I always talk about one day being able to step inside the pages of a book and become a part of the story. Today I did it.
This is a preview of the Hypergrid Stories project I am working on with some of the authors here at Tea and Strumpets and members of the Greyville Writer's Colony. Consider this a rough but exciting draft.
Exploring the Story World
Hamlet on the Holodeck by Janet Murray was published way back in 1998. She must have been looking into a crystal ball when she wrote this passage:
The format that most fully exploits the properties of digital environments is not the hyper-text or the fighting game but the simulation: the virtual world full of interrelated entities, a world we can enter, manipulate, and observe in process. We might therefore expect the virtuosos of cyberdrama to create simulated environments that capture behavioral patterns and patterns of interrelationships with a new clarity. ~Janet Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck.
We've built the simulations and now we're planting bits of story for readers to discover as they explore the world.
As you move about, touch, examine the elements in a scene, as the story tells itself to you, you become a part of the story, it begins to feel real.
You'll be transported to a new location and into a new segment after you've discovered all the segments in the current scene. This is as much a journey of discovery for me creating the story as I believe it will be for the readers exploring them. Every day I discover a new layer to this platform.
That's all I can say for now. Well that and that I think you'll love what will be coming your way on Valentine's Day. Keep your eye on this blog for more news.
~Nara Malone
To learn more about Nara Malone and her novels visit NaraMalone.com
To stay up to date on the Hypergrid Stories Project follow Nara Malone on G+ or Facebook.
Meet Ever, Jane. One look at this opening screen and you can probably tell Jane Austen is not really my cup of tea. Jane's time was a time when women got what they needed by saying the right things to the right people.
I'm in trouble before I start. I don't mind getting in a little trouble :)
If the Ever, Jane Kickstarter is successful it will be developed and ready for the public in Jan 2016. If the kickstarter is successful and you pledge $10 or more, you'll be able to play while the game is being developed. If games based on romance novels are an idea you think deserves support, donate. It costs no more than a good e-book and playing around inside a beta project is a ton of fun.
I'm more into pirates than gowns and parties. I suspect my first choices when I downloaded the game will get me in trouble.
Near as I can tell, the goal is to develop your character's personality. Authors might find it a good lesson in the motivations and behavior of characters. I had to choose one trait I wanted to work on and one that I was willing to sacrifice to build my chosen trait. I said I wanted to work on being happy and I was willing to sacrifice reputation.
No snickering. I view this as research, not a life philosophy.
The game is rather easy to get the hang of. I was a little frustrated at first, having gotten used to navigating virtual worlds as an avatar, these games that don't show character bodies leave me feeling agitated. Basically you use arrow keys to move around and you use the mouse to change your view. There is a tutorial walking you through the first scene, explaining how to do things and telling you what to look for or click.
So I went to the fabric shop as the letter instructed. There was an interesting fellow standing by the door.
I traded something for lace. I didn't have any money so I am not sure what I traded. Last time I looked all I had in my inventory was a letter. Now see, this is how an innocent errand to help out an old lady can get a girl in trouble ;-)
I'm going to have to keep playing Ever, Jane to see what happens to poor Nara Mistwood.
Which brings us to my point--when you coax someone to interact with your story world and the characters therein, you create emotional connections. You start them on a path that needs completion. They want to know your character's story. The ways that story will be delivered are rapidly changing.
Experiments like Dear Esther, Ever Jane, and the ones going on at the Greyville Writer's Colony move us forward in the evolution of storytelling. I can't wait to see what comes next.
~Nara Malone
You can learn more about Nara Malone and her books at NaraMalone.com
Today's the first of November. Just a few days more before we turn the clock back. Not far from Thanksgiving. Depending on how you count the days, this is the beginning of the holiday shopping season.
