I like this pageflip Flash script. It allows you to grab page corners and drag them to simulate turning the pages of a book. At first, I thought I would stay away from things like this, because they seem to be trying to replicate the book-reading experience on the web, which requires more imaginative development of its unique possibilities. Since then, I’ve envisioned how I think I’ll use it, which won’t stop at static text and images sitting on the pages. I believe that I’ll essentially use it as an interface. It’ll be a good way to provide very usable navigation and organization.

Its very simplicity as a container has made me feel less worried about going wild inside of its boundaries. In other words, now I don’t have to think as much about how I’ll organize my extravaganza. My graphic novel will be very weird in many ways anyway, in its content. I have to question, to myself, whether everything about it needs to be weird in order to be good. Of course, I think the answer is no. I want the content inside of it to be as good as I can make it at this point in time. I’m not going to be entering a web design contest. I’m going to be telling a story – a very weird one.

The more I’ve thought about the development of the surrounding site for my graphic novel, the more I’ve decided that I won’t be all that innovative in the site design. It’s been difficult to face that my design may be boring and uncreative, but I keep getting back to the fact that the design is just the interface to the real content, anyway. If it’s a colorful design, it will constrain the colors that the artwork will be able to have without clashing. Therefore, I’ll want the site colors to be on the neutral side. If I put too much thought into the layout up front, it could constrain the content that it will be able to contain. It needs to be an elastic layout. It needs to be able to contain any content. It needs to be able to get out of the way and make room.

The page flipping script may seem constraining, but it doesn’t need to be. After flipping a page and selecting one of the two pages, the selected page can zoom in to take up most of the monitor space. After all, don’t our eyes do this when we read? We kind of allow our field of vision to focus on the page without being distracted, don’t we? Do we really want to see the cover of the book all the time while we’re reading the content inside? Of course we don’t.

Oh, why must every little decision to be traditional or innovative, “content-is-king-ie” or “artiste-ie”, be so agonizing? Must be because I’m neurotic, that’s why. Best not think about it, or I’ll think so much about the neurosis of my decision-making process that I won’t think about the decisions anymore. (God, why? )