Entry: Epistolary Logs

[bcj]

My goal is to generate a novel that is solely told through a Space Station's system logs. I want to write all the code for this myself, so natural English sentences are pretty much out of the question. It would make sense for computer logs to be basic and built from templates.

I'm hoping to really lean into that nature of the logs and use to my advantage. Repetitive log entries (could) build tension and make anomalies fell more out of place (sort of like how Paranormal Activity 2 uses repeated camera loops to build tension).

As such, the main thing I'll be focusing on is writing something that builds plot points and keeps track of character locations. I also may build an associated search tool to let reader's explore the novel by trying to piece together plot points from anomalies.

I don't know if I can nail this idea, but I really think it has promise.

[ikarth]

I think that's a strong framing to start from. You might want to check out Emily Short's notes at the end of Annals of the Parrigues; the bit about vemenous writing might help make your templates more expressive.

[hugovk]

Emily Short gave a talk yesterday: http://www.procjam.com/2016/10/20/schedule-livestream/

[bcj]

Oh my goodness, these notes and this talk are very good!