Tips To Create/Manage a GTS Interactive

Well, I've been inspired to create another article that I hope will be informative/helpful to some people, so here we go!

This time I'll be sharing some tips and pointers on how to both create and manage a successful giantess/shrinking interactive story here on Writing.com. I've done this multiple times over many years and different accounts, so I've got a pretty good idea of some ways in which you can either bring your story idea to life, or help your fledgling interactive achieve the heights of success. Without further ado, let's jump into things, starting with how to properly create and establish your story.

(This article may be updated as I think of new tips from time-to-time.)

CREATING THE INTERACTIVE

1) Building a Strong Premise

The number one thing that defines a giantess/shrinking interactive on this site is premise. You can't build a good story without a good premise. But what is a good premise? Well, in my eyes, there's two major things you should aim for when constructing your premise. You can either build a story that has a worldbuilding/character premise, or a story that has a unique premise. You can do both as well, but honestly either will suffice on their own.

A unique premise is exactly what it sounds like: an interactive story with a hook that hasn't really be seen before on this site. Look at something like A Shrunken Roommate, which has the hook of a tiny guy named Hunter accidentally leasing an apartment with three unshrunken ladies, and in turn those ladies believing their new roommate is going to be a giantess like them and not a tiny. It's a hook that hasn't really been seen before, and the premise promises some fun shenanigans because of that. Or look at Tiny Tutor, which is all about a brave tiny guy venturing out into the world to tutor beautiful giantesses in a wide variety of scenarios. Another premise unique and strong enough to carry the story forward.

And then we have worldbuilding/character premises, where the hook of the story is just the promise of exploring a fleshed-out world and a fun slew of characters. In A Shrunken Son, there really isn't anything unique about the premise of an average tiny guy living a normal life with friends, family, and enemies. However, when I made that story, I knew full well the premise wasn't unique, so I leaned hard into fleshing out the characters and the world to make them as nuanced and three-dimensional as possible. That way, the characters and setting could carry the narrative, even when the hook was as basic and traditional as it gets.

As I mentioned, it's also totally possible to do both. I think this is done the best with A Shrunken Intern, which manages to have a very unique premise (a tiny guy living out on his own who gets an internship at a law office), and combines it with a fleshed-out world and characters. Great stuff! But, like I said, you don't need to do both, you just need one of these two types of strong premises.

2) Filling Out Your Cast

Characters are the bread and butter of an interactive story. We can't exactly tell exciting stories without a bevy of beautiful giantesses and hapless tiny protagonists to explore scenarios with! So, you've got to make sure that you fill out your cast, and I mean that literally. Before you launch your interactive, your Intro Page needs to have a section detailing the premise of your story and some details on the setting, and then it needs to have a chunk that explains your characters. If you leave the character explanations for the story itself, your work is going to suffer, and you'll be handicapping both yourself and any potential future authors/contributors.

I've found success with the following formula when it comes to writing a character bio on the Intro Page. I write the character's name and age, give a description of their height/weight and facial features, then spend a moment describing their physical appearance in terms of proportions (because, as well all know, those proportions will be put to excellent use squishing and squashing our tiny protagonists). I then detail the character's personality, give a few facts about their personal life, and I definitely make sure to mention their relationship to other characters (like who might be their friend or family member, and what they think about our tiny protagonist). You should use a template either like this or similar to this for your own character bios, as it covers all of the major points of interest a reader/author should know before officially meeting this character in the story itself.

Also of note is the number of characters that should be in your story, specifically when you launch it. There really isn't a magic number, but I would say that your story should have somewhere between three-to-five fully fleshed-out characters when you launch the story. A Shrunken Roommate launched with just three (Morgan, Avery, and Quinn), while A Shrunken Son launched with six (Jenna, Lauren, Mari, Rio, Ashley, Cass). It depends on your premise, but you really want an established group of characters to build off of.

3) Laying Down the Law

Legalistic stuff is never exactly exciting territory, but Rules are an important part of the interactive story process. Every single interactive out there is different, and that's why the Rules section is so important. Rules should always be included on the Intro Page of your interactive story, at the very bottom (so that the fun stuff comes first, and so that the Rules at the bottom leave a lasting impression as the last thing your audience will see).

Some giantess/shrinking interactives allow for giant male content, many do not. Some allow for the switching of perspectives between different characters, some want the focus to always be through the eyes of the main protagonist. Some interactives are written in third person, a lot are in second person. Some interactives allow for micro-sized bridge chapters (also called choice chapters), while others disallow them. Some authors want contributed chapters to be of a certain length, others don't set those restrictions. Some authors take spelling/grammar errors extremely seriously, others do not. Every story is different, so it's up to you to make the unique rules of your own story as clear as possible.

This will also help to cover your butt when it comes to rule-breakers and moderation, but we'll get to that in a little bit.

4) Don't Launch An Empty Story

Way too many times I've seen a fledgling interactive story that looks super interesting, only for the author to make one of the most critical mistakes: they launch the story with one, maybe two chapters, and that's it. This is a catastrophic error. How are you going to build hype for your story with one or two chapters? How are you going to give your audience enough to go off of with one or two chapters? And how are you going to show the promise that your story will soar to new heights if it's launched in such a sorry state?

Here's the trick, friends. You should only even consider launching a fresh interactive if it has at least six chapters written.

Chapter one will be your typical story intro and set-up chapter, obviously. And, at the end of the first chapter, you'll provide your readers with five options to explore from their (even free members on Writing.com can add five choice options to the end of their first chapter). But what you need to do as the author is to also write each of the first installments in those five choice paths. At that point, your story is good to publish. By all means, feel free to write even more than that. I promise you, your story will only be better and more appealing to readers/authors the more chapters it has at launch. But, at a minimum, you need those six chapters (the intro, and then the first chapter in each of the intro's five option slots).

Just for reference, I launched A Shrunken Son with (if I recall correctly) twelve chapters. Then I launched A Shrunken Father with thirty! You really can't shoot too high here!

5) Don't Waste a Character Slot

Except, there's a small exception to what I said above, in terms of the minimum number of chapters your story needs before you launch it. And that exception is this: for the love of the skies above, don't have a character slot on your story's Intro Page if that character doesn't show up in the initial set of chapters you launch your story with. Or to put it another way, don't leave it to your readers to breathe life into a character you promised to show them by putting them on the Intro Page.

So, let's say you've created your three-to-five characters and gave them filled-out bios on your Intro Page, as we discussed above! Awesome! Except, you still aren't done until you've had those characters appear in an actual chapter, and made it so that they have a role of at least moderate significance (enough for your reader to get a grasp on their personality/appearance). You don't want to waste a character slot by having one of your three-to-five characters on the Intro Page not even show up at all in your story. If you do that, you'll face one of two catastrophic problems. You'll either scare your readers away from pursuing that character for fear of messing something up, or you'll get an overeager author who attempts to bring that character to life, but messes up horribly because you didn't lay the groundwork for them!

Let's look at A Shrunken Son, and it's initial cast of six. In the very first chapter, readers are introduced to Jenna and Lauren, and get a solid idea on how both of them work. Then, I wrote at least one or two specific chapters just focused around those two. Then I wrote a few chapters involving Mari and Rio, then a chapter about Ashley. Finally (though it took a bit of extra work), I wrote about three chapters in order to create a storyline where our tiny protagonist goes to California to visit Cass, his aunt, so that she too would have an in-story appearance at the launch of the interactive. I didn't leave anything out, and gave the readers exactly what I promise them thanks to the Intro Page.

MANAGING YOUR INTERACTIVE

1) Write, Write, Write

It's a tall order to be in charge of a giantess/shrinking interactive, because you're tasked with writing like you've never written before. In your story's early days, you have to show the world that you're committed to making this an incredible interactive, and that requires constant writing and chapter additions. Even if your story is slow to pick up steam, even if it seems like you're the only one writing, even if it's tempting to give up...don't. Write your devoted, dedicated little heart out!

This is especially important once other authors take notice of your interactive and begin pitching in. You don't want them to overtake your contributions (at least not at first), so you need to write enough to keep up with them. You also need to write onto whatever they've written. If an author shows interest in a certain storyline or character, add onto their contributions and work to flesh out that character and grow the storyline. Show this new author that you appreciate their additions to your story, and that you'll work alongside them to make new and awesome scenarios!

Also, speaking of showing appreciation, don't be afraid to tip other authors. As long as you've got gift points to spare, send a little love to someone who writes a really good chapter in your story, and provide some feedback as to what you liked about it! It feels nice to be appreciated, and it's a great way to build friendships on this website!

2) Putting Your Foot Down

Look, no one enjoys being the bad guy. It doesn't feel good. But, it's a simple truth of life that if you're running an interactive story, you will get chapter contributions that are...bad. Whether it's because they are low effort, stolen content from someone or somewhere else, or flagrantly break the Rules you established on your Intro Page, it's going to happen. Moderating a giantess/shrinking interactive can be difficult and a bit exhausting when you have to deal with these types of people, but it's necessary for ensuring the health and continued support of your story.

Did someone's chapter have some minor errors? Well, as the owner of the interactive, you can quickly edit those little errors and move on with your life. But were the issues bigger? Putting your foot down when needed is essential. If the chapter broke some major rules, you need to not hesitate in deleting it. What you do from that point is up to you (contact the offending author and explain the situation, leave it as is and hope they don't do it again, or perhaps even flat-out block a repeat offender), but that chapter needs to be deleted, and as soon as possible before an innocently unknowing author adds their own high-quality and rule-abiding addition to it.

This is why I mentioned how important the Rules section of your Intro Page is, as it covers your butt in the event of a messy situation. If you specifically said to write chapters in third person and someone adds a first person chapter, you're within rights to delete it. If you said to not include any male giants and someone writes a chapter with a male giant, you're clear to delete it. These people flagrantly broke the rules, and consequences have to follow certain actions. Your story will be all the better for it.

3) Don't be Afraid of Breaks

I know I just said that you need to write like your life depends on it, but that's only for the initial wave of your interactive being launched. After that (like, after a month or so), don't be afraid to take a break. Don't force yourself to write when you're feeling burned out. Sometimes you need to give your brain a rest from chapter writing, and sometimes you need to more literally give your fingers a rest from typing! Taking a break from your interactive can be a good way to mentally recharge and refresh.

I've found pretty good success in the past when I get a bit stalled out on my interactive by switching my attention to another interactive. No two giantess/shrinking interactives are exactly the same, so simply switching which story you're writing chapters for can really rejuvenate you! Or, maybe you just want to disconnect entirely from Writing.com, and that's perfectly valid too. Whatever helps to recharge you, do it. And hey, chances are likely that you'll come back to seeing even more fun new additions and storytelling potential in your interactive, and you'll be prepped to take your story in brand new and exciting directions!

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And that's everything I've got for you all right now! I hope this inspires someone to create their own interactive!

Have fun writing, friends!