Blog

Text Adventures that Go Beyond

One of these text adventures takes a new approach to the old experience, and another pushes the medium towards a limit that could suggest its future direction.

Open the Pod Bay Doors: Conversational Interfaces in an Epistolary Literary Style

A look at two hypertexts: one game and one visual novel, that tell their stories in a conversational way.

Bandersnatch, Hypertext, and the State of Interactive Stories in 2019

Interest in non-linear storytelling is rekindling. Two months ago, the Black Mirror studio released a movie called Bandersnatch on Netflix. The film is inter…

How I Made a Repository of my Writings, and Why

If you have a lifetime of writings, it can get difficult to sort through it all. I’d like to describe a the system I use to keep track of what I’ve written. …

Composing with Words the Way John Cage Composes with Sounds

In about two days, I plan to get on stage to perform a written work in front of a live audience and read, not from a script, but from something more like a s…

Submission Strategy Review

A recent post by Becky Tuch on the Review Review has some good advice for writers.

Authenticity Versus Expectation

There are probably some of you who would say that “clichés are clichés for a reason”, and to you I would say “cry me a river!” and I would add that the clich…

Git and the Writer

Image the power of your editors and beta readers to commit changes for your review through a freely distributed application where each participant can enact …

Ten Things Not to Do at a Literary Reading

Literary events, like any live performance, are bound to have some glitches here and there. Some of those glitches are easily avoided.

Following Silliman’s Blogroll

There’s a treasure trove of vibrant and enjoyable literary blogs on the Internet. You can still subscribe to them all and join the conversation. I’ve created…

Leaving Microsoft Word Behind

I have amassed a collection of files: .doc files, .docx files, .rtf files, .html files, but I set out to convert them all to plain text files.

Scrivener, Git and Version Control for Writers

Scrivener projects are laid out as application bundles with the .scriv extension, and, as it turns out, are amenable to Git version control.

Useful Features of Version Control Software

This is a follow-up to my earlier post entitled Version Control for Writers.

Version Control for Writers

Authors, editors, literary scholars, archivists: all eventually have to do work with multiple versions of a text.

My Grandmother’s Writings Part Two: File Cabinets and Beer Boxes

the writings were carefully removed from their original file cabinet and transferred into a set of brown cardboard boxes emblazoned with the irrelevant phras…

My Grandmother’s Writings Part One: “Look at all this paper!”

In October of 2012, my dad gave me the entire collected writings by my Grandmother, Elizabeth Kinnett. I’m going to catalog, annotate and digitize these writ…

Generative Writing Cut-Up Tools: DadaDodo and Dadadodomax

DadaDodo is a program that analyses texts for word probabilities, and then generates random sentences based on that. Sometimes these sentences are nonsense; …

How I Do My Word Processing

I am both a “computer person” and a writer. You might be interested to know: how do I combine the two? Here are some thoughts on how I do my word processing,…

When to Abandon a Creative Project

My list of ongoing creative projects is too complicated. I’m declaring creative bankruptcy, so to speak. I’ve had too many irons in the fire for too long. Wh…

The Death of Hypertext?

If the world doesn’t yet have a strong, ongoing body of hypertext literature, could it be because the idea predates web standards? Will hypertext literature,…

My Favorite Notebook

I’m looking to replace my very favorite notebook, which is all filled up now. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to make these anymore. I’m posting this in the h…

Scriptwriting Software

I sampled the various software apps that are designed to help a writer to produce a stage play

Writing with Audio

I’m interested in adding audio equipment to my writing toolbox. So, I think I need some gear. I’m posting this to solicit any advice from musicians, technici…

Essential Space Age Pop Albums

I want to figure out this crazy look. These aren’t the ten best album covers, but here’s a start. My source for this list was an article called “Ten Basic Sp…

Ten Reasons Why I (don’t really) Love Lists

With a list, you can quickly fill up the page without having to actually write very much. It’s kind of like using a really big typeface to get out of writing…

Altered Text

I’ll call it altered text, although for the thing I have in mind there are actually many things, many names, from many times and places. My notion of “destro…

Book Companion Websites

Everybody knows that the internet is a powerful tool for marketing and for distributing information. It should be no surprise then, that amazon.com, a bookse…

Spoken Word, Recorded Poetry, and Hip-Hop

The creative challenge here is to find a way to take my favorite elements of each of these groups, and go my own way with them.

