On the Polyphonic Method
A couple of months ago Micheal Benton approached us at Writer Response Theory to participate in the Reconstructions issue on blogging. We’re Really Thrilled about the idea — who wouldn’t want to blog about blogging?! But when the time came to write, we three researchers kept weaving in and out of approaches. Should we have a single voice? That is always a good approach, but a collaborative document isn’t written with a single voice in the first draft. It begins as a mixture of voices that synergise and become one (either with poetic ease or a crow-bar). We haven’t reached that chorus point yet. Don’t know if we ever will. And, to be frank, we like the idea of pulling back the curtain and revealing what a collaborative-text-in-formation looks like. Indeed, it is emblematic of our collaborative blogging at WRT.

So, why do we blog…together?

What can we learn from Curious George?
(By no means do I mean to make a monkey out of one of the forefathers of eliterary criticism and a mentor of mine, a man who worked harder than most to firmly plant hypertext in a literary and academic arboretum.  If anything, this post swings between homage and lament).

**CURIOUS GEORGE […]

Flowchart art uses a multilinear diagram that convey stories or experiences. Examples such as EGBG’s ???Telemarketing Counterscript??? were discussed earlier on WRT in relation to interactive fiction mapping practices. Some other examples of flowchart art include works by Scott McCloud, Chris Ware, and Craig Robinson.
Scott McCloud’s ???Carl??? sequence from Understanding Comics is a multilinear story […]

A recent episode of Dinosaur Comics wittily mocks tell-not-show writing styles, with main character T-Rex reformatting his poorly written story as a CYOA “if that is the format I have to use to tell my readers that they’re scared!”
CYOA is not the only format for instructing one’s readers on how to feel, of course. […]