This is a very interesting post by Elizabeth Bear about the hyperfiction project that she (and a whole passel of other people) have been working on for the last three years
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I find the idea incredibly cool but also like it has the potential to get bogged down in its own complexity and get overly technical. Which could be boring (to me).
Ritual as a type of hyperfiction -- yes, why not! But the author of that article talks about fans getting super-involved with the characters, recieving correspondence from them and something about that makes me uneasy, like it becomes too all-encompassing a fantasy and crosses too far for my tastes into 'game' rather than 'fiction' (not to say that there's a clear line between the two). I'm kind of an old-fashioned reader, I like to feel like the fiction is rooted somewhere/with someone specific.
RE: the importance of feedback from readers, making it more participatory. I feel bad for sounding so negative but again, not sure this is a good idea for the creators in terms of limiting their artistic freedom (not necessarily consciously). The way you have Ritual set up seems like a good in-between, but having reader feedback at every little point, continuously - hm. Don't you feel like that could eventually result in the fiction becoming basically a 'product' responding mechanically to what the readers want? (Heh, now I'm reminded of Kring's recent AV Club interview in which he talked about the chaotic-sounding way the scripts are written, by multiple people at once).
Also, collaborative hyperfiction, hmmm. I dunno; I really *like* being able to identify *one* author and follow their personal style. If too many people (in my mind, more than two or three) are involved it could just get too vague and lose that sense of the mind behind it all. Maybe I'm just imagining the project she describes inaccurately, as being a bit like a factory :) But what she's doing sounds relatively small and so not too limited by outside pressures and expectations. If a hyperfiction project became hugely popular I can see it spinning off very naturally the star-wars way, with merchandising and just ... not good.
Heh, but this isn't exactly a new idea, is it? It's more about the technology. Something about the way she describes it also makes me think of dead writers and their cute literary salon games (well, while they were alive) -- the Bronte sisters writing stories with and for each other, those weird Shelleys and Byron, etc. Fanfic itself a not new either, just sort of re-branded. /// sorry, got on a tangent.
No, that's fantastic, and I am largely with you in terms of what I want from my consumable creative efforts - though sometimes, especially in the spark of newness, immersion as total as possible is kind of great and can drive a sense of interactivity. There's only so far that it can go, though.
The way you have Ritual set up seems like a good in-between, but having reader feedback at every little point, continuously - hm. Don't you feel like that could eventually result in the fiction becoming basically a 'product' responding mechanically to what the readers want? Yes, absolutely - unless the writer has a real iron control over exactly the way they want it to go. I was responsive to feedback on my stories, and sometimes did things by request - but only if it was also something that I was interested in exploring (and able to: yeah, still no Mylar. Fail). It's a double-edged sword, speaking from a creator's perspective; after a time that kind of feedback becomes (or feels) essential, and without it, it's harder to create. I'm experiencing that now; I'm writing original material, and I am getting very little feedback on how it's going - and it's like pulling teeth, it's so hard! Writing Ritual was SO much easier, not just because I was all fired up with fannish mania, but also because feedback floated me through. When I felt I was producing for someone other than myself - or worse, that nebulous "reader" that doesn't yet exist - it was easier.
Ritual as a type of hyperfiction -- yes, why not! But the author of that article talks about fans getting super-involved with the characters, recieving correspondence from them and something about that makes me uneasy, like it becomes too all-encompassing a fantasy and crosses too far for my tastes into 'game' rather than 'fiction' (not to say that there's a clear line between the two). I'm kind of an old-fashioned reader, I like to feel like the fiction is rooted somewhere/with someone specific.
RE: the importance of feedback from readers, making it more participatory. I feel bad for sounding so negative but again, not sure this is a good idea for the creators in terms of limiting their artistic freedom (not necessarily consciously). The way you have Ritual set up seems like a good in-between, but having reader feedback at every little point, continuously - hm. Don't you feel like that could eventually result in the fiction becoming basically a 'product' responding mechanically to what the readers want? (Heh, now I'm reminded of Kring's recent AV Club interview in which he talked about the chaotic-sounding way the scripts are written, by multiple people at once).
Also, collaborative hyperfiction, hmmm. I dunno; I really *like* being able to identify *one* author and follow their personal style. If too many people (in my mind, more than two or three) are involved it could just get too vague and lose that sense of the mind behind it all. Maybe I'm just imagining the project she describes inaccurately, as being a bit like a factory :) But what she's doing sounds relatively small and so not too limited by outside pressures and expectations. If a hyperfiction project became hugely popular I can see it spinning off very naturally the star-wars way, with merchandising and just ... not good.
Heh, but this isn't exactly a new idea, is it? It's more about the technology. Something about the way she describes it also makes me think of dead writers and their cute literary salon games (well, while they were alive) -- the Bronte sisters writing stories with and for each other, those weird Shelleys and Byron, etc. Fanfic itself a not new either, just sort of re-branded. /// sorry, got on a tangent.
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The way you have Ritual set up seems like a good in-between, but having reader feedback at every little point, continuously - hm. Don't you feel like that could eventually result in the fiction becoming basically a 'product' responding mechanically to what the readers want?
Yes, absolutely - unless the writer has a real iron control over exactly the way they want it to go. I was responsive to feedback on my stories, and sometimes did things by request - but only if it was also something that I was interested in exploring (and able to: yeah, still no Mylar. Fail). It's a double-edged sword, speaking from a creator's perspective; after a time that kind of feedback becomes (or feels) essential, and without it, it's harder to create. I'm experiencing that now; I'm writing original material, and I am getting very little feedback on how it's going - and it's like pulling teeth, it's so hard! Writing Ritual was SO much easier, not just because I was all fired up with fannish mania, but also because feedback floated me through. When I felt I was producing for someone other than myself - or worse, that nebulous "reader" that doesn't yet exist - it was easier.
Thanks.
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