NaNoWriMo in SL

First of all, I'm placing this here because it seems the most appropriate forum for it. Not Events. Not Building. Definitely not General.


My suggestion: A Linden-Sponsored National Novel Writing Month for Second Life.



It occured to me while I was talking with a friend that we could use more writing and simple pleasures in Second Life. I feel if we had people genuinely interested by this here, the world would be a far more interesting place.

Right now, our world is pretty haphazard. Counterpoint, reading and basic literature have endured generations because they just work.

I think that if we motivated "the lost creators" of Second Life to write, we might see some more compelling stuff than "this iz a rozz say /3 script" and dime-a-dozen smut.

Where's a Writer's Forum but New World Notes? Where are the backstories, the intrigue, and the mystery in Second Life but what we create? All we need are good people to pick up the pen and give their world meaning.

As it stands, the only interesting reading I've had from Second Life has been from these forums, Hamlet's and a few other blogs, and a few classic books that have been bound to notecards. I know we can do better than this, and a Second Life Novel Writing Month (SLiNoWriMo) would be a great start.

SLiNoWriMo (read: sl-eye-no-wry-moh). Hm. That's catchy!




For now, a few questions:

1) If you're interested, would you like to join a group for this?

2) Are there any aspiring writers out there that might want to contribute to this? Sound off!

3) Would you prefer this to be an unofficial thing, or should I track down the "official" NaNoWriMo folks and see if they'd like to sponsor it?

4) What would be the preferable format in-world? Notecard sets? A textured book? Both?

5) What should the focus be? Second Life related, or left open for anyone to contribute?

6) Do you have any concerns about this sort of thing? Lack of support? Poor content? How might you assuage these?




New Question:

7) Would you be interested in additional events, like writing competitions and workshops prior to the actual event?

I second this idea... player created back stories (or future stories) regarding the world of SL would be great.

Add my vote to this also. I've been going to different spots in SL and writing. With the environment, the number of people, the different personalities, etc. the game really lends itself to finding and/or creating stories.

It's a great idea, and if we can get enough folks involved, I'd be glad to help out as I can. Perhaps I could even get some other established authors to help run in-world workshops. Now that we have 5 prototypes that display the written word in a cool way in-world (an ulterior motive of mine for the NWN book expo, he chuckled evilly) it should be a lot easier to find an audience for SL books. Authors need audiences!

Ping me with any info on groups as they take shape...

Great responses.

I'll follow up on this with you directly when I next run into you, Hamlet - or vice versa, as you're so apt at doing.

It would probably be wise to plan something like this to overlap with the "official" NaNoWriMo, which isn't until November. That gives anyone interested (and myself) plenty of time to make preparations.

Thanks! I'll see if I can rally some support for this myself, as I know a few aspiring writers that might be interested.


For now, a few questions. I've added these to the original post.

Yes


Since SL appeals to creative people, I'll bet this will attract a crowd (if publicized well.)


Either way.



If you're refering to the subject matter, I'd prefer it be open to anything as opposed to only Second Life. If enough people are involved, maybe we can split it into two categories- one related to SL and one that's non SL

I do think it'd be worth contacting the NaNo people and seeing if they would like to create some kind of affiliation with the SL group. I'd of course be happy to help with that. It looks like they have some kind registered user forum, but I suspect they'd see some merit in a virtual group where people can meet and write in an immersive shared space.

The project calls for writing 50,000 words in a single month, looks like, and if you're to ask me, an SL group should be solely based around folks willing to make a similar insane commitment, only doing it within SL. That way, you know folks in it are totally dedicated, and it'll be of appeal to prospective writers on the outside, and of admiration to folks already in SL. In my limited experience with them, writing groups only work when every member is hardcore about producing consistent output.

Thing is, 50,000 is a *lot* of words. I write an average of 2000 a week for NWN, which takes maybe 10-12 hours, not counting in-world research/interview time, laying out screenshots, etc. If you're shooting for 50K words in a month, that's 12,500 a week! I've written full-length screenplays in about a month, which is a hump-busting experience in itself, and that's only 15-20K words.

Hmm, let's see, a good typing rate is usually considered 80wpm.
Times 60, gives 4800 words per hour.
So 48,000 words are... 10 hours?
Hamlet, you're just lazy!
Hmm, let's try another set of assumptions here.
Back when I was a teenaged email addict I used to type an 8KB email in an hour.
At an average word length of 5 characters, that's around 1638 words.
Let's say 1500 for ease of math. 10 hours would be 15,000, 30 hours would be 45,000, 33 would be 49500.
Dude... 50,000 words (and they do say the emphasis is on quantity rather than quality) gives you 1666 words per day. I'm sure if you take two hours a day to do it, you will. It will be a messy stream-of-consciousness type of thing but its not that unreasonable... if you're getting paid. If you're doing it for fun, I would recommend 10 times less than that... people wont even read a novel let alone write it

I would definitely be interested in doing this, as long as the rules are lax enough to allow for, say, a book of short stories as opposed to a novel? I'm more interested in doing the former right now, and I'd still adhere to whatever word count is set as the minimum, so if this is okay then I am in!

wow great idea!, here is the idea from a lazy non author, non wrighters view.

50,000 words is a lot to shoot for, and in only a month that is even harder. if you want the readers to pass page 10, you need to have the content be at least slightly intresting and it needs to draw the reader in. so simply stream of thought novels, would likely hit the trash. I have no intrest in reading something that goes on and on with no point, goal, or apparent end.

