SilkWords puts the plot decisions in the reader's hands

"Psst. Ever read a book and hated the decisions the characters made? Wished you could have fixed that? Do I have the story for you ..." — Author Christine D'Abo

That very issue is addressed nowadays by what's known as "interactive romance," where the reader is given multiple choices at key points in the story. Depending on what's chosen, the plot unfolds in completely different ways. The reader can even have a do-over, making new picks.

Wanting to know more, I began with SilkWords. This site started up in mid-2013 as the result of conversation between Keri Multerer, a frustrated mother of three without enough time to read, and her husband, Boyd, founder of Xbox Live and director of development for Xbox One. Out of such conversations opportunities are born! Keri's background in environmental science and genetics didn't necessarily prepare her for a romance startup so Sharon L. Fisher, a well-known science-fiction romance author, joined the team to oversee acquisition and editing.

Checking out the site (membership is free), I sampled a wide variety of stories, ranging from sweet to very hot. According to the founders, SilkWords is growing, with more than 2,500 members and more than 10,000 visits a month.

Curious to know more, I interviewed Sharon next. She's a Romance Writers of America RITA finalist and a three-time Golden Heart Award finalist, so she has serious romance chops! Her most recent novel is The Ophelia Prophecy.

Veronica: What are the most in-demand genres on SilkWords?

Sharon: Our readers like it hot. So much so that six months after launch we switched to acquiring erotic romance and erotica almost exclusively. With that said, we do have very popular sweet and medium-heat stories. And our Reader Vote format stories have been quite popular as well, regardless of sexual content. Our readers also definitely have favorite authors. Genre has been less of a determining factor. If the business model is as successful as we hope, we would absolutely look at launching sites for other genres.

Veronica: How does the "reader-influenced" story process work?

Sharon: Our readers love them! Our authors write an introduction to the story, and at the end of the intro they provide two or more choice points for readers to vote on. The intro goes up for four days, and at the end of that we tally the votes and notify the author. The author writes the next installment, and it typically goes up within two weeks. This repeats for four installments.

Veronica: Sounds like fun. Who are some of your most in-demand authors? How do readers leave reviews?

Sharon: A few of readers' current favorites are Skyler White (who's written paranormal romance and urban fantasy for Berkley and Tor), Jane Nin (who works as a screenwriter in her day job), Erzabet Bishop (multipublished erotica author) and Brandi Evans (Ellora's Cave erotica author).

We have Facebook "Like" buttons on all our stories, and commenting is something we've been talking about for a while. We do plan to add a rating system, and we will likely incorporate commenting or reviews as part of a member-only environment.

Veronica: I was fascinated to find that not all the stories have the classic Happily Ever After (HEA) romance ending.

Sharon: This is something the other partners and I discussed early on. We decided that the "pick your path" format opened up opportunities to experiment with departing from established romance conventions. Also, we felt it enhanced the gaming spirit of the thing to make finding the romantic ending part of the fun! We do ask that all romance submissions have at least one HEA, and all erotica stories have at least one hopeful ending. Our top priority is to create a positive, fun and sophisticated experience for our readers.

Veronica: What's the editing process like at SilkWords?

Sharon: Much like what you'd find at any publishing house. Sometimes it starts with proposals, as we do ask some authors to revise and resubmit. For many authors it's their first time writing interactive fiction. Then we go through developmental edits (one or sometimes two rounds) and copy edits. The author is involved in all steps of this process.

Veronica: What's the attraction for you personally, in being involved in a key role at SilkWords? Will you still be writing your science-fiction romances?

Sharon: I joined up with the SilkWords founders because I thought they had a really cool idea. A no-brainer really. Romance and erotica in "pick your path" format? What's not to love about that? As both an author and an experienced editor, it was a perfect fit, and I brought the expertise they were looking for to round out their team.

And yes, I am absolutely still writing my own stuff. I have my third sci-fi romance novel from Tor out in February (Echo 8). I also have a sci-fi romance novella in progress on Wattpad (Red: Love in the Time of Flesheaters). And I wrote a steampunk "pick your path" romance for SilkWords (A Heart For Copper).

You can learn more at www.silkwords.com.

AUTHOR JAX GARREN'S TAKE

I also chatted with Jax Garren, author of the interactive romance Toxic Love for SilkWords and the non-interactive Tales of the Underlight series for Carina Press. Here's her take on writing interactive romance:

Jax: I love writing pick-your-path fiction because you can always have it both ways. So much of writing traditional fiction is limiting what a character can do, but when I write a pick-your-path story, I can take a character down two totally different roads and see what she'd do. It's great character exploration! Also, because you give the reader multiple options, you can offer a reasonable choice and a more outlandish choice — which is a lot of fun! Let the reader choose whether or not to do the smart thing ... or the gonzo decision that's crazy but just might work.

The biggest challenge writing pick-your-path is creating characters and situations that justify two different decisions. Usually in fiction there's an inevitability to what a character does — she has to make the decisions she does because it is in her nature to react in a certain way under given circumstances. But with pick-your-path, it must be believable that the heroine might make either choice — even when they're nothing alike.

Who doesn't want to tell book characters what to do? Pick-your-path is fun, interactive, joint storytelling. Plus you get to read the story again and again and it changes each time!

You can learn more about Jax and her books at www.jaxgarren.com.

AUTHOR CHRISTINE D'ABO'S TAKE

In the name of thorough research, I devoured the very hot Choose Your Shot (An Interactive Erotic Adventure) from Carina Press and then asked author Christine D'Abo what appeals to her about writing this type of story and how she does the plotting.

Christine: Like a lot of readers, I've sometimes been immersed in a story and wish the characters had made different decisions. As a kid, one of my favorite things to read were the choose-your-own-adventure series. I'd spend hours reading and re-reading those stories, loving how I was the one directing the characters.

The biggest challenge for me was having to plot everything out. I'd gone the route of creating three separate zones for my character to interact in. Each zone required a shift in her personality, and I needed to make sure I didn't miss any of the paths I'd started for her. I'm not normally a hardcore plotter. But for this story, I ended up drawing up a decision tree that outlined each choice my heroine made. This was important not only from a plot perspective, but also for technical reasons. We had to ensure that all links in the e-book worked, that they went somewhere and didn't dead-end. While that might work in a paper book, in the e-format you essentially trap your reader. Not a thing that you want to have happen.

You can learn more about Christine and her books at christinedabo.com.

INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE

I had an absolute blast with the e-book version of A Girl Walks into a Wedding: Your Fantasy, Your Rules (William Morrow Paperbacks) by Helena S. Paige. Here's part of the blurb, and the book experience was fantastic fun — I did it ALL! (Helena S. Paige is the pseudonym of authors Helen Moffett, Sarah Lotz and Paige Nick.)

Your best friend is getting married and she's asked you to be a bridesmaid. You have so many decisions to make ...

Do you ask the gorgeous but mysterious man you just met to come as your date?

Or do you go solo?

Once the wedding weekend gets under way, will you ditch your date? Get down and dirty with the hot DJ? Dodge the disreputable best man?

—

Amazon best-seller Veronica Scott is a two-time recipient of the SFR Galaxy Award and has written a number of science-fiction and paranormal romances. Her latest is Mission to Mahjundar . You can find out more about her and her books at veronicascott.wordpress.com.