NaNoWriMo in SL

After roughly a week of trying to contact the sales reps of iThenticate.Com, I've been unable to get ahold of a human being concerning their anti-plagiarism service.

I'm going to continue trying to reach them. In the meantime, thank you for your responses. I will be sending a second notecard out with my reaction.

Again, if you wish to be a part of this group and/or receive this notecard, feel free to IM me. Thanks.

Just wandering through because Jeffrey was silly enough to tell me it existed.

Few things I thought I would note: A novel is usually considered 100,000 words, and many publishers would ignore anything under 75,000. A short story ranges from about 5,000-25,000 words, and a novella sits between the two.

Flavor text, a name given to a section of fiction made to create a mood in a non-story book, such as in an RPG book that has each chapter starting with a really small story piece.


Now let's be honest, anyone with the talent to write a novel in a month would probably not do so in SL, since they could use it as a marketing ploy better elsewhere. That's not a slight over the talent in SL, but a statment about the size of the market here as opposed to in the larger publishing pool of the overall internet.

Aside from that, I could also mention that anyone who tries to write a novel in a month is asking for torture. Really. You're talking 2500-3000 words a day every day, and that would leave no time for editing or cleaning. I'm not saying it can't be done, just that I would run screaming away from anyone who tried to convince me it's a good idea...

And yes, I write a lot of words when the mood strikes me and I'm allowed time.


Now about being published (see /120/04/47484/1.html#post561330 ) What does that mean in this context? Are you acting as a publishing house?

A little side-venture until November. I'll send you the notecards I put out about that.


I agree on NaNoWriMo, which is why being a part of the group does not mean you must participate in it. However, I disagree that authors would not seek publication in SL, especially for the smaller events that I'm working on.

A good example of this is Cory Doctorow, who's been seeing a lot of in-world support from Hamlet and residents. And writing through SL does not mean it's your only publication method, either. It's just a stimulus.

Meantime, I'll get that notecard and invite to you. If anyone else is interested, send me an IM.

Nonononono. Miscommunication!

I said that "Now let's be honest, anyone with the talent to write a novel in a month would probably not do so in SL, since they could use it as a marketing ploy better elsewhere.".

I'm talking about a 50,000 - 100,000 word novel getting marketed in SL. First, who's going to sit in front of a computer, logged into SL, for hours, just to read a book?

Seriously, that's a question.

Electronic books did not catch on for two major reasons: The tech is still too expensive for the benifits, and people still like BOOKS.

I ran through this with my PDF publishing house I run at www.ancient-awakenings.com.

And we're talking about writing for a month, at a rate that would preclude doing anything else. Your authors would not be on SL during that time, most likly. See where I'm coming from?

Anyway, I'm interested in hearing more, but I'm at 'work' right now, and canot login to SL...

Aha! Okay.

Yeah, I understand. And I agree. Anything we're doing is going to be completely Not-For-Profit, which in SL terms means I'll be eating any costs that come up (for example, I've been pursuing anti-plagiarism software).

As for sitting down to read in SL? Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V.

I also encourage getting published elsewhere. All the same, I have prolific friends of mine that have had trouble with the conventional means of publication. Another feather in their cap, as it were, doesn't hurt.

As for NaNoWriMo itself, we'll just have to see how many people are willing to participate. Since the original intent was as an outreach program to that (as opposed to the other way around as you're pointing out), it will be interesting to see what happens.

We're in the midst of holding a Short Story publishing event, and everyone is invited! If you have a "PG-13" or lower-rated story of 1,000 to 7,000 words you wish to get published, please send a copy to me on a notecard.

The final deadline is August 1st.


We've already had several early entries. Here's a temporary listing of them until I can get a more cohesive website together:

http://umsis.miami.edu/~trobins1/slpublish/TempPublish.html


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Foolish Frost there also has his own work published on these boards. You can view that here:

/120/42/46170/1.html
/120/04/47484/1.html

Cool stuff, Jeffrey! How many of those stories are related to SL?

From what I've read, only Foolish's so far. I haven't had a chance to read all of the entries yet, though.

Crunch week for me.

Is anyone still considering doing this? Are you writing in world or writing about the world or a combination? I saw Jeffrey's wiki website, and see there are events planned for Nov. 4 (at about 2AM my time, btw) . I signed up at the NaNoWriMo site and I have a plot of sorts brewing...and a t-shirt and book on the way, haha (ever the shopper).

