C-ya-laterrrr
# C-ya-laterrrr

C-ya-laterrrr is an autobiographical hypertext fiction written by Dan Hett about losing his brother in the Manchester Arena bombing. It won the New Media Writing Award in 2020.

## Plot and structure

C-ya-laterrrr is a text-only game or hypertext fiction written in Twine (software). The story is written in the second person, following the convention of interactive fiction. The beginning positions you as a parent in a quiet house after the kids are asleep, and asks whether you want to scroll on your phone - there has been some event - or go to sleep:

   Your eyes are starting to get tired, which you take as a signal to put the thing down and get some sleep. You're thinking about it, when you notice a sudden flurry of activity on social media about something going on in the city. A bang, an accident maybe. No details, no actual news, just busybodies speculating. Every time. It was like this during the riots a few years ago, you remember arguing a lot with people about it.

The next lines provide links leading to two choices: "Scroll through some of the posts" or "It's not important. Get some sleep."

The branching structure where the reader is constantly forced to make choices is particularly poignant because we know that these were real choices that the author had to make. As readers we are able to explore all options, but we are always aware that in real life there is no chance to go back and try a different option. Hett has emphasised the importance of these constant choices in interviews, saying that C-ya-laterrrr is "as much about what I didn't do as what I did do."

## Reception

A lengthy review in The Guardian wrote that C-ya-laterrrr's "intimacy comes from its interactivity"

A reviewer described the work as deeply emotional, writing that it was "hard and sober and it captured the very strange lucidity that comes with waking grief".

The work was part of the "Digital Storytelling" exhibition at the British Library in 2023. Hett has written two other works about his grief at the loss of his brother, including The Loss Levels.

