Converting "Blog Fiction" into a Political Blog

I have a secret.  I am a closet political junkie.  I love politics.  I love debating issues with friends, and letting elected officials know my opinion.  My participation in democracy doesn't stop there.  I also love to read and comment on political blogs.  I love debating with strangers online, and I also like typing in all CAPS when chatting with idiots.

Therefore, I am excited to let everyone know that I will no longer be talking about Blog Fiction on this site.  Instead I will be discussing American politics.  I am sad that I will no longer be reading or commenting on the Blog Fiction niche, but it's a small price to pay to start a political blog that already has over a hundred subscribers.

Before starting with my first political post, I wanted to ask everyone want kind of political blog I should have?  Should it be a liberal blog, or a conservative blog?  Also, how intense should I be?  For instance if I do a liberal blog should I be well reasoned and advocate for reducing the power of irresponsible corporations or  should I go all "9/11 truther"?  Or, If I go conservative, should I be well reasoned and advocate for pro-growth tax policies or should I go full on "Show me the Birth Certificate"?

So let me know what kind of political blog you would be most likely to read by leaving a comment.  I want to make sure the transition appeases as many of my current readers as possible.

Finally, if you're wondering why I've chosen now to make this announcement, just look at today's date and you'll know why this is the only day I would make an announcement like this.  :)

Don't Worry About Writing Crap

Don't ever storp writing because you think what you're writing is crap because no matter how bad your writing is, chances are, you'll never have to publicly apologize for how bad your writing is...  That is, unless your name is J.D. Shapiro and you wrote the original rough draft for Battlefield Earth.

Battlefield Earth, one of the worst hollywood movies in recent memory won a Razzie for "Worse Movie of the Decade".  Shapiro offered an apology for being a part of it's making as well as tried to explain what happened.  An Excerpt:

It wasn't as I intended -- promise. No one sets out to make a train wreck. Actually, comparing it to a train wreck isn't really fair to train wrecks, because people actually want to watch those.

It's a pretty funny article and gives you some insight on how hollywood works.

Blog Fiction Widget Back in Working Order

I haven't done too much to maintain my site lately.  I almost let the Blog Fiction Widget atrophy into nothingness.  I just revamped it so that it should be back to working as expected.

There was a serious bug that was preventing new items from displaying.  Turns out my wonderful ISP decided to delete a deprecated php library I was explicitly using.  I fixed that.

Also, I noticed that a couple blogs that are listed decided to publish to future dates.  I had to insert a hack so that they wouldn't be at the top for the next month or year.

Finally, I went back through the forums and added a bunch of new Blog Fiction sites.

So, the Blog Fiction widget is back, if you'd like some free traffic, please, consider putting it on your site.  If it's up, shoot me an email(DustinM (at) blogfiction (dot) org) to let me know.

A site way better than mine

I'd like to direct your attention to the write.blog.fiction site. It is dedicated entirely to blog fiction. It has some great features. It has a list of current blog fiction sites. Allows readers to rate them. Once a month it features a new blog fiction site. It even lists the most recent posts from each of the blogs BY CATEGORY(take THAT Blog Fiction Widget).

It's a great site and someone put a lot of time into it. If they ever get a blog section, you'll have no reason left to visit me.

The Apocalypse Blog: A Review

The Apocalypse Blog is a blog written by the fictional character Faith MacIntyre. The blog is her account of the end of the world as we know it. The blog posts in real time almost everyday and is still running. Because of how much text there is in the story, I have decided to do a review without reading the entire thing. I believe though, that I have read more than enough to give an accurate review.

Plot:
The Apocalypse Blog is exactly what it's name implies. It is written by a character who is living through what seems to be an apocalypse. The story opens with a women, Faith MacIntyre, diarying the apocalypse of her personal life -Lost friends, and boyfriend. In the middle of her trying to piece herself back together, the actual apocalypse happens.

When I say the Apocalypse, I mean it. Giant bomb, blotched out sky, no government, killer rain, violent roving gangs, and the list goes on and on. Faith, and a haphazard group of survivers she travels with strive to stay alive and find their loved ones from their pre-apocalypse lives. The story is written by Faith as she and her group faces each new and terrible obstacle.

The group involves fire fighters, doctors, kids, and future odd assortments of people. Faith's moral strength and her spirit's fortitude make her the unlikely leader of the group.