Let me know how many are taking on this dragon of a novel writing experience. Thanks

If this takes off, the Rose from Ash Publishing company, parent company of the Metaverse Messenger, would gladly publish any novel in PDF format, including illustrations and a cover.

Actually, yes. Right now at least 8 people are confirmed for NaNoWriMo. Many of whom are from Always Black.


I put up a post about it here.

I have a friend who did NaNoWriMo for several years, and I must confess, I never tried to read anything she wrote. She even coordinated things in our area at least one year, I think.

I *attempted* to play along with the NaNoWriMo rules one year, but I was too serious about writing a readable story, and not serious enough about churning out text by any means necessary. The absolute goal of NaNoWriMo is 50,000 in a month, regardless of how you do it or if it's readable/worth reading. The whole point is to say you wrote a novel in a month -- and yeah, 50,000 is not much of a novel, but hey, you only have a month to do it. If you make it to 50,000 words, even if you get desperate and, I don't know, copy pages from a telephone book or something -- as far as I know, you "win" or "succeed" or "pass the test" just by getting to that magic number somehow, someway.

I'd like to attempt it again... but I'm not so sure about trying to write *inside* the game. If I had something to work with that was even as serviceable as Notepad for Windows I'd be happy -- actually I write in Notepad a lot as I hate the more feature-bloated programs such as Word or Wordperfect.

It's certainly possible to write 2,000 words in just a few hours though. ^_^ Doing it every night for a month is the hard part!

I doubt it needs to be its own spinoff event, but I do think SL would be a neat place to meetup and share ideas, encourage eachother, etc through it.

I would prolly be a part of the group. I plan to attend some of the RL nanowrimo meetups in my local area, but having SL may be more convenient and allow for more "get together" sessions that RL may allow

I have a hard time trying to write something I am comfortable with and isn't garbage -- but at the same time, such behaviour can be an achilles heel (yay clichee).

I don't think your assumptions of what nanowrimo is is completely accurate. There have been a number of nanowrimo entries that have gone on to become published works and in the end... it's all subjective anyway.

After listening to a podcast interview with the creator of the event, I kinda liked the idea. It's a way to get people to just write something. Especially writing a novel or something of that length... it's one of those "day" things. 90% of us say "some day" and never do. At least this way there is an event that spurs a community for one month of a year and gets us off our butts and writing...

sure you can cheat your way through it -- but it's not like you're getting anything out of it if you do. In the end, you only get a sticker and a certificate! So if you don't like writing and are trying to cheat your way through the event... well, I'll say that you'd seem awfully silly to me.

I feel it's more of an event for people who think of writing, aspire to be writers, or just have a story they want to share. For some people, it's just a fun thing to do. As long as you're not cheating and acting like a fool, you're being expressive -- so who really can tell you wether you should write or not because it's "crap?"

Just write and be merry. Not everyone is going to write the next great novel that we all hope for when we start. If one can be comfortable with it, then I think nanowrimo should be an awesome experience.

Well I'm just going on what I've read about it in the past -- from my freind's participation, and from reading posts from quite a few others who participated, it seemed that all of them were more concerned with reaching the end goal by any means necessary, than in producing something readable. I'm sure that doesn't apply to everyone involved or even represent what the originator of the event intended, but it was what the people I came in contact with several years ago presented the project as.

Anyway, it sounds like a fun idea either way. Certainly the longest manuscript I've yet produced was during a NaNoWriMo month, where I didn't really follow all of the rules (I was working on something I'd started many months before, which was against their posted rules at the time) but I did manage to spend most of the month working on it, which only happened because I accepted at least part of the NaNoWriMo challenge. Sadly it's been several years since then and I haven't worked on that story much since. ^_^

Anyway I sat down last night and managed to produce several hundred words for my new idea for a NaNoWriMo novel... hardly the 2,000 a day I said was easy to do. I forgot the important part -- when I'm INSPIRED and can't get a story out of my head, yes, 2,000 words in a day is absurdly easy. When I'm not so inspired, it's much harder.

Ah well, I can say that it's only day 2, so I'll continue to attempt to write something. ^_^ You're right that it's a way to encourage people to write. I haven't written much of anything since July... which is sad because at that point I'd finished several short stories in the previous three months (after many months of inactivity), and had proudly declared to my friends that I was going to finish at least one new short story every month for the rest of the year. And... then I started playing SL again, and wrote nothing until now.

