Screencast of How to Internally Link a Bookmark in Word

Here's my old post explaining how to set up bookmarks and links, but this is the screencast I meant to make. Wa-la!

Choice Envy

I thought I was being pretty cool in Becca by giving four layers of choices (16 endings). When I wanted to go all daring with an opening triple choice with Lauren, I lowered it to three layers (12 endings). Then in Charlotte I got wonky and abandoned symmetrical choice patterns for whatever I could stuff in, but it still ended up no deeper than four layers (11 endings).

I'm a total lightweight! Take a gander at this analysis. You need to go there because it's interactive. First of all, it is so cool a fan mapped this out, even if it was for English class. (There's also a matching essay.) Second of all, this is what it takes to go from 11 rather character-driven endings to 40 plot-driven ones. I really, really, really want to write something this insane. Just to see if I can.

The last cool thing about Mr. Lord's work is a categorization of the choices. I wrote about my own choice categories back in January. My list of choice types is mostly the same.

Indexing

If you've read any nonfiction ebooks, you've likely seen a hyperlinked Table of Contents. For my books, I created an Index, because a reader compellingly argued that a Table of  Contents would be too spoilerish. She wasn't happy with the Index either, and wanted the choices to be listed numerically. She didn't want any hints of the action happening elsewhere. In the end, that was too unwieldy so I created a rather opaque index. In Charlotte, it worked out that each choice came in a unique setting, so the Index isn't revealing at all.

The other books have more tantalizing links like "In the Water With Luke." Another reader told me she liked the Index, because it spurred her to read on past a scenario that had lost her interest. You need to keep in mind that when you hover over any hyperlink, the bookmark's name appears in a popup. So if you're being as mindful as I'm trying to be about spoilers, you have to name the bookmarks carefully. I suspect there's something to help me with the tic box "hidden bookmarks" but when I mark the box, the popups still appear so I don't get that functionality yet.

Also, hyperlink every "The End" to the index header. I haven't found the need to bookmark the actual endings, but if you wanted to review them quickly, that's what you'd need to do. I certainly don't want to add the endings to the index itself, allowing readers to just jump straight there out of curiousity. By linking the endings to the index as a whole, you're allowing the reader to quickly go back and try other choices, rather than forcing them to scan or reread.

Someone has pointed out to me that anyone who tries to print my book will be lost, unable to jump from choice to chapter without page numbers. I'm thinking about it, but really, if I'm creating a work meant for ereading, I'm not sure I need to hold myself to print consumers. Thoughts?

Do They Really Not Understand Life's Fake-Out Choices?

In my research, I found this article. I wondered if my love of CYOA prepared me to be a better friend. Meh. I think I had that in me. Reading comprehension probably helped, as did my scientific ability to understand cause/effect. I've worked with kids who can't "read" an angry face and deduce their behavior has made a friend mad. I've worked with kids who need "social stories" to comprehend classroom behavior. I've even had friends who are addicted to Drama. So I guess I shouldn't feel patronizing toward the poor slobs in this psych trial... but I do! If you cut down your fellow students, you're probably heading for the dark side, and if you scream at your sweetie, he won't want to be your sweetie.

Sulkathon #sk11 in honor of Romantic Times #rt11

Thanks to Stacia Kane for starting the sulkathon. RT was my first conference as an author and it left a heck of an experience for all other conferences to live up to. No one parties like RT, and I can only imagine the glam LA romance readers are capable of. So here's my own little addition. Leave a comment here or @runemima on twitter about your favorite scifi trope. I'm going to totally pilfer the list and compare it to the offerings I've blended into Becca, Reporting for Duty. I mean, 18 endings... and I was committed to making them all unique. Let's see which lucky commenter wins their choice of my backlist. If I was playing, I'd have to say my favorite scifi tropes are aliens, exploding spaceships, or the light saber.

The Pure Read

When I sat down with a CYOA, I had an extra intense feeling of anticipation. That's because I knew that once I was through that first pure read, I'd be taken to my True End. I was always ruthless with my pure read. I would pause and gaze into the distance, considering each choice from all angles, insisting that I be honest. OH the frustration of not being given a choice I'd actually choose! Encountering the lesser of two evils made me very bitter about a pure read.

Yeah, I'm pretty much admitting to the world the level of my geekiness. There was something magical about being faced with completely fresh scenarios and discovering where they led. If I managed to kill myself on a pure read, I became very superstitious about the day, like the luck from the book would spill over. I'd be jubilant if I scored a positive ending, like it somehow validated my intelligence/humanity/reading prowess.

When I started sharing Becca with friends who don't read, I would talk them through the story. I kept track of the endings they ended up on in a Pure Read. I would look at them with a gypsy-skepticism, like I could suss out hidden depths to their personality by which choices they landed on. When a friend pointed out that by designing a Fake Fake-Out Choice, I was negating their desires to be good/evil, it left me stumped. Oh, yeah. I did have some tricks in there. Well, it's still interesting, anyway!