The immersive experience is not yet active, but please sample some fragments and check out the Man and Country thread for a more linear example of one possible destiny, to which I will endeavor to add a new fragment each month.

Literary choose your own adventure

The idea harkens back to the choose-your-own-adventure books made for ‘tweens by Bantam Books in the 80′s and 90′s. I remember them from my elementary school library. Go here for, a brief history of the form.

This conceit has more contemporary adaptations in computer programming languages, such as Twine and Inform7. However, unlike these “game-books” or “text games” which focus on puzzles, and immediate causes and effects, the aim of InFragments is to fall more on the side of literary fiction, utilizing interactivity as a to further the power of the novel form to illuminate the gravity of the seemingly banal, quotidian choices as they aggregate toward the huge decisions that can change the trajectory of our big-picture lives.

I envision the final product being something of a login platform where there is a singular starting point that diverges with each succeeding fragment based on how the reader answers questions certain questions. There will also be side stories that can be accessed through hyperlinked side-characters. The reader will always be able to go back and re-read past fragments, but will not be able to change the answers to the questions or look ahead. Progress will be saved to each username and when the thread is completed, the user will have the option of purchasing a hardcopy of the final narrative as they chose it.

Help Wanted: Words and Images.

As I am attempting to create numerous threads for myriad divergent characters, any input is much appreciated. Interesting anecdotes, poignant character studies, general plot outlines and even fully fleshed out short stories can be submitted for possible use in the final product.

I am always looking for good photos and artwork to add as companions to my fragments. The final project will arrange thumbnails as a dynamic map of the reader’s chosen path and possible destinies. If you read a fragment and think, ‘whoa I have the perfect photo or piece of art to go with that’, and you want to contribute, please don’t hesitate to drop me a comment or email. Contributing authors will be given credit at the bottom of each fragment, and those who contribute a lot will be mentioned in the acknowledgments section with a link to their portfolio or personal website. Feedback can be left in the comments sections, or sent directly to me by email.

A long and winding road

The final project will require many fragments. Assuming one completed narrative requires a bare minimum of one hundred pages (a page equaling approximately 700 words), and a satisfying host of outcomes requires, at the very least, ten threads, then the minimum output required before InFragments can be made fully operational as an interactive interface will be one thousand pages. My hope is that it will grow much more than that, with content and story lines added indefinitely, but this is the arbitrary minimum I’ve decided I need before going live with the web-design side of things. Until then this page will suffice.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy!