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I was looking for something like this. I'm planning to write an epic sci-fi novel and make it available under some open license (Creative Commons BY-SA probably
by babuskov 13y ago
I was looking for something like this. I'm planning to write an epic sci-fi novel and make it available under some open license (Creative Commons BY-SA probably). Since I'm not a native English speaker, I'm hoping those who are would jump in and help me perfect the text.
My final hope is to see a Hollywood movie made out of it one day, because many recent SF movies lack good story.
My other idea is to make the story branch into different directions. I would write the main storyline, but another writer could come and fork it at some point. The reader would be left with a choice at some point: would you like this character to take that decision or the other - and after choosing, the reader could read the forked variant.
This is the first time I'm publicly writing about this idea. I'm still undecided what technology to use to create it.
- maxerickson 13y agoHave you looked at Z-code? There's lots of reasonably modern interpreters for it and there seems to be a fairly active community.
- babuskov 13y agoNo. I just googled now, but there seems to be a lot of stuff named Z-code and I'm not sure what exacly am I looking for. Can you give me some URL?
- VikingCoder 13y agoI think Max is talking about the Z-Machine interpreter that Infocom created to make games like Zork and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There are many of modern ways to use it, like Inform (I recommend Inform 6 over 7), and even a web interpreter, Parchment. That's if you want someone to PLAY the choice in the story. Which is slightly different from what you're talking about.
- maxerickson 13y agoYeah, the Z-Machine interpreter. But I think it is reasonable to look at choose your own adventure as a fairly straightforward game, so Z-code presumably provides the necessary features for it.
- Blahah 13y agoGit branching a storyline is an awesome idea. I'd love to know when this book gets off the ground - I enjoy both sci-fi and correcting other people's English.
- thirdtruck 13y agoI'm cheering you on, babuskov! I've used git with my sci-fi novel, Planet Oz, since I first drafted it back in 2008. Quite glad I did since it makes the editing process much easier to track. Can't wait to begin the Kickstarter in October.
- kybernetikos 13y ago> I'm still undecided what technology to use to create it. I've got friends working on projects a bit like this. Markdown served from github pages is nice, as you edit and compare diffs in markdown, but you can get it automatically rendered into a nice readable form too. My own view though is that the most likely way to fail is to lose motivation, and having interminable discussions over minutia early on while writing is likely to suck away your energy. I'd probably get at least the skeleton of the whole story into your repos before encouraging others to contribute.
- babuskov 13y agoYep, the skeleton for the whole story is ready. I have been pondering about all those main story parts in the past 2-3 years. My next step would be breaking each chapter into smaller parts, without writing down any specific sentence. The last part of the process would be actually writing it.