The Legend of Alexandre The Savage Gnome

Step this way folks, into a carnival atmosphere of human oddity and depravity, inexplicable beauty in the strangest places, ironic affections, and betrayal. …

Text Adventures that Go Beyond

One of these text adventures takes a new approach to the old experience, and another pushes the medium towards a limit that could suggest its future direction.

Open the Pod Bay Doors: Conversational Interfaces in an Epistolary Literary Style

A look at two hypertexts: one game and one visual novel, that tell their stories in a conversational way.

Bandersnatch, Hypertext, and the State of Interactive Stories in 2019

Interest in non-linear storytelling is rekindling. Two months ago, the Black Mirror studio released a movie called Bandersnatch on Netflix. The film is inter…

How I Made a Repository of my Writings, and Why

If you have a lifetime of writings, it can get difficult to sort through it all. I’d like to describe a the system I use to keep track of what I’ve written. …

Composing with Words the Way John Cage Composes with Sounds

In about two days, I plan to get on stage to perform a written work in front of a live audience and read, not from a script, but from something more like a s…

Submission Strategy Review

A recent post by Becky Tuch on the Review Review has some good advice for writers.

Authenticity Versus Expectation

There are probably some of you who would say that “clichés are clichés for a reason”, and to you I would say “cry me a river!” and I would add that the clich…

Git and the Writer

Image the power of your editors and beta readers to commit changes for your review through a freely distributed application where each participant can enact …

Ten Things Not to Do at a Literary Reading

Literary events, like any live performance, are bound to have some glitches here and there. Some of those glitches are easily avoided.

Index of First Lines

It’s easy to create an index of first lines. If each of your poems is a separate text file, then a handy command line trick will produce an index of first li…

Following Silliman’s Blogroll

There’s a treasure trove of vibrant and enjoyable literary blogs on the Internet. You can still subscribe to them all and join the conversation. I’ve created…

Leaving Microsoft Word Behind

I have amassed a collection of files: .doc files, .docx files, .rtf files, .html files, but I set out to convert them all to plain text files.

Scrivener, Git and Version Control for Writers

Scrivener projects are laid out as application bundles with the .scriv extension, and, as it turns out, are amenable to Git version control.

Useful Features of Version Control Software

This is a follow-up to my earlier post entitled Version Control for Writers.

Version Control for Writers

Authors, editors, literary scholars, archivists: all eventually have to do work with multiple versions of a text.

My Grandmother’s Writings Part Two: File Cabinets and Beer Boxes

the writings were carefully removed from their original file cabinet and transferred into a set of brown cardboard boxes emblazoned with the irrelevant phras…

My Grandmother’s Writings Part One: “Look at all this paper!”

In October of 2012, my dad gave me the entire collected writings by my Grandmother, Elizabeth Kinnett. I’m going to catalog, annotate and digitize these writ…

How I Do My Word Processing

I am both a “computer person” and a writer. You might be interested to know: how do I combine the two? Here are some thoughts on how I do my word processing,…

When to Abandon a Creative Project

My list of ongoing creative projects is too complicated. I’m declaring creative bankruptcy, so to speak. I’ve had too many irons in the fire for too long. Wh…

Delurking My Life

The blog has been on hiatus. My life, for the most part, has been on hiatus because of work.

The Death of Hypertext?

If the world doesn’t yet have a strong, ongoing body of hypertext literature, could it be because the idea predates web standards? Will hypertext literature,…

My Favorite Notebook

I’m looking to replace my very favorite notebook, which is all filled up now. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to make these anymore. I’m posting this in the h…

Scriptwriting Software

I sampled the various software apps that are designed to help a writer to produce a stage play

Writing with Audio

I’m interested in adding audio equipment to my writing toolbox. So, I think I need some gear. I’m posting this to solicit any advice from musicians, technici…

Ten Reasons Why I (don’t really) Love Lists

With a list, you can quickly fill up the page without having to actually write very much. It’s kind of like using a really big typeface to get out of writing…

Altered Text

I’ll call it altered text, although for the thing I have in mind there are actually many things, many names, from many times and places. My notion of “destro…

Spoken Word, Recorded Poetry, and Hip-Hop

The creative challenge here is to find a way to take my favorite elements of each of these groups, and go my own way with them.

