August 19, 2020

Writing.Digital: How Do I Do It? covid-19: day 162 | US: GA | info | act

I’ve been wanting to write my own textbook for WritDM for a while, but I just can’t figure out how to do it. I wanted it to be a for-the-screen hypertextual book that divests the print form. In other words: how can I write a “book” that is not a book? Something that is designed for what I’m writing about: digital media.

I also wanted it to address writing for Wikipedia—like a how-to for English majors.

Maybe I have two separate “books” here?

Maybe the former could begin with key concepts, add concepts, then strategies. These could all be read in any order and have hypertextual x-refs. It could illustrate best practices through its implementation. What better software to use than MediaWiki?

Then, I could just design a “book” called “WikiClass for English Majors” or something similar. Here, I could break down into ten chapters (lessons?) the best practices for developing a Wikipedia article on a novel, for example.

I may be on to something. Now, if I can find the time.