The Future of Storytelling?
I've blogged before how "good enough" isn't good enough anymore. Not just because the bar for books is high, but because the bar for ENTERTAINMENT is high. Yes, there's crap out there. But there's a LOT of choice--everything from movies to video games to iPhone apps and gadgets.
Where can e-books go? What about extras buried inside e-books? I've not really drifted too much in my blog into the boundaries of technology and what it means for books.
Until I read this and was utterly fascinated.
Now . . . I'm not saying I would play this game. In fact, it would be too "much" for me. Too emotionally scary. Not. Going. There. BUT . . . the concept? Four POVs. TWO THOUSAND pages of script. Multi-layered characters with inner demons. Homage to noir.
Even more, if things like this take off . . . what does it mean for conventional books someday that DON'T offer this?
And before anyone thinks that idea is ridiculous, I would point to Wii. Three years ago, conventional wisdom was the ONLY people who played video games were adolescent boys. Wiis are in nursing homes. My BLIND father plays the Wii (bowling and boxing) when he visits. My oldest son aligns his arm and shows him how to swing, we play on a high-dwef 52-inch screen he can see. Even my little guys bowls with Pop.
So read the article. And then . . . what do you think?
17 comments:
I think there will be room for all kinds of media including traditional books.
I look at my thirty-year-old son. He plays computer games, watches all kinds of videos and movies, probably has thousands of songs on MP3 or whatever the format is now.
But if you were to talk with him, he would tell you that not having books to read would leave a huge hole in his life. He reads voraciously.
Not all are like him, but there will still be enough to keep traditional books alive.
Joe:
I definitely think that it's not likely an either/or. But I also feel like there will be a point, some groundswell and AFTER it, some people will wonder, "How did we EVER NOT tell stories this way?" You know, I think--for example . . . music sharing/iPods . . . for my kids, they have NEVER bought a CD. They have never NOT cherry-picked their favorite music, acted as their own DJs. If there's something they want to do . . . like find out where the nearest x, y, or z store is, their first thought is "there's an app for that." They just think about their world in a different way. And though they all read, for TWO of my kids, there's an huge technology element. My Oldest Son reads manga based on Japanese shows he already watched subtitled on YouTube (hence, he doesn't even watch TV the way I do . . . he watches 50% of his content on YouTube). My younger daughter is into filmmaking. She doesn't really watch a lot of TV and would rather see what films her friends are making online. She reads, but she is more a storyTELLER visually.
I agree that there will always be a place of some sort for books . . . but I guarantee you, this next generation is going to change the way that is.
I've actually thought a lot about this as a concept for ebooks and my issue with it, or perhaps my concern, is that the production costs to really make it work is going to really limit authors than they are now. Simply because publishers don't seem inclined to put money into more than their bestselling authors. I just can't imagine publishers looking at a book by a newbie that they would have previously said, "OK, we think it'll sell 8000 copies, and that's okay, but in order to be able to do video and hire actors and compose music or use royalty-free music, to do this really well, our production costs have just quintupled." Resulting in--and gee, this should sound familiar--the top authors getting the money and support from their publishers.
Concerned, anyways.
Sorry for the two deletions. I had trouble saying what I wanted to say.
Here it is--
Erica,
You are right. When I thought of all his music, I was also thinking of a wall full of CD's he's brought over the years, each one for just one or two songs. Now he listens both to CDs played on a CD player and music played on an iPod, but with the iPod he buys single selections. He is changing too.
Mark:
I hear you. I mean, a 2,000-page script? I wonder at what point it "sells through." However, I also know there's a movement in technology toward emotionality (and not necessarily at high cost). There was an article about two years ago in Esquire about a very simple video game in which you go from life/birth to death--you meet a mate, and it mimics marriage and children. It's all done with stick figures, but the man who invented it--a young guy they consider a genius/thought leader in technology--was somehow able with the choices/script to create an emotionality to it, and so it's being looked at carefully. I think this game I linked to (it mentions the changing-a-diaper moment) is probably using some of that thought. What IS it to be human and emotional? How do you re-create it? Which, after all, is what novels are all about. In the end, I suppose we do it cheaply. :-)
E
Joe:
I have old CDs . . . never listen to them. Just like I never watch my VHS tapes. Like I said, I think there's a line in the sand that we cross on some technology and then never look back. At SOME point, with books, that line will be crossed.
