[-empyre-] re-writing

[Barrie Collins <barriec@optusnet.com.au>]

When I was a kid in primary school my father gave me a copy of Kipling's
'Just so Stories'. 'How the Alphabet was Made', was one of those stories,
and tells the story of how all the letters were made, their shapes, where
they came from.

Reading from a computer screen is sometimes problematic, in the sense that
having to sit in front of a big desktop computer seems somewhat
anachronistic. I don't have a laptop, maybe this would be be easier, as long
as it's bright enough to see when viewed outside whilst sitting under a
tree. I like the feel and look of a book, the quality of the paper, the
typeface, binding, the smell of the thing. It has a nice anthropometric fit.

I write YA Sci Fi and other kid's stuff. The story is paramount for me. The
unwinding of a tale, character development, scene, place, ethos, narrative
tension. Writing my stories leads me everywhere on the net, to NASA for
images of stars, galaxies, the earth. To sites about writers, the craft of
writing, publishing etc. I read the occasional blog entry, a lot of news,
but I don't read fiction on-screen.

Going back to Kipling's alphabet, perhaps we need a kind of way of engaging
with the screen, way of story telling that engages the senses and the mind
in a narrative sense, alphanumerics doesn't seem to be the way. Perhaps full
sensory VR, like Char Davies' floating code out of which her virtual
landscapes have grown.

For me, an important issue is the audience, the reader, those who consume,
take part in, what has been authored. For me it wouldn't be worth writing my
stories if I couldn't communicate with an audience, in my writing I am
exploring new ideas, concepts, that I would hope would stimulate and
motivate readers. Writing is the vehicle for my ideas.

Any new way of writing, new vehicle, would need to engage, be attractive,
attracting.

Barrie