People keep telling me I should write stories. I keep a blog in dutch, which started out just to keep friends and family in the loop about our wedding last year. After the wedding it was all about the move to Canada. Now a lot of readers (mostly family and friends) keep mentioning that I should do more writing, so I came up with an idea of a fictional blog. Sort of a soap series where I can let my mind go crazy on fictional stories.

Now my question: apart from my quality of writing, would it be interesting enough to start something like this? Every post would only be a few lines long. I know how hard it is to keep your attention on reading something, unless it's really interesting. Posts will go up on a regular basis...

Interesting enough, or should I flush this idea down the drain and think of something else?

I think you should give it a go if that's what you want to do, nothing to lose by trying it. I should think if you're just writing a few lines each time, the challenge will be making each and every one interesting enough that if someone just starts reading that one, they will want to go back and read the previous ones up to bring the story up to date. Either that, or they each have to be self contained enough for it not to matter if you've missed some - I don't think that would be possible though if you're doing an ongoing story!

Are you thinking literally just a story where you do another few lines every couple of days, or are you thinking of making it like a fictional diary?

I think you need to write a few paragraphs. If you write a few lines per posts I think you will find that peoples attentions will wane pretty quickly.

Go for it and see what comes of it.

I agree with Jason and Vanessa.. a few paragraphs would be more interesting than a line or two.

I think whether it is worth it or not depends on the topic. If you are going to write about aliens landing from Mars, then you are only going to appeal to sci fi people. But if your family thinks you should write more, than that leads me to believe they enjoy your style of writing!

I say you give it a try... post it here so I can follow!

If you want a big market then write children's stories.

These stories are short and there is always a demand for them.

I think it sounds like it's gonna be really interesting... let us know when it's up.

Rich

Something like a soap-series for a character like Pooh bear?

I can see the titles already:
"The day Piglet broke up with Pooh"
"Eeyore turns out to be gay and hits on Rabbit (but he wish he could have Thumper from Bambi)"
or
"Tigger bounced so hard he ended up in a coma, 5 years later he wakes up as an old grumpy lion"

Yeah, ok, so I'm thinking maybe not children's stories then

It's either going to be a success or a huge flop! Most likely the former, though.

If you can do this kind of thing the right way, it can be brilliant.

This post has been edited by Padraig: Apr 18 2008, 04:41 PM

If you feel like doing it, then do it. The main reason most would-be writers fail is that they don't spend enough time practising their art.

Actually, I lie. That's the second reason. The main reason is complete lack of ability or anything interesting to say. But let's assume you don't fall into that group of dullards.

If you're keen to make this good, however, you should spend a little time planning. The ephemeral nature of blogging could easily doom your story, by tempting you to write without any direction whatsoever (that's essentially what blogs are: directionless stuff-that's-in-my-head ego-milk. Hence I don't like blogs, as a rule).

To do a really good job here, you'll need to transcend the usual blog style. You'll need to adapt it towards something like a modern Dickens or Dumas style: a newspaper serialisation for the web!

I mention these authors because they demonstrate that serial stories can work, and also because you could perhaps learn from their methods. Take The Three Musketeers, for instance. The book is episodic because it was a serialisation. Despite this, it works well when read as a whole -- a magnificent achievement. The episodes are entertaining enough to be read on their own, but the story moves forward too (albeit slowly).

This post has been edited by MikeHopley: Apr 18 2008, 04:40 PM