Hypercompendia

This is really the first time I’ve used Tinderbox as an organizational tool, although I have created projects after-the-fact, such as putting the 100 Hypertexts from last year’s project into a file and used Tinderbox to write the hypertext stories themselves. The map:

I’ve posted previously on this project but at this point, it has all the stories completed–126 of them (additional stories for another summer challenge above the 100 Days). The major visual sorting of the stories was for theme of Self, Society, Relationships, and Universe; Universe covering not only apocalyptic and such, but anything that didn’t clearly go under one of the other three main lines. For this I used Adornments so that I have an instant visual of the various stories.

Another important sort was for story length, or word count and for this I used Agents. While they are all under 1000 words and would be considered flash fiction (with the exception of a couple poems), for submission purposes, I decided to separate them down a bit more into three categories of word count that I recognize as popular cut-offs with the publications. Therefore, I have Under 300, 300 to 500, and 500 and Over.  I can, of course get more detailed simply by creating another agent, but the breakdowns as they are have already cut back on the number of stories I’d have to go through by two-thirds. Note that while I have the word count (as determined by Pages) in the text box, the Agents are solely responsible for counting it up themselves. Of course, additional data as described below is included in the count but I’m aware of that so can adjust.

The third major category was genre. While I don’t really write genre fiction, there are some breakdowns here that will help: Narrative Poetry, Mainstream, Women’s Fiction, Speculative, Magical Realism, Social Statement, and Humor. More may come up–I haven’t quite finished labeling all the stories yet–and some fit into more than one genre category. The way I’ve used the Agents for this is to have them collect by the word/s “Mainstream” for example, but I’ve typed this information into the writing space of the story:

While this method of using agents may not work for all projects, it was fine for this one, where the additional data included in the box did not interfere with the information. I’ll need to go though at some point and learn the strings to put into the agent or probably more likely, how to code the individual space itself to be picked up by the Agent.

In the above image, you can see another of the selections I’ve made. I’ve marked the stories “Favorites” (if I liked ‘em) to ensure that those will be the first to be submitted. There’s also a Submitted Agent, and a Published Agent to keep track of the comings and goings of the story submission process. This is where I’ll be focusing through the next couple of months.

The final Agent is one that I used as an example of drilling down for theme. In this case, I had the Agent search for stories that held the word “rain” because I knew there were a few and it was just a test. Publishers of magazines often have theme-based story lines that they are seeking, so this type of Agent will be a more precise segregation based on theme, or even a particular word.

While I haven’t completely edited all the stories, nor have I marked them all for most logical genre(s), I think that as soon as that effort is done, Tinderbox will make the rest of the submission process streamlined and simple.

There are only so many technology toys I can afford, most are luxuries these days. So when a friend mentioned I should read Mark Twain’s Mysterious Stranger, I added it to my Amazon book wish list. He mentioned that’s it’s available free on Kindle and since I don’t have a Kindle, said that a free download of “Kindle for Mac” on the Amazon site would enable me to read books on my Mac. Who knew? Somehow, when I know something’s sort of a luxury item I just don’t dig any deeper because I know I’ll just feel that much worse that I won’t allow myself to have it. (Man, would I love to have gotten a job!)

Meanwhile, I found book online at the Sam Houston State University at Texas. Here’s a view of the opening page:

Of course, I can make the print larger though it’s a decent size. It’s more the full page across that’s annoying. That too I can fix. But here’s the downloaded book via Kindle:

Obviously, the font, format, etc. have all been planned specifically for the reader’s normal enjoyable and preferred reading manner. To be fair, SHSU has done a great service by offering this (and much more) for free to the internet public, but the text is planned for reading, research, and literary review rather than pleasure.

I’m getting used to the Kindle for Mac format, and I do like it, mainly because I’m on the laptop for a large part of my waking day so this gives me a great opportunity to get back into reading the literature I just don’t seem to find time for lately. The image above is also a bit misleading: while the right-hand “notes and marks” would make this application extremely useful for organizing my notes for reviews (and keep me reading in longer spurts rather than dropping the book and running for the computer), it is inactive in the Kindle for Mac program. Why? I don’t know. I’m hoping they work on this. I’m sure it’s not the make or break decision to purchase the Kindle.

More on the story itself will be posted on Spinning.

What this Tinderbox map tells me is that I tend to write more relationship-based stories than other themes. What I don’t have yet (and it’s about time I did but I’m just so overwhelmed with writing right now) is have each story coded for genre, although I do have the easier, obvious ones like sci fi and magical realism done on the more recent entries. The Agents will be a huge help in September when it comes to start submitting some of these stories to literary journals. More on my participation in the project on Spinning.

Some minor changes from the last post, aside from the additional stories added–I’m up to fifty now. While I haven’t sorted them all out, I have agents set up for some of the genres, as well as stories set for publication and those I’ve started to send out.

Meanwhile, the setup that I have for the stories is to include an image with each. I usually end up taking a new photograph but can often find something from my files that I can use. If worst comes to worst, I depend on paper and pencil. Then comes the fun part, I make a dupe to cover my ass, then open up Photoshop and start to play. While no, I haven’t yet gotten completely over the filter gallery, I do know how to manipulate the effects to get an image that has the feel of the story.

Today I tried something new; layering two completely different images into one. Now that was fun and I’m sure it’ll come in handy in the future and it opens up all sorts of possibilities. Of course, the next ten stories are likely to be graced with these two-in-ones as I do tend to go overboard on new things.

Still haven’t quite figured out the Attributes to get them working with the Agents, but that’s my own fault because 1) I’m not a good follower of directions but tend to wander off and poke around on my own, and 2) because of 1) I’ve got something that works for me, though it’s not the right way of doing it and will undoubtedly not work for a project that isn’t set up the same way or for the same purpose.

