Multi and New Media Writing

Germany Book Fair: image sourced http://www.scmp.com/photos/recent/97/1057002 

Steve Tomasula, M.A. Ph.D. Professor of English, University of Notre Dame, is an American novelist, critic, short story, and essay author known for cross-genre narratives that explore conceptions of the self, especially as shaped by language and technology. He describes his fiction as a hybrid of multiple genres (experimental literature, historical fiction, science writing, poetry). Noted for its use of visual elements and nonfiction narratives, his writing can be characterized as postmodern and has been called a “reinvention of the novel” for its formal inventiveness, play with language, and incorporation of visual imagery. (Tomasula, 2014)

His most innovative work, TOC: A New-Media Novel is a multimedia novel published on DVD. A collage of text, animation, music, and other art forms, TOC explores competing conceptions of time that shape human lives. Tomasula refers to it as a “book” explaining that ‘the reader experiences it one-on-one, and reads it as they would any novel, but it uses graphics, video, and music to help set the mood and to help tell the story’. (Tarnawsky, 2011)

Writers who may feel inspired to undertake creating new or multi media texts should note that a different approach is required. Tomasula describes the process as being more akin to writing a graphic novel.

            ‘I did consciously write using images as part of the narrative, so it’s not like the novel is written and the images added in afterwards. Thinking of a novel as a construction that can be made of lots of things, not just text, is liberating, and this is even more true when sound and motion can be included. So from the start, I’m thinking of how images, music, sound effects, can be part of the narration.’ (Tarnawsky, 2011)

He also points out that the process involves a lot of  ‘back and forth’ with other artists whose work is vital if a multi media project is to succeed. In the case of TOC, the design was undertaken by Stephen Farrell, the programming by Christian Jara, while a contributions from a further 15 other artists, composers, musicians, and animators were necessary for its completion. (Tarnawsky, 2011)

            It may seem like a lot to coordinate but there are rewards to be had. Writing in new and multi media broadens the scope of readership. It appeals to those born ‘post-PC’ who are more likely to use the mouse to dip in ‘here and there according to those sections that had piqued their interests most’ (Tarnawsky, 2011) while remaining accessible to the older ‘book’ generation who have the option of ‘using the mouse to simply “turn the page” and read fairly linearly’. (Tarnawsky, 2011) The fact that TOC has been recently released as an iPad app also indicates how multi and new media is blurring the lines between interactive texts and traditional books. For those interested in exploring TOC for themselves I have included the following link.

http://www.tocthenovel.com

References:

Tarnawsky, Y, Not Just Text: An Interview with Steve Tomasula, Rain Taxi Online Edition, Spring 2011, viewed October 2014,

http://www.raintaxi.com/not-just-text-an-interview-with-steve-tomasula/

Tomasula, S, Steve Tomasula, Wikipedia, 23/09/2014, viewed October 2014,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Tomasula

Begin the Beguine

Just when I think I have finished writing my novel, I learn something new and then the rewrite begins again.

I have been in the process of rewriting my first novel since 2012. During my first year of study (Certificate IV- Professional Writing and Editing) my rewriting concentrated on editing. My long sentences were shortened. All double quotation marks were substituted with single ones. Exclamation marks were obliterated along with most of my adjectives and adverbs. Attributions were substituted with character’s actions.  I indented my paragraphs and took a new line for a new speaker.

The following year (Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing) I concentrated on ‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’ and all but eliminated anything that dared to resemble a description. Through workshops I discovered that my characters struggled to move from scene to scene. They never worked or engaged in anything that was not to do with the story at hand. They appeared and reappeared exactly when I wanted them to, and had no mind of their own, in short they were superficial contrivances brought into action only to forward my plot. Worse than that I came to realise that I had no voice. And worse again, my voice was not in keeping with my protagonist (I learnt that term in Certificate IV). My nine-year-old protagonist was too knowledgeable, too articulate, too well read; overly philosophical, overly mature, overly introspective; and much too wise, much too intelligent and much too perceptive to be credible. I also learned that if you list things you must do so in threes, or in three groups of threes, or three groups of three groups of threes. 

In this my first year of the Bachelor of Writing and Publishing, I have been encouraged to: rediscover my voice; to celebrate detail; to become ‘particular’; to embrace figurative language; to explore senses; to evoke the sixth sense; to explore the difference between points of view, focalisation and different narrations and to create suspense, atmosphere and setting. The list goes on. I had hoped to have completed my novel by now but I am reluctant to rewrite, in fact I am reluctant to write at all, for it is as I began this posting:

Just when I think I have finished writing my novel, I learn something new and then the rewrite begins again. 

Writing With Pictures

There are times in life when you encounter something new and despite a lack of familiarity with the subject matter, you instinctively know that it makes sense. That is how I felt when our lecturer, during a class on Writing for Illustrated Text, introduced the Moebius Codes. The term is drawn from William Moebius's article, 'Introduction to Picture Books' in which he discusses the several ways one may analyse text and images when interpreting the apparent relationship between the text of a picture book and its pictures. The codes are: the code of position, size and diminishing return; the code of perspective; the code of frame and the right and round; the code of line and capillarity; and the code of colour. Each code takes into account the specific elements of the picture and the psychology behind the implied meaning. It was the latter aspect (the manner in which psychology underpins the way readers react/read and engage with pictures) that instinctively made sense to me. This of course is nothing new. 

Most of us are aware of the effects of colours, their emotional connotations, significances and associations. So too would we understand the effects of sizing, framing and perspective on how we assign meaning. Images, regardless of the form they take, will differ in the responses they evoke in the viewer. But to have it so clearly explained, and to have been shown how it can be controlled was especially exciting for me. Here indeed was a means by which to enhance text. This is not to say that pictures take on a supporting role to text, but rather that the dynamics of their interaction with text can create responses in the reader which could not be achieved by text or pictures alone. 

Later, it occurred to me that since I often try to imagine (picture) in my mind's eye what I am attempting to describe in writing, I should instead try drawing on (no pun intended) actual images (photos, illustrations, paintings, photo-shopped compilations and sketches). Thus far, I have only made use of congruent images (another aspect that this subject has made me aware of), but I am starting to realise, even as I am writing these words, that there may be some value in visualising complementary and better still, incongruent images as a means of assisting the creative writing process. Don't ask me to elaborate: at this point it just feels right and that's enough for me to spend time and effort in exploring and experimenting with the notion. I'll keep you informed.