Non-Humans R Us Newsletters

Interactives

This newsletter article is about Interactives, WDCs equivalent to those “Chose Your Own Adventure” books. In many ways, Interactives are the only thing common among all of us. No matter if we write about Fantasy things, Sci-Fi stuff, or if you try to scare someone with Horror items, at one point or another, we take a look at an interactive, and we go down the various paths that the writers have made.

Now, just are Interactives? Well, they are those items that anyone, who has an account on the site, can add to. The first couple of chapters start with the possibility of five options, and then three, and then just two, unless someone makes a One-Path thing, or unless things are changed by the Site’s Hosts, The StoryMaster and The StoryMistress . In many ways, an Interactive can be described as “Choices in Life”, because you start at a crossroads. Take one path; you become the king of the country. Take the second; you become the most wanted man in the country. Take a third path; you end up dead in a ditch. Take the fourth, you’re a farmer. Or, you can stay right where you are, and nothing happens. It’s all your choice, as your path connects to the paths that others have taken.

Let’s talk about adding to Interactives - the Do’s and Don’t’s as it were. I’m not going to tell you how to make an Interactive, or how to make an Addition to one – there are items dedicated to that on the Site, Writing.Com 101 being that - it’s a book the Site Hosts, SM and SMs own and add to. However, I’m going to tell you about the Basic Rules that one should follow.

1. The Rules- The owner of an Interactive tends to give out the Rules for the interactive. Such rules include, but are not limited to:

A. What the interactive is to be about.

B. What is Allowed in the Interactive.

C. What is Not Allowed in the Interactive.


2. Spelling and Grammar – This should go without saying. Just recently, I had to delete some additions to my one interactive. The spelling and grammar alone warranted that. After all, poor spelling and such can bring down the Star Rating of any item.


3. Stay within the Item Rating – E through XGC. That’s another reason I deleted those additions- it would have turned my item, which is 13+ into an item that was 18+, if not higher.


4. If the item is a Fanfiction, where the story is clearly based off of another story, try to keep the Characters within Character. If need be, do some research – watch the movie or read the books the fanfiction is based off of. Heck, there’s even Wikias and Wikipedia to get the basics if nothing else. In fact, this was one of the major reasons I deleted those terrible additions.

• Overall, those additions were for my Monsters Versus Aliens Sequel interactive, and they made General Monger, one of the Secondary Main Characters, into someone with a Ginormous sexual desire, and overall, um, anyone got a vomit bag? The additions were just plan terrible. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against erotica or any of that, do a little bit of writing there myself, but, good grief- those additions were so bad, I deleted the Emails from my Trash. Okay, done with that bit.


5. Another important thing is to not write garbage additions. Sure, you might not like an interactive, but if you don’t like something, don’t add to it. The reason for this is very simple – it reflects badly on you. Either others will think that you are a Troll of some sort, or that you’re biased against a group, or some such thing.


6. Another thing is to get in contact with the owner of the Interactive, especially if you’ve got questions. I recently started adding to a Red Riding Hood interactive where the Wolf is female, and in the rules there, Red could be Female or Male, but Wolf had to be Female. Well, I started something were Red and the Wolfess are lesbians, but there was a little question in the back of my mind; what if the pair had a set of Husbands who were lovers themselves? So, I asked, and got the approval, so long as Red and Wolfess stay the main couple of course.


7. In fact, get in touch with the others who add to the interactive. After all, if they write good stuff, you might want them to add to yours. In fact, they might make good friends – that’s how I met some of my earliest friends.


8. There will come a time that you may not add to an interactive. This has happened to me – there are interactives that I once plugged 20+ Addition to, but now I don’t touch them. Is it because I don’t like them anymore? Well, there are some out there that I don’t like the direction the branch has gone. Others, well the owner isn’t on the site much, and I don’t want to add to an item with an absent owner because if I make a mistake, there’d be no way to get a hold of the guy. Others, well, I lost interest in adding to them. Also, sometimes it’s difficult to put my fingers on the keyboard, and plug away.

In short, when it comes to adding to an interactive, sort of put yourself in the owner’s shoes for a moment. I mean, if you’ve got an interactive, you’d like the additions to be nice, well written, fit neatly with the storyline, and actually be an addition. Now, I can understand situations where you’ve got to make “Extra Options” due to a lack of choices, like in my “Anthros Versus Zombies” Interactive, where this one character, a horse named Lucas Willow, meets up with his Commanding Officer – Male Human, Female Human, Male Anthro, or Female Anthro – I went “Male Human” and “Other”, and on the “Other” I went and added a couple of more Additions for the other three choices, but then I went to the “Male Human” option, and created a storyline with a male human CO.

Another thing, as I was mentioning, was to think about the owner as yourself, in fact, you are a part owner, as anything you add is yours. I mean, if the story is about a bunch of children running through the fields, catching butterflies, or other childish things, and that’s what the story is meant to be about, it wouldn’t be right if suddenly a bunch of masked men just showed up, and just killed them. I mean, it would ruin the story, now wouldn’t it? Of course, if the plot of the interactive was to have those children killed, and the interactive was rated for it, and all that – well, murder stories, and other similar topics, aren’t my regular cup of coffee, but I wouldn’t have any problems with it, so long as I had that warning ahead of time, as it were. I mean, when it comes to something like a War story or a Vore story, or some other such story where the Main Character is likely to get killed, there tends to be a Heads-Up in the Rules, and the item’s rating reflects the level of violence.

Overall though, when you make an addition, one of the thoughts you should have in mind is this - “Is this something that I’d like to show up in one of my own Interactives?” - and another is, “How well does this addition reflect my own writing abilities?”

Let’s face it, that Addition is a representative of your writing skills. If you write good quality additions, people will check out your own work, like your short stories and such. However, if you write poor quality additions, most interactive owners will delete it within 30 seconds, or less, and others, who might have seen the addition before it was taken down, at best, you’ll be taken as a poseur, or a pretender, or at least someone who can’t read/write/type, and at the worst, you’ll be seen as a troll. If you’re seen as a poseur, well, there’s a chance that people might talk to you, in a friendly manner, and perhaps educate you on the topic. However, if you’re seen as a troll, no one will take you seriously, and few people will check out your work.

That’s it for this Newsletter. So remember, when you’re making your choices, there is no wrong path, unless you’re the one who makes it wrong. Now I’ve got to figure out which Interactive I’m going to add to. Do I pick this one where the main character finds himself in a world full of giant wolf anthros? Or do I pick the one where the main character was kidnapped by a dragon? Or do I add to this Disney Robin Hood Fanfiction? Or, do I add to that story about the Female Big Bad Wolf? Decisions, Decisions.