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The one aspect I learned from my map that astonished me is the fact that well over 100 distinct, complete, coherent narratives can be created from a text that consists of only 122 pages. This is astounding. At first glance Choose Your Own Adventure Books appear to be simple children’s books. But they aren’t simple at all. Their design is quite complex.

Mapping out my adventure did not reveal anything that I had not unfortunately found on my own, but rather illuminated the fact that it was possible to read my book forever. True, the astute reader would realize that some choices would only lead back into a cycle, and in this realization they may make the decision to act differently the next time around, but some of us would rather open fire on the aliens every time. There were, in fact, two large loops around which a reader could travel through the story, both times being tossed back to the begining, and within those, a couple of smaller diversions which would negate previous questionable choices. In the end, it was not difficult to find an ending, but it was certainly easy enough to find yourself back near the start, making Hyperspace a potentially very long story. In the same sense, you could end the piece in 6 pages, never having left the street on which you live and never seeing anything of tremendous note.

I read “Beyond The Great Wall” for my COYA book. For me, the mapping process affirmed that the plots contined in the book were most definitely linear.  With only one exception, there was only one way to achieve one of the twenty-two possible endings. It was very interesting to see this all played out on paper.  I definitely expected to see more twists and more possible ways to achieve different outcomes, but you followed a plot and it took you to only one place that no other plots crossed.  I also found it very interesting when reviewing my map for the different outcomes that result from different kinds of decisions.  The decisions that lead to the best and most rewarding endings with the longest story lines were those that were made in good conscious with an expectation of some kind of standard morality or sense of caution.  Subconciously this must have some kind of affect on the reader.

The mapping process crystallized two things for me. The first is that it really showed how lengthy and complex the CYOA books can be. Seeing all the paths and decisions you as reader can take was quite amazing. Secondly it showed me that there was no real coloration between the choices you make and the conclusion. Like if you pick to not do something every time that the outcome will be the same. It was disappointing to find that there is no strategy to have good endings.

My CYOA adventure book entitled, “Grand Canyon Odyssey,” affirmed how many possibilities the journey could include. I had never read a CYOA book before, so I was surprised by all of the different outcomes. Some conclusions were far more interesting and complex than others. There were positive conclusions, such as me living on a plateau for the rest of my life researching miniture dinosaurs, while some outcomes were intense with me and my friend Dalia getting sucked into a whirlpool while rafting down a river. I was also gunned down by a sharpshooter on horseback, attacked by a mountain lion, and trampled by a stampede of horses. While all of the conclusions of the CYOA book were extremely different, they were all interesting and entertaining.

While mapping my CYOA book, I realized how rich it is with different narrative paths.  The map gives the reader the impression that he has a lot of room to wander and explore.  Although there are several different paths to take, however, the map also illustrates the limiting aspects of the book.  The branches in the map are independent of each other.  In other words, one branch leads to a unique narrative path, another branch leads to a different narrative path, and so on and so forth.  The reader has only some control over how the narrative unravels.  The reader can choose the path he or she takes, but where the path leads never changes.  In other words, the reader doesn’t have the option of going back to the decision point once the narrative has ended.

What aspect of your Choose Your Own Adventure book did your map—or did the mapping process crystallize?

For me, the mapping process made me exercise patience.  I was mapping the first branch of the book and completed it without any major issues.  Then, I began to map the second branch, due a connection between the first and second branch, I noted “oh nice, it maps out to the other branch,” thinking I would be done soon.  After two hours went by, I counted the number of endings and I had forty-two instead of the book’s advertised thirty-eight.  This was a problem.  Instead of starting from the beginning of the second branch, I decided to go backwards from the endings that I had missed initially.  So when asked, what did the mapping process crystallize for me?  It crystallized the mapping process should be done from beginning to end.  Three to four hours later, I had worked backwards from several endings back to the beginning; it was not an easy task.  Not all pages refer to exact page numbers, some are a page or two behind and it was rather difficult to map it this way.  However, having mapped the book forward and backwards I have a better sense of how CYOA adventure books work in terms of construction.  The map itself did not reveal any specific moral or ethical values; it did however reveal that there are three thematic endings, which were: a successful life, somewhere in the middle and death.  At least in my book, out of the 38 endings, 21% were happy, 31% were somewhere in between and 44% resulted in death.

