. Spinning .

It was a bit of fun to play around in the SWAT (the building of verb action) for a while, but with manual and tutorial in hand, I want to explore more seriously. 

The possiblities here are tremendous–although at this stage, limiting to the writer as well in ways of rethinking the basic process of writing.  Stubborn at change yet anxious to discover new ways (which, I suppose, serves as a self-burden that appeals to the remaining shreds of Catholic in my brain), I need to take this a bit more slowly than jumping in and clicking buttons and menus. 

I’m currently looking through my Stories file to find one of those many, many starter scenes that would suit this Storytron format.  Or, I can just write up another–but thinking in the format will obviously be the most dramatic change in technique.  I may do a quick run-through in Facade with Grace and Trip to help readjust my process.

By the way, I’ve given this project its own category as this will be an ongoing learning and working program.  It is in its early stage of creation and I’m glad to have discovered it now.  It promises to be as exciting an adventure as the program develops and the story, just as in the new media productions for the reader/writer/user, is unknown and wide open with possibilities.  The category will be, for me, a record of that learning.

It is obvious that the Storytron manner of planning story is total alien to my natural method of writing.  I tend to start with an opening paragraph, whether to set mood, create a backdrop or situation, or present a character, and the story just develops and progresses without thinking ahead about where the story is headed.  It starts; I’m there to write down what happens.

Storytron appears, without definite plots or structure, to have a general story or scenario in mind when creating the "Storyworld" stage, and with the license (and necessity, for interesting interactive reading) to include all the possibilities that need be discarded in favor of a single path in traditional format.

It’s an interesting concept and for me, a challenging one.  I think that, since I’ve barely dipped my clicker into the program itself, I’m first going to write out a scene or situation for my actors to live in.  I think that bit of planning, at least, is necessary to begin learning the program and what it can do.

In going back and rereading the concept of this writing tool program, it is even more intrigueing in its possibilities. 

Within the program portion called SWAT, the writer creates a cast of characters by building their personalities and thus, their likely reactions to situations.  He can endow them with certain quirks, thus making them less predictable and more interesting to deal with for the reader in the writing of their stories.  The events are also planned by the writer, but not with a narrative structure or plot sequence in mind.

This randomness of sequence, coupled with the diversity of the character reactions, should be very interesting and involving for the reader, and a true challenge for the writer.

Well once again I’m off on a quest of exploration and discovery, sent by he who chuckles once I’ve finally bitten down on the bait.  The same chuckler who put me in the middle of Grace and Trip’s marital problems in Facade. 

Storytron is a new concept in developing interactive story.  All the forms of interactive narrative–text IF, games, hyperfiction, fall short in one area: the amount of freedom the reader/player has in creating a storyline that is unbounded by author intent.  Storytron is based upon action/reaction, and the multitude of ways that people react to events. 

The central kind of dramatic principle is the Verb–a possible occurrence in the Storyworld.  The Protagonist and the computer-controlled Actors interact by performing Verbs, which allows for extremely rich and varied behavior while ensuring that each action is dramatically significant.  (Storytron)

What I’m beginning to understand as the crux of the concept is that the author will be building a storehouse of verb-based action phrases that cover a wide range of situations–cause and effect–and these will form a basis of action as called upon by reader input without specific guidance of having been written into the storyline, even as possibilities to that specific segment of the story, by the writer.

I’ll link Storytron in the right sidebar as a project I’m working in, somewhere near what I’m currently reading, so that I do not necessarily have to remember to link it in the postings–something often forgotten in the fever of learning and sharing.  Also, it will show the world how great I am at multitasking in taking on so many projects at once.  Or, a dismal failure and scattered personality in biting off more than I can chew.