The Choices App: A Minor Obsession Sparks a Writing Frenzy

By: Star-Spangled-Eyes

Have you ever played a game on your phone or tablet, and had to sit through those random ads to get more coins, diamonds or whatever it is that you need to continue playing that game? If you're like me, you have.

And boy am I glad I did! One day this past February, I was playing a word game on my phone when, through an ad, the Choices App was first shown to me. It was that cheesy ad that showed the main character facing a major decision: Do I say yes to this Love Interest's proposal, or tell him I'm in love with someone else?

The ad's purpose was successful in bringing me to the app store where I promptly downloaded the free app. My curiosity was piqued, and I was open to exploring it further. Little did I know that downloading this app would assist me in kick starting my writing career.

Choices: Stories You Play, in case you've never heard of it, is an app that harbors eleven different genres, and over 30 different virtual books not including sequels and spin offs of some of those original stories.

What makes this app and its stories unique is that they are graphically designed, narrative stories that allow you, the reader, to go through each book with your customized Main Character (MC), and make decisions throughout the story based on how you want it to proceed.

The app gives you the power to name your MC – and even name some of the other characters in the book – as well as choose your race, hair style, and clothing. Once you choose that in the beginning of your desired book, the story begins! The book is written in the second person point of view (POV), where the narration will say things like, "You apply sunscreen to yourself before hopping into the ocean".

Speaking of second person point of view – this could not be more of a genius move by Pixelberry Studios, the creators of the Choices App. By using this POV, the reader easily becomes immersed into the story feeling like they are the ones experiencing everything the MC does. How do I know this? Because I've played it, and I am one of those people who has felt completely immersed. Don't worry, I'm still very aware of the real world!

Although I haven't read every single book on this app, I have indulged in many incredibly written stories that have captured my full attention ranging from a sultry vampire series, to reading about a vengeful courtesan in ancient Rome, to being the captain of a ship in space, to escaping the police after stealing high end vehicles with a rebel crew. These books are the very reason for so many neglected chores and late nights of binge reading.

The app is free to download, but there are in-app purchases – why wouldn't there be?! The app gets you hooked, as mentioned above, and what they strategically do next is get you to spend diamonds on certain scenes or "choices" in the story. Sure, you can read through the entire book without choosing to spend diamonds on the choice, but you are severely missing out on certain aspects of the story. By the way, diamonds cost real money if you're not willing to farm them or wait to accumulate the measly bunch of free ones you can collect each day.

Did I mention they also put their own music to each scene? It blows my mind how amazing this app is! The music even changes based on the mood in the story. For instance, if you're about to get intimate with a love interest, the music is soft and sexy, but when you're running for your life or in a fight scene, the music is fast-paced, and gets your adrenaline pumping! They also have time-sensitive choices as if you're in real life and have to react quickly to a situation. Do you see how easy it is to immerse yourself in this app?

Since my addiction to Choices began in February, I have been inspired by one book in particular: The Royal Romance. It's one of the first stories the app introduces to you, and for good reason. When I first began reading, I thought it would be the cliché story about an American who met a Prince from a foreign land, and she travels to his country to find true love. Sounds cheesy and done to death, right? WRONG.

I cannot even begin to describe how amazing this story is. The characters' development over time, the well-planned out storyline of the books (there are three books to The Royal Romance, not to mention a new spin off series called The Royal Heir, and a short holiday special), and the irresistible love interests that surround you all make this series worth reading.

I've thoroughly explained this app and my favorite story to not only show you how this works, but to hopefully reveal just how easy it is to get roped into it. I have no regrets for the countless hours I've spent reading and re-reading these stories, and even the real-life money I've spent, and here's why.

As I read The Royal Romance, my imagination began to soar as I wanted to include extra scenes here and there, or expound upon the story of my MC and her favorite Love Interest. I finally put pen to paper, or finger tips to keys in my case, and began writing those "moments in between" that the story didn't have before, or my very own fan fiction! As I became more confident in that, I found myself writing a brand new series of my own, continuing my characters' stories from The Royal Romance after the third book was over.

Filling in details that I wanted to see in the story in my head was one thing, but when I actually began stringing words together on a Word document, it became fan fiction. I'm sure this is a very similar process for all of you writers out there who have always wanted to expand the story with your own ideas, thus jumpstarting your fan fiction career! I say career because, let's face it, it becomes an obsession! We may not get paid to write this – well some people do – but it's fun, and exciting to have the opportunity to share your ideas with fellow fans, stans and readers of that fandom.

I published my writing on Wattpad and Tumblr, which was great for the instant feedback, and that I was able to share with a LOT of fellow Choices fans around the world. But my writing didn't stop there.

Still in love with my favorite characters from the story, I decided to try my hand at writing a brand new story that took everyone from The Royal Romance and put them into an alternate universe where they were in the U.S. military instead. They still had similar personalities to reflect their original character arcs, and had hidden Easter eggs or parallels to the original books that I worked into the new story. It's fun for me to read comments from my readers when they make the connection between my alternate universe fan fiction and the original story.

It is so much fun to take already established characters that were written and developed so well, such as characters from The Royal Romance, and put your own twists on them to enhance their personalities, purpose and capabilities. The books in the Choices app have a lot of information in them, but of course, they can't write it all.

One of the reasons why I love to write more of my own fan fiction for this story is because the game itself tries to be as open as they can, and give you more time with potential love interests to be fair. However, since I have decided which love interest I like the most, I like imagining and writing more to their stories and backgrounds that Pixelberry Studios didn't make time for.

Pixelberry Studios also gives your MC as little background as possible because they want you to make up their back stories – to feel closer to the MC, and of course become more immersed in the story. More immersion means more obsession from the reader, which means more money in their pockets. And you know what? I'm okay with that. Again, no regrets.

Another reason I'm justifying my experience with the Choices app is that it has inspired me to pursue writing in a professional manner. Yes, I took the time to expand upon The Royal Romance through my own fan fiction, but I've also gained a lot of inspiration and perspective for other original stories floating around in my head.

The Royal Romance, like the other books in the app, has "steamy" scenes. In an effort to cater to their suggested audience, 12 years old and up, they keep their steamy scenes as vague as possible, but still allude to all the wonderful things that we, the readers, want to see with our love interests!

I never, ever, would have thought I'd be able to successfully write smut, or steamy scenes, or sex in my writing in any way. However, my imagination took flight, and wanted to fill in those details that Pixelberry Studios left out of the story. Low and behold, here I sit with countless "smutty" scenes written throughout my WIPs, and I love it!

I love writing it so much, that I have turned my sights to writing romance novels in the future. I've even began the process of researching well-known publishers to help introduce my books to the public.

As I've taken the time to write this fan fiction, I've learned a lot about being a writer. I've read other writers' fan fiction, which was equally inspiring by filling my imagination with more ideas to expand upon.

My favorite characters from The Royal Romance will always have a special place in my heart – not only for the story they were a part of, but for the inspiration they gave me to write my own stories. I sometimes think about how crazy of a journey it has been to have become so quickly obsessed about an app – thinking I would never stop reading those books – and then turn to writing, and having that take up most of my free time instead.

Now, I can't imagine life without writing. The Choices app was not only entertaining, but it positively influenced me to begin a long desired past-time of writing fictional novels and self-help books, which I will hopefully turn into a career someday.