Classifying Blog Fiction

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Something that I've been struggling with is how to define "Blog Fiction". But something occurred to me. Creating a word and then trying to define it is completely backwards. First you develop a concept, and then you name it.

Therefore, let's start with the most broad definition possible of "Blog Fiction":

Any site that uses blog software to publish fiction to the internet.
Now that I have a broad definition. I'll list all of the different characteristics I've seen on these fiction blogs. Once we have a list of characteristics, then it will make sense to give a name to blogs that have certain characteristics in common. Once I've done that, We can then compare my work to the work done by others(see Blog Fiction Typology). So first, the different characteristics of blogs with fiction.

Written word, Multimedia, both
Using my broad definition, a blog that posts fictional movies would be considered. Same thing is true if it posted podcasts. So first characteristic is whether or not the story is told primarily through the written word or multimedia(audio and video). Obviously there will be those that use both. In that case I'd just classify it under whichever one is the primary device.

Diary Format Vs. Non Diary Format
Does the blog tell it's story using the format of someone's diary, or does it use a more traditional 1st, or 3rd person point of view.

Serial
Is the story delivered all at once, or is it delivered a bit at a time. I.E. A Serial story vs and ebook.

Number of Character Diaries
If the story is written in "diary" format, how many character's diaries are we able to read? I think just "one" or "more than one" will be sufficient for classifying.

Interaction
If there are more than one character's in the story, How do they interact? Only through the story, or do they leave "in character" comments on each other's blog\postings.

Number of Authors
How many people are involved in the project. Again, is it all one author, or more one?

Author Collaboration
If there are more than one authors, how do they collaborate? Do they all work on a single character or multiple characters, or does each one take on just one character.

Non "Story" interaction
Does the character interact with the outside world outside of their diary? For instance, does the author or the character, respond to comments. Other examples might be, does the character visit other blogs and leave comments.

Real-Time vs. Hazy Timeline
This is something that the GGCT and I have been discussing. I won't go into the advantages and disadvantages of either one. The distinction is simple. Is one day for the reader one day for the character writing the diary? So if the character doesn't post for an entire week, then that character will have to account for a week's worth of story. Or does the character's story unfold at a different pace than the reader. In that case then the character indicates how much time has passed since the last post.

Narrative Vs. Character
This characteristic is a little harder to define. A narrative would be where the blog story could stand alone and still be a complete story. A character blog would be a blog where a character from another story lends their perspective, but depends on an outside source. That outside source could be a book, movie, tv show, or even a narrative blog fiction.

Now that I have a list of all the characteristics of a Blog with fictional content, I can make a chart or graph laying out all the different possible combinations. Then we can all discuss the different nomenclature. Unfortunately, this will likely have to wait until after my honeymoon. In the meantime, are there any other characteristics that I missed that should be included? If so, let me know in the comments.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great job so far :-)

(sorry if you get two comments much the same from me - my OpenID login seems a bit wonky)

Big Melly Mills said...

It looks like you're going to end up with a web instead of a tree. That should be interesting.

Big Melly Mills said...

Our latest thoughts on the matter.

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