Hypercompendia

Going through Paths for language use, typos, that kind of thing because I thought the cycles had been complete.  A passage holds me within a certain Writing Space.  It’s towards the end of this particular path, and is part of the original writing.  I’ve read it maybe a hundred times or more, and yet…why didn’t I see this, the choice and possibilities?

I really, really think that the format of Writing Spaces focuses the writer (and hopefully, the reader) on the words as well as the episodic nature of the environment.  In this case, it was always a lead towards the end:

I wonder if I were a bird, if I could be a seagull.  I think I’m not as graceful now.  I think perhaps I’d have to be a rounded mourning dove, with the whirring flutter that never allows complete free flight and that peculiar pecking walk that seems so timid and afraid.  I carry my shoes and walk along the slip and sliding water’s edge to feel the moving silt beneath bare feet.

Man, that’s like wide open.  Yet I’d put an ending to it within a couple more paragraphs.  Being forced to see this excerpt without the next what I’ll call ‘predetermined action,’ since this what is set in place, I’m seeing something else happening.  In the split second between this and the next moment for this character, in that split second that I as writer have separated the text into Writing Spaces, this character does something other than what I had expected.

Now that’s what I think Storyspace does for creative production.  Contradictory to its visual small border of Writing Space, it offers not merely more white space to fill with words that progress the story, but unlimited spaces that can continue a thread, or fork off again.  The end is not in sight, creatively, nor technically with the visual maps and charts of the program. The last text box is never automatically the last.  And never necessarily remains where it is within the story.

It’s normal for me to call a halt to a project, decide enough’s enough, and just as normal to sneak back in and play some more.  So for a while yet, I’ll still be on Paths, though another Storyspace project may soon start and be posted upon concurrently.

I’ve been going through, Writing Space by Writing Space, putting some finesse on the language.  Making sure that with the Storyspace capability of seeing everything via Map View (or one of the other views) laid open with some text showing, that it hasn’t affected the voice of the narrative nor the characters by such random editing.  What did I find?

I see a small cast of characters standing in blue light onstage, taking turns as the spotlight shines down on one, then another.  They step forward into the light, speak their minds, step back into their place on the map.

Love it.

Now that I’m here,  want to be there.  In other words, I dug into the manual to find out the ways of sharing the project.  Which, by the way, I’m thinking more of in terms of story written, rather than a project to test out and learn the Storyspace software.

So in wanting to share, I found a few ways, but it’s like having to put the special Storyspace reader and story files on a CD and handing it out on the streetcorner ’cause friends certainly aren’t begging to see it.  Then it hits me;  it’s really not ready yet.  I haven’t done the serious revision of story and language that I do with my short stories though I do tweak it as I go by. 

So no, it’s not ready for distribution and I can’t really link to it here because it’s not readable in both logistic and asethetic form yet.

One interesting thing:  If one wanted to go the self-publishing route this format is easier and cheaper than making up books.  Just a case of putting those few files on a CD.  Would be much easier to distribute, I imagine, like working up an audio CD and running it around to all the local DJs. 

Not for me, though.  I’ll just keep working at it until it’s perfect and start another Storyspace project, this time from scratch.

After working with this software, I find myself taken by the opportunities it offers both writers and readers in the hypertext format.

I’ve gone into this, as I tend to do with all things new, armed to the teeth with yeahbuts and hate’ems.  That’s my method of discovery.  If I can scout out all the negatives and resolve those questions, than the road ahead is a romp through Candyland.  I’ve never backed away from the untraditional; it just takes me a while to storm the gates.

Obviously one of the most interesting aspects of the process is the options granted the reader to make his own way through the narrative.  Seeings that it is non-linear and offers many paths, it is up to the writer to act as guide.  If he’s predisposed to simians, then he’ll make sure you visit the monkey house.  If it’s vipers he likes, then the snake house or your local Dodge dealer.  What I particularly loved was that it left room to expand on random thoughts that were not necessary to story, but certainly enhanced the characters and plot by their insight.  I became prone to a psychological realism frame of mind and often stared at a Writing Space for minutes, or wandered back to it often enough to realize there was something I wanted to say.  I like this.  It’s hard to insert these bits into static text because once they’re there, they insist on being read; in hypertext, the reader only need read them if he’s got the same curiosity that spurred the writer to set them in.

