Whitechapel

What is Whitechapel?

Whitechapel is an interactive serialized horror novella published both in text and as an audio podcast (read by me, the author).

Is this related to Warren Ellis’ work?

No. While I knew that Warren Ellis’ FreakAngels was set in Whitechapel, I didn’t know his FA community was called “Whitechapel” until just after I launched whitechapelproject.com. I think there’s enough room on the Internet for two sites with the name “Whitechapel” in them, but hopefully you consider taking a look around here before heading back to check out Warren’s latest comic.

How is it interactive?

Every two weeks, a new episode will be released on whitechapelproject.com (along with various other sites — see below). Each episode will end with a plot point unresolved and a poll in which readers can vote on how they want the story to proceed. After a week of voting, the most popular option is used to help write the next episode.

Where can I vote?

At this time, you can only vote directly on the polls at whitechapelproject.com. I want all the votes to show up in one place, not only for my ease of reference, but also so other readers can accurately see how the voting is going at any particular time. You don’t need to be a member of the site to vote.

How often can I vote?

Once. The site has some rudimentary safeguards to stop casual and accidental submission of multiple votes, but through intentional misdirection or unintentional error it’s possible to vote multiple times. If it’s a mistake, don’t worry about it. If you’re intentionally trying to flood the voting, then I hope you enjoy your petty accomplishment. I’m sure your mother is so proud of you.

Are the votes meaningful to the story?

The short answer is “yes.” Although I do have a vague plot structure (just in order to keep this story from going on and on without any focus), a lot of the plot will depend on the voting. That isn’t to say that votes will always be obviously meaningful – sometimes a fairly trivial choice will have larger repercussions, either through a string of associated elements in my mind as I write, or as part of the plot at some point in the future.

Plus, sometimes I’ll skip over the obvious plot choice to offer a different one. Sometimes its a pacing issue — I have some rough targets each episode that I’ll want to hit, and once in a while the episode might end up being too short or too long if I go with the obvious choice. Other times I’ll have to wrangle the plot in a certain direction, which means skipping over the obvious choice to present a different one. That doesn’t mean that the choice you will get won’t be meaningful, but it does mean that sometimes it won’t be the expected one.

How long will Whitechapel run?

I’m going to try for a run of 24 episodes, possibly breaking down into three eight-episode acts. Due to the nature of the project, the story will almost certainly deviate from my intentions, but I’d like to wrap it up after a year.

What’s up with the audio readings/podcast?

I’ve been a fan of podcast audio fiction for a couple of years now, and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at it. I’ve been doing a podcast for White Wolf Publishing for a while now, and I thought it was time to do one for fiction. Further, not everyone has time to read a story online, but they can listen to short episodes of audio fiction much more easily. Finally, the idea of interactive audio fiction has been in my head for over a decade, and this was one way to scratch that itch. So, I decided to marry the written fiction with audiobook-style readings. I may do some Q&A episodes in the podcast, since it’s much easier to answer questions verbally than to write them out, but everything else will be mirrored in text on the site.

Where else can I experience Whitechapel?

Because I want as many people to read Whitechapel as I can, there are a number of ways you can follow along with Whitechapel and other Whitechapel Project stories besides just reading this site.

• You can read it via RSS feed or Atom feed to a feed aggragator such as Google Reader.
• You can read it on my personal blog, where most entries will be crossposted (episodes will be posted under the “whitechapel” tag).
• You can read it on the syndication feed on LiveJournal.
• You can read it by subscribing via email.
• You can read it on Goodreads.
• You can read it in French (thanks to Alex Cochrane for the translation!)
• You can listen to individual episodes on MP3 from each entry.
• You can listen to the podcast by using Feedburner and a podcatcher.
• You can listen to the podcast with your iTunes software or your Zune software.
• You can keep up to date with the Whitechapel Project on the Whitechapel Twitter feed or my personal Twitter feed (or searching on the #whitechapelproject tag).
• You can keep up to date on the Whitechapel Project Facebook fan page or the MySpace page.

Who are the Agents of Whitechapel?

The Agents of Whitechapel are my most amazing fans, those who are so passionate about Whitechapel that they want to promote the site and the story. I think this enthusiasm is fantastic, but it’s easier if we’re all working on the same page, so I created the Agents of Whitechapel program to keep this energy directed toward even more awesome goals. You can find out more information on my Like To Help? page.