Hypercompendia

Trying to get this project done and over with but the map is starting to look like a Brillo pad.  That’s because in my own bumbling manner I’ve been hesitant to actually cut the ties that have held the story together up to this major overhaul. I’m still not sure that the basic premise of the theory I’m depending upon is sound so I’ve got Plan B still in effect.

There are natural breaks in the narratives but do they melt easily enough into the break of one of the other threads?  It’s not as simple or as dopey as linking tongue to tongue anymore.  It’s got to be a smooth transition but it still has to hit with an obvious we’re not in Kansas anymore appeal.  I may be reverting to an old bad habit here of not trusting the reader.  Gotta get my head together on this.  Storyspace is making it easy enough to make these editing changes; I just have to do my part.

Well I’m back into it (Paths) and back into the problems as well.  It’s almost as if I need to sever all the links I’d originally formed in order to relink the way I’d like the story to open up. 

One of my main problems seems to be the one between stories–the same problem I’ve been working on from the beginning and did a workaround with guard fields.  Well the guard fields won’t work because 1) they feel too restrictive to the reader and 2) if a reader has come from a different path, they won’t stop him here anyway.

I’m trying to plan something around using more text-links.  One thought is to create a complete path weaving through all the stories via the normal click on space, along with a story thread of clicking on the text-link of the last word in almost every space. 

I’m getting confused and think that cutting all links might be the best way to start back at the near beginning.

It’s great to have the laptop running again; that adds just about all the hours that I’m either in the shop or watching TV to the time I can spend on Storyspace and Paths. 

With the network set up to include files and folders, I can work on the single ‘shared’ version of Paths and save copies on each computer as I work.

I’ve gotten just about a quarter of the way through the narrative, tying in the stories and wandering off onto other trails as I go, but this takes a lot of plotting and planning.  Just don’t know if it’s worth it with this particular project but I can’t exactly leave it now as it is.  Thinking of starting something new as well, just to keep the interest and enthusiasm up since drudge work often can taint the creative spirit.

Back in a bit.

Sort of limited in what I can do on Paths because I’m down to the main PC.  Without the laptop, I can’t work on it while working in the shop or watching TV.  That cut down considerably on when, much less be in the mood as well.

But the screen for the laptop came today and maybe either tonight or in the morning I’ll be able to put it together.

In the meantime, there’s some stuff going on at Steve Ersinghaus’ place with hypertext presentation.

It took a while to solidfy from the fog, but there seems to be a logical progression of narrative happening now that is closer to the general idea of the stories, and to the work as a whole.

Basically there is a main narrative that is a sort of story in itself.  At certain points in the narrative, there are text links that lead off to the beginning of each of the original four stories.  Once on the path of a story, a reader will follow this thread, being able to go off on some of the relative text links particular to that story, and eventually will be returned to the main thread, either back to the place from which he left, or to the very next space.  This ensures that no opportunity is lost.  Eventually, another text link will take him off to the story where he left off, although in the meantime, he may have ‘visited’ other story threads as well.

I’m working it in the Chart View right now, with the hard copy as script, but will post  a Map View to show the links as soon as I can figure out how to get the Map View of each story unloaded into one big picture.

I’ll betcha it’s the excitement of colored titles on the Writing Spaces, or the grand expanse of the widescreen.  It’s gotta be something like that that’s got me writing more on Paths instead of cutting the ribbons holding the story together.

I’m beginning to formulate a pattern in my mind though that will be a better route for the piece as a whole unit.  It is almost as if the four trails are themselves writing this linear fifth that will set each of the others free to wander and roam and collide  as they should.

So I’m flying high on creative story; the engineering grunt work of laying down tracks which I set myself up for today, may work out easier with the help of a plot.

I’m admittedly stalled here on Paths.  Can’t seem to clearly see my way of structuring and maybe this is the part I’m not so good at doing.  I open the program up several times a day, fiddle a bit, then close it without resolution.  I suppose one could look at the story of this project as hitting several points of conflict and heading towards resolution.  The only thing is, is that in hypertext, there are many paths to take and that’s where I don’t seem to be able to settle upon the right resolution.  Or at least one or a few.