Unfortunately, external threats are not the only thing they must face. The differing personalities and prejudices are all things the threaten to tear the group apart from the inside. As you can imagine, drug addicts and fire fighters don't get along great. Faith's delicate negotiations just barely keeps the group together.

Format
It is a Standard Blog Fiction-that is- a single blog with a single fictional author. It relies entirely on text, so no pictures or videos. A post is usually between 750 and 1200 words. Their is a new post almost every day(including weekends!). The blog also posts in realtime, so a day for us is a day for the characters. The only peculiar thing about the site is that comments are turned off.

The content is definitely R-rated. There are many violence and horrific scenes as well as limited sexual content.

Pros
There is a lot to like about this blog fiction. Obviously, the best part is the story. The story presents an ever present ever escalating sets of danger. Whenever Faith thinks she can relax, something awful happens. Either their goal turned out to be fool hardy or someone she depended on dies. Speaking of dieing, there is a lot of that in this story. People are constantly dieing - even people you may not expect. The constant danger adds a great sense of suspense for the reader.

Another great thing is that the characters are flawed. While everyone has their strengths, they also have weaknesses or characteristics that are less than admirable. As a reader, I felt that I was reading about a random selection of real, actual people.

Another great thing is the mood setting descriptions. It works to create a sense of despair when one reads about broken buildings and hollowed out stores. It makes the reader feel like they are walking around in this terrible world.

The sheer amount of writing cannot be ignored. The fact that there is a new post everyday is quite the accomplishment. The volume and consistency is to be applauded.

Finally, they broke the mold when they made this site. The layout of the site is about as flawless as they come. Posts have dates and times, archives are easy to reach, and the text is easy to read. I like the dates and times at the top of the posts. When there are more than 1 post per day, the times of each post are important. Although, I would've liked better if the times were below the post titles. For some reason my eyes keep wanting to skip over the date and time of the post. In the future, I will be directing people to this site as an example of how to put together a Blog Fiction site.

Cons
The Author has done just about everything right except for one thing: the writing. The problem is that it reads like I'm reading a real life diary. That probably sounds like a strange criticism since my definition of Blog Fiction reads in part "diary fiction" so I try to elaborate.

The story doesn't read in a way that I feel like I am experiencing it. While reading the story, I never once thought, "don't go in there!" or "why did she do that?". The reason is that it felt more like somebody was telling me what happened which, any editor worth his salt will tell, is a cardinal sin in fiction(show, don't tell!). In the case of this story it hurt it in three major ways. It takes away a lot of suspense, it adds a cloud of unbelievability, and makes it difficult to relate to the characters.

Uncountable are the number of scenes that could have been exciting if they had been shown instead of told. I'll just give a few examples. The first example is when the group tries to cross a broken bridge by car. The bridge starts falling and they have to reverse all the way back to the bank before the falling steel catches up to them.

There was a moment when all four wheels were off the ground. My stomach was left in midair as the bridge fell at least a foot, leaving our tyres to catch up. We kept going, as fast as we could, swerving recklessly towards the bank.

This is exciting stuff, but that paragraph is the only thing the describes how they made it back to the bridge. Imagine if it was a longer and gave a play-by-play of the action. Something like:
The tires were squealing as they went into reverse. I was slammed forward in my seat. I turned around in my seat. We were careening toward an abandoned car. I pointed at the car, "Look out!". Ben swerved the wheel to the left. I was shoved into my seat and my head slammed against the window. I looked up and saw the bridge fall directly in front of us. The front of the car started tipping forward. My stomach dropped. I heard the back wheels spinning in the air. This is it, I thought. Then the car slammed onto something solid and we continued rolling backwards onto the bank.
If this was the only action scene that was told it could be ignored, but almost every action scene is like that.

It's not just suspense that's sucked out of the story by summary writing technique. Humor is too. There is an august post that had a potentially humorous passage.

So off we went. Sneaking through the streets, creeping up towards the depot, we were like ninja in cracked boots and rainbow scarves. We were less ninja-like when we fumbled around inside a warehouse, trying to find somewhere to watch the depot from without being seen. It was more like a comedy of shushes and thumps and muttered swearing.

This could've been a lot funnier if we had experienced the comedy of shushes and thumps as they happened. Instead we just get a passage about how funny it was. Which is about as funny as your roommate telling you something funny that happened at work. There's a reason those stories end with "you had to've been there".

Other strange scenes are skipped over with a short summary. Check out this excerpt.