As an editor, I ALWAYS worked on paper. I really resisted "track changes" in WORD. Now I never work on paper, and I ever get my galleys as PDFs.
This is interesting ... I think definitely storytelling will change as a result of interactive media. Look at the way storytelling changed with the advent of movies. In the old days, authors used to write huge, doorstop novels loaded with characters and events and emotion. They came out as serials to keep audience interest. In movies, which are basically the equivalent of a 120-page, double-space screenplay, storytelling is rarely so deep, but much more poignant. A story like Avatar is so simple as to be inane, but the movie is absolutely gripping. No less a great than Cormac McCarthy said the "days of the 800-page novel are over." Serial novels are dead (although comics are alive and well).
So ... definitely, storytelling will change as people are increasingly allowed to create their own stories in someone else's universe. Personally, I'm think there will be a big leap when the Internet and television finally merge. They're fighting over who gets to control the box now, but there's no reason that the TV and the Web-enabled computer should remain separate entities for too much longer. Imagine that. You Tube will look like child's play compared to a television that literally has unlimited channels, ranging from total amateurs to major networks, with linking ability AND the ability to communicate with mobile devices like e-readers.
I think it's pretty cool, personally. What about a story on an e-reader that provides ways to unlock episodes of a TV show, which in turn provides basic programming tools such as sets and avatars so the user can make their own episodes and stories, then upload them to a common community for other people to download to their e-readers? It's like a novel crossed with fan fiction crossed with the Internet crossed with television.
From a writer's point of view, I think world-building will be more important than ever. And I don't know if I agree that authors will be hurt by this process. To some extent, I think the possible futures will be so different than we currently understand (with our separate publishing, television, and Internet industries) that we can't envision the risk and rewards to those of us who tell stories.
OMG, this is utterly gripping! I'd say this is going to really take off. The emotional connection to the characters and the multiple layers... It's a whole new experience.
This particular one reminded me of the movie "The Crow" for some reason.
I haven't blogged in years (it feels like!), but am visiting blogging buddies today. Hope you're doing well!
:-)
If that was Harry Potter, I'd spend whatever it took to play that game.
I disagree that conventional wisdom said games only belonged to adolescent boys. Wii did not necessarily change the landscape of video game playing - I know loads of people, adults down to small children, who played for years before Wii. Nothing against Wii, though. It has made it available for more people, though my family (avid gamers, all but me) is very disappointed with it.
My husband is exploring the Iphone app world, having just taken a contract to develop a sizable one. The highest downloaded app is one in which you throw a balled up piece of paper at a trashcan.
I sometimes fear that the "standards" the publishing industry is putting on books are intellectualizing them right out of the mainstream market.
Interesting concept. I talked to my husband (avid gamer and techie and geek) about it. He said the concept has been around for a long time (friends used to play a game called Myst or something) like it. Now technology and graphics have caught up to the concept. He said another "fault" he sees with the game is that it gets adult very quickly. I mean, murdered kids, ick. It does raise the stakes though, and gamers are very attuned to story and stakes. All games have stories, incidentally, I've met several good writers who launched their fiction careers in the gaming industry. A lot of games are speculative fiction, so that's my set of folks. :)
My husband didn't see it as a direct conflict to books (I, for instance, don't game and wouldn't even find this interesting. The whole platform kind of bores me and I'm not tuned into the controllers, etc). And those who do read (my son is an example, avid reader) will still read. Sure, time is limited, but even with his PSP right on his bedside table, he's more likely to pick up a book at that time of night. The PSP requires so much interaction and thought that I think it's sometimes literally just easier and more relaxing to read.
Anyway, I see it is a case of more is more, if that makes sense.
Lurker:
I agree . . . think about the possibilities.
Funny, but the concept of YouTube ORIGINALLY seemed dumb to me. But now I see my kids are MUCH more invested in YouTube than "real" TV.
HEY CHRIS!!
Good to "see" you!
Richmond:
I feel the same way about The Handmaid's Tale.
E
Starbucks:
I hear you . . . I do feel like there are going to be some real game-changers though.
E
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