Lauren 1. Time To Redefine "Book"

As someone who has loved books since childhood, it's interesting to wonder what the meaning of "book" could develop into when everything these days is becoming so digital. I've done a few projects while at university that have considered the question and there are already a few different answers. A lot of writers these days are collaborating not just with other writers, but with their fans, software developers, graphic designers, and any other creative minds able to make their works more encompassing of an electronic audience. Writers are now asking "How else can I tell the story?"

With that in mind, The 24-Hour Book was just another answer to that question. Not only that, its open involvement with the public made those 24-hours an event; there was just as much interest in the writing challenge as the written works themselves. What I want to get from remixing Willow Patterns is not to form new stories from the original text, but to express the complexity of forming a story and how the smallest artistic media can create a huge impact.

An interesting discussion on creative writing as practice-led research presented by Lelia Green proposed that a piece of fiction may be judged better than another simply because it is published. If Willow Patterns remained unpublished, would that have made it any less impressionable? Of course not. The effort of nine authors writing a large piece of fiction in just 24-hours is an accomplishment at any rate..

Being a person who is passionate about many creative art forms, it's important to consider the multitude of elements that make up the final product. Hours spent planning and preparing, ensuring all the variables are controlled, the intense concentration, collaboration and sometimes perfectionism that can suck a person into something that could be passed off by someone with a simple "Meh". So many times I've poured hours of intense focus into an artwork or written piece to then step back and realise that a piece of my soul is stuck to that work. And whether or not others like or dislike my creations is not always my desire. Sometimes I simply want to create to challenge myself. To stretch the boundaries of my skills.

And that's how I'm going to start remixing the idea of the "book".