When we settled down for the night, I checked on Ben’s injuries. The poor guy had been holding onto Thorpe and then had all of us jumping on him so that he didn’t slip away too. He kept telling me that he was okay; I had to threaten to get the doctor to look at him before he’d let me make sure.

I think he was telling the truth. I didn’t get the chance to check thoroughly – it was dark and Ben was very distracting. I’d never dared to hug him before, because I didn’t want to hurt him, but we did a lot more than that last night. Hurt was the last thing on our minds, lips or bodies.

Here he comes with breakfast. I can’t stop smiling.

Wait a second! What is this Seinfeld? I think she just yada-yada'd over sex. Maybe she didn't want to be graphic, but even the leadup was skipped over. No passionate kiss, or light touch on the leg, nothing. We're expected to just accept that Faith examining Ben's wounds lead to sex.

That leads to the other problem. Believability. I read a post about Faith's group fighting off a gang.

I’ve heard that higher ground was an advantage, but I didn’t realise how much until I saw the fight across the mall. It was so frustrating – I wanted to be over there helping, not wincing in sympathy from such a distance. I caught myself shouting out directions – look out, over there – as that was all I could do. The sharks definitely came off worst this time around – the others drove them off without too many problems.

Really? How did the group (which at that point only had a few healthy adults) fight off a large group of healthy young men. I could believe it, if I was shown how it was done, but instead I'm just told that it happens. This is just an example of nearly a half dozen scenes where we're told that the group somehow fights off another group. Call me a pessimist, but I don't buy it.

The final way the telling hurts the story is that it's very hard to relate to characters when we are only told their actions instead of seeing them. There is a scene where the characters must decide what to do next.

Thorpe asked if we should forget about trying to get across the river and move on to the next marker on our map. I think that’s the first time I ever saw the big fella and the doctor agree about something (Masterson is usually of the ‘why bother?’ attitude).

I asked which one of them was going to tell Dillon that we weren’t going to look for his family because it was a bit difficult. Neither of them had an answer for me; even Masterson didn’t want to break the kid’s hopes like that. If we can face Stripers and fight off sharks, then we can cross a stupid river. That was the end of that idea.

This seems like a conversation worthy of seeing and not summarized. While we do get a sense of how the 3 people approach life, we could've seen more if we could've witnessed the conversation. I'd like to have seen Faith get upset at the suggestion of abandoning Dillon's destination. I would've liked to have seen the two men cowering at the thought of breaking Dillon's heart. I would've liked to see Faith's moral fortitude rubbing off on the group. Instead, we're just told that it happens. We're not allowed to see the conflict between the three, which means that we, the readers, never have a chance to ask ourselves, "whose side would I be on"?


Conclusion
The Apocalypse does a lot of things right. It has great characters, the story is horrific, and the site layout is just perfect. Unfortunately, the writing fails to capitalize on all those great things. When I first started reading my attention was held. However, after dozens of summarized action sequences and arguments, my interest waned and I had to force myself to keep reading. That's why I would only recommend this site if you're really into horror or post-apocalyptic stories. Overall I give it a:
5 out of 10

Entrecard User Script updated

For those of you who were using my entrecard script, if you upgraded to firefox 3.5 you probably noticed that the Move Back link was missing. I've fixed the problem and now works just fine with firefox 3.5 I didn't add a new link, I just updated the old one so my original post links to the latest script.

The updated script is here.

What should I do with lost Blog Fiction

As most of you probably know, I have a forum dedicated only to listing all of the blog fiction available on the internet. I've had it up for a couple years now. Over the last few years some of the Blog Fiction listed has been taken down. That means I have a lot of broken links and etc...

I was getting ready to just outright delete these entries, but something stopped me. Right now I have probably the largest collection of Blog Fiction both past and present. I asked myself, Would I and the internet be losing something if I deleted the last piece of evidence of some of this early blog fiction?

So I wanted to ask you all. Is it worth preserving these links and brief descriptions? Should I move them all to a broken link section? Or maybe I should sync up all the broken links into one topic. Or, maybe I'm being silly, and just need to delete them. I'd love to hear your opinions. The Forums\ is getting pretty clogged up, so I'm setting a deadline for myself. In one week the broken links will be dealt with one way or another.

Writing your first Post: Get on with it!

When writing a book, the first page of a book is the most important because it is going to be the most read page when it's sitting on the shelf at the bookstore. It better be good, or the other pages aren't getting read. The same thing goes for Blog Fiction. If the first post isn't interesting, you may not hold your audience.

