Hypercompendia

Central Processing Unit

Well I stuck pretty faithfully to Steve’s concept of a world where what we are is what we’re expected to be and produce faithfully by a society slightly twisted by time.

I chose to work with a writer and named the bad guy as ‘the feds’ just because it happened that way. I was also able to draw a bit on my experience with daily deadlines and the push to produce, though fortunately, without the dire consequences that the protagonist faces should he fall short of standards.

There are several separate versions of story here, probably a dozen or so. Each story is very short, eight lexias tops I believe. And, there are two different endings based on your choice of path. I enjoyed writing this one. I kind of like how it came out.

Smile

I hooked up with the concept of a world where cameras watched every citizen, every move, Big government, Big Brother style. 1984 was a fantasy. But fiction often affects history when it’s too horrible to comprehend and at best, wards off the inevitable for a while.

Look at it this way; we’re twenty-five years behind schedule.

The map parallels somewhat simultaneous events–as recording equipment is purposed to achieve. There are enough backtracks to visit both places and follow the separate spaces of character activity with four different intersection points that act as roadsigns.

Vampirate

Well here it is, my first vampire story. Actually, I think I wrote one back in high school but this is a HYPERTEXT vampire story. And, the vampire is a PIRATE. You don’t get much cooler than that.

I wanted to get started early this morning and this is what came in. When Steve’s story came out, I was glad to see that I could tie this in; we both have parrots in the stories.

The map is simple and linear with the exception of–or I should say, addition of–a bit of background and a bit of insight into the mind of the character.  The neatest thing I think is the title page.

Rooms

This started out to be another IF Text Adventure style hypertext, but once I found that the rooms of the house wanted to tell the story their own way, well, I just let them.

Steve told a very interesting story about a young couple and a strange elusive scratching sound they hear one night. From this, I let the house speak for itself.

There is a way out but you might be stuck going around in circles through the rooms of the house for a while. Much like the children in the story who used to chase gleefully through them. But that was a long time ago.

Have You Heard The One About…?

When I read today’s story from Steve the first thing I saw was its similarity to the traditional structure of a well-told joke. There is the setting, the buildup, the complication, the resolution. The conclusion is the punch line. There’s much to be learned about short story writing from the narrative structure of a joke.

His story is much more hard-hitting because of its topic but more because of this careful attention to structure. At the end, we’re not sure if our initial reaction to laugh is not terribly inappropriate. It’s a perfect example of hard-hitting provocative reading.

I followed the idea of jokes, but in the manner that we use them to communicate, to hide behind, to make life livable if it can be done at all.

Lovespeak – (Marley 4)

Likely the last in the series that involved hypertext stories #4, #5, and #32, this is a story of relationships, change, and hope. Marley, the protagonist, is in Tibet and Stephanie has followed him there. There’s a definite change in the relationship as Marley is affected by the calming influence of the monastery and Stephanie must consider her options weighed against her past.

There should be plenty of paths to follow and deeper penetration and rereading will bring insight into the characters. The map allows for one of two endings.

Final Exams

While I loved the subtle but evident humanness of Steve’s story The New Man, I wasn’t able to follow in that direction of common and yet meaningful scenario. Testing to me meant exams and that’s where I followed the trail with a few different characters and an hour and forty-five minutes of time.

Good thing I did some proofing: “He sympathized with poets who died young of addition and sexually transmitted diseases…”

The mapping once again allows for individual short bursts of character point of view as well as more intricate interaction of all characters in the silence of a classroom exam.

Family Lines

Skeletons in closets, a home dying along with its family. Secrets that get lost in time because of a new generation of sons. Interesting stories that are found in every family are whispered through the lines until the voice is too thin to hold the weight of sound.

The mapping allows for meandering and yet assures a conclusion.

Ill Humor

Steve’s story for Day 78 was the perfect setup for a teeny little hypertext that just recycled itself in laughter but that was not coming through for me and it’s likely why it took me so long to get this one done.

Luckily, while I have a huge cast of characters here, the thought that kept threatening to turn the story into a real downer was avoided though I’m not sure the story hasn’t suffered from that loss.

As far as the mapping and paths, I’ve tried to keep you from getting completely entangled but you might just get lost and I’d just suggest you laugh and move on.

The Writer

It’s surprising how stories form themselves and it’s even more surprising how the seed of an idea comes to bloom in a writer’s mind.

This is metafiction. A writer sitting at his keyboard looking around for an idea. He watches things happen outside his window and starts to write. But hypertext allows us to see what he missed.