A pretty common creative exercise involves writing a short literary piece from a given premise, a couple of words, or a few concepts. Its aim isn’t to produce masterpieces, but to stimulate creativity by placing obstacles on its way, to generate moments of insight and art, and to learn from the whole process and from one’s mistakes.

I proposed this exercise to a friend of mine, to alternately come up with a literary premise every month, and build a short story from it afterwards. The idea was to create a space where we could meet creatively and where we would learn from each other’s work as much as from our own.

‘The Pound’s Dogs’ was my answer to his premise, and also the first time I shaped a story in and around the medium of Interactive Fiction. With it, and by attempting to subvert the inherent expectation of agency derived from its interactive nature, my aim was to make the reader inhabit a different psychological landscape and discuss the idea of choice.

If you are willing to give this story a chance (first of all, thank you), I would suggest that you try coming up with your own creative solution to the given premise (even if it’s just a brief plot line) before reading mine.

The Pound’s Dogs: https://hernancanedo.info/projects/thepoundsdogs