You’ve read the book and are very organized! I doubt I can add much insight. As Hayes states in her book, Romancing the Beat is for romance writers looking to hone in on the romance, or non-romance writers wanting to include a love plot at all. The way Hayes writes out a “Beat Sheet” makes it seductively easy to plug in storytelling elements and churn out a story worthy of Fabio. I suppose an IF writer can overlay her Beat Sheet onto their chosen game structure.
I hesitate to offer more because I haven’t used Hayes method yet. My latest IF project is The Witch’s Necklace for Heart’s Choice, and I structured that out way before I read Hayes. The three plotlines follow Shakespeare’s 5 Act structure roughly at the same pace. After the game is out and I wake up from a long post-game release nap, I’ve twirled around the idea of writing an incredibly self-indulgent second chance romance with Hayes’ structure, as an experiment and a treat. If that project works well for me, I’d consider using Hayes for my next IF game.