For the writer, the small Writing Spaces may be inspirational.  Not as daunting as a blank page or screen, the space may be filled with one sentence–one special sentence or a thought–and voila!–you’re being productive!  I’ve looked at places in the story where I just knew I could expand (or expound!) but didn’t have the words yet.  And, didn’t want to lose the thought.  Very easy to stamp out a few Writing Spaces, give the first one a title that indicates the general idea of direction, tie them all together with a thread, and you’ve got the place all warm and cozy and waiting for the creative moment to strike and settle in.

On the physical side, there is little wrong with the way the program works and there’s little that need be added to it.  I would, however, beg that any upgrade include that "Do you want to save your work?" box that makes you feel like an idiot in other programs but try working without one.  I’ve gotten so paranoid that I’ve got Paths saved in three spots on the hard drive and in two flash drives.

While I may still tinker with Paths, I’m anxious to move on and have a couple of ideas on where I want to go and explore.  In "conclusion" is a misnomer.  I’m not done; only beginning.

And my favorite line of the day:

Timmy, their first, was a true love child who spent his first three years as a banana.

How fun!

Added an afterthought, sort of a no, this could’ve happened or not too, and used one of Storyspace’s Special Links tools, the random selector.

Coded in the guard field as ?(n), I chose between two different paths by typing in ?(2), meaning that every other time the reader goes by one will be chosen, and the other will be bypassed.  In effect, not visited unless the reader chooses to pass by that whole loop again.

Gives me that Nyah-nyah, I know somethin’ you don’t know sense of power.

Since last week, I’ve been rereading these stories and editing, revising language use and voice. 

And adding.  Just about 200 Writing Spaces now, and I think I may just have poked my nose into their lives and asked all I wanted and gotten all I wanted to know.

Funny thing with this process in Storyspace, in contrast to the static text I’m so familiar with, is that I’m not getting as easily tired of the story because it’s all been changing so much.  The characters are growing by the changes so they’re becoming fuller and more interesting I think.  Sometimes I just follow the main line, avoiding the text links, just to see if the stories themselves hold up to what they’ve become, if they can honestly support the intricacy of the looping. 

So sometimes I add links to the main line as well.

We were talking about this last week, though not with this kind of game layout in mind, but a combination of interactive text and graphics, and I found this, Homestarrunners Peasant Quest at Jerz’s Literacy Weblog.

What I’m thinking of is more along the lines of narrative (of course) rather than a game, or quest, and with more highly developed graphics, and not necessarily a constant running show. 

Just something to think about.

After playing a bit in the various software programs that are geared towards story in games, hypertext, animation, if, etc., I ‘m getting the feeling that I really like playing in words. That is, I like typing them.

When working in Storytron or Alice, even though I understood the mechanics and understood them to be a simplified and organized method of creating via extremely complicated written programming, the methods didn’t particularly appeal to me.

In other words, I think that even with the format of simplification for the writer, I would much prefer to be able to type in "Alice takes three steps forward and turns to face the White Rabbit."  This action is clearly a direction possible in Alice, but the method of achieving it, even though meant to be simpler, seems to me to be more complicated.  Or maybe, as a writer, it just doesn’t hold the same glow.

It’s hard to decide, I think, how to physically structure the narrative of story in Storyspace.  I’m anxious to try building one up from ground zero, but meanwhile, working with what I have it seemed to naturally fall into place.  I followed characters and their perspectives. 

The story does have an obvious theme, and it is clearly character-driven.  But in adding and revising, I’m finding two elements possibly missing.

One is grounding, or setting.  It’s not just a matter of place, thus description, because setting is vital to the theme of choice and movement.  Therefore, I’m giving that a bit more importance, an easy thing to do in the Storyspace format by "adding a path in a pause."  In fact, any spots I find myself pausing in dare clearer definition by path.

The other is the standard of a character wanting something, seeing how far he’ll go to get it, and whether or not he achieves his goal, in what way does it change him. 

These stories are almost an after-the-fact issue on that.  Decisions have been made, the drama is over, and the aftereffects are the story now.  The pressure points are the side trails revealed a bit at a time here and there, that while officially backstory, are also not fact as they are based on each character’s perspective.  They also may or may not have happened that way.

Interesting problems to overcome.  Storyspace appears an invaluable tool in not only pointing out the troubling spots, but in offering the best way to remedy them.