Hypercompendia

How Bad Do You Want It?

This one was the perfect concept for a hypertext with five friends and five objects. It was also a good illustration of character wanting something and needing to give up something in order to gain. Unfortunately, timewise I haven’t been able to plan the elaborate framework of loops and linking that would show off the hypertext format to its greatest possibilities.

So this has been an exercise in concept only for me and will need another attempt with another story perhaps to develop the narrative element of desire and fulfillment and ends up being a rather easy hypertext reading for the initiate and likely a boring one for the involved. The map sort of looks like a boat though, doesn’t it?

With a couple hours’ of a deadline that won’t get me tossed out of the group if I miss it but is Catholic nun-influenced and ingrained anyway, I’m finding that the organization of Tinderbox is excellent for this 100 Day Project. I’ve started using notes for notes on story characters that are critical and complicated in this particular piece. Just as I’ve found myself planning and setting up writing spaces (vaguely as short sequences that I’ve come to learn is a hypertext way of writing story), I’ve set up maps of the spaces laid out as I think they would best be presented. Of course these aren’t unidentified blank spaces; indeed, they are titled to identify the concept, though they are also indeed very blank (though at this point I’m really about halfway through filling them in).

Here’s a screenshot of my work in progress:

Why we now have Tinderbox and Mac laptops:

Alottaplot

Strangely enough, if I find focus on a particular narrative element, I’ve been mapping the notes out in Tinderbox even before the story is formed. Don’tcha love the arc?

This one is for hypertext fraidy-cats; you cannot get lost, you will not be sent directly to jail. If you take a sidetrail you’ll be plopped safely (and more knowledgeably) back onto Main Street until you reach the end of the story. If you do not take a sidetrail, you’ll just miss out on a bit of fun. No problem; it’s a gloomy day here too.

Dimensional

This was a bit of fun and a bit of exploration. Inspired both by Steve’s story, The Point, that reminded me of Flatland (and thus the primary colors of the hypertext presentation) and the question of dimension (or so I understood it to be) and by James Revillini’s offering for Day #8 #20090529 that you just gotta check out and I’ve just gotta learn how to do. I could use this concept in the hypertexts as a bit of visual movement that could be an exciting addition.

And really, that’s all they can be for to list strict rules as to how to read a hypertext would be at crosspurposes to its intent, that of granting the reader the freedom of choice and flexibility of creating a unique and individual narrative out of a poor author’s offerings.

In response to one request, I gave the following reply:

“( . . . ) a couple things that I do is 1) first read the entire writing space (page or box) before wandering off. 2) decide between or among the links by keeping a couple things in mind. In most hypertexts, just clicking on the bottom of the box will bring you to the next box/space in a fairly linear storyline.  In mine [here online], the last word in the box that is text-linked is usually what will bring you to the next linear space.  Text links anywhere else within the writing space usually are a sidetrail that relates to that word or concept within the sentence. 3) With the online hypertexts, you have an additional choice that is a valuable tool; your browser toolbar arrow to go back to the previous page (just as you would go back in your browser). I use this when I land someplace I don’t particularly like and want to return to a writing space that made me feel more comfortable and had another link choiceavailable.

“( . . . ) If you want to play with one, try #7Schematica; it is the simplest layout and if you look at the map (a bigger version available in the next post after it) you’ll see the logic.  Maybe.

If I’ve mastered the technique of hypertext narrative, then even if the links do not seem to always make sense (think poetry, think exploration and the natural wandering of thought patterns), the sum total of the links followed should present a satisfactory story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

If not, well I’m still new at this too!

Fictionality

It has occurred to me been brought to my attention that a lot of people aren’t familiar with hypertext and even if they have attempted to read this narrative format before, many have come away from it swearing that their lives are perfectly satisfactory without hypertext.

To me, this conclusion is the challenge. Even as I myself learn the underpinnings of the genre, I think it’s necessary to help spread the faith and maybe make these mini hypertexts a bit more simple and less frustrating to follow. It’s as discouraging for the creator as it is for the reader to lose or get lost in a mumble of words that are poor excuse for a story. This particular piece does go back on itself, but there are only two main story lines–a question that Steve has raised in Champion 2 of fiction being both the possibility and the reality of our lives.

Maybe I won’t make any converts, but I think that including the maps here, keeping the hypertexts more flowing yet simple, and offering to help in any way that I can to decipher this medium to help you enjoy it is a start.

Evilution

This one is a little bit weird, but has a basic theme of wanting things and changes made that affect a whole lot more than expected. Inspired by the juxtaposition of inside and outside, colors and sizes in Steve’s story, a world was created that still needed a master at the controls.

I’ve also half-successfully entered some images in this piece and will keep working on them to correct the half that didn’t succeed.

Just because it’s a first for me–mapping out the entire narrative before even writing a word or knowing what the story would be–I’m posting this image of the map that was laid out in Tinderbox for hypertext story #7, Schematica.

It is an example of the simplest plotting in story, with the required conflicts, complications, and required choices–whether made by the protagonist in traditional text or by the reader in hypertext.

Mimicking the “You’re dead!” of the Interactive Fiction and gaming genres, I’ve included a deadly choice (Outcome2 and Outcome4) here but have given the reader the ability to go back to the point where that choice was made to enable a change of heart. The main purpose of this piece was to follow Steve’s lead in following story guidelines, so the map was easy enough to lay out with lexias that were clear enough in what they would contain. Then all it took was to decide what time period, place, and characters would fill in the spaces.