What is this?

The idea behind this take on interactive fiction is simple. Authors post opening paragraphs of a storyline - anything from a few sentences to several pages. Exactly how much they post is up to them. John Q Public can then read the opening, and through suggestions supply what they feel should be the future plot or direction of the story. The author reads these, and chooses one, which is used to create the next part of the tale.

This back-and-forth goes on until the author is satisfied with the piece, at which point he can declare it closed. Ideally the story should be ended so as to provide a relevant measure of closure, depending on the genre, but again this is up to the individual authors.

Authors can specify a genre for their stories, as well as a recommended style for suggestions. Thus one might have a mystery story which is looking for bizzare suggestions, or a drama looking for realistic ones. The author is always in control of the story, though, and so it cannot grow out of hand or off-track as can happen with other interactive fiction - unless the author themselves decides to do so.