interactive fiction

interactive fiction is a term encompassing a range of experimental approaches to both fictional form and the writing process. Formal developments range from text-based role playing games to complex hypertext novels, and include material published in both print and electronic media. The defining feature of this work is that the author relinquishes to the reader a degree of control over the text, opening it to a range of readings. Notable examples, which demonstrate that narrative is merely one way in which fiction can comment on the world, include: Hopscotch (1963), in which Julio Cortázar proposed two ‘approved’ sequences for his 155 chapters while inviting the reader to impose alternative patterns; B. S. Johnson's The Unfortunates (1969), which consisted of a box of twenty-seven unbound sections, with only the beginning and end segments designated by the author; and Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Kazars (1988), a pastiche reference book in the form of three dictionaries representing separate cultural traditions, which enabled a linear reading, random consultation, or the tracing of themes and events across the texts. Developments in hypertext, CD-ROM and World Wide Web (WWW) technologies enabled further exploration of the relationship between author and reader. The original WWW version of G. Ryman's 253 (1996) exploited the interconnectivity of hypertext, leading readers to approach the piece as a fictional encyclopedia—browsing randomly or according to interest through a series of linked documents—rather than treating it as a traditional narrative.

In terms of interactivity in the creative process, the tradition of collaborative authorship was well established by the time Dickens and Wilkie Collins worked together on stories for Household Words in the 1850s. In the 1930s Charles Henri Ford, American surrealist poet and editor, organized international chain-poems to tap into ‘a hypothetical joint imagination’: an opening was written, then each of Ford's collaborators (including members of the New Apocalypse) added a line to build up the poem. Multiple author fiction is seen by some writers as a means of enriching their storytelling through exposure to alternative styles, associations, and points of view—but others feel that the lack of a unified vision makes it virtually unreadable.

New forms of interactive authorship have been made possible by the development of the MOO—a computer-based technology (Multiple User Dungeons, Object-Oriented) enabling individual users to create imaginary spaces, roles, and personalities. These virtual writing communities often combine elements of the creative writing workshop, role-playing game, literary discussion forum, and experiment in literary collaboration. Typically, they aspire to the production of authorless texts and are characterized by loose editorial control and a blurring of the boundaries between the role of writer, reader, and critic. Examples can be found at Lingua MOO (1995), created and administered by Cynthia Haynes and Jan Rune Holmevik at the University of Texas at Dallas. www location: http://lingua.utdallas.edu/; and the trAce International Online Writing Community, coordinated by Sue Thomas at Nottingham Trent University: www location: http://trace.ntu.ac.uk. In the popular trAce ‘Noon Quilt’ experiment (1998) contributors from all over the world were invited to submit 100-word impressions of the view through their window at noon.