Inky Path

Website

Defunct

From the Editor

Inky Path is the first of its kind–a literary magazine dedicated to the promotion and distribution of interactive fiction. Interactive fiction consists of works where readers make choices that affect the outcome of the work. Historically, these have consisted of choose-your-own-adventure books and parser-based games like the Zork Trilogy. Today there is an even greater population of writers crafting interactive fiction, and the writing style has become increasingly popular through sites like ChoiceOfGames.com and TextAdventures.co.uk. The mission of Inky Path is two-fold. Inky Path seeks to bring seemingly disparate forms of interactive fiction together under one roof by providing access to publication of all forms of interactive work. We also seek to increase awareness of interactive fiction to the literary world by providing the resources necessary for newcomers to read great interactive fiction and create works of their own. Through these two goals Inky hopes to serve the literary community as a whole by proving a greater readership and awareness of interactive fiction as a literary medium, and increasing the pool of readers and writers in the field of interactive fiction. — Interactive fiction is a medium like no other, melding the traditional narrative with the interactivity typically found in games. Usually told through the second-person, interactive pieces become a product of the work itself and the reader’s response to it; that is, the reader goes from observing the scene (as in typical literature) to becoming a thinking, living actor within the piece. This is the heart of interactive fiction’s appeal–its ability to draw the reader in like no other medium can, and to bridge the gap between the typical narrative structure of fine literature and the glitzy graphics but poorer writing of many games. At the moment interactive fiction already has a burgeoning community of readers and writers, with names like Emily Short and Andrew Plotkin known and admired. Contests like the XYZZY Awards and the Interactive Fiction Competition attest to the community’s desire to continually seek out and produce writing of merit. Unfortunately, the interactive fiction world can also be somewhat insular. While there are many fantastic works out there, it can be difficult for those new to interactive fiction to know where to begin, and with the great variety of interactive fiction programs, sites, resources, and blogs, it can seem daunting to try to read or write interactive works. Inky serves to bring all of these resources together and to showcase notable interactive fiction work. It provides the literary magazine for promoting new and innovative interactive fiction, and a site where readers can easily select a program for authoring interactive fiction and learn how to craft interactive narratives of their own. Visit the site to read some great interactive fiction, learn how to write your own, and submit your work today.

Submissions

We are looking for interactive fiction submissions of every length, width, and flavor. Bring us your morsels and your meals, your works of high-flown fantasy and your gritty autobiographies. Have branching poetry or a parser-based epic? We’d love to see it! Inky Path is currently accepting both excerpts and full-length pieces. Pieces can be previously published and can be of any length. We are also accepting blog post entries by guest writers. If you have something to say about interactive fiction or writing today, we’d love to read it and (re)post it on Inky’s blog. For full details about submitting interactive works or blog post entries, please see Inky’s Submissions page here: http://inkypath.wordpress.com/submissions/

Upcoming

The release date for Vol. 1 is currently dependent on the number of submissions we receive; either it will be released on Feb. 28 (Winter Edition) or May 31 (Spring Edition). Check the site for updates!

Information

Editors Name Devi Acharya
Print publication? No
Circulation
Approx. Response Time? 2 months
How often do you publish? Quarterly
Year Founded? 2013
Do you pay? No
Do you take online submissions? Yes

Contact

Twitter www.twitter.com/InkyPath
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/inkypath
Email inkypath@gmail.com