Invention

Word vomit time to organize my thoughts!

My main takeaway after reading through the criteria of this assignment is that I do not want to be working alone. Whether tackling an analysis of our class’s past collaborative works or creating a new one entirely, I know that I would feel more comfortable having somebody beside me to bear the burden of the project and to bounce ideas back and forth with. So there’s one thing done.

The problem that arises from there is just who I want to collaborate with: do I find someone in the class who I’m inevitably unacquainted with but who understands the work that needs to be done, or do I seek help from my friend circle, who may be resourceful in their writing and creative experience but whose schedules might conflict with what needs to be done for the project? If choosing the original collaborative project option, which I am leaning towards, I think working with people whose creative minds I know and like would yield the best results. But on the off chance I choose the more analytical path, someone from this class would undoubtedly be a better asset because they will have taken part in our discussions, have done the readings, and certainly be more familiar with the rhetorical concepts this class has been studying. I suppose the most risky part of asking friends to help is that there’s no guarantee anyone I know will be able to or even want to, while a student in this class tasked with the same assignment would, of course, be obligated to work with me.

Although I am much favoring the creative option, I’m a bit apprehensive as to how it would work in terms of drafting. A creative work such as a chain story is certainly feasible to make drafts of, provided that it is a fictional work rather than, say, a series of responses to a static question (something more diary format, etc.). Perhaps the name “chain story” already implies a fictional narrative, whereas a series of journal-like reflections contained in the same email thread would go by another term on the spectrum of collaborative [hyper]text. But that leads me to another problem: I’m having trouble conceptualizing what a non-chain story creative project would look like, or rather how it would be contained in its hypertextuality. Would each participant form their own website that would be linked to, or would I create a series of posts on my own WordPress page that could link to each other? I guess it would be easier and more effective to do the latter, since it would keep the narrative contained within a single location/website/host rather than forcing the reader/user to run wild across the Internet to finish reading it. And if I ended up collaborating with someone from this class, it would be helpful to indicate who wrote which parts by travelling from blog to blog (perhaps a choose your own adventure style piece?).

The most challenging part of the creative option is figuring out what the hell I want to write! And furthermore, since it’s a collaborative effort, what I want to write might not matter if whoever I’m working with wants to do something else entirely. Compromise isn’t the end of the world, but the worst-case scenario is working with somebody who won’t budge at all, which I fear would lead to a lower quality product overall due to underlying resentment or disdain for the subject matter. So I guess it would both help me and hurt me to know exactly what I want to write about going into class tomorrow morning. Maybe some minimal brainstorming will suit me best for now…

Now that I’ve gotten all my thoughts out, I think I’m pretty set on the creative project, so figuring out the who and the what will be my main focus for tomorrow. I’ll put out a call in the discussion thread, too, just to see if anyone will bite and we can get a head start on ideas.