STORYSPACE: Rethinking Structure
Two things I’m going to concentrate on in hypertext work this weekend: Cutting most of the links between stories and replacing them, in fact, seeking only the most relevant connection points and making them work. I need to allow the reader to go further than one Writing Space into a parallel path. I need to allow him to walk around there until he finds some reason to go back to where he was (maybe) and has learned something that enhances the story path he continues upon.
Today was a day of going through each story and marking where it hit a juncture of joining another. Now I realize that Paths itself was set up outside of the Storyspace environment, but it truly is such a perfect fit for it, I just have to figure out how to make them play nice together.
The other thing I’m going to do in Storyspace is to enter the e-mail story of Tom, Marie, and Frank with the information we have so far. First, however, I’m going to read Mark’s essays on hypertext so that there becomes a more flowing narrative out of what’s been done to date. In truth, I see that the way the e-mail story has developed is probably more of a hypertext link by link as it went back and forth already. Meaning, as it progressed, we both (Steve Ersinghaus and I) were thinking in a true hypertext form. Maybe we’ll even get a Vassar student involved in it.
The non-hypertext work I need to concentrate on this weekend involves completing the building of the main PC, apple and pumpkin pies, and stuffing the ass end of a turkey.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology