I was assuming Ebooks didn't have hyperlinks. I was wrong.
This is exactly what I need, the ability to put embedded links in the manuscript so that readers can follow links but also have an experience closer to turning pages than to reading sections of text on a webpage.
Version 0.5 of Learning Log is going to be a test focused on transferring a fraction of the content to my website.
I don't have any way of accepting comments directly in the wiki at this time. This blog post is the best I can do. Please post comments about Version 0.5 in response to this blog post.
There's something very rewarding about writing "THE END." It's all about that moment when you know the piece you're writing is ESSENTIALLY DONE. The story has been put down on paper from beginning to end and it's readable. It may need some polishing and an additional round of revisions but it's essentially done. It's also the point when you have to make decisions about how much more needs to be done so that the work on it is FINISHED. Perhaps a piece of writing is never truly finished but continuous editing and revision is not something I could easily get used to. I need to be able to say something is FINISHED and move on to something else. It doesn't have to be perfect to be FINISHED.
I wrote "THE END" earlier this week when I completed the first round of revisions to the didactic novel I've been writing for the past 6 months. It felt really nice to get to that point. I am now entering unfamiliar territory since this is the first time I manage to complete a first round of revisions and still be interested in the manuscript. I'm looking at all my notes trying to figure out how to prioritize revisions.
What I really need now is to create the right incentives to complete the entire process. I know I'll complete the second round of revisions. I might get a little lazy and find excuses for calling it FINISHED sooner rather than later but I'll get to the point where I can call it FINISHED.
The real question is whether I'll actually ask anyone to read it and what to do with it once it is FINISHED. I don't think the process will really be completed if I just shelve it as a FINISHED project and never get it out for others to read.
This is how this blog is going to help me create the incentives to complete the process: The more I write about it here -- not just the writing process but the novel itself -- the more I build the necessary confidence to do something with it (... have someone read it).
So... here is a piece of information: The manuscript is titled "Learning Log -- A Didactic Novel about Knowledge Management, version 1.0". The "version 1.0" might suggest that I would consider making revisions to turn it into version 1.5 or 2.0. It's a possibility but mostly the "version 1.0" is there to indicate that while it is finished (it's not a beta), I still see the project as an experiment to learn from and not necessarily something that needs to be perfect. {a not so subtle attempt at lowering expectations}
I am NOT a programmer and I don't know a lot of HTML. Yet I am playing around with pieces of code to try to customize the TiddlyWiki I am using for my novel. Today, I've achieved one tweak. I've added a plugin that allows the reader to adjust the font size. I didn't create it, of course. I'm a codes scavenger.
I spent most of the afternoon trying to figure out how to automatically indent the first line of every paragraph. I still can't figure it out.
I've come to realize that the term "didactic fiction" has negative connotations. The more I look for it, the more I encounter it in the context of someone defending a piece of fiction by saying... "it wasn't didactic at all." In that sense, "didactic" is taken to imply something "preachy" and annoying, something that ultimately distracts from the main function of fiction, which is to entertain. Imagine a novel written with a strong Global Warming theme or some other controversial theme and the main character is a scientist who fights to get politicians to listen to him. The story could easily turn very preachy and "didactic". If the main objective of that novel is to entertain, but use a theme likely to get some traction, then it makes sense to stir away from something too "didactic."
I could try to avoid using the term, just to steer away from the negative connotation but to be perfectly honest, there is a strong didactic element to what I am writing and I am not comfortable pretending otherwise. My task is to explain how a piece of fiction can be didactic in a good way and sufficiently entertaining to keep the reader's attention.
I can't remember what college application essays ask you to write about. At some point in senior year of high school, students applying to college are asked what major they're thinking about. Thinking in terms of majors is really the wrong way of thinking about a college education. Unfortunately, many of our education decisions are based on taxonomies that have been created for purposes that are no longer valid. The decision about a major is something forced upon students as necessary to build up the right credits in a particular focus area in order to graduate. Instead, seniors should be encouraged to reflect upon the following question: "What is your element?" And, if you're not sure what your element is, "How are you planning to look for it?"
I've been reading The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, by Sir Ken Robinson. I came to this book via his TED talk (Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity), which constitutes the first chapter of the book. He's a great speaker, there's no doubt about that, and the book is an easy read, full of stories of people who have found their element at some point in their life -- and often not particularly early in their life. It's a book that would have a certain appeal to anyone who has found his/her element. On the other hand, if you haven't found your element or you haven't been able to define it sufficiently well, the book is short on advice about how to find it.
Often, the most interesting books are those able to make you think about your own circumstances. They allow you to make new connections between your experience and that of others. A few things in The Element stuck for me (.. to me):
1. Imagination is not the same as creativity. Creativity is essentially "applied imagination". You can have a lot of imagination but if you don't do anything with it, it's just in your head and you're not sharing it with anyone. I've spent many, many years in the imagination world, with stories in my head that never made it to the paper and never had any kind of "application." I don't think there's anything wrong with that but I'm now interested in applied imagination... turning this capacity for story making into something that can be shared with others. I'm also interested in combining that with what I've learned over the years as a professional.
2. Once people discover their element, they need to find their tribe. The tribe is essentially a group of people, a community that shares the same passion and/or understand each others' passions. They're a necessary support group. I definitely have not found my tribe. I didn't grow up in an environment that was particularly supportive of what I was doing. I don't think my family knew what I was doing since most of it was happening in my head and I developed a habit of destroying whatever I did write down on paper.
3. Your element doesn't have to become your work If your work is boring and you can't wait to get out of the office to do what you really like to do, then work is just about "making a living". In the book, Ken Robinson talks about a number of people who's work is not their primary passion but who have managed to combine a rewarding professional career with their passion.
I've thought about quitting my job to take on writing as a full time job on a few instances I can count these instances on the fingers of one hand. I've never been sufficiently dissatisfied with my work situation to consider it seriously and I've been fortunate enough to carve enough time in my life to do the writing on the side. When these thoughts reemerge, I remind myself that it would not be as fun to write full time and try to make a living out of it. There would be too much pressure to come up with publishable quality text. At this point I'd rather remain an amateur. The alternative explanation is that I'm a chicken.
Until recently, I didn't think much about publishing. I've been interested in writing fiction most of my life but it's always been an activity that had intrinsic value for me, and I wasn't seeking to share any of it with a broader public. The fact that I didn't know anything about publishing probably had something to do with it as well. I read a couple of books with titles such as, "Get your book in print" or "So you want to get published," and it seemed so complicated and time consuming that I essentially gave up before even trying. I didn't see it as worth the time and effort... and I certainly didn't think I had anything worth publishing under these conditions. I was much more interested in the writing than in the publishing.
Then, I was given the opportunity to co-author a non-fiction book, Making the Connection: Scaling Telecenters for Development. It was published by the organization I worked for at the time, and didn't require going through any kind of submission process, approval, etc... At the same time, there is something really tangible about holding your book in your hands. Even though it wasn't fiction, it gave me an additional ounce of confidence. At that point I knew I could do it.
It is now apparently quite easy to publish something without having to go through the process of finding an agent, finding a publisher, etc... etc... Vanity presses have probably existed as long as books have been printed but there's a revolution afoot. It used to be that if you didn't publish your book through a serious publishing house, your book wasn't going to be taken seriously. Nowadays, if you want your book to be "in the market" quickly and you're sufficiently networked to your target audience, you can publish and sell your book almost on you own. This seems to be especially true if your books isn't meant for a large audience and you're likely to know your audience better than any publisher. Here comes LuLu and probably a few other online publishing companies I haven't discovered yet.
The novel I am currently working on would NOT work as a traditional book (even if it ever becomes good enough to be published). I wrote it in a wiki format and if it is used as I am envisioning it, it would not only need to be a digital document (an ebook), it would need to be published in a collaborative environment. Places such as LuLu would allow me to publish the book in an electronic format, bypassing the need for a physical book but I don't think it would provide the collaborative environment I'm thinking of.
Perhaps what I am trying to write is a hypertext didactic novel. It's not an interactive novel in the traditional sense. I'm not asking the readers to pick a point of view or help create their own version of the novel. There is only one path through the novel. The interaction with the novel isn't in the form of manipulating the text itself or making decisions about characters and plot, it's in the form of discussing and learning from the specific issues discussed in the novel. In that sense, it's more aligned with a book club discussion.
I promised myself that I would try to tie my posts back to the "knowledge for development" theme (or change the website name if I have completely changed track). It may seem that I've gone seriously afield with my "explorations" and "experimentations" with fiction but I'm confident that I'll eventually come full circle to write something for and about development. I have lots of ideas, just not enough time to work on everything at once.
According to an article by David Montgomery in today's Washington Post, the US. Department of Homeland Security has reached out to science fiction writers. The objective isn't so much for science fiction writers to map out the future but rather to "help managers think more broadly about projects, especially about potential reactions and unintended consequences." Essentially, talking to science fiction writers --who often know a lot about science -- is helping government folks think outside the box and "break old habits of thought."
Source: David Montgomery, "U.S. Mission for Sci-Fi Writers: Imagine That," May 22, 2009.
* See also Sigma -- The Science Fiction Think Tank
I'm finding a lot of quotable passages and some nice expressions. Here is one: "Kissing the problem". When groups in an organization constantly complain about a problem and do absolutely nothing about it, they may have acquired a sort of complaint habit that they've become comfortable with. They're "kissing the problem." I've noticed a lot of this behavior going on. It's usually enveloped in a larger conversation about bureaucracy to make sure that nothing is actually done about it. A new employee might notice this but a long-time employee will not even notice because the behavior is part of the culture.
How about trying to "slap the problem" and wake up everyone? And... what am I doing about it?
Let's keep it short and simple. The novel has three parts (beginning, middle, end). I'm in the middle of revisions to the middle part. That makes it a tough spot to be in. It's slowing down in terms of progress, I've managed to get off the train a couple of times in terms of sticking to the writing routine, but I'm still making progress. More importantly, I'm still enjoying the process. At this point, I'm reminding myself that whether anyone will ever read it is irrelevant. No one will indeed ever read it if I don't manage to finish it.
(Note: Zemanta makes it so easy to create a list of links to my previous posts related to this topic. I really like it.)
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