Write a Fictional Blog
Most people are familiar with the concept of a web blog, which tends to reveal something about a writer's daily life or hobbies, his or her interest in celebrities, politics, or other matters, or some other chronicle of real-world events. But blogs are also increasingly being used as a new format for fiction, ranging from an imagined account of the life of a favorite character from books or television (fan fiction), to a completely original storyline created within the conventional format of the blog. Writing a fictional blog is a fun and easy way to practice your creative-writing skills within a ready-made forum where your friends and peers can read and comment on your work.
Steps
- Find yourself a blog-hosting site. Just as with any blog, the first and most important step is choosing a site that will best suit your needs. Some great places to start are Blogger.com, Typepad.com, and LiveJournal.com.
- Choose a fictional world that will appeal to you and that you won't lose interest in. One easy place to start is with a world that has already been created--that way you have a landscape, characters, and a history pre-made and ready to build on. If you are a fan of the Star Wars Galaxy or the Gilmore Girls TV show, you could choose one of these worlds as a framework into which you can insert your blogging persona. Or, if you want to make up your own world, spend some time thinking up the rules that you're going to play by before you start writing, so you can narrow down the scope of your project so that it's more manageable.
- Choose the right character. Be careful not to pigeonhole yourself too much, because you're going to be stuck with this character for a long time! The trick is to pick someone who's enough like yourself that when you sit down to write an entry, you'll be able to get inside that character's head and write as if you were them. Remember, this isn't just a short story you're writing, it's a blog, so you need to be able to write your entries as if they're the diary entries of a real person. The more natural your character seems, the better.
- Write out a story arc. Spend some time working out what you want the overall direction of your story to be. This doesn't mean you have to put down every little detail before you start posting entries, but it really helps to have an idea of where you're going with your story, rather than making it up on the fly. As a fictional blogger, you don't have the luxury that other bloggers have of being able to sit down and report the events of the day as they happened--you have to make that part up, and it helps a lot if you know in advance what you want to happen in the long run.
- Find your market. Once you're ready to develop a readership, have a look for the sorts of people who might be interested in your fictional blog. Your friends and family are a great place to start, but you might also want to look for online communities that specialize in the subject matter you're writing about. If you're writing a fictional blog about the Star Wars Universe, let people on Star Wars message boards or fan sites know about your blog. If your blog is set in a fantasy world, spend some time looking for online communities that are interested in new fantasy literature.
Tips
- Read non-fiction blogs for ideas as well. For your fictional blog to be successful, it ought to sound and feel like a regular blog. You can use the traditional elements of non-fiction blogs in creative ways to make your fictional work more interesting, but you must respect the medium, or it won't work!
- If you'd like, make your username (if you're just signing up for the service) the name of your character. This makes it a bit anonymous considering you're not using your real name. It also makes the blog more connected to that character.
- Ask your friends and readers for advice. This is your work, and you can do anything you like with it, but it's also a new format, and it helps to pay attention to your audience. Try to get an idea of the things they like best about your blog, and play up those elements as it develops.
- Research other fictional blogs to get an idea of how they tell their stories. Try to get a solid idea of the things that work and the things that don't work in the way they've chosen to use the blog format and incorporate that knowledge into your own writing.
Warnings
- If your blog is not obviously a work of fiction and contains references to your character doing potentially dangerous or harmful things, include text in your blog identifying the contents as fiction.
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