From Nowwriting

Now Writing

My earliest memory of writing for the Web is awash with the feeling of flow. I remember composing native hypertext by coding raw HTML in a text editor. This was in 1994. There was something liberating about typing text and tags--knowing I could always make a link as an idea emerged among the bubble of the alphabetic soup . I'm hoping to recuperate some of that feeling in this writing space. The years intervening between 1994 and now saw HTML editors, media composing, and blogs (to name some of the changes) replace that early thrill of coding the link. But the wiki writing process is more fluid, recalling early hypertexts built around link thinking.

This collection uses that link energy to explore new modes of writing and their place in the academy. If you need a focus, consider the way many writing classes or textbooks open with some attempt at setting the parameters for composition--What is writing? they ask. Of course the answer depends on other questions. When?, we might respond. Where? This space, then, extends the question: What is writing now on the Web?

In exploring such a question, the piece often drifts toward reflection on scholarship and the status of knowledge. And it has healthy doses of teacherly threads woven into its fabric. There is no pretense that this text maps over familiar academic forms. Instead, it enacts in answer to the question. It qualifies as an academic piece by virtue of its author(s) and audience(s)--teacher(s)/scholar(s). I hope it also calls into question criteria and expectations for academic writing that, to my mind, favor ossification over innovation, expectations out of tune with the now.

NowWriting is Edgy. Cobbled. Social. Disposable. Networked. Let's fidget some more with definitions:

NowWriting is personal.

NowWriting is multimodal.

NowWriting is spontaneous, evolving through many nows strung together. Often these moments are inspired by memes and other thought bubbles popping up online--these collective witnessings give birth to net sketches, reflective exploration/observations.

The piece also represents the gradual gathering that forms the basis of now writing, a collecting that stitches with topical twines like

• Intellectual Property

It turns out that NowWriting is too much for one person or text to encapsulate. if you create an account, you can join the process. That's why we're here.

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