Digital Stories: Introduction
The digital world influences everything. It is so influential, indeed, that stating that fact has become overdone. Nevertheless, it is true— and storytelling is no exception. With this influence comes new mediums, new formats; and stories that have shifted, adapting to their new environment. Creating something unconventional becomes a lot easier when the limits do not stop at your physical materials! Especially remarkable is the growing prevalence of reader interaction, and of metafiction in general.
Given their unconventionality, the question arises— what qualifies as a story at all? Personally, I’m not a purist. If a human is sharing experiences, whether real, fictional, or a mix of both, that is a story. Paintings in art museums have stories contained within them, even if it is simply the life of the painter who created it. Digitized short stories, video games, blog posts— even the meandering narrative one scrolls quickly past before reaching a recipe. Even the recipe itself. Undoubtedly the stories below.
Let Us Help You Find Your Next Read: Digital Short Fiction
Image credit: Grisham Abraham
Digital Stories: What’s Next?
We can theorize about improved space travel, functional self-driving cars, and “holodeck” type technology all we like, but the future of storytelling is a bit more difficult to get a handle on. Undoubtedly, more stories will be digitized as the ease of doing so further increases. But what about the prevalence of truly “digital” stories?
Personally, I hope it skyrockets. I hope more people find it and love it. As technology becomes more accessible, so too may creativity. More voices speaking, more ideas heard.
“Atypical” stories like this push the limits of what a story can be, and a digital medium is the perfect sandbox to do that in.