Hyperfiction is fiction that uses the linking capabilities of hypertext. Hyperfiction is also called hypertext fiction, tree fiction, non-linear fiction, and electronic fiction. Truly hypertextual fiction is non-linear; it cannot be represented on a printed page. The reader takes an active role in the hyperfiction, choosing which links to click on and which paths to follow. The story, then, may be very different from one reading to the next, depending on the choices made by the reader.
Hyperfiction can be distributed on the World Wide Web or through standalone programs on CD ROMs or disks. Not all of what on the Web is worth reading. After a survey of Web hypertext, Michael Shumate said, "...hypertext fiction on the Web is replete with bad writing... inane sermonettes on contemporary society and cultural and literary theory among all sorts of other postmodern pretentiousness...."
But, he also noted that this was not necessarily a bad thing. "If [the hyperfiction] is bad enough, it'll be ignored, if it's good enough, it'll be found...."
Most writers who choose the hyperfiction format describe some sort of epiphany, where they realized that the multiple plotlines/narrators/scenes/etc. of what they were hoping to write could not be easily represented on paper. They are thrilled at the way they can share their personal associations in the form of links.
The draw of hyperfiction also involves its novelty. With so few hyperfictions available (and even fewer good ones), it is easy for authors to make their mark on the genre. But, above all of this, there is the challenge of hyperfiction (this is not just the challenges of getting your work distributed or respected, as those are also formidable). Hyperfiction challenges almost every notion about what fiction is, or should be. The hyperfiction author must have a strong understanding of what the traditional genre entails--so they can go beyond it.
Writing hypertext fiction and poetry, by all the accounts, sharply raises the author's consciousness about the elements and relationships that structure a conventional linear text: "what are 'plot' and
'character,' and how does one create them in the absence
of linear telling? ...To write hypertext poetry and fiction, the author must become acutely aware of how these genres of text work, in both conventional and hypertext forms"(Seth Katz in "Current Uses of Hypertext
in Teaching Literature." Computers and the Humanities, 30, (Number 2, 1996) 139-148).
Hyperfiction and the Web have a tenuous relationship, at best. At
first glance, the Web seems to be an ideal forum for hyperfiction. So why
are so few serious hyperfiction authors using it? For an
extended discussion of this topic, visit Hyperfiction and the Web: an unlikely pair?.