I got this story idea after writing the story titled the search for Miles and Jada. I was about halfway into the story when I took a picture of a couch with ice covered on top of it. The couch was placed in someone's lawn with a free sign on top of it. I posted the picture to Hipstamatic And someone said is this couch picture part of the story and that's what first clued me in to the interactive nature of storytelling.

So in the story of Miles and Jada, the couch was eventually part of the story and the story took a shift the way a river can shift its course in life.

And so I started thinking how could this type of interactive storytelling be represented in book form? But first I needed to understand this type of storytelling and the closest form of it that I can think of is the Classic storyteller in public like a town Square medieval type of town or perhaps the types of towns that existed during the telling of the Arabian night where storytelling was the only form of entertainment at night. I believe this is still practiced formally in parts of China, but I think it's only done for tourist in the Middle East.

So imagine if you will a story that draws the reader in to become the story. It really can't be done in book form by itself, but it can be done online interactively.

The first idea I got was obviously creating a set of online accounts that interact with each other so the actual online persona is a character in a greater story. But each persona may be an audience member as well as a storyteller. So perhaps in one person's post another person comments and starts a new chapter or strain or shift in the story.

To try and take this to a book form would be to perhaps create an online presence that requires the acquisition of a book that then requires the reader to participate. Imagine if you will stumbling upon a blog post an Instagram post a tweet that sends you to purchase a book say from Amazon. But this book is not just any book. It is a one time purchase. Or rather it is a on demand PDF that is catered specifically to that audience member or comment or you. And the book engages you into becoming part of the story by telling the story. Period.

What is the overall experience and effect of this type of storytelling?  The reader must think that they're passive, and then somehow they gain control through engagement. Once they gain control, they become an active contributor to their own version of the story. Which draws them in even further and the point is that the story becomes as engaging as their own life something they can't escape from And the only way to finish. It is to finish the story or finish their life.

And the story itself must never stay on the same course. It should look like an ancient river bed that has somehow dried up and forgotten while the new river turns and forms new courses.

I think I first started thinking about this just recently, but perhaps I've been thinking about it much longer than that. Recently, I watched inception again and it's still hitting me how powerful this form of storytelling is. Another example is in the book anathema. Another example, but perhaps overdramatized and Told traditionally is the movie the matrix. And then there was a love story written by the Wachowski pair about an ancient lovers trying to reconnect through time.

The most important thing to this format is that is engagement. Engagement is key without engagement. You don't have a story so you really must pull the reader in, but it's not about drawing their attention. It's about converting them into a contributor. It's no longer about reading, but about living.