Soon as I’ve got my head out of the main pc and have that all set up with all the programs back in place and the network for sharing replaced, I’ll get back into this with fuller focus.

Or maybe sooner.  Maybe tonight.  Depends on the weather and what else I find that needs to be done that doesn’t draw me in or presents more of a quandry than Paths.

In resorting Paths and in disconnecting the original links, another idea has surfaced and that is to create yet another path through the story, one that really does not follow itself out but rather acts as the core story from which the others emanate, based on character perception (and memory) and on possibility.

I may have either found a good solution to this project that will use the hypertext environment to its full advantage, or else I’m about to screw the project up royally.

Wish me luck.

Have a couple of different options for rearranging Paths, but I’m starting with the renaming of the Writing Spaces to make it a more relevant thread to follow.  I’d named them hurriedly, obviously copycatting some of Steve Ersinghaus’ formula as well as sticking to my keywords from the original format and trying to keep the characters in line.  In my excitement and totally clueless as to the purpose of how titles can work to the advantage of the narrative, I negated a useful tool.  Especially in this piece, the titles should have some semblance of theme and in renaming them, that’s what I’m trying to focus upon.

The biggest roadblock right now is deciding how to form bridges that allow more freedom with the stories without upsetting the basic narrative thread of each.  This is a biggie.

In the meantime, I’m also seeing plenty of areas where I can expand upon the piece that would not be filler, but make the whole a bit more meaningful and interesting.  These characters have journeyed quite far since their initial meetings; this is where I’m seeing things about them that brought them to the possibilities of where they may be.

If I didn’t really like this particular work, I would readily drop it and get into something new from scratch.  I think that’s the better way to be working in Storyspace.  This piece though, it just wants me to work on it. 

I’m not sure if I’m discovering new things or floundering badly (Look ma, I can drive with my eyes closed!) but Steve Ersinghaus has been bringing up some great issues as he takes on Paths. 

It’s become obvious to me that in first preparing this narrative* I didn’t quite understand the way links can work though I understood how they do.  I’m fixing and rearranging and improving the connections I’ve made as I work with the actual program of Storyspace.  That’s to be expected; I knew at the time I wrote Paths that I was writing for hypertext possibilities (without, as I say, fully comprehending them) but had the necessity of book pages in traditional form to deal with, and that changed the plan somewhat.  Or rather, the method, since the plan is still intact.

Steve says:

"I don’t like the idea of providing freedom to the reader, even though exploration may matter. I like the idea of allowing the work to decide its possible internal modifications and adjustments. It’s a massive struggle."

Well I’m all for taking back control, but I understand what he is saying here.  The work as a whole is a cohesive collage; each image must stand on its own, yet relate to another:  Now that’s Great Aunt Minnie, she’s Gertie’s sister who’s right over there next to her brother Albasilver.  If the reader follows a diagonal pattern across the map and completely misses the wayward daughter Pearl, he’ll never know how the whole Clam family got started one moonlit night on a couple of beers and be completely confused at the photo of little Jimmy Clam in the lower left-hand corner.

So I would think that while I am trying to touch story points at certain levels that grant access to possibilities, I don’t want to allow total random wandering.  I do want to make sure that by following any one of the four paths, by the end of that path, the reader has a good idea of the basic premise of what happened, and what may be happening, as well as what could have happened.  Any of the stories should be revealing that much–though not completely by themselves, but with the help of the allowed sidetracks into one of the others and the vision it reveals.

I do wonder whether I am off on a "Look ma!" trip, or whether I should read and incorporate some of Mark’s theories into this piece.  I realize that you have to know and understand the rules before you break them–I’m a strong advocate of that in writing, but I’m also aware that I’m too easily swayed sometimes.  It will be interesting to see what Steve has to say about the structure once he’s further into it; I trust him to be honest and if he says I’ve led readers into and then left them lost in the woods, or put up fences while they weren’t looking, then I’ll know that the hypertext form does have some rules that need to be followed.  And I’d better learn them.

*I myself vacillate between calling Paths the singular "narrative" and the multiple "stories," because of its nature.  In the end, I think that it is a single story as there may be only one truth, and that is what the reader has decided it to be.