And today's the first day of National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is a worldwide challenge -- this year, more than 300,000 people are participating -- to write 50,000 words in the month of November. The challenge's few rules are very flexible: writers should be starting new works of fiction, although planning and outlining are permitted. Because it's a self-challenge, the idea is to end up with a reasonably coherent narrative, so there's no upside to writing the same word 50,000 times or copying takeout menus over and over again. At the end of the month, the prizes for completing the challenge include a printable certificate, bragging rights, and most of the first draft of a work of fiction.
This year, a few of us are taking up the challenge and making the long haul to 50,000 words. You can keep track of how we're doing with those little progress bars on the right, and each of us has dropped a comment below to describe our NaNoWriMo projects, other places you can track our progress, and maybe a word or two of NaNoPhilosophy.
Keep an eye on our cheering section over there, and feel free to cheer us on, make us accountable, or join the fun yourself!
There's been a dramatic rise in e-reading and e-reader ownership over the last two years. But while the e-reader in your hand is vastly different from the book you used to hold, the content between the covers is, essentially, still the same. Publishers are still serving up black and white text, stories delivered by flipping a sequence of pages on tablets and e-readers.
That's like purchasing an automobile to replace your horse and buggy, but then hitching the car to the horse and having him do the pulling.
To some degree it's understandable. It's going to take some time for the creators and publishers to discover the power of the platform. Weren't the first television shows just a visual version of a radio show?
In my monthly column here at W3, I want to review the tools and technologies that will make future books more than text on a page. I'm out stalking books that experiment with delivering stories through those technologies. While many books are labeled as enhanced or new media fiction, few deliver a new and exciting experience. I hope to point you toward the ones that do.
Today I want to show you Machinima--an evolving technology discovered by the poor starving writers and artists that will be the innovators driving the course books take in their evolution.
Think of Machinima as a host of actors in your pocket, as a poor-man's animation or rendering engine. I know you're all shuddering, wincing at the thought of animating anything. Don't cover your eyes yet. Machinima animation is as simple as turning on a video recorder. Enterprising gamers discovered if they could use screen capture to record what happens on the set of a video game, they could use the game engine to record little scripted movies that had nothing to do with the game.
What has that got to do with books?
Well if you couple that tool with virtual worlds like Second Life (the SL TOS allows making derivative works like this), you come up with the ability to create a character as avatar and then record their actions. The header for W3 is comprised of pictures I made of avatars created to match the personalities of our authors and was all done in Second Life.
My first attempt at using Second Life and machinima to spice up the delivery of text on a page was in a character interview I did for author Siobhan Muir. She wanted to do an author interview that was more than static text on a blog. Siobhan provided the voice via microphone and I recorded the interview taking advantage of lip-syncing and body language animations built into the game.
Below is a sample of the interview with Julianna Morris, werewolf from Siobhan Muir's new novel, Queen Bitch of Callowwood Pack.
Keep in mind, this was a first experiment done by two writers who barely know how to sit in a chair in a virtual world. Now imagine how dangerous we could be if we ever figure out what we're doing.
My next shot at using machinima, came with a request from Marilyn Campbell. She wanted a book trailer for her new novella, Serving Nicole, that was more than the traditional Power Point presentation converted for YouTube. Could I do that with Machinima? I didn't have a clue, but I was eager to try. I used her book blurb, some still images, and machinima to come up with the trailer you see below.
Because I was able to produce practical, useable results to spice up mainstays in an author's promotional tool kit, I expect to see machinima turning up in promotions authors use to attract and entertain their readers. But I don't think machinima will stop there. It's cheap and easy to do. Think graphic novels. Think interactive novels. Innovations like this will drive the future of books.
I'm going to add one last machinima created by Pia Klaar in Second Life. It's a nice look at what can be done by a skilled machinima artist. If you want to be totally blown away check out her other work on YouTube. One of her videos is a lovely retelling of the fairytale The Red Shoes.
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If you're here to see who won yesterday's hunt for Hella, the winner is Mary M. Mary, Master Bond, will be sending you an email to find out which book on my backlist you'd like to choose as your prize.
