So I’m in this creative non-fiction workshop and our last assignment is to write about whatever we want.
Naturally, I’m going to write an article (or piece, story, essay, whatever) about writing on the web, specifically webnovels and other webfiction (i.e. not just another thing about blogs). I think I’m going to focus on the growing community of readers and writers and see where that takes me. It might take me to the relationship with traditional media, or to the future of blogging, or somewhere completely different. I don’t know.
I do know that I’ll draw on my own experience, but that I’ll need more than that. I’ll need you.
I want to know what you read, why you read on the web, how long, ect. Basically, anything you think or feel about webfiction that you want to share would be great. Any little anecdotes about writing on the web would be greatly appreciated as well. (Don’t worry, I won’t quote anyone without permission. This is just to help me work out what I’m going to say.)
Thanks!
November 18th, 2008 at 3:07 am
I was actually fascinated with Webserials when I first came across them. I can’t recall quite how it happened, honestly.. though I’m sure it had to do with ToMU. It wasn’t more than a year ago - I know that much. As a long time members of some large type fandoms (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc) I was used to reading fiction on the internet. I am also a long time rper… and it’s kind of the same in ways. It’s needless to say reading on the web is something I’m quite fond of, after all of these years.
Reading on the web saves trees!
No, really.
That’s a big motivation for me. There’s also the fact you can interact with authors and readers alike, right there - often. I find the comments on stories almost as interesting as the actual content. I believe it promotes better relationships between writers and authors - making writers seem much more personable and less… distant. Less God-Like, if you will. It shows they’re human which helps connect to the readers better, and thus the story is taken better. In my sometimes humble opinion.
I actually never realized people would like stories, original ones - posted on the internet until I stumbled upon a webserial or two. I’m glad I did - it’s helped me in my endeavours as both a reader and a writer….
*whispers* now I should go work on my webserial before Raina yells at me.
EDIT: oh.. and if you want to quote me (for some weird reason) you can, I don’t really care
November 18th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Thanks Steph! That’s actually really helpful, both how you started and your motivations. I appreciate your help on this.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I have the natural inclination to read already possibly because I am already a writer – and I write a webserial even though I didn’t realize I was until I started noticing there was an entire community of people who do this.
I probably read about two-thousand words a day or so in various serials. That makes up about an hour or so of online reading at most. In this increasingly wired day-and-age it’s easy to get side-tracked on the computer at work with videos or other forms of media, the incessant IM, bothersome e-mail chimes; it’s nice to be able to just sit back and get a moment in my day where I can make the world go away.
Plus, that’s not the only factor. Webserials are usually already broken into more digestible bite-sized chunks (unlike what I write which are more like webnovels designed to appear in swaths.) As a result it delivers the experience of extending a narrative that I’m already familiar with in a delivery that I can just snap up while waiting for some project or another to be ready.
I can make a serial part of my morning ritual or my afternoon spin-down with equal measure.
The fictional lives of interesting people trotted out with a waking credulity. Plus, like any other soap opera or drama that sustains itself on viewer ship, I can find in other readers a moment to express my thoughts and theories.
Possibly more analytical than I thought I’d go, but I hope this works.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
That’s excellent. Keep ‘em comin’ guys!
November 18th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I read and write web serials because of the extensive niche content that is only found online. Traditional publishing companies are in a slump, and because of that they aren’t offering anything outside of the same-old same-old. I want stories with characters that I can relate to as a queer individual. I want stories that’re long and extensive, that I can get sucked into.
Web fiction allows me to explore things outside of traditional tropes in my writing, and to enjoy well-developed queer characters in a variety of settings when reading. That’s the most important thing for me. It helps that it saves the environment and that it’s free, but honestly, those are just bonuses for me.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
I love the topic, but I’m so tired of homework right now I can’t really think about this without rebelling. Hopefully later? When is your deadline?
November 18th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
I have to have something written for Thursday, to be work-shopped during the next time class meets. After workshop I’ll have 1.5 days to do a high-polished revision. So this first deadline’s not that rough, but I’ll probably want to keep getting input in anticipation of the revision, just so I’m fully prepared.
