La Tour Eiffel

Rationale

Non-linear narrative

As a piece of hypertext fiction, "La Tour Eiffel" has three major entry points: Charles DeGaule Airport, Sainte Chapelle, or Versailles. These entry points are accessed up to six different ways. The story has one exit, Montmartre, but the exit has three different endings. The only way to read all 27 pages of the story is to use the back button and re-pick links, which is technically cheating.

In order to compose this piece, I had to depend on a circular way of thinking. Initially, my plot was linear, but that did not work well. Rather than use a traditional pyramid plot structure, I outlined plot points, and wrote something for each. Then, I added more pages under some plot points and linked it all together. I linked absolutely everything to anything at first, and then gradually deleted links and added new to get rid of infinite loops or excessive backtracking.

The reader's experience

Still, the story is just one story. It can just be read different ways. However, some parts of the story are only visible from certain pages, pages that the reader may never see if they don't click a particular link. That is perfectly fine, because that reader is still getting the story. Instead of reading a story the way an author wrote it, the reader is able to choose how the narrative will flow. True, the author still wrote it, but instead of dictating the sequence of events, the author left it up to the reader.

In truth, as the author, I really don't know where my readers will click when they read this story. All I know is that the reader is bound to hit either Versailles, Ste. Chapelle and Montmartre. If I wrote a typical print short story, I would know exactly what they read. In this case, I only know what they may have read.

The author's experience

This has been a test of my composition skills. As I mentioned earlier, I started this piece with a linear plot in mind -- it was travelogue, bound by date and time. In order to break it up, I had to think of different ways a reader would enter the site and what he or she would expect to read. Overall, it's been a positive experience because it forced me to write from the viewpoint of the reader instead of the other way around. Therefore, I'm a better writer for it.

Thank you for reading!