One of the main things to decide when writing a gamebook is the complexity.
By this I mean how often the plot threads branch (how many choices you get), how many entries there are (which in turn determines the length of those entries), and how many continuations are used (entries with no choices that just lead from one to the next in a linear fashion).
There are a few series out there from days gone by and if you are comfortable with any of them then you probably already have a preference in this area:
Choose Your Own Adventure - Early Books
Choices: Low
Entries: Low - below 150
Length: High - often several pages
Continuations: Medium
Choose Your Own Adventure - Later Books
Choices: Low
Entries: Low - below 150
Length: High - often several pages
Continuations: High
Fighting Fantasy
Choices: High, sometimes three or more
Entries: High - usually 400
Length: Low - often only a few paragraphs
Continuations: Low
Lone Wolf
Choices: Medium
Entries: Medium
Length: Medium
Continuations: Medium
Endless Quest
Choices: Low
Entries: Medium
Length: High
Continuations: Medium
As you can see there are the extremes of Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy, with the Lone Wolf and Endless Quest series in-between.
I'd suggest the simple choice to make is whether you want to write a novel with branches (Choose Your Own Adventure and Endless Quest) or the written equivalent of a text adventure (Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf).
For those interested in a breakdown of the Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks, try http://samizdat.cc/cyoa/ for an excellent series of graphs and explanations.
If you are not familiar with any of those series, I'll be offering future posts on the effects of your decision so you can choose for yourself. Of course, if you are planning on writing a fantasy gamebook then I really have to ask why you haven't read some of these series by now anyway?
For reference, the gamebook FNH and I are doing is more in line with the Fighting Fantasy stats than the others.
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