I’m starting the actual writing tonight, to be finished tomorrow.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
[...] Alex Wants You! [...]
November 19th, 2008 at 1:27 am
I read them because they’re like a webcomic. There are no definitive stopping and starting points for anything–not in a good one, anyway. I was reading Hades Rising and I got pissed off when it just sort of ended. I’m reading these for the long, continued storylines delivered episodically. I like the almost neverending quality of a good one, especially one that updates nearly daily like ToMU does (used to, anyway).
I will break with some people on the whole author contact thing. Yes, I think it’s good that the author can receive good feedback as far as his/her actual writing is concerned, and incorporate said feedback. However, it really annoys me when the author gets pushed around by his/her readers and ends up doing things with the story he/she didn’t originally plan JUST because readers wanted it. I read to see the author’s vision, not the readers’. It’s one of the few things about the serial novel experience that I view as a real negative: it’s so much easier to give fan service.
As Steph said, you’re welcome to quote me if you want for some reason. As long as it’s not a “HEY LOOK AT THIS NUTJOB” sort of deal, I suppose. XD How does that work anyway, quoting comment aliases? Do you just say “one webnovel reader said…” ?
November 19th, 2008 at 4:55 am
Pan, I could be wrong but I think the general idea is to quote with the username used by the commenter at the time.
You’re right about the possibilities of fan influencing the way a story goes if the writers doesn’t stick to their usually proverbial guns, it is a down side. A slightly painful one sometimes - I’d imagine. If it got too bad an author could turn off comments though, or not read them until they write.. *ponders*
… >.> I may be stalking this post a little xD
November 19th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Mostly I just read them because I like the story. That’s the same reason I read novels, web comics, and comics, or for that matter watch movies and television.
Bearing in mind that that’s the case, it becomes less a question of why I watch than why the medium doesn’t turn me off.
I’m sure some people are turned off by stories on the web for a variety of reasons. It maybe that they’re not comfortable with the web. It may be that they assume that any story that’s self-published can’t possibly be any good.
I’m a web developer so I’m as comfortable with the web as a person has any reason to be. Thus that one doesn’t apply.
I’m also someone who’s been reading web comics for years and so I know that self-published comics can be good. It doesn’t take much to extend that to web novels/serials. Beyond that I’ve played role-playing games for much of my life and know that stories created by amateurs can involve me just as much as stories created by professionals.
In terms of daily living, web serials fit well into my life in that the amount of writing normal person produces in the course of an evening can be read fairly quickly and in one sitting. Thus, it’s easier to follow than a novel.
Of course, it can be irritating when you miss a reference that you should have caught because the event happened months ago, but that can happen with any story told over a long time.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Hmm…is it too late to weigh in on this?
Well, I’m coming in from more of a writer’s standpoint as I only recently discovered the online writing community and haven’t read that many other serials on my own. I mean sure, I knew people posted things online, but I had yet to stumble across an indepedent website (i.e., NOT DeviantArt.com or Fictionpress.com) entirely dedicated to publishing work on the web for people to enjoy–and for FREE no less. Okay, no wait, I’m lying…I found one site that went on to call itself a ‘web novel’. But at the time, I didn’t get it as the writing was very experimental and there didn’t seem to be any coherent plot.
Then recently, I found myself with an incredible amount of time on my hands, and lots and lots of ideas bouncing around in my head just waiting to be written. Idea! Why not make my own website and post my work there? So using the word ‘web novel’ I did a Google search and found some directory sites. It was really exciting. The folks I’ve conversed with through these sites are very fun and intelligent people, and were very helpful whenever I had a question to ask. I don’t suspect you’d get that as much in the publishing industry, and I really love the fact that I’m writing just for the sake of writing. Creativity is running rampant out there, and no one is concerning themselves with cashing in on the next trend or mashing out some Shakespearean masterpiece.
I’ve only been around a month, and there’s still so many stories to check out and read, but all in all, I really adore this community.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Excellent! Keep ‘em comin!
