Q. What first interested you to write in hypertext?

My first hypertext writing project was commissioned, what became the play "Chateau de Mort." I had never heard the term hypertext before - in fact, I had written two "simultaneous-action" plays before I realised I was writing hypertext and there was software to make my job hugely easier! I was interested in the form because of its incredible intimacy (the audience in the lap of the actors) and its complex dynamics and dramaturgy.

Q. What do you think are the main advantages of writing in hypertext over a more linear media?

Depends on the genre. In hyperdrama, you can create fully dimensional theatre/performance environments that are impossible to achieve on a traditional stage: for example, an audience member can be surrounded by 3 scenes going on at once, all playing off one another, like musical lines in a symphony.

In non-fiction, hypertext permits a wonderful layering of information so that a variety of audiences can be addressed at once, from surface immediate info to deeper layers of meaning.

In hyperfiction ... I'm still trying to figure out what it means!

Q. How much does the current state of technology restrict a hypertext writer? Chateau de Mort is in Dos format, is this because you feel the web is not yet advanced enough to cope with hypertext fiction with the problems of downloading etc?

I don't feel any technological restrictions, as far as WRITING (text) is concerned. Speed is still an issue with hypermedia. I did Chateau in DOS because Iris, a DOS hypertext program, was the first program I became familiar with. Nothing would be lost doing Chateau in HTML - except who has time to change all the coding? :-) I will be getting Storyspace soon, only because that's where all the "official clout" is today in hyperfiction and serious hypertext.

Q. How much feedback do you get through the net and how does this effect your writing?

I get some fan letters but that's about it. So far, feedback from the net hasn't really affected my writing one way or the other. No: I did get some great feedback on my hypertext sonnets, which convinced me to abandon the project entirely! Someone figured out how many thousands of sonnets I would have to write with the networking pattern I had established. I got exhausted just thinking of it - and so quit.

Q.Where do you think hypertext fiction is going in the future?

While I am convinced hyperdrama and hypertext non fiction are here to stay, I am not sure hyperfiction has a future at all - or if so, it will continue to be on two extreme fronts: games entertainment on the one hand and eclectic even snobbish postmodern academic mumbojumbo on the other. I have a hard time imagining "a popular hypertext novel." I'm not sure readers want to do the WORK that it takes to read hypertext fiction. In hyperdrama, the action is live, real, vibrant - it's not like READING. Hyperdrama is physically more dimensional. Hyperfiction requires a lot of decision-making from the reader, and I'm not sure the reading public is up to it.

Part 2

Charles Deemer cdeemer@teleport.com
Home Page: http://www.teleport.com/~cdeemer/index.html
Screenwriters: http://www.teleport.com/~cdeemer/scrwriter.html

If that has wetted your appetite why not read Charles Deemer's essay on Hyperdrama which can be found at his home page

If you wish to make any comments why not E-Mail me at leo@innotts.co.uk