What I’m attempting to do is write a string of code that will tell the agent that something is any of a few specific genres (Humor, Magical Realism, blah-blah-blah) and I’m not sure that the attribute can be assigned to certain notes only. This is what the Tinderbox manual is for, the Tinderbox Way book, and the Tinderbox Forum.

Update on the 100 Days Project tomorrow or in a couple days, as I’ve reached the fifty-stories mark.

It’s something we all get upset about now and then, or rather half of us do–the other half are the people who upset us. They’re the ones who send friend requests when we don’t even know them or anyone who does know them. This happens on the social networking sites, Facebook, My Space, and all the small groups that have formed on the web due to some kind of sense that folks who like the same things are just bound to like each other. On twitter, you get followers and I’ve learned that a lady’s name followed by four numerals is most likely a minor porn star.

This morning I got fed up. Within the space of an hour I had five “friend” requests and within minutes of confirming, I received requests for favors, i.e., “please go and vote for me here”, from four of them. No, I’m not going to vote for you blindly, and I don’t owe you that much time to figure out not only who you are, if you’re worthy, but what the whole contest’s about as well.

So I’m sort of sweeping up, cleaning house, dumping “friends.” Lord knows, the ones that I know personally as well as so many of the ones I’ve made online are precious, responsive, and supportive. That’s all I need.

On the 100 Days Project, Steve Ersinghaus is writing a fiction a day to match John Timmons’ videos. His pieces aren’t all necessarily stories but rather concepts and scenes and characters that pop in and out. Today’s piece is a visual map of a hypertext and it really is cool: the generic path protocol

I first became aware of the Electronic Literature Organization either in a Contemporary Literature class or New Media and have visited it now and then, mostly to find some new pieces along with the classics. There hadn’t been a lot of new input added in the resources or the literary works in the last few years but that seems to have changed lately, with a more concerted effort to find and add new work to the ELO Directory.

Scene II: I’ve got a hundred hypertext pieces on my hands from last summer’s 100 Days Project and while the whole thing was a learning process and some still would benefit from some editing, I would like to have them read. That is, after all, the reason we writers write. I’d considered publishing the body of work as a whole, either on an updated, dedicated site or on DVD and for the past years, I’ve submitted a few of them that I thought were particularly good whether for story or form, reworked with images or presentation but had little success. It’s a hard sell, despite the fact that most literary journals are online these days and if ever the time is right for hypertext, it’s now. Hypertext demands a reader’s attention; not all editors trust their readers I guess.

Scene III: I realized today that this body of work has been reviewed and listed at the ELO Directory and this just made the whole project and the work and time involved more than a creative exercise and hypertext learning process. I am positively thrilled, knowing that there is a permanent spot for my work on the ELO bookshelf and that the stories have a good chance at being read over the years by new media enthusiasts.

Another of my pieces, Blueberries which was published by The New River Review, is at the Directory and I’m in the company of some great talent and great friends like Steve Ersinghaus, Diane Greco, Alan Bigelow, Dorothee Lang and of course, the writers I studied, Montfort, Joyce, Moulthrop, Jackson and more. I’m honored and just plain happy.

Added note: Mark Bernstein has an excellent post on the Directory and makes some good points about some classic hypertext pieces that should be there. I’d say that his collaboration with Greco, Reading Hypertext, would be a welcome if not necessary addition as well.

Finally got some time and mental energy today to go back and tackle the Agents feature of Tinderbox. With another bit of help from Steve Ersinghaus, I found the problem that had me stymied for a while this morning in the code string. Right now, I’m working with the current (summer 2010) project for which I’m writing a story each day.

I’d already separated the stories by Adornments into four categories of conflict but there were many more ways I wanted to sort them. So far, I’ve only got 37 stories, but there are a few I know I’d like to submit at some point and one that has already been taken for publication, so “Favorites” and “Published” became necessary Agents. The other obvious sort, geared towards the literary market, are “Word Count” and “Genre” as this would help me narrow down style of story and word count restrictions to the particular magazine.  These Agents will also be integrated into the “Literary Endeavors” Tinderbox file I have nearly complete as far as entries, as well as last year’s 100 hypertext stories from the 100 Days 2009 project.

Okay, so I cheated a lot on getting the agents to work by merely entering the text “Favorites” for example, into the box of the item, above the story, rather than properly create Attributes. That’ll come as soon as I’ve got all Agents set up and working here, and before I use that information in the other two project. I’m psyched!

It’s Day #18 and as you can see, I’ve since added another Adornment labeled “Universe” which is sort of a catchall for stories that either have something to do with the world and nature at large or simply don’t fit real well into the other categories.

I’ve also added a couple of Notes (templates, images) and a couple of Agents (Word Count, Favorites–and I know I’ll want Genre eventually) though I haven’t yet set them up to work properly. All in good time.

This is the first time I’ve actually used Tinderbox as the working form of a project from the beginning. The last 100 Days project I’m still in the process of entering into a Tinderbox file–though the hypertext pieces themselves were all written into individual Tinderbox files. What is obvious is that it’s best to start simple unless the whole project is already laid out in your mind. Things change, things develop, much like hypertext story. You don’t want to be redoing and rearranging once a project is already sprawling out. It’s much easier to let the project ask for its own changes when it senses a modification is necessary. Oh, of course I don’t mean Tinderbox talks (not yet anyway!) but it does present a visual that makes it easier to identify where something can be arranged in a more structured manner, or is growing lopsided and needs division like a lily clump.  It’s obvious here that I seem to be writing more stories on relationships. That may need to be separated into more defined areas of human relationships. Unless that’s not politically correct…