The Experiment is Over

The Creative Electronic Publishing project, Communal Writing, is finished, and boy, the cats are tired! Thanks to everyone who wrote part of the story. I will edit the story and evaluate the process for my project paper. 
One thing I can tell you is that letting go of the writing process, was the hardest part for me and created many days of sustained anxiety. The 24 hour accessibility of electronic media makes it impossible to get away from your work. Now I feel sorry for all those people who are slaves to their iPhones and Blackberries. It's extremely difficult to disconnect. I don't think that I will ever be one of those writers with a large internet presence. It's too much pressure: all the blogging, and Tweeting, facebooking and website updates and email answers. There were moments when I felt that I was chained to my computer. That said, the ability to share the creative process with a variety of people, including some I have never met, was thrilling. Each time I opened the project page, I was surprised. Wendell's story took twists and turns that I would never have imagined. In that way, I was forced to expand my creative boundaries. I learned to go with the story, let the character become who ever he had to be, and even allow some aliens into my life. It was quite a ride, and I will keep this experience close when writing stories in the future. I love the feeling of pushing boundaries (it's the adolescent in me), and at times during this experiment I felt our writing was boundless. In fact, it got down right universal!