Kristina Olsson

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New tools, timeless tales Simon Groth For the last few months I’ve been working with a small tech start-up company with big ideas. Called oolipo—a nod to the oulipo movement that pioneered experimental constrained writing techniques—this company is taking the nineteenth century idea of serialised storytelling and bringing it to a contemporary audience via that most twenty-first century device, the smartphone. Stories for oolipo aren’t just existing narratives repackaged for a handheld screen, they are stories written specifically with the device in mind. One of the stories I am working on is called Valhalla. It’s a very modern take on Norse mythology, combining fantasy, history, humour, and a whole lot of arse kicking. I’m not the writer of Valhalla; I’m the producer. This is a new kind of role, somewhat akin to an editor, but expanded into taking a text and translating it into something a designer and engineer can work with in producing a work unique to reading on a phone. Just think about the reading experience on a phone. Forget any other device. Just concentrate on the phone. What can you do? You can combine text and images. Animation and video is a possibility, as are sounds that complement the story. But that’s just the beginning. Phones have GPS and accelerometers. A phone knows where you are on the surface of the earth, your coordinates on the map and even your altitude. Most importantly, a phone is networked. It has a live connection to servers and other devices proliferated around the planet. It is not simply a passive device for consuming content; it can help create and share. That’s a lot of additional tools available. So how does a story for such a container come together? As a writer, you may be tempted to turn your story into a multimedia assault. Or maybe you fall into another camp that sees nothing wrong with sticking to long, elegant blocks of text. A story for the phone might work at either of these extremes, but more likely you’ll want to navigate a path somewhere between larding up the narrative with distractions or creating an impenetrable wall of text that brings nothing to the reading experience beyond what ink and paper does. This is where the producer comes in. Use the possibilities of the platform, imagine how the features of the device can bring something unique to the story. And at the same time never lose sight of the reading experience. The producer’s job, like the editor’s, has much to do with balance and restraint. The writers of Valhalla have built their story around a narrative voice that relies on short but evocative strings of text. When released, Valhalla will combine this voice with background textures, black and white illustration and the subtle use of animation, sound loops and three-dimensional parallax effects into a kind of ‘hand-made, hightech’ aesthetic. For much of this year, I’ve been grappling with the question of what skills and capabilities writers will need in the future. We can’t know for certain how our devices and media may evolve, but we can assume that the fundamentals of good storytelling will remain. The choice of medium must always serve the story. And the reading experience must always serve to take a reader deeper into the story world. All the cool ‘features’ in the world will add nothing to a story if they’re not relevant. And all the beautiful prose in the world will never reach a reader if it’s frustrating to access. More than anything, what writers will need is not that different to what writers have always needed: an understanding and appreciation of how their stories are experienced. In the meantime, I need to get on with turning Valhalla into a database-readable spreadsheet. Yes, being a producer has its glamourous moments too. The oolipo app is available to download now from the App Store. The first season of Valhalla will be released in January. Simon Groth’s books include Concentrate and Off The Record: 25 Years of Music Street Press. His two novels have been shortlisted in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and the Text Prize and his short fiction has been published in Australia and the United States. Simon is director of if:book Australia, a leading developer of experimental publishing and exploration. His work and reporting on how readers engage with digital publishing has seen him travel the globe to discuss and explore the challenges and opportunities for writers in a digital space. He tweets at @simongroth and blogs at simongroth.com. 12 WQ
Milestones Adele Jones’ young adult novel Activate was released on 1 November 2016 by Rhiza Press. Anita Heiss has published and released Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms with Simon and Schuster Australia. Ann Harth received a highly commended prize in the 2016 Children’s and Young Adult Writers and Illustrators Competition for the picture book You’re Doing It Wrong! Bette Guy has launched her latest independently published book Riding the Fate Train, available from Amazon. Anna Jacobson has been shortlisted for the Scribe Nonfiction Prize for her work entitled How to Knit a Human. The Illusion of Islands by Andrea Baldwin has been included in the 2016 Richell Prize longlist for Emerging Writers. Cheryl Fagan has published Murder & Misconduct, the historical true crime prequel to Murder & Misconduct – The Complete Files. Damen O’Brien was highest placed Queensland entrant in the Val Vallis Award with his poem Sand. Elizabeth Smyth has been longlisted in the 2016 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize for Will it leave a scar? Hazel Barker will publish The Story of a Conchie with Rhiza Press. Her other publications this year include Chocolate Soldier and Heaven Tempers the Wind. The Beach House by Janelle Nucifora has been included in the 2016 Richell Prize longlist for Emerging Writers. Janet Lee has won The Australian Funeral Directors Association Award in the Grieve Project competition for My Mourning. Jessica White’s short story Black Soil has been longlisted for the 2016 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. Kali Napier has signed a two-book deal with Hachette Australia due for release from 2018. Kali is a 2015 QWC Hachette Manuscript Development Alumni. Karen Lee Roberts wrote and performed the cabaret It’s Not Easy Being Green in October at Room To Play Independent Theatre. Kelly Lyonns has signed with Atlas Productions to publish her regency paranormal romance The Soldier’s Woman, due for release in January 2017. Kerry Lown Whalen’s short story The Cool Group won the 2016 Gold Coast Writers’ Short Story Competition. It will be published in eWriteabout. Lauren Daniels has been shortlisted in the Half the World Global Literati Award for her novel The Serpent’s Wake: A Fairy Tale for the Bitten. Lea Davey has self-published her first novel, The Shack by the Bay. iGrief by Lech Blaine has been shortlisted in the 2016 Scribe Nonfiction Prize Shortlist. Lesley Synge’s play The Nature of my Illness Being will be performed at a benefit for coal miners with Black Lung disease at Magda Community Arts in September. Her essay about Australian earth artist Siegi Karl-Spence was published in online journal Communion. Growth by Mirandi Riwoe has been shortlisted for the 2016 Josephine Ulrick Prize. Her story Dignity has been longlisted for the 2016 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. Mocco Wollert has had poems Heatwave and Growing published in Positive Words magazine, In Love with Gauguin published in The Australia Times magazine, Much to do About Haiku in The Fellowship of Australian Writers’ Scope magazine. Her poem Home was awarded third prize in the Society of Women Writers Queensland Poetry Competition. She has received second place in the Positive Words competition for Wind at the Rock. Nathan Shepherdson’s poem Whitely visits Morandi has been shortlisted for the 2016 Josephine Ulrick Prize. Paula White’s children’s book Clippity Clippity’s Exciting Discovery has been published by Ex Libris. It is illustrated by Marvin Paracuelles. Ron Ramsay has published his memoir, An Eternal World, Messages from the Other Side, online with Boolarong Press. Sandra Watkins has published The History of the Ekka. Shelley Nolan signed a two-book deal with Atlas Productions for Lost Reaper and Winged Reaper, released in September and October. The Rabbits by Sophie Overett has been included in the 2016 Richell Prize longlist for Emerging Writers. Tania Joyce has released her third romance novel, Distractions, as an ebook and print book. Wendy Dartnall has published A Wind from the East through Balboa Press. WWW.WRITINGQUEENSLAND.COM.AU 13
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