About

Greetings, I’m Michael and welcome to my portfolio. I do writing, editing and teaching but I sometimes also do less important activities such as eating and breathing.

Introduction

Writing is in a strange place. It is an art is simultaneously overvalued and undervalued by the same people. Maybe it is due to the difficulty in separating the art of writing from the ability to write. Being able to write does not make one a writer anymore than someone capable of putting colour on a canvas is a painter, where the line is set is up to individual interpretation, yet, for many, the line is more muddled when it comes to words. For me, it is simple, all developments in writing, like any other art form, is about liberating the means of which we express ourselves.

Prior to the invention of writing, the spoken word was limited to what can be remembered, which gave emphasis to rhyme and metre. While those are valuable devices, physical records of words allowed expression to be possible without them as well. Paper allowed more detailed records to be kept, the printing press allowed ideas to be spread more easily and the book gave us an organised and linear way to express ideas similar to vanishing lines and perspective points in drawing composition.

If you have taken the time to check out the sidebar (thank you) you might have noticed I focus mostly on fiction, essays and games. This is due to my perspective on the relationship between the author and the reader, it is where I find the beauty in exploring the means of expression. A proper work of fiction allows the reader to suspend disbelief and view the story from a new perspective, a merge of their biases and your premise without being limited by what has and has not happened. A well-researched essay combines analysis on a topic through evidence with analysis on the biases presented by the evidence themselves, creating a work through which the writer explores different perspectives together with the reader. An interactive work gives the player a way to directly interact with your story as a character in it instead of just an audience member, creating a level of intimacy between the writer and reader scarcely found prior to recent media technologies.

I am also exploring newer forms of writing through mediums and platforms such as Twine, Tales, Story Maps and R Bookdown, which is what I built this website in. As culture and technology develops, there will no doubt be more ways to express ourselves through words in different permutations and I hope I will be able to keep up. However, it would be narrow-minded to think this would make the job of a writer more difficult or less rewarding. Everyone has stories to tell and all stories have value; how the value is realised comes down to figuring out what the best mode of expression is, and progress in terms of mediums only gives us more options.

A good writer, like any good artist of any other art form, should be able to both speak and hear with their art. With this in mind, I sometimes wonder whether finding what to say and figuring out how to say it is a desire or a responsibility.