to home such as basing the story on your school or a recent happenstance in your community. The genre and synopsis is completely up to you and your class. If you can merge these into a single result, that will cut down on the number of pages, sometimes significantly. Sometimes when you’re coming up with results, you may find that a result you developed for another choice is similar. This may seem like a lot, but if you divide it up among your students, it might be only three pages for each student (and again, only one paragraph for each page).įind opportunities for paths to intersect. With the latter, readers will only read 6 pages, but they’ll choose 5 of those from out of another 62 possibilities (where the first page is already chosen for them). Plan the paths to go 5 levels deep (which may require up to 31 pages) to 6 levels deep (which may require up to 63 pages).

Write one paragraph (2-7 sentences) for the scenario, then another sentence for each of the choices.

You can make this as complex and as long as you like it, but keep in mind that with diverging paths, the number of pages your students need to write grows exponentially with each decision point. Thus, readers/players have different experiences and outcomes from their friends who go through the same interactive story, since they’ll make different decisions along the way. In the case of the books, readers have to turn to a specified page after making a decision to see the result.Īlthough the different paths sometimes intersect, there are generally multiple (anywhere from two to dozens of) endings. The story then continues down different paths depending on what what choice was made. In an interactive story, the reader/viewer/player is presented with a situation, then two options on how to respond to it.

While they’re less so now, many video games have continued a similar style of interaction. Interactive books were popular in the 1980’s.

#CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE FULL#

Let’s take that activity and flesh it out into a full project! By offering multiple options following each scenario, your class can create their own choose-your-own-adventure story! How it Works

Choose your own adventure