My basic idea is to populate a database with topic-blurbs (characters, settings, actions, dialogue, bits of introspection) which would then be organized by a server-side script into uniquely queued narratives, able to respond to each reader’s preferences and interactions. Not in the chose-your-own-adventure fashion where the story changes, nor in the solve-the-puzzle fashion where you’re just walking through a series of rooms unlocking doors.

In my conception of dynamic narrative, only the focus of the story changes. The reader requests more detailed descriptions of the character, Arturo, so the script begins focusing more on Arturo’s contribution to the story. Or the reader seems interested in how Animus meets his dead parents, so the narrative begins to move in that direction. Or the reader doesn’t like at all that flowery description about what kind of flowers dot the landscape, so poof, all the poppies and peonies pop out of the prose.

In the past, I tried adapting plots from my stable of unwritten stories, but it was like trying to factor with prime numbers—those plots were designed for the old system, my mind had already converged on a single solution.

I needed a milieu with freedom, and fun, and an almost mythic feel. So, for my first set of tales I’m drawing inspiration from Richard Brautigan’s “In Watermelon Sugar.” A child’s world left to run amuck. And that is where I’m at today. Working out the characters, the settings, the stories, and of course, how the script will thread those elements into a narrative… if only I weren’t so distracted by other fascinating pursuits.