Senshi1
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So I've been getting way back into writing lately, and finally decided to open a deviantART account, as well as submit stories here. I've been kicking some ideas for stories around, and one stuck with me and I wanted to see what everyone thought.
What I've been doing is experimenting with random plot-turns. By this, I mean at certain points in the story, the direction things follow will depend on something random - in my case, the roll of a dice.
An example would be this. Say in a story, your main character is trying to outrun somebody - police, bandits, their irate ex-lover, whatever. You roll the dice to decide whether or not they succeed. The story will then take a turn depending on the result you get.
As a writer, I've found this very refreshing and fun to do. It gives my own stories a hint of unpredictability, so that even I, the writer, can not predict what exactly will happen. It makes me (and the characters) think on my feet and is a lot of fun to do.
But here's my question - what would it be like to read? Needless to say I wouldn't roll for just anything - it wouldn't be a toss-up between an exciting development and an anticlimactic buzzkill, more like a toss-up between two different but (hopefully) equally entertaining paths. Think of games like Infamous, that have karmic choices that determine the endings.
Would this be interesting to somebody if, say, I was writing a story they requested? I know some people will have every little detail planned in their heads, but will some prefer the unpredictability of this style? Particularly if the story involves somebody they know (my area of focus, as one or two will already know, is people who are married or in a relationship being kidnapped/tortured by somebody other than their partners).
Thoughts appreciated. I'm halfway through a story I'm writing using this system. If I post it here, I'll include (after the story) the points where the "pivotal moments" occur.
EDIT: I just realised that this should probably be in the Writers' Workshop section. My bad - I haven't been here long enough to figure that out yet.
What I've been doing is experimenting with random plot-turns. By this, I mean at certain points in the story, the direction things follow will depend on something random - in my case, the roll of a dice.
An example would be this. Say in a story, your main character is trying to outrun somebody - police, bandits, their irate ex-lover, whatever. You roll the dice to decide whether or not they succeed. The story will then take a turn depending on the result you get.
As a writer, I've found this very refreshing and fun to do. It gives my own stories a hint of unpredictability, so that even I, the writer, can not predict what exactly will happen. It makes me (and the characters) think on my feet and is a lot of fun to do.
But here's my question - what would it be like to read? Needless to say I wouldn't roll for just anything - it wouldn't be a toss-up between an exciting development and an anticlimactic buzzkill, more like a toss-up between two different but (hopefully) equally entertaining paths. Think of games like Infamous, that have karmic choices that determine the endings.
Would this be interesting to somebody if, say, I was writing a story they requested? I know some people will have every little detail planned in their heads, but will some prefer the unpredictability of this style? Particularly if the story involves somebody they know (my area of focus, as one or two will already know, is people who are married or in a relationship being kidnapped/tortured by somebody other than their partners).
Thoughts appreciated. I'm halfway through a story I'm writing using this system. If I post it here, I'll include (after the story) the points where the "pivotal moments" occur.
EDIT: I just realised that this should probably be in the Writers' Workshop section. My bad - I haven't been here long enough to figure that out yet.
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