Hypercompendia

Something’s at work here; just as the form of poetry inhibits extraneous words and description often comes down to an immediate metaphor, Writing Spaces appear to be doing the same thing for me.

Now from the manual, it seems that Writing Spaces (which appear on my laptop screen as approximately 2-1/2" x 4-1/4" in writing area) can be enlarged to accommodate more, or can work via a scrollbar which automatically appears if the text box is kept small but the text rambles on.  The manual also tells me that each space can hold 32,768 characters, or the equivalent of 5000 words. That’s a lot.  I don’t think that for story use this capability will ever be used to its maximum.  It’d sorta defeat the purpose, becoming like a mini-version of any writing program such as Word, with the bonus of link ability.  And even Word gives you that if it’s an URL you’re planning on linking.

For me, as I’ve said before, the space becomes part of the story process by influencing not only the dramatic breaks in narrative flow, but as with poetry, the tendency to overwrite or ramble is overcome by the visual limit of the "page."  It also inspires closer revision to make each word work, and to present each sentence and event in its most inviting form.  For example:

Original:  A tall thin boy stiffly held her with a hand on her back, knowing that fathers watched closely.

Revised:  A tall thin boy stiffly held her with a hand barely touching her back, feeling the eyes of lions upon him.

Not a huge difference, but a poetic one that adds a succinct image by metaphor.  I really believe that the often tiresome job of revision (though I’ve always loved it personally…well, up to a point) becomes almost a challenge taken in smaller, more easily accessible and so, successful doses.  The smaller focal point is a magnifier that sees the sentence rather than the page.