So I’ve decided to write and serialize a short story on Read/Write Web. I’ll treat it as a mini-Nanowrimo, with me as the only participant (unless anyone else is game). I’ll aim for 10,000 words in 2 weeks, which is pretty cushy compared to when I wrote 50,000 words over 4 weeks in November 2003.
The story I have in mind will be a kind of Parable for the Blogosphere. Why a short story? The themes I want to write about are better suited to Narrative than to normal weblog posts. This was also one of my motivations for Nanowrimo 2003 btw. The main theme will be Subjectivity vs System. Some of the inspirations for this are: Andrew‘s theory of the “blogosphere as a system” which he calls “We are Blog”, which I’ve been following with interest and wishing he’d write more on; Erik’s recent philosophizing; Paul Ford’s amazing stories; my reading of Kierkegaard, which has pushed a lot of buttons for me re Individuality and Subjectivity; Cory Doctorow releasing his second novel online, which I can’t wait to read; all this talk of a “new architecture for news” by the journo bloggers, which again I’ve been following with interest; watching The Matrix Reloaded again on DVD late last night, esp. the Architect’s speech (btw check out this great analysis of The Matrix); my continuing impatience with the non-starting of The Game Neverending (mind you impatience is one of my less favourable traits); my Yawn about Orkut (but thanks heaps to the 3 people who invited me after my little sulk!); my ongoing fascination with avatars and virtual worlds; plus assorted other inspirations all playing in my mind.
Not to mention it’s high time I put some effort into writing this year. I’ve also submitted an article proposal to Digital Web Magazine, which if accepted will give me an opportunity to write a technical non-fiction article. So the gist of this post is: I’m gettin’ back into my writing.
I hope to post my first instalment of my short story this Monday, or even Sunday if all goes well.
ps if anyone has read my Nanowrimo novel (pdf), or even read portions of it, I’d very much appreciate your feedback on it. Even if you thought it was crap, please let me know either by email or in a comment. As an amateur and unpublished writer, one never knows for sure how good one’s work is. So sock it to me.
