Storytelling is changing right before our very eyes. We’ve seen it over the past few decades with video games. We’ve seen it in choose your own adventures in novel form. We’re seeing it now on streaming services like Netflix. We’re seeing it through digital distribution of novels on Kindle and Wattpad. And we’re also seeing it on Facebook. Case-in-point: things are changing, and starting tomorrow, Facebook Messenger is launching an experiment of their own.

According to a report from Variety, author James Patterson is launching a piece of multimedia, interactive fiction on Facebook Messenger based on his thriller The Chef. Sadly, it doesn’t look like the whole story will be told in this form — as it will be released in a whole separate novel — but it’s still interesting nonetheless. In the app, readers can engage with characters, locations, and clues through interactive videos and sound clips.

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“Ten years ago, if you told me I’d see one of my novels come to life through scrolling chat bubbles, video and audio content, I would have laughed,” Patterson, who has more than 3.3 million followers on Facebook, said in a statement. “But exploring new ways to connect with fans is important to me and Messenger’s experience for The Chef not only makes the story more accessible to readers across new generations, but offers an enticing and thrilling read like never before.”

“It’s very exciting to see an author as renowned as Patterson pushing the limits of his craft to bring new forms of entertainment to his fans,” said Erin Murray Manning, head of influencer partnerships at Facebook.

While I’m not a huge fan of Patterson, I do appreciate whenever authors experiment with different styles of storytelling, and can’t help but wonder if this will help his new novel The Chef sell better come February.

What do you think of this experiment? Let us know down below!

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SOURCE: Variety