Q. What first interested you in writing hypertext fiction?

I did my degree in Artificial Intelligence, and for the final year I wanted to do something on creativity. That wasn't a topic that was taught or particularly encouraged and I had to go looking for a suitable project. Fiction seemed an obvious choice since I was beginning to take my writing seriously.

I ended up reconstructing a program called TALE-SPIN and trying to extend it in various ways. It was written by James Meehan and used a goal-based, problem-solving approach to generate simple stories. Time caught me up and I didn't get to take it as far as I had hoped. By the end I had lost a lot of enthusiasm for it.

However along the way I came across a paper on Joyce's "Afternoon". I didn't get to read the work itself but the way it was described fired my imagination. I touched on hypertext fiction in my report and did a little experimentation with a hypertext tool called Guide. "Under The Ashes" began to take shape around then.

Also as a kid I had come across interactive/hypertext fiction in the form of solo adventures for the Tunnels & Trolls game. Those had several numbered paragraphs to a page (1D, 1E etc.) and you were offered a choice of which paragraph to turn to next. I wrote one or two dodgy ones myself. That kind of book took off in Britain when Puffin's Fighting Fantasy range appeared. Eventually I did a proposal for one of those. I suppose it was almost inevitable that I would try on-line hypertext.

Q. Why did you choose the venue of a house to set your hypertext fiction story in ?

There's something primal about creepy old houses which fires my imagination. I used to do a morning newspaper round in my home village and during the winter I'd have to go round the back of some dark places. Older houses definitely have a presence, a character, and I imagine all those years of contact with humanity gives most a disapproving slant.

Other people obviously feel the same way. Think of The Amityville Horror, or the house in the Psycho films. I was very pleased indeed when "Ashes" was compared to Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" because that taps into precisely what I wanted to do.

Also the kind of language H.P. Lovecraft uses evokes old buildings, with forbidding architecture and a grim, run-down quality. These images have a certain power to them which I don't quite understand.

Q. What advantages or disadvantages have you found in writing a hypertext fiction over a traditional linear narrative?

You hear about old houses built with bizarre features like corridors which don't go anywhere or a staircase leading to a blank wall. It seemed a shame to me that when a story was set in a house like that, you had to follow the characters down one single path. It seemed to miss the essence of the experience. Hypertext allows the story to develop in different ways, a kind of exploration, and I like that.

In purely practical terms there are other advantages too. With "Ashes" I realised quickly that I wasn't going to be ultimately satisfied with anything short of a huge, sprawling text. I also doubted that I'd have the energy to get it to that stage without feedback of any kind. I write novels and short stories too, and they take the bulk of my writing time. So I thought, why not make "Ashes" a work in permanent progress? That way it's a dynamic, evolving story which I can leave for months if I want, or do a new node every now and again. It means I only work on it when I'm feeling enthusiastic and that must be worth something.

Having said that I'm very conscious of readers and I don't want the story to simply end with a broken link. I try to introduce closure at each stage; this means there's often one path which ends in a way I'm not happy with. It's a compromise.

I think writing hypertext fiction has one major, simple disadvantage. For multiple readings, unless you're simply presenting the same text in different ways, you have to write more text. *Much* more text.

Q. Do you think you can ever satisfactorily finish a hypertext story, or would you really want to?

Yes, I think you can decide on a limited, finite space for your story and write it to completion. Rick Pryll's "Lies" is a good example which works well. I find that kind of closure very appealing. If I started a new hypertext story right now I would plan it that way. I kind of fell into writing "Ashes", otherwise I might have done a short one to try the form out.

Q. How much does the technology involved in writing an on-line hypertext story effect or change the way you write?

In one sense I always write the same way because I have set ideas about plot, character, pacing and the like. In another sense I try to approach different projects with a different mindset. I do believe that you learn by mistakes and so it's a good idea to stretch yourself.

Anyway, I consider the physical format that a finished work will have when I decide how to tell that particular story. I think you have to. Hypertext is just another medium with different rules and tools. If you tried to write a play for radio in the same way you wrote one for the stage you'd end up with a pretty crap radio play.

My understanding of Storyspace is limited as I haven't worked with it much, but it's clear that I lose a lot by writing purely in static HTML. Again, the technology gives rise to the form of the story. I have a vague idea about writing my own engine to get round this, but that will have to wait until I'm rich and have many more idle hours.

Part 2

Gavin Inglis krynoid@tardis.ed.ac.uk
Under the Ashes.