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Italian Addventures

Collaborate on Interactive Italian Fiction

By Michael San Filippo, About.com

Ready for an Italian addventure? That's not a misspelling. An "addventure" is a type of collaborative interactive fiction in which many authors contribute to a story. It's a phenomenon that has grown recently with the introduction of technology such as wikis and other content management systems that make it easier for groups to contribute or modify text. Think of it as a round-robin literary exercise in which everyone participates. The added benefit of creating Italian interactive fiction (narrazione interattiva) is that contributors gain practice writing and reading in Italian, and assist each other in improving their Italian language skills.

Scrittura Collettiva
Community members of the About.com Italian Language Forums have contributed hundreds of posts and have created many short stories over the past few years. Participants can add to specific stories to help grow the hypertext fiction, or start a new story in Italian. Some imaginative examples include L'Avventura Di Un Cane Piccolo, Sergio D'Oro, and Andare In Bicicletta. Authors usually add a sentence or paragraph, and all levels can participate.

As an example, here are the first few lines of a story titled Storia, Storia Delle Mie Brame and written by several members of the About.com Italian Language Forums community:

Biancaneve era una ragazza molto facile che se la faceva con sette nani alla volta, ignorando bellamente le ramanzine della matrigna Crimilde, la quale faceva parte dell'Azione Cattolica, delle Figlie di Maria, delle Dame di San Vincenzo, del Circolo Parrocchiale di Bridge e dell'UNIRE (Unione Nazionale per l'Incremento delle Razze Equine).

La sua amica Cenerentola era invece una ragazza molto difficile, si prendeva cura delle anziane sorellastre e le aiutava nella coltivazione delle mele, ignorando bellamente la corte di un giovane industriale locale del ramo calzaturiero, che faceva parte dell'Anonima Alcolisti, del Commando Ultrà Curva Sud, della setta dei Bambini di Satana e dell'UNDER (Unione Nazionale per il Decremento delle Equine Razze).

Nonostante il loro diverso approccio alla vita, si volevano molto bene e spesso trascorrevano una serata rilassante - Biancaneve senza nani intorno, Cenerentola senza sorellastre - dalla comune amica Bella Indormenta nel Bosco, che non era un grande conversatrice ma in compenso aderiva all'Unione Nati Stanchi, alla Dissociazione Italiana Cani Sciolti, alla sezione Stakhanov di Rifondazione Comunista e alle Madri del Leonkavallo.

Writing The Great Italian Novel—Collaboratively
If you're ready to write the next Il Gattopardo, a set of instructions for writing interactive Italian fiction on the forums will help you get started. Don't feel limited by the guidelines provided, though. Brainstorm your own standards for writing as a team, and let the creativity flow. The only requirement is that the stories be written in Italian so that everyone can contribute.

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