November 19th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Alex, honestly, reading a couple of webserial, and yours specifically, got me to start writing my own. I love the way most of the stories i’ve read are better written than some of the regular books i see in stores. my two current obsessions for webfiction are Children of the First and Mill Avenue Vexation. Your writing is something i try to aspire to in mine. anything i say, y’all can quote( except the y’all part, i don’t wanna sound like a hick) I love the way you introduce characters in different ways, in more calm times, there’s more details in teh initial introduction, in more active, a little less, hitting mostly the key details.
November 20th, 2008 at 1:17 am
*kicks at the ground awkwardly* Aww, shucks…
November 20th, 2008 at 5:12 am
What: Tales of MU (kind of skip over the more graphic chapters though), Blood Moon, various fan translated novels (but these are print, just not in a language I can read), various non-fiction related to programming / art. Really not as much as I should do considering I run a site dedicated to it but meh.
Why: Boredom, Procrastination, Accessibility, Price of buying books coupled with limited financel resources, too lazy to go to library often. I’m also somewhat interested in new ways of expressing traditional works. So I guess escapism?
Time: About 3-4 hours per week in between anime, TV shows, coding, gaming, and uni work. Usually about 10 minutes or so every few half hours of studying when I really shouldn’t be reading it, especially if I have assignments due.
Also I like the community, most of the people seem really friendly and it’s quite diverse. I also love the lack of 1337/chat speak and memes.
Permission granted to quote / include in research, feel free to use my real name, but I doubt I’ve been useful.
November 20th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Steph: Heh, I guess you could, but I’m just used to people having really ridiculous screennames that would diminish the credibility of whatever you were writing. Most of you seem to use real or conceivably real names, but what immediately sprung to mind was something like “‘Webnovels are good,’ says long-time reader ImaFirinMahLazer.” (an actual username of one of my friends XD)
I have to say, all these comments seem to give traditional books short shrift. Besides the fact that there’s something more satisfying about having a tangible copy of the work, you CANNOT tell me that the percentage of bad writing in print is higher than on the web. It’s the INTERNET. Is print media an incredibly selective process that’s as much luck as skill? Yes. Does a lot of bad writing get published? Sure. But at least the manuscript has to make it through a series of people who must think it’s good enough to invest money in publishing it. On the internet, ANYONE can decide he/she is a superb writer and start a serial novel. Time tends to filter out a lot of the less dedicated bad ones, but many slog on despite negative feedback or low readership. I’ve stopped reading a lot more web serials than I’ve continued reading, simply because they were poorly written, cliche, or just plain bad. Overall, I think the issue of quality between the two mediums is an apples-to-oranges comparison, since both are plagued by entirely different problems in quality control.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Right now I am only reading this and one other webnovel. It is called Northern Heart, right now the author hasn’t published anything for a while (College I think.) but he is at least responding to comments. I think that the most important difference between webnovels and physical novels is that with webnovels the reader and the writer can communicate. This helps in many ways. For instance if the reader has something that confuses them or needs to be clarified they can just ask. Then the writer might decide he/she needs to explain things better or differently.
Also there are some stories that aren’t popular for the general audience. So a publisher might decide that not enough people would be interested for them to make a decent profit. Therefore they don’t buy it, or publish it, so all the people that would have liked will have to go without it. In a webnovel things can be published that aren’t as popular to the average reader. Not everyone likes the same things. If it’s online you can read it if you like it, if not just read something else.
I also disagree with the idea that if it is published on the internet it probably isn’t as good as things that are published by companies. Sure I have read better books, But I have also read much, much worse books that were printed.
Then there are also problems. A webnovel is much more likely to just cut off, or to be left unfinished than a published series, or book. Because all the motivation is from the writer themself, and the readers. If the author just decides to stop what can anyone lese do about it? The writer isn’t obligated to finish the story they wrote it for their own reasons.
