New space

I have a new space to work in - I decided that the shared back room was not working for me and often found myself trying to write laptop or notebook balanced on knees - and with all and sundry coming and going around me - so I have found a corner and set up the camping table from the shed.

It works surprisingly well - is probably just psychological but sends out a clear signal to me and my family that I am doing something and shouldn't be disturbed.

Writing online

it is easy to just write and stick it up there and somehow because of its immediacy it can be thoughtless - a bit too unconsidered. When you blog for example there is no period of waiting and going back to redraft it -it is live straightaway. In a way this is good get things out and make space for other ideas - I do go back in though and edit later and sometimes use this blog to record a quick thought that I can return to later - I will for example return and re-write this - this does feel a bit like cheating? perhaps - At the moment I am confident that no-one is reading it and so it doesn't matter I suppose if you have a following you need to be more considered - You can write a draft and save it rather than publish it - maybe I should do this.

Blogs and time

Another issue for me is time - especially writing as a fictional character (http://sylvia-menorca.blogspot.com/) - I have had gaps when I haven't had time to write entries and have felt the need to explain them in the plot - I like this way of writing in that I have approached as an improvised - kind of random method - sitting down picking up the story and just writing - it's quite liberating - and so far I am quite pleased with it. But it does mean that as a writer you are not in control of part of the structure - it is time based - time recorded if it is two weeks since your last entry it is two weeks - there it is - you can't change it - you could if you needed / wanted to log on every day create an entry and then go back in and write at a more leisurely pace and consider each entry - but that would be time consuming.

The other issue is tine for the reader = The blog always starts in the present - so we in some ways it is like reading backwards - This is difficult with out careful plotting from a narrative point of view - I would like to try this one time - for now I am not considering this and just writing - As a reader I did find that it made the Twiller (http://twitter.com/#!/mrichtel)- impossible to read - I did scroll back to the beginning and read from there - but it was several pages- and annoying - Now it is bury deep in the blog and takes some scrolling to reach - I suppose one way is to make the navigation as easy as possible with the titles for each entry -


Writing for my site - I became very bogged down with the look of the site and also felt uncomfortable wiring about me - so sought refuge in the visual design - I couldn't think who would read this - finally I thought about sending out details to get people to read my work - so the idea was to place me and my writing in context - my background - where I was from - literally in terms of geography - I used google maps - and in terms of my interests - my work - my family -

In terms of the way I use the web - I use social book marking as a way of organising my bookmarks / links and as a way of sharing them with others and finding recommendations - A good way to waste an extraordinary amount of time is to look up links in delicious - anyway - this is definitely a current web trend to use different depositories for your content and link them via a central hub - your site and this works well - so video content on vimeo, photos in a fllickr album - writing in a blog and link it all together -

Also I wanted the idea of streams of writing - flowing in parallel and the notion of dipping in one and another and the direction your thoughts and therefore writing is flowing - again placing me in context of what I read and look at.

It does however all get lost in a sea of stuff and how to drive traffic to the site is an issue - I found few sites that I liked and was more drawn towards artists / designers sites like - http://www.wemadethis.co.uk - http://www.juliemyers.org.uk/flora.data/ - because the web is a visual medium.

I wanted the nostalgia of the old penguin books and the concept of travel - escapism going somewhere when we read - all fairly obvious stuff really - but I think this does fit with my writing -

Interactive narrative - at Poole literature festival

Interactive fiction -

Some just really click through a story -

http://www.poolelitfest.com/new-media-prize.php

Ideas about writers sites - and image of writers

I'v been looking at writers sites - Haven't come across many I really like much so far - They mostly seem almost like directory listings - very few inspire a reader to pick up any of their books.
Sites about books - seem more thought out in terms of appeal to an audience - So Lee Child's Jack Reacher - http://www.jackreacher.co.uk/

I rather like this site - http://www.malcolmpryce.com/home.html - It does echo the style / type of writing / books he produces - I like the simplicity of the interface and there is a simple concept to it - looking inside the writers head - although not hugely original fits the purpose - and to me is more appealing than so many that are more catalogue like in style. You also get a sense of personality from the site - so many seem really just publicity material. Like Ian McEwan's - http://www.ianmcewan.com/ - As are many writers sites they are third person about the author - rather than by the author - an extension of the book cover information - Even Ian McEwan's blog and Facebook are about him rather than by him.

Some sites seem to have a forum or some opportunity for fans to communicate / participate -
The Life of Pi - http://www.lifeofpi.co.uk/ - had a 'read along' - not exactly sure how this worked - it isn't explained in detail anywhere obvious on the site - and there are readers videos (not many) -

The Irvine Welsh site - http://www.irvinewelsh.net/ - After an introduction does seem a personal site and does reflect the author - And not just as a writer of fiction - The site has a journalistic flavour to it.

