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March 2002
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From:
Silvia Saturday, March 16, 2002
I
had no idea you were working on your own website. Cool. I
can't wait for Stay...I didn't think it would come out so
soon. Do you have a next project?
Oh,
I always have a next project, writing- and otherwise. Actually,
I always have a next dozen projects which, on days that I'm
particularly tired, can lead to a scattershot approach to
life. Right now, for example, I'm spending time thinking about
an essay, doing these Ask Nicola answers, mulling the new
Aud novel, preparing for the round of publicity--interviews,
readings, signings etc.--for Stay (and for Ammonite, which
is being re-released next month>, and recording more readings
from both Stay and The Blue Place. Not to mention all the
health-related stuff, like starting yoga classes. So I sit
here and start typing this answer, and suddenly think about
yoga, and have to go off and do some stretching. And then
in the middle of stretching I think, Huh, now this would make
an interesting aside in the essay I'm working on, and have
to stop and make a note, and then the essay makes me think
about Aud, and the new novel, which makes me wonder how Stay
is going to do, which leads me to fire off an email to my
publicist. I used to get cross with myself for lack of focus
but now I don't worry about it. When I need to focus, I do;
when I don't, my brain plays, skipping about happily until
something catches its attention. When that happens, I work
like a dog.
It's
been interesting to watch my own work patterns develop. The
initial stages of any project drive me (and those about me,
particularly Kelley ) crazy. I'm restless, can't settle, get
irritable because I hate the fact that there's all this stuff
going on at the subterranean level where I can't get to it:
I want to know and I want to know now how the website or CD
or novel or animation or social schedule is going to shape
up. But I've reluctantly concluded that contrary to my cherished
self-image my creative process is not calm, orderly, or rational.
It's wayward and awkward and wild, and very, very stubborn.
Once the work of translating that initial image to reality
begins, though, I'm very disciplinedÉalthough perhaps a more
accurate word would be relentless. I'm quite capable of working
twelve hours a day every day for three weeks--building, testing,
tearing down, building again--whether we're talking about
writing a novel, designing a website, or researching the Middle
Ages.
If
I have my way (and because I'm stubborn I often do), my next
big project will be a novel about Aud.
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From:
Nancy Yamaguchi Saturday, March 16, 2002
How did you learn to do all this website design and construction
so quickly? Will you use your powers for good or for evil?
Should the world be afraid, very afraid?
Well,
HTML isn't rocket science, and I already had my old website
(built and maintained by webmaster emeritus Dave Slusher)
as a guide. I did a six-hour HTML For Techno-Morons sort of
course in November/December, played with the concepts for
a few days (and got my domain name sorted out and the hosting
organized) and leapt right in . The interesting thing for
me was the realization that I don't know a thing about graphic
design, not even basic principles. And then I realized how
interesting graphic design is, what cool things it's possible
to do with something like Paintshop Pro or Photoshop. Pretty
soon after that, of course, I found out that there's not a
lot of point in doing all that fancy work because the average
web-user doesn't have a T1 line or whatever and isn't willing
to sit around waiting eighteen minutes for one background
graphic to load. And then there are all those awkward people
who set their screen resolutions at 600 x 800: how on earth
can I design for people who like things so damn big?? (I keep
my screen resolution on at least 1280 x 1024 because I like
to see as much of the whole as possible; I'm a thirty-thousand
feet sorta person.) Which led me to wondering which side of
the great web/philosophical/artistic/practical line I live
onÉ.
It
seems there are two kinds of web designer (and by extension,
because I'm in a whimsical mood today) artist. One wants to
control utterly the viewing (reading/gazing/listening/whatever)
experience of her audience. This writer/designer/whatever
is the kind who insists that the meaning of a sentence is
absolute, no matter who is reading or in what circumstance;
this kind of person hard codes the absolute size of the font
and placement of graphics with the attitude that it's their
way or no way, all or nothing. I admit there are aspects of
this attitude that really appeal to me but as we don't live
in a perfect world (and even if the world was perfect, for
me and perfect for you, my imagined reader, it would still
be different for both of us, because different people want
different things) and even if every single websurfer in the
universe had the same computer system and the same browser
on the same settings, they'd still see what I'd designed differently.
The other kind of artist happily admits the world is all relative
and embraces that fluidity, gives up all attempt to control
the experience. This also has appealing aspectsÉ Oh, okay,
I admit: it doesn't. There's nothing about that second scenario,
as a writer or baby webgeek, that appeals to me. But I'm pragmatic
enough to understand that it's the reality I have to live
with; I try achieve the effect I'm via a variety of paths.
It would easier, of course, to achieve one's aim by absolute
control but it's not possible, so I try instead to do many
things at once with the same graphic/sentence/metaphor/whatever.
And in a weird way this embrace of necessity has enriched
everything I do; it's become a game, a challenge: cram as
much meaning, as many layers into one single metaphor/graphic/navigation
device/colour as humanly possible. And I've come to see my
novels and the website as aspects of the same thing, different
expressions of myself. It's just that I'm a much, much better
novelist than I am web designer and I imagine it will stay
that way.
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From:
Sylvia Saturday, March 16, 2002
I've
been reading the questions and your responses that you have
up on the new web site. I want to say about the availability
of your work that is *not* in books or magazines that I can
get, that it would be absolutely the best if they were here
in the pdf format you have been talking about. Mostly I would
like to read what this "Bending The Landscape" is
all about but not limited to those articles if that's what
they are. Anything that isn't available through book stores
of any kind is what I would like to see here.
I
noticed yesterday that the background color of your new front
page was canary yellow and today it is flesh colored. I chuckled
a bit and thought you must be playing or have discovered a
program that changes it automatically every day just for fun.
Or to keep it fresh, always a surprise, just guessing here
of course. My own way of playing but in the end I prefer to
know the truth. ;-)
The
website's evolving, slowly but surely. I've been horribly
lax about keeping up with news and these Ask Nicola questions
and aim to do better in future, which means I'll have less
time to work on the appearance of the thing. Plus in the coming
weeks publicity work for Stay, and then the new novel,
will take up more and more of my energy.
As
for PDF files of chapters and stories and so on, that's definitely
going to happen, I'm just not sure of the timetable. However
Bending the Landscape will not be available online.
All three volumes will be available by summer in print form,
hardcover or trade paperback, from Overlook.
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