Hypercompendia

In reworking and reorganizing the project I sometime stop and read some of the early ones I don’t even remember writing.

#28 Dreamers came to this and I laughed out loud:

In this story, there are five different endings. In real life, there are hundreds, maybe thousands more.

In hypertext story, we often allow ourselves choices, ways to return and rechoose. In this story, you are committed to the ending you chose just by the turns you have taken. Mayhaps you feel some regret.

Grow up. Just as in real life, some races cannot be rerun.

(Back to Home)

One of the projects I’m working on is getting the 100 Hypertexts Project into a Tinderbox File. Each individual story was created in an individual Tinderbox file, then sent out to a regular Document folder in a folder called Summer Project 09 on my Mac. Within each separate story folder was the Tbox file, the column100.html export template, the column100.css stylesheet with the color coding reflecting the particular story’s theme, an image of the Tbox map in .jpg, and the story page html files.

It worked well and I made it through without having time to learn how to properly use Tinderbox to create the entire project of 100 hypertext stories within a single file. Now I want to put them in there. With a bit of help, I’ve been able to drag the individual story Tbox files into containers in a new Tbox file.

I’ve just put in twenty of the stories so far, since this whole thing may not work in exporting yet as I would like it to. Meanwhile, there are some things that need to be cleaned up so that I’ve got all working in the same manner. Here’s the list of to do’s before I take it further:

1. Change hypertexts #1 through #25 from main100.html and main100.css to column100.html and column100.css. This involves changing the template choice in the Tinderbox program, changing the color codes into the new css, changing the individual pages to point to the new html and css. I could just let it go and play with it in the new Tbox file that I’m creating but I’m meticulous enough to want it right everywhere. (Though I’m not sure what I’ll do about the online versions which reflect the old styles!)

2. Add in the title writing space for all 100 hypertexts. I left the title separate in each folder just to play with colors and so it was never a part of the Tbox file. I am now putting in a title lexia and linking it in to each Tbox story file. Hopefully I won’t run into problems with a duplicate file on this later.

3. Find out whether the work I’m doing with the column100.css is the proper way of doing this; perhaps it will be better in a prototype to refer to the css and rename it to match the story, i.e., 1001.css or story1.css, story2.css, etc., so that Tbox doesn’t get confused with 100 really individual stylesheets all named the same. Come to think of it, the same problem may occur with the writing space called “title” or any other duplicated named spaces within the whole 100 stories. Something to think about.

4. Figure out or request a feature if necessary from Eastgate that would allow me to export just a story at a time, particularly if it’s all kept within a container. This is something that will need to be ironed out before I go and put the other eighty stories into this.

Now I don’t need to make this whole move, the project’s done and over with. And, I doubt I’d ever do it again next summer or whenever. But there are reasons to move forward on the concept. Personally, I may do something similar on a website where stories, poetry, and articles etc. on hypertext will be added on a weekly or monthly basis; an online hypertext literary journal so to speak. In that case, of course I’d like to use Tinderbox as the brain behind it all. I’m sure others do this with ease so there must be a way of exporting just portions of a file without exporting the whole thing.

This, I suppose, will be my autumnal project.

Prepping a talk on the creative process and it’s been fun looking back at some of the stories of the 100 Days Project. In particular, I love these maps:

(Click here to enlarge map)

(Click here to enlarge map)

I think that a good part of the creative spirit of this project went into the visuals as well as the text. When speaking of creative process, one cannot discount the tools: the software, the mechanics, the technical.

This is something I’ve wanted to do since I’d started the hypertext stories for the 100 day project and just never got time to spend to learn the full scope of the Tinderbox software and write some type of story too.

Right now, I’m putting the stories, which were each individually written in a Tinderbox file, into a Tinderbox 100 Stories File, hoping to eventually find out if they can be easily exported into html individually which was what I had to do with the stories being written and put online at the rate of one per day through this past summer.

There are things that I’d like to do with the project that would tie the individual stories into each other–some are actually serialized–and this compilation into one Tinderbox file would be the way to achieve that. In the image above, there are only twenty of the 100 hypertexts entered. I want to see exactly how they relate to each other before I put in the rest, make sure I can export each individually, and make use of some of the Tinderbox features. I’ve already created prototypes and some common attributes and there are some other delights to discover.

And yes, maybe I’ll even break out of my grid-form once I feel more comfortable.