Margaret Atwood's site is interesting and full of resources - very magazine style and mixes her writing and writing about writing with her environmental campaigning - which does put her writing in context - http://www.margaretatwood.ca/index.php

An aside - my son has altered my facebook settings to be in pirate speak - So the facebook pages of these illustrious authors - Cap'n McEwan and Cap'n Atwood - have been very entertaining - and illustrates a factor about the web, which is the lack of control any author has when their work is released into the wilds of the web - The way it can be copied and edited, mashed up, or translated into real or fictional tongues - gives the written word a life of it's own - In some ways it guess it always has had - being retold - translated - adapted for different mediums -

More ideas about goggle mapping

I have completed a google map story - with video clips of audio of the story and still photographs - I would rather just straight audio but not sure I can manage to do it - What I have so far isn't really there yet - it is too linear - the photographs are distracting - and the voice is not right. I think the next version will be organised as dates and titles - will span a longer time frame and be more standalone snapshots of events in Piotr's back story- not one narrative over several locations but separate incidents - that in total paint a picture of where he has come from but do not follow one set narrative - More non-linear fragments is more applicable to this medium.

Reading

I have been reading a lot about reading habits - Interesting ideas from Kevin Kelly on his blog -

About the notion that we are now more active when we read - and when we read on screen - follow links - look things up communicate with other people about what we are reading. He proposes that reading will become a more physical activity. There is much discussion that follows in the comments about 'screening' - reading on screen and whether readers take in as much information, whether the brain works in the same way reading from screen as from paper and what this means -

I suppose what interests me in all this though is the notion of the active participation in and the possible expansion of the act of reading facilitated by screen reading mediums - and whether these are enriching extensions or distractions from the central message / story /communication. But with reading available on screen devices will readers wander anyway? Are we now in the habit of reading around the subject, googling for ourselves and making our own extensions to the books we read?

I have yet to read a novel on the ipad - but hopefully will soon - and I am keen to see how my experience will differ and what extra content appeals. This Ideo video proposes a possible future for reading - bit glossy -

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

Mike Wesch's video about text on line - Explains very well the ways in which the database driven web (web 2) has altered the way we write and the way in which we collectively sift through content on line - The ideas about multiple authors - meaning created through tags - pathways through information collectively authored, is all very interesting.

Google maps

I have been working on a google map - It is a narrative that introduces a character by charting their arrival in LIverpool. The first attempt I received some interesting comments on - particularly about how readers had zoomed into the satelite images - obvious really - and how this recognition of spaces - the whole location based aspect had worked - and so I wanted to make more of this - also some felt that you get a photorealistic image and there is movement which makes the experience quite filmic and so we discussed the use of sound - I found an example of a map with sound - which is great and ideally how I would like to make my map - I really like the simplicity of it - http://www.soundseeker.org/ - but this seems difficult to do - and I don't want to get bogged down in the technology but concentrate on the story - and how to structure it across locations. So far I have used video clips called from youtube - which is simple and straightforward to do - although has drawbacks - I liked the idea of still images but didn't want moving images - so mostly the video is a still image and sound - The images are not right - not really what I want to convey - or right in terms of location - Although I don't want literal images from the locations - more to give texture and atmosphere. I recorded my own voice - which is ok - but I am seeking a young male voice which I think will sound better - so more work to do - but here it is so far -

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107650386987840170604.00048f8054e4984544be6&ll=53.375252,-2.933816&spn=0.001648,0.004174&t=h&z=18&iwloc=00048f80587ac5e58764e

Feedback from the workshop was encouraging – and raised some interesting points about the site and about the stories.

The concept itself was well received and the potential for links between the stories, literally and inexplicitly were appreciated, so readers might see connections that authors hadn’t intended but that have been made by their reading experience. The only connection I had intended between Jumble and Fumble was jumble sales, but readers connected the characters. It will be interesting to see what unintended connections arise when we have more content.

The button jar was a familiar thing to everyone and buttons as starting points, random stimulus, seemed to inspire people. The idea of random stimulus is something I would like to explore –

I have made some amendments. I have added a grey * to all of the buttons that have a story attached. Please let me know if that works – or if it is too subtle – it looks pretty. I have made the button on the story pages a link back to the page of buttons, although, I have left the pick a button too for now.

I do need and will provide a more accessible version – text only – and an index too when we have more content.

The stories have been edited too – now include things like punctuation! – Thanks for the edits.

The button jar is an old jam jar crammed with stories and can be seen at: http://www.staff.ljmu.ac.uk/ICDSHAYN/mywriting/buttonjar/index.html 

Collaborators are invited to look at the buttons and stories and to contribute a story to be attached to a button. The site will evolve over time and this blog will be a place to share observations about the development of narratives in the button jar site and observations about the process. 

To read a story visit the site and select pick a button. This will take you to a page of buttons. Select a button and you will go to a story associated with that button.

To contribute to the site follow this process:
1. Go to the site and follow the pick a button link. Select a button and see if it is free by hovering over the button - it will either display a title and authors name -meaning the button already has a story or it will display a number, for example button 10, which means it is still available.
2. Make a note of the number of the button and email me a story (maximum 500 words) and the number of the button you would like it attached to.
3. If you would like to link your story to another authors, for example does your character meet their character, or does one event follow another, or are they merely set in the same place, then also tell me which story you want to be connected to and which word is the link from your page.

The more stories added the better.

On this blog I would like to know how readers find the stories and any interconnections that develop as a reading experience. Also from writers how they feel about the process.