As I plug away on my first novel, I’ve been wondering how it’s going to look as a finished product. In the past my path might have been like this: I’d need to write the novel, revise it like 100 times, and then send it out to literary agents in hopes that they like it, sign me, and in turn successfully pitch it to publishers. Once it’s bought I probably do several more re-writes, then after I’m so sick of the story I could puke, it finally comes out in the stores (4 or 5 years after I wrote it). I then go to Borders and see my book there on the shelf. Maybe I go there every day and lay out my book in different sections of the store. Perhaps I do an impromtu reading in the cafe, standing on a chair or table, acting out my favorite scenes for a mom and her two kids and the teenager wearing headphones. Maybe I sit at Borders all day long and wait for someone to buy my book, then, when they do, I follow them out of the store and to the parking lot and thank them and offer to sign it. You know, these are just a few of my publishing fantasies.
But since I work in the digital (online) realm as a copywriter and brand storyteller, I’m constantly being introduced to new storytelling avenues. And these are much, much cooler than the painful surgical procedure I just described. These days there are thousands of ways to tell a story online. That also means there are thousands of new ways for the audience to “read” (or, “experience”) a story. Today, people are able to “enter” (or, immerse themselves) into a story like never before. In a future post, I’ll talk about how the audience actually becomes part of the story.
“The promise of the Internet has hence shifted from being an exhaustive archive of media to being alive, immediate, proactive,” says Brand and Digital Strategist Dr. Daniel Coffen. “While we still may go to websites to survey media, computing has become an encounter, a conversation, an event.”
Sure, there will always be something special about sitting down with a book and reading it (whether it’s on a Kindle/iPad or a paperback). But as a writer and storyteller, I sense we’re entering into a new landscape. The printing press popularized the novel. Now the Internet is bringing forth…well, that’s still to be determined.
“If anything, the entire field is interested in considering what writing can be in the 21st Century,” adds Talan Memmott, an electronic writer, digital artist, and lecturer, and the first graduate fellow of Brown University’s Electronic Writing Program. “How is meaning made, defied, resisted, and sustained in the digital age, in a culture where media technology for the production of work is easily accessible?”
I’m excited about what’s possible. I look forward to collaborating on stories with any number of digital artists. I’m constantly being inspired by online storytellers doing new and inventive things. For example, Dreaming Methods (produced by One to One Productions), known also as Digital Fiction, evolved from obscure, floppy disk-based collections of short stories that were available for free in the Amiga Public Domain during mid 1990s. It’s now an experimental venture in combining fictional narratives with atmospheric multimedia that’s designed to be read and experienced on-screen. Here’s how they explain their approach:
“Dreaming Methods is inspired by abstract concepts that would perhaps be difficult to capture using writing alone. The multi-layered complexity of dreams and real/imagined memories that feature in many of the narratives are represented by a heavy mix of media designed to be compulsive and immersive. Projects are inspired by music, film and web design as much as literature, and attempt to take strands of each and weave them into something entirely new. Dreaming Methods is however experimental. Our plan is to continue to attempt to produce challenging hybrid fiction projects that push the boundaries of digital writing.”
Seems like it’s the wild west out there for storytellers. That makes my imagination bubble.