I suggest offering different levels of involvement to accomidate as many people and their schedule as possible. (author and reader)

for example: simple experiences 2,000 words; short stories, 5,000 words; easy reading, 10,000 words; small book, 20k; big book, 30k; small novel, 40k; novel, 50,000 words.

some type of sliding scale to allow the most versitile range of readers and wrighter to perticipate.

also besides the apparent fun! what is the modivation, are there prizes to be won? is there an entry fee, that adds to a pot, to be awarded to the winner of each catagory? or will it be a community project to bring people together for a common goal with no need for monetary awards?

also eggy your communist antics dont go un notices! (I will get you and your little AK too, scrambled eggs anyone?)

Trifen, I don't think you're getting it. I suggest you check out the nano web site: nanowrimo.org. The NaNoWriMo really is about trying to write a novel. The unreasonable nature of the attempt is the main point. And if you have to ask what the motivation is, you obviously don't have the stuff (well, neither do I, so don't worry).

Huh?

Jeffery, fantastic idea. I already use SL as my writing environment (it is much cheaper than a cabin in the woods *and* I get to shower regularly). At present, I am writing poetry and am conducting a poetry workshop in SL; but I, like every other English major on the planet, have the start of a really, really bad novel. Is it not the point of NaNoWriMo to get that 'horrible' piece of 'juvenilia' out of the way in order to move on as a writer?

Would I join a group? Yep.

Should it be 'official' or 'unofficial'? Does that matter? It would be nice; however, to have participating writers get and give feedback on 'product' (I choose that word knowing what happens when I sit at the keyboard for a month).

Would I contribute/participate? You betcha--just as long as I retained the copyright to whatever I managed to write.

Should content be limited to SL-related topics? Nope.

I am currently using notecards that can be loaded into an object that resembles a book--very clever piece of artistry, that.

Thank you for bringing this up, Jeffery!

Count me in. I've always wanted to try NaNoWriMo. If we wanted to wait until the official one, and wanted to be involved with the "official" organization, we could look at declaring SL a municipality. After that, a couple municipal liasons, and we'd be set. Has anyone done it before? I don't know how forceful and absolute this is meant to read:

Okay. I sent everyone responding here an invite to the group. No pressure - you don't need to take part in the actual event(s) to join.

I'll be looking for ideas in the meanwhile, and Cath, thank you for the ML suggestion. I'll pursue that when they make contacts available, assuming a decent level of support.

For now, if you want an invite to the group and are not listed here, please send me an IM. I'd like to keep this focused on serious writers if at all possible, but will be looking for suggestions.

Adding one more question to the top.

Can you let me know what the five prototypes are? Only been here a little over a month, and I have only seen the notecards which I've been writing on, but they are sort of laggy and hard to edit (spoiled by Word). I've also noticed that I don't like READING from notecards because it's difficult/slow expanding the size of them and then the scrolldown function is slow (though I do love having the ability to add photos to a notecard). Ebook formats are good if the pages can be turned quickly and the font is easy to read--any chance we have that in SL?

My favorite lines from the website: "We had taken the cloistered, agonized novel-writing process and transformed it into something that was half literary marathon and half drunken block party. We called it noveling."

So my idea is we spend the summer "practice writing" with writing marathons, drunken revelry, and discussing the logistics of possible breakdowns/update hell that might put us off the writing groove in November...(still recovering from 1.6.7 update)

I imagine an SL version of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (A contest to celebrate the most cloying prose ever, "It was a dark and stormy night". Workshops for longer pieces can be tricky--lots and lots and lots of reading, but a fiction workshop is not outside the realm of possibility. Actually, it could be very, very, very fun.

Sansarya, the book prototypes originated from another project, specifically this one. One of them will be used to publish Cory Doctorow's novel (along with anything else the creator wants to publish), but the cool side benefit is we now have at least five new ways to publish a book in SL besides displaying them on notecards.

One thing I'd really encourage in this are books based on or inspired by Second Life-- not fanfiction, but books that evoke SL-related issues which would appeal to a wide audience. Lotta potential for that, and its origin from within SL would give it an extra selling point, to eventually find an RL publisher.

Plus, being the guy who covers SL as an emerging society, the emergence of a society's own unique literature is something I'm naturally inclined to cover.

I sent out a notecard concerning a related event to this one. If you did not receive it, and would like one, please send me an IM.

TY for letting us know who the notecard was from. Did not see your name on it, so couldn't send it back.

You can always check to see who's handed you an item by opening Chat History (Ctrl-H).

sorry, forgot to close that with something like

/end rude, sarcastic remarks.

you are correct that I am unfamiliar with the rules and motivation behind the event in RL. If you want more perticipants from our limited player base, you might even need to modify the origional intent to meet their needs. just a suggestion. but as you mentioned that would be steering away from the RL event. perhaps there could be 2 events in 1, so to speak. where there is a novel 50,000 words, then a secondary event requiring less of the perticpants.

Interesting concept. I can usually read a reasonable sized novel in 10-14 hours if I get into the story, a full day for something that's like Clancy-sized (I have a talent to 'watch' a book once I have enough background to work from - makes reading like TV ).

Unfortunately I'm not a writer by any stretch of the imagination. I like to type now and then, and perhaps write enough at least once a week to fill a blog with decent info (I'm doing that with an object near my Money Tree). That's about the extent of my writing right now. That may change shortly for the SL anniversary, will have to see if I have some time.

I'd be curious enough to see and help with proofreading, critique and such, but not the actual writing. In part that's also due to my odd RL hours (3rd shift NYC area).

My suggestion: A Linden-Sponsored National Novel Writing Month for Second Life.

Having participated in the NaNoWriMo last november, and enjoying it, I'd love something like that in SL. I'm brand new to SL, and looking for what interests me. Not sure how much help I can be, since I'm still getting my "sea-legs" with SL.

7) Would you be interested in additional events, like writing competitions and workshops prior to the actual event?[/b][/QUOTE]

That would be a good warm up...get people into the spirit.

dee jewel