Dick Strawser, a local composer, has just posted what I think clinches a question that has been recurring on this blog over the last few weeks. He writes:
Part of the joy of creativity — to outweigh the struggle that it often is, even if it’s only trying to balance your art against the reality you have to exist in — is discovering something you hadn’t thought of to begin with. This is where the mystery of inspiration comes in. Just because I'm a composer doesn’t make it any less mystifying than it is to someone who's not.
Before I get back into it the question, I would like to mention that Dr. Dick's Blog is an awesome discussion of the world of music. His is one of my absolute favorite blogs. Where else would you read about Mozart's Skull?
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So, the following is a recap of the positch before Strawser took the field. The original question, from Mark Bernstein, was:
When authoring a hypertext, should one have a complete mental model of the work, or is it possible to make a good work too complex for even the author to fully understand, even in structure?
A reply was attempted by myself and Clare Hooper in an AIM conversation. The key statement, made by Miss Hooper, is:
with any complex creation - be it hypertext, a lengthy document, code - it's easy enough to forget intricacies after the act of creation, and, with increased complexity, perhaps during it too
Then, this weekend, during discussions about narrative and truth:
Hannah Eagleson once remarked to me that her best fiction writing occurs when she herself doesn't know the story until it has been fully written.
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What, then, is my conclusion? It has three parts.
- Software tools for creativity must allow for fuzzy planning. Tools should let us begin with a vague sense of what we want without becoming locked in. For this reason, everything from structure to content should be as open-ended as possible (this relates to the other half of the conversation Clare and I had).
- Software tools should help us let ideas emerge and give us the means to carry out any structural changes without becoming locked in. We should be able to easily experiment with different ideas without losing what we had before.
- Good software should give you a good idea of your immediate (existing and potential) context while keeping you aware of where you are in the overall structure. You should be able to quickly move from the big picture to detail items, and back. If possible, the transition from big picture to detail should be gradated.