I like to read so I read all kinds of things. The first webnovel that I found was by the author of a book I had gotten from my library. I liked it so I looked up the author and found his site. He had only that one published novel, but he had about 50 short stories, and a webnovel that he had written anywhere from a paragraph to a page every day for 2 and a half years, before it was finished. I read everything he had on the site. Sadly though his site hadn’t been updated in 4-5 years. I searched around and he had not written anything else since.
To summarize I think that neither printed or web novels are better. they are just different, but equally as good.
More recently I was bored in between books and found a link to a site that listed webcomics. I looked throught the archive and picked a copuple that sounded interesting, This was one of them.
This doesn’t really seem like it would be something I would find published. Which isn’t a bad thing. It just has a different feel to it than a published book that has been edited enough to ruin the feel of it and make it seem kind of generic.
I like it so far.I really hope you continue this for a long time. If you do I’ll keep reading it. If you feel I’ve said anyting important or meaningfull, you can quote or summarize or whatever you want with this.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:00 am
Pan —
Besides the fact that there’s something more satisfying about having a tangible copy of the work, you CANNOT tell me that the percentage of bad writing in print is higher than on the web. It’s the INTERNET.
I honestly don’t find holding a paperback/hardcover book in my hands reassuring, for environmental reasons. On top of that, I didn’t see anyone arguing that trad fiction had more ‘bad writing,’ just that it didn’t have niches that were interesting (or that the books were expensive and/or long). Those don’t really have to do with the quality of the writing in the book, per se.
Though, perhaps it’s my ego, but there are plenty of published authors writing on the web (Stephan King did an e-book, Neil Gaiman released a free copy of one of his books on the web). People earn their livings from it all of the time. In fact, web-based content has been forcing hundreds of print magazines and newspapers to become obsolete. So clearly some people must consider the web reliable.
Now, I’ll let you guys debate whether that quality is better than that of traditional publishing houses. But it’s there, to be found if people want to search for it.
I’ve stopped reading a lot more web serials than I’ve continued reading, simply because they were poorly written, cliche, or just plain bad.
The best I can suggest is to compare that to the number of books in the library/bookstore that you haven’t read or that you can tell don’t interest you. I’d say the same thing applies. At least for me, there are plenty of books that I’ve glanced at the cover of, read the blurb, and then put back down after reading the first few pages. There are even more (millions) that I’ve never touched. The same goes for web fiction.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Webfiction FTW!
November 26th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Hey,
I don’t read too much webfiction (though I promised Mike that I will read yours when I get a chance, probably over winter break), but I did recently read a serialized short story published by a softer world called “one bloody thing after another” that you should check out. It was released mini-chapter by -chapter leading up to Halloween. I felt the urge to put some stories I wrote online on my blog but I didn’t feel comfortable putting them up with a cc license just yet… I password protected the pages so I can show them to people I choose but that’s it. It’s kind of pointless actually.
Max (Mike’s roommate)
http://maxwellwho.wordpress.com/stories/
http://www.asofterworld.com/bloody/index.php
December 9th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
i’m hopeing the story i’m writing will get fameous like this one.
lol, i got me a twitter and it’s super A.D.D.
<.< i’m following you alex, lol
December 9th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
hahaha, FAMOUS? Hardly, but thank you!
Hopefully the future will be good to us. Do you have a website for your story yet?
December 10th, 2008 at 12:28 am
as for that, no, mostly cuz i lack the time and patience to make one, that and i’m not 100% sure about how copyright laws work and because of that my paranoia won’t let me make time to find somewhere to post it,
any insight as to copyright would be INFINITELY helpful
and once i get a site, if nothing else so i can put it out ther for the eyes of millions of strangers, i’ll send you a link, and i’d love to hear what you think about it
December 10th, 2008 at 3:46 am
I look forward to it!
As for copyright, I just use creative commons. That means that people are free to redistribute my work, but they can’t change it (i selected no derivatives), they can’t make money off it, and they have to credit me.
It’s pretty safe, and since I don’t charge anything to read CotF, I’ll happily let people redistribute it.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:25 am
oh alrighty, i think i can run with that, my whole thing is i don’t want someone pirating my brainchild
and i gotta find somewhere to make my site