Scientific Creativity

These seemingly incongruous terms are synergized into a 'fashionable' novel that goes with our times in http://www.amillionpenguins.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Yesterday, the discussion on one of the TV channels threw up quite a few points and counterpoints on collaborative writing. There were some interesting concerns about the future avatar of creative writing in the wake of wikis, blogs and podcasts that have empowered so many of us to don the role of an author. We no longer have to wait for a 'publisher' to scrutinize our writing to deem it fit for popular comsumption. At the same time it's exciting to see our work being
'e-published' and share it with our network of family, friends and colleagues.

Following this discussion here are some pros and cons on writing for new media:
There are no two views on the fact that Internet has democratized the 'process' and 'product' of writing. Isn't this true of the nature of this literary genre? The medium lends itself very well the the fluidity and flexibility demanded by any exercise in writing. The malleable features of the medium encourage us to revisit our writing as an ongoing effort and even seek inputs from editors and other writers. Eventually we discover the empowering potential of technology as we unravel the possibilities of various modes of self-expression, celebrating the 'literary' democracy.

What could be the fallout of marrying creativity and collaboration? Too many cooks are sure to spoil the broth. For obvious reasons, creative writing has long been described as a personal and secluded effort where the author usually produces the creative stuff all by him/herself. In such an endeavor it's difficult to imagine how he/she could 'collaborate' to further enhance the creativity that results in sound narrative and unchoatic plot. The complications get multiplied as several people 'contribute' their creative mite to this project and there is no 'anchor' to the hold the things that fall apart.

From co-authoring to collab-authoring:
In functional/professional communication, writing in pairs or groups is quite commonplace. Textbooks, non-fiction and similar projects are successfuly achieved in collaboration where a 'team' of authors jointly write and edit. Perhaps creative writing too is evolving with times as an 'open source' project. Or, will it shape into another fragmentary piece of 'fiction' like an SMS novel, for example at: http://cloakroom.blogspot.com/. What about writing conventions, genre-specific standards etc, etc...well, that's for the purists and classicists to keep pondering.