Relaxing today, mentally coming down from a three-month routine that included anxious waiting for inspiration from 5:00 a.m. for a couple hours until a more reasonable hour of deliverance. From straining the brain for a new path of story through trails of possibilities. From learning more about code to development of narrative through color, pattern, choice, anticipation of reader input.

I don’t know that I’ve inspired anyone to try reading or writing hypertext fiction–except perhaps for Mary Ellen–and that was one of my own main goals, aside from the experimentation and learning of fiction first, hypertext second and all the extra bonuses that come with an undertaking of this sort.

But I do know I studied and learned daily from reading, watching, comprehending the artistic processes extended by the others in the group:

From Steve, the courage of going behind doors, into the corner, to leap given boundaries to find story and then sit and pick at the words.

From Carianne, to see things in a different way, to pull apart the strands of life and look inside for the colors.

From Mary Ellen, the indelible drawing of character by noticing the details of their interaction, their reaction, their actions.

From Maggie, the setting and environment of the story is just as important as the character and object.

From Susan, that the most intimate and common familiar items offer a match to the most wildly imaginative story.

From Neha, the power of poetry to produce using familiar language in unfamiliar settings to create an image.

From John, that story can cry, can holler in jubilation of sound, and that point of view changes angle of story.

From Denna, that an image can be so pronounced even when pulled from the vaguest of references when experienced by details.

From Mindy, that nature is in a constant state of narrative that changes with light and wind to tell a different tale every day.

From Jessica, that using the same medium and the same subject can offer at the very least 100 new angles if one seeks them.

From Jim, that code is a living thing that can be taught to dance.

From Steve K., that the planning is a part of the beauty of the process of building.

To them all I give thanks for the ability to watch and learn and wish them all lovely days of wild creativity.

The Mating Ritual of The Modern Man

This came out different than planned and not quite as focused, but I doubt that anyone will realize or care.

What inspired the story was the reality television shows such as The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, More to Love, etc. All those “true love true story” shows that are recognized by their overuse of the word “amazing” when describing the rejectees.

I am more intrigued than ever by the hypertext form of narrative and yet it’s still so damn hard to convince others to read much less write in this style. I’ve used Storyspace for the first couple of stories, but have used Tinderbox for all the rest and have paid homage to this exciting software by Eastgate in this last story of the 100 days.

My thanks and appreciation to all who have taken on this 100 Days Project. Now I suppose we all shall be busily writing our first semester compositions on “What I Did on My Summer Vacation.” After that, I may just have to take my hypertext show on the road.

Oaks and Acorns

As we’re winding down to the end of the 100 days of summer stories, the relief is mixed with a dash of desire to shine. To include what could be the best of our narratives, the working of words and images and hypertext to its finest.

But it’s all been a learning process and that won’t stop at the 100-day mark. This story is a more tender, gentle tale of a father and son. The bridging of time and space between generations. The hypertext is a series of alternate paths that lead through the woods to the pond.

Perks

What set me off on a trail from Steve’s story this morning was the idea of things. Little things carried back and forth. Things that we accumulate to make a home, a life around us. Things that change a person’s character to make him rationalize and justify.

The course is one that may go around and around, but then, the lexias are short and emphasize a building process. “Perks” here indicates the perquisites that one may have become too used to in this new economy. All that’s going to change, I’m sure, and it too will become as obsolete as the concept of hard work and the reward of the good life we may have known.

The Scent of Sundays

This is the fourth attempt at yesterday’s story and completely different from those I’d halfway finished and tainted by a restless night of visiting ghosts.

It is an unhappy story, yet one all too often suffered by so many. The mapping is random though I believe that the story is contained within any of the multiple paths that lead through the narrative.

Feeling rather melancholy tonight, thinking of the last four stories to write yet in this 100-story saga. I have six color themes left–geared that way so that I still have a choice of colors to blend with the tone of the hypertext. Not that I haven’t tweaked some changes even after I think I have the right colors.

Big difference from a few days ago when I really didn’t want to write another word. I mean, really didn’t want to write, not one more word. Stoicism and being true to my word, along with a touch of the masochist indeed made me push myself every day to produce when it was even physically painful to do so.

Now the focus is on what do I want to say, what do I want to leave within this legacy or better, what is it that is important not to leave out?

It’s going to be an interesting next four days.