How it started / how it's going

& some story ideas

I started the interactive fiction literary journal Plotopolis in the way I start most things: I followed an interest deeper and deeper.

In this case — I thought:

Because I love Alternate Reality games¹, it’d be fun to write an interactive fiction piece

• Oh - there’s a thriving IF community? What if I submit that piece to IFComp, the interactive fiction competition, to give myself an end-goal

• Could I build my own gaming engine to run my story?

• And what if that engine allowed IF stories to be read on chat platforms, a natural fit for dialogue and interaction? It’s where readers already are.

• Literary journals are a format I love² — what if I turned that game engine into a submission-based literary journal?

The Whale’s Keeper was submitted to IFComp 2023, Plotopolis launched shortly after, and I found that whole experience amazing and the community around it incredibly warm and supportive. The piece received some sublime reviews and some not-so sublime, as is to be expected on a first try.

And so here we are. The journal is built, I have worked hard to integrate the game engine into Slack, Telegram, and Facebook messenger, and I have received some intriguing, well-written submissions (we also accept proposals).

But to be frank, I have yet to accept even one of those submissions for our debut issue. Work has either been of high literary quality, but won’t fit into the structure of the IF platform, or solid IF, but not quite as literary as I’d hoped.

I think the form has tremendous potential. And yet like any platform, it needs some experimentation. So to clarify what we’re looking for, here’s a few story/poem/essay ideas that I would love to see submitted.

• A chat conversation with a technical support person that goes weird

• A therapy session

• A phone call with your mother/brother/ stranger uncle Albert

• A poem that meditates on choices you have not taken

• An essay that subtly steers you into a political conclusion

• A conversational tour of a piece of ancient history, including imagery and references

• A high school multiple choice test

• A 911 call

• A game of chess

A note on submitting:

The Interactive Fiction festival “Spring Thing” is coming up (intent to submit is due by 3/1). If you submit to Plotopolis, I can help make sure your piece goes live to coincide with that festival (double your readers!). Or, if you create a Twine-based piece and we do not accept you, submitting it to Spring Thing is an excellent backup submission strategy.

1. Four partners made up Black Magic Insurance Agency, we ran alternative reality games (mixed digital and location based) in the city of Portland. We went to enormous lengths to bend your perception of the city in a single weird, joyous night. It will be revived in some future year!

2. I published, with Laura Moulton, the literary journal Gumball Poetry for ten years. We published poetry into capsule machines.