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

Let me save you some effort

[Anonymous Coward]

as a way of exploring... whether it is at all possible to use [a weblog] as an artistic medium to produce interesting work.

No.

Read slashdot at -1

[sulli]

and you'll see all sorts of interesting stories. Novels, no, but not short either!

Fictional blog community

[mattbelcher]

I had the idea a while back of creating a whole fictional community of blogs through which to tell a story. Basically, I would set up a network of sites, one for each character, and they would relate the events of the story from their own points of view. Characters that knew one another would have links to each other's sites, thus informing the reader of the connections. This approach might lead to something more like War of the Worlds and other fictional journalism, as opposed to a fictional diary, as in the proposed work.

Storylines

[guttentag]

In most stories, there are various tales to follow. For instance, one might detail your relationship with your wife at home, another may deal with your extended family, another focuses on the daily odyssey you call a commute, while another paints a sinister picture of the evil man in the next cubicle over who plays the same two Creed songs through his computer speakers all day long.

You could organize your blog according to topic, and then add entries under each heading:

The Angel of My Life

• The best sex ever
• My life changed forever when I met her

Satin? You Want the Next Cubicle Over

• I used to like Creed

My Daily Odyssey

• Turn signals are not a sign of weakness
• Where's the fire?
• The philosophy of "Stop and Go"

People I Can't Seem to Get Rid of...

• My mom makes the best chocolate chip cookies
• Aunt Helen, the nitpicker
• My cousin the wench
• My cousin the wench, Part II

The Person No One Knows

• Covert excursions to the park
• My day as a troll

Would it be "interesting?" I guess that's up to you.