Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Come up with a story and stick with it, damn it

Back in grade school, the Choose Your Own Adventure books might have been my favorite series.

Or maybe it was the Encyclopedia Brown books, but there was always a huge sense of anticipation when the big box arrived from the book company.

I also remember that it was a nice scam for teachers on book day, because they got a full morning of distracted-kids time.

It's also an excellent way for writers who are too wishy-washy to stick with a plot to earn a living.

If I remember right, the points in the book where you had to choose how your adventure would proceed usually involved some sort of choice between "right" and "wrong." Pick "wrong" too often, and your story came to an abrupt end. So you weren't allowed to be the bad guy, which might be all idealistic and all, but isn't very realistic.

Anyhow, Something Awful found a bunch of books in the series that didn't make the cut.

Choose Your Own Adventure Books That Never Quite Made It [Something Awful]

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Family Guy just had a funny bit Sunday about Peter reading one of those adventure books. Only boys read those books.

(I loved Encyclopedia Brown, too.)

Anonymous said...

choose your own adventure - awesome! I'd forgotten about those!

I do remember book day. nothing like getting the form, filling it out, and then anxiously awaiting the book's arrivial. I wish they still did that in the office today!

Vlad said...

grande eagerly awaits "Choose Your Own Adventure Guide to Macromedia Flash Professional 8"