Short story in spreadsheet form
David Nygren sez, "A few weeks ago I Tweeted an idea about writing a novel in an Excel spreadsheet. The Tweet got a reaction. At the link, I've posted the first draft of a 'short storyspreadsheet' called 'Under the Table.' I've turned on Track Changes and am asking readers to help me out with edits/suggestions and send their own version of the Excel file back to me."
Short Storyspreadsheet: Excel as a Trojan Horse for Literature
Coral Cache mirror of the Excel sheet
(Thanks, David!)
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There's only problem with using Excel as any type of story planner / presenter.
Cell Character Limit.
But it does offer an intuitive way to present a story in two dimensions, rather than the traditional 1D linear narrative.
#1 - Then there's the problem with version control. Are you going to use ClearCase or something to keep the baseline straight?
So that's what a spreadsheet is. What are rare universe I inhabit.
Most videogames are translated using Excel, so I'm sort of used to writing in Excel.
I hate it. The character limit is extremely annoying, but nothing is as bad as not knowing the context of anything (which is another topic), and I guess this explains a lot about videogame translation.
Anyway: Excel just isn't the medium for telling stories, it's for killing stories.
There, I feel much better now.
Glad to see some people can actually get some fun out of this program :)
No, really.
I know guys who use excel for everything, including writing letters and papers, because they can explicitly control the formatting. They write each line it it's own cell, and just hit return after every line, just like the old typewriter days.
love the format
depressed as hell over the story
TeaPunk, at the risk of showing my ignorance...what do you mean that videogames are "translated" using Excel? I'm not sure what part of the process of creating a videogame that refers to. Is it like the storyboarding part?
I took a screenplay and video game writing class last semester and this is the exact format used to write a video game. Was an interesting experience writing that way to say the least.
@Xopher:
Localization of the on-screen text for games is done through Excel spreadsheets, more often than not. Because you're limited both by the screen ratio and the amount of text that can go into each cell of Excel, your ability to engage in exposition through text is limited.
Add that to the fact that in-game text must be created in such a way that it'll scale appropriately across languages (*glares at the German language*), and you can see how one might think that writing in Excel kills stories.
Now, as a game designer, I'd offer that -games- are meant to tell their stories primarily through player action connected to managed consequence. That's another discussion entirely, though. Using tools in unusual ways -- which is what this featured storyteller is doing -- is a good way to experiment with and expand a medium.
heck, this doesn't surprise me. I've had people give me spreadsheets they made in visio and powerpoint, diagrams they made in excel by coloring in the little blocks... why not a novel in excel?
At last, someone's figured out how to take the fun out of reading!
Kidding. It's a clever idea, but I think I'd use Word to do math before I'd use Excel to write fiction.
Can we please collectively agree to expunge the phrase "excel spreadsheet" from our vocabulary? It's the kind of thing my coworkers say, and they're all huge tools. The worst of it is that they invariably end up pronounching it as "XL spreadsheet," which makes me want to stab them.
While we're on the subject, can we mandate the death penalty for the kind of idiots that use the phrase "going forward" at the beginning of every sentence?
Interesting idea. Seems kinda like Dramatica Pro, though. You know, that software every Harlequin shill uses to generate their Fabiotastic books...
Most companies I've worked for use Excel for everything- database, word processor, you name it. Why not a novel?
Check out www.readatwork.com A similar concept but with classic novels laid out in powerpoint etc so you can 'read at work' without your boss noticing. done for the New Zealand Book Council to encourage people to read more... and not get fired. it's fairly awesome.
@The Unusual Suspect
Problem being, I don't think it does present the story in 2 dimensions. I don't know about you, but I ended up just reading across the boxes and down the columns - as you would in a normal story. The entire thing could have been formatted in one dimension with no real difference to the experience.
All this does is extract the parts of the story the writer should be thinking about anyway and present them separately; it's a fiction deconstruction.
That's really funny, I loathe Excel. as if work isn't torture enough, then they send you everything in Excel. it's all clumsy-ass slides & tabs, there's got to be something better. add to your day some Power Point & Lotus Notes next thing you know you're stomping down the hall looking for the nitwit that sent you that crap
@Syncrotic
Actually, there -is- a difference between an Excel spreadsheet and, say, a Calc (OpenOffice) spreadsheet or an iWork Numbers spreadsheet. When you work in an environment where you -will- encounter all three, it pays to be specific.