Narrative and Weblogs: the Blognovel

Diego writes "A few days ago I started Plan B -- a blognovel as a way of exploring the narrative constraints created by a weblog, and whether it is at all possible to use it as an artistic medium to produce interesting work. It also presents some interesting challenges on the UI side: what kind of navigation to use besides the basic calendar navigation of the blog? How could it be made obvious that it's not intended to replace print or even ebooks? I thought the slashdot community would have a lot useful things to say about all of these issues. I've also put together a short intro page and a FAQ that I think will be useful to start the conversation: What is Plan B? and the Plan B FAQ."

Comments

Purpose of a novel

[moebius_4d]

I've tried my hand at a novel before, as my half-shelf of writing books will attest. It seems to me that the whole reason for a novel, or fiction generally, is to communicate an emotional state to the reader. Even SF boils down to this - otherwise, why have characters, why not just write speculative monographs about technology? It's about exploring the human condition and sharing the results.

So what I'd like to understand is how you think this medium and method will enhance that purpose. Why should access to unfinished work, or continuous feedback from reader of that work, help an author convey what must initally be an internal state or vision?

It's an interesting topic more generally, since by and large (I except computer games) computers haven't really added any new media at all. And while Doom may have scared the shit out me at times, it's clear that the richness of the experience was far behind Shakespeare, or even Lovecraft.

Thanks for starting what could potentially be an interesting discussion.

Re:Purpose of a novel

[Triv]

You wanted an interesting discussion, so here goes.

I've tried my hand at a novel before, as my half-shelf of writing books will attest.

Yep, I've got one of those too (just to establish my pseudo-credentials).

It seems to me that the whole reason for a novel, or fiction generally, is to communicate an emotional state to the reader.

Partially. I mean ok, if you graph from far enough away that's true, but that creation of emotional response really needs to be broken down some. Fiction can impart a lesson or moral, can create a sense of location (I'm currently reading Anthony Powell's "Dance to the music of Time" series. 3,000 pages - all you get is an incredibly detailed picture of what inter-bellum Brittan was like. Take that away and you've got a soap-opera) It can craft basic emotion, but honestly if that's all there is, I see no point. Romance novels do that quite well.

To me, fiction is about style. It's not what you say really, it's how it's said. Donald Antrim, Harold Pinter, even Douglas Adams do wonderful things to language. Antrim's a wonderful liar - he shatters his novels in the last 20 pages and you never see it coming. Pinter relies on what's not said, lets you draw your own conclusions - he thinks out his plots and writes around them. Adams was an amazing describer - "His arm muscles moved around each other like volkswagons parking." He made images jump to your imagination. His radio background did that - he had to plant a vivid picture, otherwise Hitch-hiker wouldn't exist.

Continuous feedback, in my mind, should be avoided. You finish the damn thing and then show it to someone. Asking for input chapter by chapter could be confusing. But then again, we're not really talking about a novel here.

Honestly, I'd say go for it and see what happens. If it sucks you'll know what to do differently next time around.

Best of luck.

Triv

I don't get it.

[Telastyn]

Why are people facinated with blogs? They simply offer a more limited subset of the creativity allowed by vanilla html, in exchange for added ease of use and "structure". Why not just use web pages, or better yet flash, or another multimedia form to create unique arts?

The death of the original thought

[bentini]

This isn't meant to be a flame.

It seems to me that this is similar to other ideas, both that the author recognizes and some that he may not. Dickens, for instance, first published much of his canon in a serial form. Great Expectations, e.g., was first published in pieces (which you can notice if you read it). This aspect of the "new" art form seems to me to be fairly old.

The one "new" aspect may be the "unedited" nature of the medium. The web allows publishing to be cheap enough that few enough people's financial futures are at stake to require that the produced content be of any conceivable literary merit or commercial quality. On the other hand, the radio show of HHGTTG seemed to be done in a manner that may not have had that much time to go back over it. So that's close.

All in all, it's an interesting idea that may bring together old art forms with the new medium, but I wouldn't say it's revolutionary or necessarily that experimental, in the sense of wondering "whether it is at all possible to use it as an artistic medium to produce interesting work." Of course it is. You may be shooting yourself in the foot by not using an editor, though.

Doesn't sound too well thought out.

[Nurlman]

I notice this in your FAQ:

entries are "improvisational," by which I mean that you usually sit down, write it, and post it. There isn't a lot of preparation, hours of editing or things like that. You write it, you post it.

"Preparation" and "hours of editing" are the difference between good writing and bad. Don't be fooled by the medium-- even a good blog entry has lots of thought, preparation, and editing behind it.

Unless you've already sat down and thought about storylines, character development, plotting, and pacing, your story is likely to end up an unreadable, uninteresting mess. Real authors of novels don't just sit down and blurt out whatever comes into their head at any given moment. Don't assume that the immediacy of the blog format will substitute for good preparation and planning.

Re:Doesn't sound too well thought out.

[gwernol]

Real authors of novels don't just sit down and blurt out whatever comes into their head at any given moment. Don't assume that the immediacy of the blog format will substitute for good preparation and planning.

Not so. Like all art forms there are authors who do in fact just sit down and write, and those who plan meticulously and then re-edit through many drafts before they are ready to "go live". And of course lots of authors somewhere in between these two extremes.

There really are artistic "idiot savants": by all accounts Mozart was like this - essentially a gibbering fool in life but also capable of apparently spontaneously creating some of the most moving and complex music ever written. At the opposite end of the spectrum was Beethoven who also created astounding - and astoundingly beautiful - music yet who sweated over every note and constantly re-wrote and fine-tuned his creations.

Re:Seems to me...

[dev0n]

i beg to differ. i have had a blog since the beginning of 2000, and i have never felt as if i was wasting my time. blogs are great ways to experiment with writing, to get out your feelings, and to generate discussion amongst your peer group.