Here you’ll find samples from various projects that cover prose and exposition. Each of these projects have different requirements for story content, ranging from longer form interactive fiction to short form microfiction. I’ve selected examples that demonstrate my overall strategy for meeting the needs of each project.

The Chronologist: Strategy

The Chronologist is a small interactive fiction piece created to explore an empathy-driven mechanic, instead of a combat-driven mechanic. The intention was to create a short experience that evokes a classical style. The prose is intended to feel rhythmic, yet meandering, with short enough beats to allow for player interaction and decision to shape the narrative.

Each page in The Chronologist introduces a setting used for two decision-based story beats. When creating the prologue for each set of decisions, I had the added challenge of crafting something unique while maintaining the general narrative structure of the game.

EVERY SEASON, THE SAME. The cool smell of dust permeates the air and light pierces through the windows of the vaulted ceiling of the ANCIENT WORKSHOP. The gentle swaying of distant palm trees, stretched deep into the sky, dance in the windows, like the hands of a clock, slowly tick, tick ticking the day away. A decade’s worth of carefully crafted sundials and time sticks, lay strewn about the room. The days grow long, waiting for the first visitor.

The first workplace is an ancient space full of wonder and mystery.

The YOUNG MAN shuffles in, the first of the day. Timidly, he asks you to help him with his WORN SUNDIAL. He’s always late to help his father in the fields, an angry man for sure. Surely a compassionate CHRONOLOGIST such as yourself can help him?

Give him the granite sundial, radiating discipline.
Give him the marbled sundial, with an aura of adventure.
Do nothing.

Memory Lane: Strategy

Memory Lane is a short, sci-fi interactive fiction adventure with a branching narrative and multiple endings, written in Twine. The central challenge when writing Memory Lane was ensuring that each story path felt cohesive and complete while offering enough unique lore to drive replayability.

In addition to making each story path unique, I also wanted to reveal the ephemera of a larger story as each path is explored.

THE CITY BUSTLES UNDER THE CONCRETE SKYLINE, awash in the glow of an ocean of neon. Palm trees reach in unison with genetically manicured fronds, into the crackling, static sky, undaunted by the towering metropolis. A bitter, metallic taste of expired nanites floats through the air, sinking down into a polluted haze of proto-chems, exhaust fumes, and electromagnetic noise. Hyper-connected citizens squirm mindlessly through the sea of neo-industrial waste, hopeful, energized, and completely and totally unaware – It must be nice.

“The destination is 100 meters away,” a pleasant, but plain female voice echoes through your NeuralNAV. “You’re almost there.”

“Thanks, Sam,” you reply out loud, instinctively polite. She’d sound real if it weren’t for the artificial link displacement.

The sidewalk stretches out before you, your destination lit with a flickering blue neon overlay.

Proceed through the mass of people.

Bedtime Stories from New Cyberia

Here is a sample of microfiction from my ongoing sci-fi anthology, Bedtime Stories from New Cyberia. These pieces are stand-alone, unique prose in short form, loosely connected by the world they inhabit and the genre of writing, ranging from horror to science fiction.

The main challenge for this project is conveying meaningful experience in an extremely limited space: a handful of sentences at most, and often fewer than one hundred words. In addition to that challenge, my goal is to embrace a sense of duality. In most cases, these are intended to demonstrate the ebb and flow two opposing concepts or provide a strong, unexpected reveal.

These pieces demonstrate a variety of strategies and techniques for meeting those challenges, while presenting a rich reader experience.