There is no substitute for wonderful writing. During the past few years, technological issues have led us to write with less illustration than we might otherwise have liked, and the return to a more normal mix of text and image looks more revolutionary than it really is. People often think that young readers want more sound and immersion and pure sensual entertainment. It's not about new media or graphics or the Web, it's about our resentment of adolescents for their nice bodies and their vexing self-absorption. Writers need to know their craft and their world.
Technology is part of the craft, and part of the world.
It's possible to write hypertext without knowing much about technology, just as it's possible to write without knowing much about men. If you accept this sort of limitation, it's always going to be a defining weakness. No computer program is as hard to figure out as a lover. Dozens of schools and universities are teaching hypertext fiction and electronic poetry. Rob Kendall at the New School has run a hypertext writing course for years, whose alumni include Deena Larsen and Bill Bly .