Stirrings & Other Stories

Not interactive fiction, but nevertheless put together with Twine 2, Stirrings & Other Stories is a collection of collaborative flash fiction written by myself and Loz Etheridge in the mid-nineties, with additional material by my brother, Dan Guest.

In my early twenties I came across a book called ‘‘The Third Mind’’ by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin. This book showcased the cut-up technique popularised by Burroughs and Gysin in the sixties. It provided numerous examples of techniques for taking texts, cutting them up, and then rearranging and combining the pieces to form new narratives.

Loz and I had already experimented with collaborative writing, exquisite corpse style, for my interactive opus ‘‘Escape from the Crazy Place’’. ‘‘The Third Mind’’ was an inspiration, and the sixty texts presented here represent the product of a year’s mucking about with some of the ideas it provided.

A full account of the techniques we used to write these texts can be found in the hastily written introduction. I hope you enjoy reading them, and I’d welcome any comments or questions.

Link: Stirrings & Other Stories by J. J. Guest, Loz Etheridge and Dan Guest.