HYPERTEXT: Narrative Thought Process
I like the process of writing hypertext narrative; it’s a constant rereading and picking up of clues and wanting to find answers to questions.
In writing this morning I tweaked the first few lines of a new story (which is another great thing about hypertext; you’re continually going back and reading what’s gone before, giving you that editorial chance at refining language) and easily selected three possible trails of story.
“I dreamt of blueberries, brown bags full of berries as large as apples. I still catch their cool scent, feel their plump bodies in my hands.
Blueberries smell of morning breeze and sex with white curtains blowing out open windows.”
“Dreamt” is a natural; it can be the psychology of the narrative. It will give me the poetics I am feeling for this story. While it was a tossup between “bodies” and “hands” I chose “hands” to explore the reality of this character’s life. It also allows a more physical, textured path that may bring in the conflicts. “Sex” is the other trail that will lead into the possibilities of intimacy with the reader.
This is the way traditional story telling rolls out too, it’s true. But the choices of which in what order, and the ability to go into greater depth than linear often allows with backstory or asides in the jumping of borders of time is something that hypertext does best.
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