Ultimately, I didn’t feel that my particular Choose Your Own Adventure book really created that many adventures for the reader. My final mapping revealed that the book had only eleven possible endings (two in which I died, nine in which I lived). When I went back to my map and read the endings, none of them seemed to resolve any of the issues that the beginning of the book addressed. In the endings where I lived, the author gave my character an exit point- but no real conclusion to the narrative. Instead, he concluded that the protagonist would go on to avenge the death of his family, continue his search for his hero, or wait around until the war in China was over. Each possible narrative was left open-ended. Judging by other’s books, I think my choice (“Chinese Dragons”) was one of the more rare ones in terms of its short length. Everyone else’s books seemed to have more endings and more paths to choose from.

The one thing that was crystallized by the mapping process was the fact that several of the stories overlap. While we’re reading the stories, a page or two might look or sound familiar, but it is really made concrete when you can see the arrows cross over other paths. The book, itself, seems so simplistic, but upon creating the map and seeing the interworkings of how the stories are intertwined proves otherwise. There are so many intricate details involved with this process it’s interesting to actually see those details layed out infront of you.

Before I did my map, I wondered about the connections between choices and outcomes. I wanted to know if there could be any distinguishable trends with how to story plays out based upon the choices you make. After I finished my rough draft, it was difficult to tell how the storylines played out. For my final version, I auto formatted it with straight lines which created a much more understandable map. It was then easy for me to see how the choices led to their respective outcomes. After looking over the final version, I realize there was really no trends and similar choices led to random and different endings. Interesting to note, choosing to follow a stranger early on in the story is the only way to get to the bulk of the story.

The map also broke the story into 4 main tree sections, creating a great visual of the story. Like a key, it allowed me to see which nodes opened to the biggest structures and which choices lead to quick endings, good or bad. Additionally, the map revealed the book’s simplicity and lack of depth by pointing out the low amount of nodes and the accompanying two choices.

Heading into the assignment, I was nervous about what exactly lay in store for me. Mapping out an entire CYOA book seemed like a monumental task. As a child, I remember reading some of these and never reaching every single possible conclusion. Now I was supposed to figure out every single pathway?

I know I got  lucky. My book, “Dinosaur Island”, had a measly 13 possible end scenarios. I saw other books with more than 30 and some with more than 40. That seems absurd. How do you even cram that many endings in to a 120 page book? Anyway, I know this assignment wasn’t hard for me  because I got a beginner’s book, but I feel for those far less fortunate than me.

Writing the paper gave me a chance to look back and really think about all I learned while reading. What did “Dinosaur Island” teach me? Absolutely nothing. A few of the “altruistic” decisions led to my death while some of the selfish ones led to me not only surviving, but making a ton of money on top of it all. There was no discernible pattern in terms of what kinds of decisions led to positive or negative endings. In short, writing the paper really made me think that “Dinosaur Island” was one lousy CYOA book.

This is my first time ever doing a blog, with that said compared to the Hegirascope, I thought that this was a vast improvement. I enjoyed how the story is told with some interaction from the audience. The minute I turned into the webpage the first thing that drew to my attention was the stark contrast of the black and white. Its so fuzzy that you can not make out the features of the couple. It could be anyone. In the first frame it shows the couple and a window. You can see that the couple aren’t close, it seems as if there is physical as well as emotional distance between them. The window draws you in to take a glimpse into their life and find out how the story unravels, because your peeking into their life through the window your only getting glimpses and hearing certain things without knowing the complete story. Therefore your left to come up with your own conclusions, thats what I found most fascinating. 

As your going through the story you start wondering what war was the boyfriend in??? How long was he gone??? What happened with the neighbor that has upset him so much?? There is a hint of infidelity… at the same time she say “No Never”. I felt that story left more questions than answers. 

In the last frame there was the authors name and the MBCBFTW museum link. It was great seeing other peoples take on the story and all the different aspects to this one story.