The Other Side of the Mirror — Setting Limits

Writing  The Honey Trap: The True Story of Madame Elizabeth Brousse, A/K/A Cynthia has been an awakening, of sorts. Going digital seems to make all the difference in the world to the process of drafting, editing and publishing.

Until now, the idea behind this blog has been to examine the affect of software on the writing process. But now that I’m on the other side of the mirror, which is to say, writing code — in essence, turning the writing into software — I need to reflect on my original aims.

To be brief, coding interferes with writing. It’s just tedious. However, I’m convinced it improves the reading experience, which is crucial, perhaps the whole point. It occurs to me that The History News Network could present a problem (hnn.us/blogs/74.html) because their interface is so limited. It’s really not designed for “digital literary non-fiction.” Comparing The Honey Trap with, say, The Dolly Madison Digital Edition, from UVA can be disheartenting, although it may be missing the point.

Perhaps what I need to do is to set limits, to define what THT can actually achieve digitally.

Here’s one idea: To make the Honey Trap sufficiently interactive that other scholars can employ my links and resources to prove, disprove, augment or even transmute the story of OSS, the origins of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Madame Brousse. Digitizing THT should provide historians with resources to advance the story, beyond what I am able to achieve.

Next up: How using software to produce digital copy changes the art/craft of writing.