I feel bad for not having written anything in a while but I’ve spent as much time as possible, while trying not to lose my sanity, on revising Project 1. It has been done and the third draft is complete. It is the draft my beta readers will read so I’m starting to send those out tomorrow. I am truly excited to hear what my friends, peers, and other authors have to say. The best feedback I got for Project 2 was regarding the final lines of the novel. One beta reader said that if he ever had a tattoo he would ink those final words on his skin. It really made my day. What comes now? Project 3 obviously, but I’d like to write a few short stories for magazines first, like I usually do between my novels, and maybe, just maybe, give my hand at non-linear writing. Let me explain…
Since it is the 10’s and digital reading is increasing exponentially there is a “new” (reborn rather) trend called non-linear writing. What is that? -You might ask. Well, it is just as it sounds. Writing that changes depending on the reader. The novel presents options to the reader which allows them to influence the outcome of the story and the characters therein. This style of writing has almost exclusively been found in video games until just a few years ago when “interactive” novels exploded on App-markets for Android and iOS devices. I always wanted to try writing such a story but never knew enough programming to make an App myself.
A few days ago I found Choice of Games which is a website containing a “writing engine” and a programming language for their ChoiceScript engine. Choice of Games then publish your “book” across all digital platforms. You only get 25% royalties, which is rather bad considering Amazon gives you around 70% for ebooks, but it’s still an interesting concept if you want to try it. Whenever I write I sometimes struggle regarding what scenes to remove and which ones to keep. With non-linear writing you keep all of it and let the readers decide themselves!
– F H Hakansson
F. H. Hakansson 
That is quite interesting … but I think there would be too many options to consider. If I were to try it, I’d try to have the same ending for all the different options the reader can choose! 😛
It is rather difficult, isn’t it? I’m still unsure whether to do it or not… Keeping all the different options and paths in my head seems hard – but at the same time it’s a challenge and that’s probably why I want to try it. We’ll have to see if I ever get the time 🙂
Interesting concept. It reminds me of those Choose Your Own Adventure books for kids. Good luck with it.
It’s exactly like that! I just need a good story that enables lot of interactivity without being too difficult to write and too “forced” in terms of decisions.