But I am foremost a writer, and I am interested in a system that makes it easy to integrate various means of getting my work to the reader. That means making my work extensible to various e-devices and epub formats, in a way which is readable and will draw in readers.

I believe that MCM is correct that the text needs to be divorced from the UI, and that a way needs to be found for better control over the textual design of the actual work (as opposed to the UI).

Perhaps not cutting edge in terms of the art, but maybe we can make a dent in the behind the scenes stuff.

http://www.dreamingmethods.com/archive.html

If I were so inclined – my interests are more traditionally textual – I’d be working together with radical sound, graphic, and web artists/designers, not just playing around with WP.

Re the form conversation: I agree completely with the idea of whatever works… On the other hand, I am a story teller, and I am building on a tradition of story-telling. Stories are not made up of scenes, but narrative threads. I think that the internet –as well as other e-devices– opens up new possibilities for narrative and I want to explore some of them. But the technology for cutting edge experimenting is not available to most authors, unless they also happen to be coders. Even WordPress is a pain in the ass, and takes up too much of my valuable writing time.

@Merrilee: Blocks of text. Yes. I am not a phd candidate–I am a writer and publisher. As a writer I deal with blocks of text. As a publisher I deal with blocks of text. As a web designer I design with blocks of text. I believe the conversation is about what innovative things we can do with blocks of text, and how to design a workable system for readers, writers, and publishers. I am trying in my humble way to work on a tiny piece of that, and I believe I am in the right conversation here.

@Duane: I think it’s a good first step. My article was calling for a complete overhaul of the publishing system – all the way from the installation to the site management to the presentation, but as far as presentation goes, I think you’ve a made a solid first step. It works as a WordPress theme, correct? This means that at the very least, writers using your theme will be able to write around an underlying, working format.

PS: Jan’s right, the navigation’s a bit off. I suppose it’s the css and my screen size?

Oh really? Did you know that not one of Terry Pratchett’s books have chapters? I wouldn’t call them lumbering.

The chapter is an artificial form, just as the page is. The scene is the root structure of a narrative.

“the fact that chapters and page breaks are obsolete in an electronic document”

This is an issue I have with how Smashwords converts works as well… page breaks are obsolete (at least in longform text), but chapters are still important tools for writers to use, regardless of the evolution of the medium. There are so many structural and psychological attributes attached to the concept of chapters that they should be enhanced, not removed altogether.

(I realize it sounds like I have an agenda here, since I tend to have a very old-school approach to my weblit, but I really AM trying to be cutting edge. Honest!)

@duane: I must send you something. Can you email me (mcm@1889.ca) and I can explain it better?

But format is not just layout; it’s form. We’re not talking about books here, and a lot of the discussion has centered around the fact that chapters and page breaks are obsolete in an electronic document. So while your navigation links are nice, they don’t really address the issue.

That’s all I’m saying. I haven’t insulted you. Calm down.

I have been following and contributing to these discussions for a few years now, and I think I have a grasp on what they are about.

But my point is, it’s just a block of text and some navigable links. Most people can manage that already. This discussion was trying to go beyond simple chapters and look at getting more out of web fiction.

I’m not saying that it’s not nice, but navigation is not what this discussion was about. It’s about extension of pre-conceived perception of what a book is, and how it’s different in an electronic environment.

The text is in a very readable, typographically-styled width, which should translate nicely to mobile devices, and the chapter menus are inverted out of the box.

I plan to soon add some other features for ebook formats and marketing, but I have only just begun work on it.

Did you attempt to scroll down the page, and see how it works? It may not be for everyone, but it is certainly different from other WordPress intallations.