I am *not* attempting to write anything in-game, but I *am* attempting to write something slightly SL-related, or inspired. Anyone else doing anything? Even if you're not going to attempt the NaNoWriMo thing, or attempt it *in game*, I think everyone who posted in this thread ought to write *something* during the month, at least! ^_^

where can i get my hands on some of that dime a dozen smut?!!

lol, seriously a great idea - i am all for inspiring the visual and literary artists in SL to bring their works to the residents. come out, come out, wherever you are

kaia

I'm totally down with this idea, I am doing NANOWRIMO in real life, and it would be cool to do something similar in SL, but maybe minature versions 50,000 words is a lot for a SL novel...

I'm considering writing a book and self-publishing using an internet service linked to Amazon. I downloaded some guides and info, and am still checking it out. Regardless, it seems you need to have some exposure and a favorable review or two by known/respected authorities to generate enough interest to sell anything - ANYWHERE. Does SL's policy statement that anything you create in SL is copywright protected apply to books created inworld as well? If I write a cyberpunk genre book, I'd think that publishing a chapter in SL as a teaser might generate enough interest to translate into real sales - because part of my target audience is definitely here already. I've taken a quick look at some posts concerning the inworld ThiNC Book and publishing press, but need to contact the owner to see just how this could also translate to a printed book accessible via Amazon like the other publishers. What is of great interest to me is: are there any respected RL authors/reviewers in SL that might look at your work and give a review, either in RL or SL? Is there a forum, event, or mechanism for that already in place? Maybe a member review/rating system for a written work? And I agree, readers would definitely need an easy method for downloading any volume of work for ebook (on handheld?) or hardcopy - especially if they were to buy it inworld as opposed to RL. I suppose you'd also ultimately want to obtain an ISBN number (if you thought you were going to be successful) and provide links/instructions on RL purchase of hardcopies. I didn't read the entire thread, so maybe some of this is redundant, but please let me know your thoughts.

DMCA and the Second Life ToS are really tricky. I think the best person to ask about that would be Cory Doctorow himself (via his email) when he returns from vacation.


On the publishing in Second Life front, I'd say efforts have been a mixed success. The _blacklibrary is up and running courtesy of Ian and all the crazy writers that support it (Link), though most of the content is hosted in web form as opposed to notecard sets. It's still quality work that's offered for free to the public.

Counterpoint, longer endeavors are a bit more difficult in Second Life. Despite Cory's somewhat-success and the few "book discussions" SL has had, the vast majority of those events really take place offline, usually by reading the book in simple text or in bounded form without the graphical overhead.

NaNoWriMo was also a mixed success, with three people (including myself) writing to completion, two by the deadline, and at least a dozen participating. I can only really credit the _blacklibrary folks with that. My own personal push, both the SLiNoWriMo group and Writing Wiki were met with a resounding lack of support that has made me more or less abandon both.


So, as a publishing medium, I'd say it's probably best to self-publish through existing markets (real world publishers, internet, Amazon) primarily. If you'd like to do so in Second Life as well, feel free, but don't expect a whole lot of support from the community here.

It simply isn't ready as an effective medium. The focus on graphics has a lot to do with that.

Really I think the major challenge with in-world novels is the proposition of reading 80,000+ words at your computer. It takes a brave soul to do that. I read all of *Someone Comes to Town* in SL, sitting at my desk-- and screwed up my back for a week.

An alternative is to work on publishing a novel in serial form, one chapter a week say, Dickens-style, or standalone short stories, of say 2000-5000 words in length. Then you're only asking someone to read in-world 30-60 minutes a week. Still another alternative is to publish an SL *graphic* novel using screenshots-- there's been a lot of success with SL-based comic strips, so it seems like a full-on graphic novel is the next logical step. As always, I'm eager to promote any of these kind of projects if the stories are set at least partly in SL, even publish large excerpts on NWN.

Hey - that Plywood webcomic thing is pretty funny!

'course, it would be nicer if half the sight-gags that went on in there weren't just stills. Reminds me of the other attempt to start a SL-based webcomic not too long ago.


Still, one has to ask why it's more effective to post that on the web as a link instead of a Second Life URL.

Thanks for the info/offer, Hamlet - but what exactly is NWN? My story would be based partly (mostly?) in/on SL, but if it's something I ultimately want to publish, I can't use the actual name "Second Life", can I?