I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming.
Have you heard of Coliloquy? It’s a California-based company who has taken the concept of the e-book and mutated it into an app for interactive fiction. This follows in the footsteps of a similar venture in September called The King of Shreds and Patches. They’re written like any other book, but at certain points you must make choices for your character that will determine how he/she fares. It’s “Choose Your Own Adventure” for the Kindle. What’s new about Coliloquoy is that your choices are recorded by the app and sent to the company to influence future editions.
When I saw these headlines yesterday afternoon, my eyes lit up. My head is only starting to soar. Imagine if this stuff gets popular on the Kindle. The next Great American novel could be interactive.
Oops. Did I just say that out loud? I think I did. Let me repeat it. The next work of literature that could pierce the core of the human condition, and be read and discussed for decades afterward, could be a “Choose Your Own Adventure Book”.
Consider the power is leaves to an author. One of a fictions writer’s greatest powers is fate. What happens to his/her characters says something about how he/she views the world. When the villain falls off an icy cliff because he alienated everyone who might have been with him to lend him a hand, the message is that people who alienate other people are bad. Obviously, we can get more complicated than that, but that’s the idea.
Imagine this principle working in interactive fiction. With more choices come a more sophisticated moral vision. By coming up with multiple plotlines and endings, an author is forced to make more commentary on people and the world; he is forced to broaden his moral scope and ask more questions. This must strengthen the vision of his/her novel- not to mention himself/herself.
If you’re not up for literary fiction, more plotlines will still result in more excitement and more chances to hone your craft. The more you write, the better you get. What could improve your skill better than having to make so many alternate stories make sense?
All it takes is one runaway success to turn this into a legitimate genre. I truly believe somebody is going to take this genre and write a story (erm, stories) that will stun the world. You heard it here. Interactive fiction is going to find a way to become a force in the literary world.
Thank you so much for this post. I’ve been thinking a lot about interactive fiction lately, and this was awesome.
Happy to oblige. I am deeply excited about where creative people can take this form.
We certainly hope so: http://www.inklestudios.com/frankenstein !
Wow! What inspired you to do this?
I’ve been writing interactive fiction for about ten years, and then tablets came along… it’s the right time, and interactive stories are *awesome*. Frankenstein is out on the 26th, and we’re hoping people will really enjoy it!
I’ll keep an eye out for it! Thanks for telling me. Tablet seems like the best medium we have for interactive fiction right now. Have a lot of people expressed interest?
We seem to be building some interest, yes! We’ve got some reviews in national papers pending, and quite a lot of notice in the blogosphere. What helps here is that we’re working with a book publisher, Profile, who are 100% behind the project… The big test will be how it fares on release, of course!
I see. This sounds interesting enough for a blog post around your release date. I’ll throw your name out to my readers. I wish you luck!
Just so you know, this is now released!
http://itunes.apple.com/app/frankenstein-for-ipad-iphone/id516047066