The first publicly inspired Epifiction short story is finished! Thirteen different people contributed the setting, characters and direction of the story via Kickstarter. I have to admit, the process was intimidating at times, but the end product turned out really compelling.
What will you do when the Dark comes for you?
Trapped beneath the streets of Boise, Idaho, an odd cast of players encounter an ancient evil determined to devour the souls of humanity. Pitted against themselves and ancient forces they don’t understand, each individual’s humanity will be tested. Man, woman or monster? Hero or heel?
Tree of Life evolved into a bit of a pulpy/campy horror tale with a solid redemption moral at the end. Who would have known? That’s the great thing about relying on crowd-sourced inspiration. Together, the crowd and the writer create something none of them would have expected, but all of them shaped.
And that is what Epifiction is endeavoring to figure out. We’re searching out the most organic evolutionary path for the choose your own adventure stories of old. With the onset of the internet, social media and the ebook, written storytelling has evolved in large part without forethought and guidance. Facebook and Twitter feeds, mobile applications and Instagram have hijacked the way we tell our own stories and the way we participate in other people’s stories.
Epifiction believes that written storytelling is still a powerful medium. But that, as always, it must adapt. To do so in our modern context, that means becoming instantaneous, interactive, social and above all, contextualized. That is why Epifiction goes to such great lengths to put you in the story.
If you missed out on the creation of Tree of Life, don’t worry. We will be continually creating new stories with new innovations in effort to put you in the story. Stay tuned! And go check out Tree of Life and let me know what you think of our first foray.