So how do you write an interesting first post? Well, first of all, don't write one that reads like an online dating profile. e.g.

My name is Mary Nextdoor. I am 33 years old and live in Manhattan. I'm 5' 6'', blonde(natural), brown eyes, and have curves. I love my pets, hate my parents, and only go to church on Christmas eve.

Luckily, most people haven't written anything quite that boring, but I do see a tendency to always want to introduce themselves. Here's some real examples.

The Professional Pet's first paragraph

Lets start with the basics, my name is Fluffy and I live with a family in England. Yes, I'm a pet and I'm still pretty much a baby as you can see from my picture. Most people comment on my name because, well, I'm quite clearly the least fluffy thing you are ever likely to see. Lets be honest, a mouldy carrot has more fluff than me! Why am I called Fluffy then? My owner thought it would be funny... I didn't agree. I wiped the smile off his face when I left a little present on his bed though, hehe.

Wilf's World's First Paragraph

My name is Wilf and I am eight, very nearly nine years old. I would really like to be called 'Buzz' like, Buzz Aldrin but my parents wouldn't talk to me when I tried to change my name. I mean whoever heard of an astronaut called 'Wilfred'? I live with my parents who are extremely old and like to visit garden centres and stare at things. My favourite place (apart from The Science Museum of course!) is my bedroom or inventroom, as I like to call it. I have a computer in my inventroom and its name is Dexter. I named it after my best friend, Dexter. I am sad to say that Dexter is a bit slow and so is the computer-ha! Anyway, I want to tell you about my world because I can. The first bit of my story has to do with Christmas. Mum says this is always a difficult time. Too right. I'll start you off tomorrow as I have to go to bed now.

Great Swan Alley first post

I was born on Great Swan Alley in the April of 1725. Or rather I should say, I was left in a doorway on Great Swan Alley in the April of 1725. I do not know where I was born, or of what parentage, but I am on a quest to discover.

In all 3 examples, the character introduce themselves. Granted they all find little ways to make sure it's not boring, but the goal shouldn't be "not boring", it should be "so interesting a reader just HAS to read the next post".

When reading a Blog Fiction, I like the ones that form the first post, just "Get On With it!" There is no introduction, the writer just jumps into a story where the fictional blogger already has a problem. I love blogfic that starts that way, and I'm willing to bet your readers will too. I'm not sure what the formula is for writing a great beginning post. So the best I can do is post some examples that work.

Here's from the first post of The Voice of the Living

We’ve been running all night, and the sun is about to rise. I hope and pray that we are not the only ones who’ve made it out alive, but from what we saw back there, I find it unlikely. With me are Dr. Graham York and Pte. Hannah Johnson, and right now we consider ourselves the only survivors after the outbreak of infection in the state of New York.
Due to the aggressiveness of the virus, there’s a good chance it has spread even further by now. That would explain why no help was sent for us.
Right now, our main priority is getting in touch with any other survivors out there. I will continue documenting everything, so that if we do not survive, our story will.

Reading this really makes me want to continue reading it. It makes me want to find out several things. "Where did they make it out of?" "What kind of virus was this?" "Were these 3 involved in making it?" "Are there other survivors?" I want to keep reading because I want those questions answered.

From the first post of Alone on Earth

I awoke this morning to a slight humming noise. I thought it was coming from the communications center. But, I turned it down low in case of any incoming calls or email. I went outside and just as it started, it stopped. Ralph was whining the entire time. The humming lasted only about 2 or 3 minutes. A few years ago I would have said it was coming from power lines. Except there are no power lines any longer. I need to take Ralph in to town for a checkup. He’s been acting funny for the past few days.

This is another great example of a story just starting. It too makes me want to keep reading. I want to know "what was that humming that woke up the blogger?", "Who or what is Ralph and why has he been acting funny?", and "where is he that there are no power lines?" In both cases the stories above did eventually introduce the characters, but they did so either a little at a time, or well enough after the first post that the reader should already be hooked.

One more piece of advice on your first post. I've noticed that several blog fiction writers try to be clever by making their first post be a "test" post. That is, they right a post that just has the word "test" or "test post" in it. I do get that they're trying to emulate real bloggers that might have done this. Unfortunately, this is being done so much that it can no longer be considered clever. (see I woke Up in Pittsburgh, Modern Vampire, Ten-Sided) Just... GET ON WITH IT!!!