Hello fine ladies and gentleman of Chyoa. Are you up for a challenge?

The NaNoWriMo season is fast approaching and I thought it might be fun for the Chyoa writing community to do our own version of the challenge. For those that don't know about it NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a creative writing challenge whereby a writer tries to write a 50,000+ word novel in the month of November. Our challenge here will be a different one but in the same spirit of encouraging writing and creativity. The first major difference will be that this will be a community challenge. I invite all writers, particularly first time writers, to contribute to this project. The second big difference will be our goal.

As defined by Porneia in the forums a complete Chyoa story must have:

• Every chapter has at least two options. (With the exception of Ending chapters. My addition.)
• All threads have an ending chapter.

Our goal, if we choose to accept it, is to write a complete and finished Choose Your Own Adventure novel in one month's time. Can we do it? Is it even possible for an unorganized bunch of strangers to achieve this? Almost certainly not, but it will be fun to try! I fully realize how impossible this goal is but this challenge is more about the journey than the destination. If this ends in a glorious mess...so be it!

Try to keep this goal in mind as you write. Try to be thinking about endings and ways to link threads together. Also, all we need is two options for each chapter. If there are already two maybe think about adding elsewhere to the story before starting a whole new thread.

I will leave this story on Private until November 1st whereupon I will switch it over to Public. Chaos shall ensue for the month of November (or, if my previous attempt at community writing is any indication, almost nothing will ensue) then on December 1st I will switch it back to Private and the story will remain closed forever more. It will be something of a 2019 time capsule buried in the Chyoa archives. If this takes off perhaps it will become something we do every year.

Please see Rules section below.

The community wins the challenge if we can achieve the goal stated above.

To encourage participation I thought I would add a game element to our challenge. Writers will gain points for contributions made to the story as detailed in the Rules section below. When the story is closed I will tally the points and list the winners of various categories in the final chapter ever added to this story.

Help us writers with feedback, suggestions, and observations in the comment section. If you see a rule broken or an opportunity where two threads could potentially be linked let us know. Please be respectful and constructive. And, as always, hit that thumbs up button if you enjoyed a chapter. Likes are a huge motivator for many authors and just feel good for us. They also let us know what is working and what isn't. Don't be stingy with them.

I hope all this clear. Now, writers to your keyboards. On your mark...get set...GO!