1. g.crusoe

    g.crusoe New Member

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    Writers' Blog Blogs as a story medium?

    Discussion in 'Marketing' started by g.crusoe, Feb 5, 2018.

    This is in reference to The Sick Land (http://thesickland.blogspot.com/ or http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheSickLand). The story I'm working on right now feels like it would do well in a similar medium, a blog of some sort where the entries are a direct part of the story updated frequently, instead of a traditional manuscript. It would be generally treated as if it was nonfiction, except for a disclaimer somewhere on the site of course.

    How effective is using a blog (or anything along those lines) as a story medium?
    If this medium was used, how would outreach/promotion be done for it?
     
  2. NobodySpecial

    NobodySpecial Contributor Contributor

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    That would be part of what I’ve heard termed as alternative fiction. It goes along with things like posting a story one scene at a time on facebook or other social media. It is newish, but it is being done. There’s a shop in Missisippi or Louisiana that prints flash fiction in a match book format, one guy printed his short story on stickers and had people plaster them along their commutes. Alternative fiction doesn’t just seek to expand genres, it also expands medium. If you can dream it, do it.
     
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  3. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    I've never heard of alternative fiction used as a term for this. It's serialized when it's released in portions like a chapter at a time. Newspapers used to run novels like this in the newspapers, but that was back in the 1800s and those writers were most likely paid. I don't think anyone is going to pay you if this is the way you choose to publish your novel. The majority of blogs go unnoticed. So why is it that you think your book will do well in this form? Also, I don't really understand what you mean by treating your fiction as nonfiction. Nonfiction is true. Fiction is made up. There really shouldn't be much confusion there.
     
  4. DeeDee

    DeeDee Contributor Contributor

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    Social media is amazing. Social skills are not everybody's main strength, tho :D If you're willing to do a lot of legwork, there are tons of places on the internet where you could casually drop a link. But people don't like to venture off site much. There's always demand for a well written story, however, and there are also a few places where you could quickly gather many readers. Thousands. That's homework for tomorrow :supertongue: Then once you gather a following there, you can expect people to visit your blog via link. Youtube narratives are a thing, too, if you can get somebody with a nice voice to do them. Do post around, don't be shy is the general guidance :supergrin:But what do you mean by an effective medium? What do you want to achieve? Readers? Fame? Income? Imaginary points?
     
  5. NobodySpecial

    NobodySpecial Contributor Contributor

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    I suppose metafiction would be a doable term too, if not a better one.
     
  6. KevinMcCormack

    KevinMcCormack Senior Member

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    Just to level-set to give context to my reply: It sounds like you're proposing a fiction story, but it will be written in first person, so takes the form of a nonfiction blog?

    * This feels like something we could categorize as a Found Narrative, in Serialized Format. Writing-wise, I think it'll work fine.

    * Not sure what you mean by 'effective' - ? Do you mean financially? I don't think the format is any more or less commercially viable than others. It all comes down to the content IMO.

    * Outreach/promotion - It's a blog, so same as any other blog content, whether it's favourite recipes or cat pix. Find the target audience, sacrifice some chickens, and hope it goes viral.
     
  7. KevinMcCormack

    KevinMcCormack Senior Member

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    I'm guessing real enough content that the reader would benefit from a disclaimer, so as to know it's fiction and not real or a hoax attempt.

    There is potential for doing something different, as the previous posters cite with their examples of Alternative Fiction.

    In my previous post I mentioned Found Narratives, and one of my writing experiments as a teenager was putting messages in a bottle with completely hoaxed stories. I tried tying notes to balloons once. Claimed I fell through a portal and could only get my message out that way. How I got hold of a helium tank and balloons, and pen and paper scrolls in the alternative universe went unexplained, so hopefully the recipients figured it out.

    I always thought about whether it would have been better to send each balloon with a portion of the story, instead of identical full copies each. Would that make it serialized, for example. Or would the recipient just be missing too many parts.
     

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