When ‘It Just Works’ Doesn’t Work

Downloads, updates, logins, alerts, updates, logins, downloads… when do we ever get to just do what we came to do?

Authenticity Versus Expectation

There are probably some of you who would say that “clichés are clichés for a reason”, and to you I would say “cry me a river!” and I would add that the clich…

Git and the Writer

Image the power of your editors and beta readers to commit changes for your review through a freely distributed application where each participant can enact …

Leaving Microsoft Word Behind

I have amassed a collection of files: .doc files, .docx files, .rtf files, .html files, but I set out to convert them all to plain text files.

Scrivener, Git and Version Control for Writers

Scrivener projects are laid out as application bundles with the .scriv extension, and, as it turns out, are amenable to Git version control.

Useful Features of Version Control Software

This is a follow-up to my earlier post entitled Version Control for Writers.

Version Control for Writers

Authors, editors, literary scholars, archivists: all eventually have to do work with multiple versions of a text.

Generative Writing Cut-Up Tools: DadaDodo and Dadadodomax

DadaDodo is a program that analyses texts for word probabilities, and then generates random sentences based on that. Sometimes these sentences are nonsense; …

How I Do My Word Processing

I am both a “computer person” and a writer. You might be interested to know: how do I combine the two? Here are some thoughts on how I do my word processing,…

Scriptwriting Software

I sampled the various software apps that are designed to help a writer to produce a stage play

How I Made a Repository of my Writings, and Why

If you have a lifetime of writings, it can get difficult to sort through it all. I’d like to describe a the system I use to keep track of what I’ve written. …

Authenticity Versus Expectation

There are probably some of you who would say that “clichés are clichés for a reason”, and to you I would say “cry me a river!” and I would add that the clich…

Git and the Writer

Image the power of your editors and beta readers to commit changes for your review through a freely distributed application where each participant can enact …

Following Silliman’s Blogroll

There’s a treasure trove of vibrant and enjoyable literary blogs on the Internet. You can still subscribe to them all and join the conversation. I’ve created…

Leaving Microsoft Word Behind

I have amassed a collection of files: .doc files, .docx files, .rtf files, .html files, but I set out to convert them all to plain text files.

Scrivener, Git and Version Control for Writers

Scrivener projects are laid out as application bundles with the .scriv extension, and, as it turns out, are amenable to Git version control.

Useful Features of Version Control Software

This is a follow-up to my earlier post entitled Version Control for Writers.

Version Control for Writers

Authors, editors, literary scholars, archivists: all eventually have to do work with multiple versions of a text.

Generative Writing Cut-Up Tools: DadaDodo and Dadadodomax

DadaDodo is a program that analyses texts for word probabilities, and then generates random sentences based on that. Sometimes these sentences are nonsense; …

How I Do My Word Processing

I am both a “computer person” and a writer. You might be interested to know: how do I combine the two? Here are some thoughts on how I do my word processing,…

Text Adventures that Go Beyond

One of these text adventures takes a new approach to the old experience, and another pushes the medium towards a limit that could suggest its future direction.

Open the Pod Bay Doors: Conversational Interfaces in an Epistolary Literary Style

A look at two hypertexts: one game and one visual novel, that tell their stories in a conversational way.

Bandersnatch, Hypertext, and the State of Interactive Stories in 2019

Interest in non-linear storytelling is rekindling. Two months ago, the Black Mirror studio released a movie called Bandersnatch on Netflix. The film is inter…

The Death of Hypertext?

If the world doesn’t yet have a strong, ongoing body of hypertext literature, could it be because the idea predates web standards? Will hypertext literature,…

Evaluating Hypertexts

A site whose author is “teaching a small course in media aesthetics next term, “Jerz’s Literacy Weblog has posted a link to an article by George Landow,, a k…

Ergodic Literature

Its odd. there’s a way to mass-produce something like a toy castle, complete with catapult, court and cavelier–but they won’t make books in boxes.

Composing with Words the Way John Cage Composes with Sounds

In about two days, I plan to get on stage to perform a written work in front of a live audience and read, not from a script, but from something more like a s…

Authenticity Versus Expectation

There are probably some of you who would say that “clichés are clichés for a reason”, and to you I would say “cry me a river!” and I would add that the clich…

Ten Things Not to Do at a Literary Reading

Literary events, like any live performance, are bound to have some glitches here and there. Some of those glitches are easily avoided.

