WRT: Writer Response Theory

Hello everyone!

Boy, I’ve been a bad poster here. Nearly finished the PhD though. So will be back on teh case. Anyway, I wanted to share with you a project that I think some of you would find interesting.

For a few years I’ve been working with the Australian Literature Board on their Story of the Future project as a strategist, MC, judge and mentor. The project has now ended, but the project manager didn’t want it to end without sharing some of the things we’ve been doing. So, The Writer’s Guide to Making a Digital Living was born. It covers the various ways digital technology can be used for storytelling, distribution, marketing and so on. It is aimed at writers at various stages of their career, who work in a variety of artforms (screenwriting, game writing, poets, novelists, ewriters), and addresses writers worldwide. The Guide is intended to compliment excellent existing Guides like Digital Livings: The Report by Chris Meade for De Montfort University, read:write (PDF) by the Institute for the Future of the Book, The Writing Game by the Writer’s Guild of Britain, and the IGDA Guide to Writing for Games (PDF). There are some excellent Australian talents in this guide too, like Jason Nelson and Mez.

I was commissioned to write the sections on the craft of new writing forms, professional development, concept development, marketing and distribution. As well as being packed in with stuff, there are extensive delicious bookmarks, and I created a chart of the New Writing Universe to give a glimpse at the vast range of emerging writing forms out there.

The chart is available in PDF format, but also as a flash file online (created by the Lycette Bros). The terms in the chart are actually from a database of terms and definitions I’ve been developing for a few years now. If luck is on my side, I may be working with another WRTer on the proper visualisation of this data in the not-too-distant future. ;)

As a start, check out the very tongue-in-cheek promotional video they created:

Check it out at: www.australiacouncil.gov.au/writersguide

Enjoy! And let me know what you think.