Working with Collaborators

Writers of hypertexts must surrender much of the control and authority “The Author” has traditionally enjoyed. Already in composition studies, we have been breaking out from an age that sees the author in terms of the lone artist and into one that fosters cooperation. Walter Ong noted that the technology of writing created “a new sense of the private ownership of words;” (131) yet Landow writes that hypertext is eclipsing that image by transforming and decentering our notions of The Author (198). To a degree, this team approach resembles what we will find in some areas of technical writing; however, in technical writing a line still exists between the disciplines: the engineer creates the machine, and the technical writer describes the operation of it.

In interactive media, that line disappears altogether, and the collaborators become not just other writers but artists from a variety of disciplines. All in-depth media projects are collaborative efforts of graphic designers, writers, programmers, and musicians. 

In her book Hamlet on the Holodeck, Janet Murray outlines four essential properties for successful digital environments. Two of those properties are that the environment be spatial and encyclopedic. To accomplish either of these goals, a writer cannot work alone – they need artists, musicians, and experts in all kinds of computer applications to help them capture and present an inhabitable space, and they need help gathering the breadth of information required. 

It is, of course, possible that one individual has the talent to all these things by him or herself, as one of my students will often protest; however, time is the factor here. If an interactive CD-ROM/DVD about uncovering the likely identity of Jack the Ripper takes a five-member team six months to develop from concept to distribution, it would take one individual so long to create the product that it would be obsolete long before it was finished. 

In this collaborative process, the writer’s vision is subject to constant revision and modification by other writers with their own ideas, graphic and sound artists who are equally passionate about their concepts, a programmer enamored with the quirks, capabilities and limitations of the media, and (usually) a customer who must be pleased. Because of the very nature of the media, a writers collaborative skills need as much nurturing as their traditional communication skills.