Hypercompendia

Once again I think I’m almost done with Paths.  Of course I can take it further, but I believe that everything that needs to be there, is there. 

In this, my first experience with Storyspace, I had an advantage of a narrative that was purposely set up in anticipation of a hypertext format.  The disadvantage is that I’d never realized the options that the format gives the writer to expand and branch into other areas that proved the original 5000 words to be a seminal work and in no way measuring up to its potential.

Aside from change of writing style (it has been a couple of years since the stories were formulated) and voice that constantly grows with the writer, there is a depth that the story didn’t even stick a toe into until I started working with the tool that provided a more realistic image of the hypertext view.  I’ve been working exclusively with the Map View (problems with conversion into Chart or Outline because of the particular setup of this project were covered in earlier posts) and personally, I love the big picture it gives me of the story development.  Several things become clear.

The way I have it set up, I can immediately see the original story line (of each individual story) and recognize all the loop-de-loops as the new writing.  The new writing produced over the last three weeks is twice the amount of the original form (This has to say something for the Muse-abilities of Storyspace).  What worries me a bit is that even with rewriting some of that original text, the voice difference between Susan of Two Years Ago and Susan at Sixty is a bigger problem of discombobulation than I myself will be able to pick up on.   Storyspace does assist tremendously in that I can see at a glance exactly where the old line runs.  What the old has effectively served as is an outline (something I never ever did in writing, prepare an outline). 

The stories have grown so far beyond the boundaries of their birth as text form, restricted to the cradle of the numbered page, that I’m amazed at how much I now feel I didn’t know was happening.  Now I’ve gone back and rewritten short stories and "padded" them–with good information that progressed the story, but not in the same way that the hypertext format allows.  Heck, you can be a kid and question every Writing Space and then as the adult, have to supply an answer, therefore doubling your exposition of story.  This isn’t the way to do it though, at least as intent. Rather it’s a case of adding only something that you find interesting to add.

Still, I believe I’m almost done.