It’s not often a writer gets to launch his novel before the ink has dried on the pages, let alone before the pages have been printed, or even before ‘the end’ has been typed on a final manuscript. But The Mural Gazer is lifting off as of now, and we’re going to be fine-tuning the design of this rocket ship as it escapes gravity, and enters the realm of imaginative fiction.
That’s not to say lots of planning hasn’t gone into the story already. I’ve been working on The Mural Gazer for months – years if you wind the clock’s hands back to the story’s very inception. So characters, themes, plot and scenes have developed into a recognizable, 3-D map, with coordinates in place for many of the main events and transitions.
But that leaves plenty of room for adaptation and collaboration, which is one of the exciting features of direct-to-web publication. Writers are increasingly migrating to platforms like Wattpad to tell their stories in a dynamic environment, where they can interact with audiences. The Mural Gazer is a variation of that trend. Instead of relying solely on a provided platform, though, I wanted to create a book addressed to its own domain.
Why?
Because I believe it gives me unlimited opportunities to interact with readers and listeners, and to take literature in a direction it must go – online and off the page. I don’t want to elaborate on that right now, though; I want to emphasize what hasn’t changed. Just because it doesn’t yet have a physical cover doesn’t change the whole point of publishing this ‘book’. I hope you will enjoy The Mural Gazer as entertaining, compelling literary fiction, and that you will critique it from that point of view.
Thank you for joining me in the telling of this story. I look forward to your questions and comments.
CraigSpenceWriter.ca