A Piano Made of Telephones

This is a Fluxus score. Fluxus is a type of performance art. A Fluxus score, like a musical score, is a sort of recipe for a performance. For more informatio…

Second Land at Pyramid Atlantic

An experimental music performance by Second Land. My musical instrument was a short wave radio, and I performed spoken word through a delay petal at low volu…

Building a Writing Studio

I’ve written this entry to outline the ideas I have for a new writing studio. Along the way I found photos of famous writing studios, some feng shui tips for…

Spoken Word, Recorded Poetry, and Hip-Hop

The creative challenge here is to find a way to take my favorite elements of each of these groups, and go my own way with them.

I’m going to be on TV!

It was one week, to the hour, since my arrival in boston. I had just completed a poetry reading. It was the third reading I have attended this week. You woul…

Essential Space Age Pop Albums

I want to figure out this crazy look. These aren’t the ten best album covers, but here’s a start. My source for this list was an article called “Ten Basic Sp…

Space is the Place

Sun Ra had registered as a conscientious objector when drafted to fight in the Second World War, citing the absence of African-Americans on the draft board a…

Forbidden Planet

There are No Categories for Music Genre

I know it’s becoming unfashionable to actually own a digital copy of music anymore, but that doesn’t change the fact that I have several thousand songs that …

Essential Space Age Pop Albums

I want to figure out this crazy look. These aren’t the ten best album covers, but here’s a start. My source for this list was an article called “Ten Basic Sp…

Space is the Place

Sun Ra had registered as a conscientious objector when drafted to fight in the Second World War, citing the absence of African-Americans on the draft board a…

Gentlemanly Lecturer

Bally excerpted from a 1903 book entitled “On The Road with the Circus”… In the authors words, “It is interesting as a truthful reproduction of a style of un…

The Legend of Alexandre The Savage Gnome

Step this way folks, into a carnival atmosphere of human oddity and depravity, inexplicable beauty in the strangest places, ironic affections, and betrayal. …

Second Land at Pyramid Atlantic

An experimental music performance by Second Land. My musical instrument was a short wave radio, and I performed spoken word through a delay petal at low volu…

Spoken Word, Recorded Poetry, and Hip-Hop

The creative challenge here is to find a way to take my favorite elements of each of these groups, and go my own way with them.

When ‘It Just Works’ Doesn’t Work

Downloads, updates, logins, alerts, updates, logins, downloads… when do we ever get to just do what we came to do?

Ten Reasons Why I (don’t really) Love Lists

With a list, you can quickly fill up the page without having to actually write very much. It’s kind of like using a really big typeface to get out of writing…

Welcome to Baltimore, ‘Charm City’ A Charm Bracelet of Half-Baked Delicacies

Note: This text was written by Michael Martone and published with the Creative Commons License.

Learning to Write Art Criticism

Ever since I met with Physicalism, I’ve been curious about what its like to be an art critic. I decided to try being an art critic first hand. I put together…

Des Imagistes: Some Imagist Poems

“Des Imagistes” was the first anthology of the Imagism movement. Imagism was conceived by Ezra Pound, H.D. and Richard Aldington in 1912. Finally, this very …

Des Imagistes: Some Imagist Poems

“Des Imagistes” was the first anthology of the Imagism movement. Imagism was conceived by Ezra Pound, H.D. and Richard Aldington in 1912. Finally, this very …

Writing with Audio

I’m interested in adding audio equipment to my writing toolbox. So, I think I need some gear. I’m posting this to solicit any advice from musicians, technici…

Blogging Changes Quickly

It has been an incredible five years for blogging and the history of the internet. I only hope that the self-hosted website doesn’t lose out to ease-of-use a…

Index of First Lines

It’s easy to create an index of first lines. If each of your poems is a separate text file, then a handy command line trick will produce an index of first li…

Submission Strategy Review

A recent post by Becky Tuch on the Review Review has some good advice for writers.

When ‘It Just Works’ Doesn’t Work

Downloads, updates, logins, alerts, updates, logins, downloads… when do we ever get to just do what we came to do?

When ‘It Just Works’ Doesn’t Work

Downloads, updates, logins, alerts, updates, logins, downloads… when do we ever get to just do what we came to do?