What Should You Know About Interactive Storytelling?

Here’s what I cover:

• What is it?
• How can writers use it?
• Advantages
• Disadvantages

What is interactive storytelling

Interactive storytelling is a growing trend that allows readers to actively participate in shaping the narrative. With advancements in augmented and virtual reality, stories are no longer confined to the pages of a book. Authors can provide immersive experiences and create narratives that respond to reader choices.

Interactive storytelling allows the audience to actively shape the story rather than passively consume it. Unlike traditional storytelling with a fixed plot, interactive stories let users influence the direction, outcomes, and details through their choices and input. It blends creativity with technology, making each telling unique. 81% of marketers agree interactive content grabs attention more effectively and 66% admit it increases audience engagement. I can attest to this popularity. As a teacher, I occasionally asked students to choose from among several story endings or create their own. A good example is Mission USA, a website that uses interactive storytelling to teach historic events such as the American Revolution, Civil Rights, the Great Depression, and more:

Students click into one of the stories and are asked to make decisions similar to those made during that time period and then experience the consequences of their choices–whether the Loyalists or Tories won, how a family survived (or didn’t) the Great Depression, or something else. Here’s a video to explain it:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb_te-MmM04?si=v9ZG8x8n6TjCGMgk]

Another example many will remember is Oregon Trail where participants were expected to stock their Conestoga wagon to head to the Oregon territories (or California). Along the way, they made decisions such as whether to purchase mules vs. oxen, how to ford a river, how to cure diseases and injuries, and more. Their selections ultimately determined if they survived.

How can writers use interactive storytelling

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