Comments on: Why Hasn’t Story Itself Changed with the Web?

By: ed stanford

ed stanford — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:39:05 +0000

Check out Scott McCloud (scottmccloud.com), one of the smartest people on the planet, and his ideas about comics on an “infinite page” (the internet). He wrote an entire book called Reinventing Comics to discuss his ideas for how the internet can change comics. He is also the most eloquent advocate for recognizing the literary merit of comics.

For what it is worth, in regard to hypertext… I sometimes dislike a particular character in a book. In the event that part of the novel or story follws that character instead of the ones I do like, I slog through but find myself wishing I could avoid those chapters. An almost Rashamon style of web story that allows me to choose the prespective or style of writing for each chapter, while ensuring the conveyance of necessary plot info, would be nice. Instead of choose your own adventure, how about choose your own point of view, or choose your author. What if many authors wrote the same plot line? I think parallel elements that provide options, rather than changes to the linear dynamic of a story might be interesting.

By: Josh English

Josh English — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:52:22 +0000

I am working on a story that can rely on hyperlinks to tell the story in a number of ways, or (hopefully) the piece will still be good if read straight through. If I do it right, it won't be full of "click to choose what you read next" links at the end of every paragraph, either. The story has a setting, characters, but what I think I'm really missing is an overall single cohesive plot, but I don't think that's necessary for this style of story. I think hypertext fiction will grow from movies like Twenty Bucks. At least, that's how I'm approaching it. The stuff sounds cool, but I have not been able to follow conversations on Twitter. I don't know why.

By: Mark Teppo

Mark Teppo — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:58:29 +0000

While I agree that scanning is probably going to be the ruling paradigm in the near future, I am holding out that there are those who will enjoy getting lost in what the web can do for them.

On the subject of CYOA, I offer you this: http://psychobabel.net/threat.php

By: Jeremiah Tolbert

Jeremiah Tolbert — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:15:56 +0000

Huh, that’s an interesting one I haven’t seen. Interesting. I have to wonder about using an interactive service like Twitter and not interacting though. Seems like a missed opportunity.

By: Dana

Dana — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:29:36 +0000

The creator of one of the web comics I read, Questionable Content, has started a Twitter account for each of his characters. They only tweet amongst each other, and never directly about anything going on in the comic itself, so you can read the comic without following the Twitter stuff and vice versa. It sort of makes the characters feel like they have an ongoing life between comic updates.