So I see you've come to learn the basics of interactive fanfiction! Congratulations on making it this far already!

So what are interactive fanfictions you might ask? It's really simple when it comes down to it, but the main definition of an interactive fanfiction is:

Interactive Fanfiction - A fan written work that immerses the reader into the story as a character, object, or place, and allows them to choose their own path as the story continues.

So then why are interactive fanfictions better than normal stories? These are just a few of the reasons why:

• They allow you as a reader to take part in the story rather than be a viewer of events.

• They allow you as a writer to continue your story for as long as possible, rather than throw all the action into one chapter and let it die off after that.

• They allow you as a writer to write less (not encouraging you do) since different actions taken by the readers vary in length.

• They make for great audio narrations if you have the time, money, and voice actors to invest into it.

• It brings a whole new, original and creative factor for writing to the table, and is much more fun!

Interactive fanfictions can be of any genre or category as long as they follow one basic rule/guideline; they are able to be interacted with by the reader. The steps in creating/simulating this are more strict though, but can easily be changed up according to your writing style and organization preference.

That being said, interactive fanfictions are kind of like pies if you think about it. If you don't have the crust how will the rest of the pie be supported? If you don't have your filling, how will the pie taste good? And don't forget the toppings, like whipped cream. Where's that extra goodness that comes with the pie if you don't have that? Different parts of an interactive fanfiction are represented by this pie model, and here's the list of steps to achieve that pie as an interactive fanfiction:

1. Find inspiration, or start from scratch. Research your inspiration a bit more and learn as much as you can about it. If you're creating a story from scratch, think over your idea and begin finding any errors or flaws in it you'll have to tackle or fix. (This would more or less represent finding the recipe for that delicious pie, or even creating the recipe yourself)

2. Once you've established the story idea, create a basic storyline for it. This is not, I repeat, not your story idea. Your storyline is what will happen within that story idea. Create a list of events (chronological if you wish) and work out any flaws in them. Keep in mind that the audience, inspiration, influence, or even you yourself may change the story's storyline up at one point, so don't nail down all the exact, specific events. Instead make up broad events that may or may not occur. (This is like the crust of the story, as having no idea to stick to in an interactive fanfiction quickly dissolves it, or causes the whole story to fall apart and end up dead in the end)

3. Now comes the more fun part. Start thinking up and creating the actions, choices, and decisions the reader gets to make/take. Use your storyline as a guide, and expand on it by thinking of events that may arise later in your story. This may be easy or hard for you depending on the story, but keep in mind, your choices presented may not be what the reader wants. So stick to vague line of schemes, so later you'll easily be able to make adjustments. (This is your pie filling of the story, as it will make your readers enjoy the story more and hopefully satisfy them)

4. Start writing your first chapter! Now that everything is pretty much set up, it's time to start bringing your story to life. Establish your story idea and conflict like you'd usually do, and build up on the characters of it. After that, you can bring the reader right in! Introduce your first set of choices, decisions, or actions, and get ready to split your storyline! (This is in one way or another the whipped cream, because the actual writing on paper itself is presented, and it allows the reader to start immersing their own character into the story!)

5. Split your storyline. How do you do this? I prefer making two or more new chapters of the story that are separate for the separate choices, decisions, or actions, and in the first chapter put links to them. Here's a basic example:

"You see an apple and orange on the table to choose from for you afternoon snack. Which one do you choose?

Apple Orange "

You see here that the reader is presented with a choice, and whatever they chose will affect their story. This example won't be a major story changer in the grand scheme, but hey, maybe your character will get food-poisoning from the orange they chose and return home sick missing an important test or etc. The way to take the choices, decisions, or actions in are up to you though.

While we're talking about this, I have an example for a major story changer, but this decision was actually real and changed history.

Back during World War I, Henry Tandey, a British soldier fighting in the Battle of Marcoing (in France), encountered an unarmed German soldier who had been wounded. Henry was about ready to kill the soldier, but hesitated and chose not to fire at this German soldier. Little did he know that this German soldier was Adolf Hitler, who would later start World War II and cause millions of deaths.

Here's two good links to read up on the full story if you're interested or don't believe this real story:

http://www.historyplace.com/specials/different/strange.htm

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Tandey

But this is a prime example of major story changers that you might want to consider and think about while writing. In my opinion every choice, decision, or action should have some sort of well thought up effect and/or outcome. But it's up to you, as I'm just advising you the best ways to create good choices, decisions, and actions.

6. Repeat step 5, continuing the storyline based off those two or more choices, decisions, or actions. Listen to the reader's responses, take feedback and criticism you recieve into consideration, and make changes along the way if needed.

If you follow these steps correctly and continue writing your interactive fanfiction, you and your audience (or even fans) should enjoy your story!

Thanks for reading and I hope this guide helped you in learning about interactive fanfictions and how to create and write them! If you have any questions or feedback, you can email me here: theofficialnewlunarrepublic@gmail.com
or just PM me and even comment here! But please request any changes of added explanations/content in a PM or email. Any hate or intensive criticism posted here will be removed and if it ensues, I will lock this thread for good, keeping you writers limited to PMing or emailing me only! And we don't necessarily want that!

Thanks again, and we hope you'll enjoy this group and ever expanding world of limitless choices!

- Night