Blog fiction

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Blog fiction
FeaturesFictional stories published as online weblogs.
Related genres
Netprov, Hypertext fiction, Instapoetry, Creepypasta, Fan fiction

Blog fiction is an online literary genre that tells a fictional story in the style of a weblog or blog. In the early years of weblogs, blog fictions were described as an exciting new genres creating new opportunities for emerging authors, [1] but were also described as "notorious" [2] in part because they often uneasily tread the line between fiction and hoax. Sometimes blog fictions are republished as print books, and in other cases conventional novels are written in the style of a blog without having been published as an online blog. Blog fiction is a genre of Electronic literature.

Contents

History

One of the first online stories to include blog-like elements is the online drama Online Caroline (2000). By 2004 blogging had become very popular, [3] and blog fictions were the subject of several news articles that list a range of examples of the genre. [2] [4] Angela Thomas wrote a book chapter on blog fictions in 2006. [1] A chapter of the book Blogging discusses fictional blogs in a chapter on blogs as narratives. [3] In 2017, Emma Segar argued that "social and transmedia storytelling owe much to the narrative conventions established by the practice of blogging, but blog fiction itself has been a much overlooked form of digital literature". [5]

Segar argues that a main feature of blog fiction is relationity between readers and fiction.

Blog fictions have been a particularly popular genre of electronic literature in Africa. [6] [7] [8] The literary orality of blogs has also been analysed as a feature of African American blogs. [9]

Fiction, truth or hoax

Blog fictions are often presented as though they are true, much as early novels were often presented as a "real" diary or letters that had been found by the author. The uncertainty can be part of their attraction to readers. For example, the first blog described in a 2004 article in The Guardian about fiction blogs is Belle de Jour, a blog that turned out not to be fiction but a real diary by Brooke Magnanti. The blog was adapted into a print book, The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl, and the television series Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Other blogs, like Kaycee Nicole's blog, were assumed to be real, but then revealed to be a hoax. [3] Yet others, like the video blog Lonelygirl15 were thought to be real but then revealed to be art projects.

Other early examples of blogs that were discussed as possible fiction include She's a Flight Risk. Some novels were written online as blog fictions and later published as print novels. An example is An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil. [10] (Blog: Roommate from Hell, 2003-2004).

There are also many conventional novels that are wholly or partially written in the style of a blog. [11]

Fan fiction and transmedia

Fan fiction is often written in the form of a fictional blog belonging to one of the characters in a show. [12] Similarly, TV shows and transmedia stories often produce fictional blogs for characters either to extend the story or as a marketing strategy. In recent years, these blogs are more likely to be on existing social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram than on independent websites. For example, the popular show Skam had Instagram and YouTube accounts for several of the characters. [13]

Awards

Self-publishing provider Lulu sponsors the Lulu Blooker Prize, which began in 2006. The Blooker prize is an award given to the best "blook" of the year: a work of fiction begun as blog fiction and then transformed into a printed publication.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Literary genre</span> Category of literary composition

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic literature</span> Literary genre created for digital devices

Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature encompassing works created exclusively on and for digital devices, such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones. As electronic literature uses games, images, sound, and links, these writings cannot be easily printed, or cannot be printed at all, because elements crucial to the text are unable to be carried over onto a printed version.

Web fiction is written works of literature available primarily or solely on the Internet. A common type of web fiction is the web serial. The term comes from old serial stories that were once published regularly in newspapers and magazines.

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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to fiction:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiction</span> Narrative with imaginary elements

Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose – often referring specifically to novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Novel</span> Substantial work of narrative fiction

A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The English word to describe such a work derives from the Italian: novella for "new", "news", or "short story ", itself from the Latin: novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of novellus, diminutive of novus, meaning "new". According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, Medieval Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian Renaissance novella. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, in the historical romances of Walter Scott and the Gothic novel.

A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to support themselves in this way or write as an avocation. Most novelists struggle to have their debut novel published, but once published they often continue to be published, although very few become literary celebrities, thus gaining prestige or a considerable income from their work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jill Walker Rettberg</span> Norwegian digital culture scholar

Jill Walker Rettberg is co-director of the Center for Digital Narrative and Professor of Digital Culture at the University of Bergen. She is "a leading researcher in self-representation in social media" and a European Research Council grantee (2018–2023) with the project Machine Vision in Everyday Life: Playful Interactions with Visual Technologies in Digital Art, Games, Narratives and Social Media. Rettberg is known for innovative research dissemination in social media, having started her research blog jill/txt in 2000, and developed Snapchat Research Stories in 2017.

Online Caroline was a web soap opera in 24 episodes written and published online by Tim Wright, Rob Bevan and Tom Harvey at the production company XPT in 2000. It was "an instant hit" and won that year's British Academy of Film and Television Arts award in the interactive category.

Netprov is "networked, improvised literature" or collaborative literary improvisations performed on the internet. The word netprov is a portmanteau of "networked" and "improv" as in improvisational theatre. Netprov is considered a genre of electronic literature.

References

  1. 1 2 Thomas, AA, Fictional Blogs, Uses of Blogs, Peter Lang, Bruns, A & Jacobs, J (ed), New York, pp. 199-210. ISBN   0820481246 (2006) [Research Book Chapter]
  2. 1 2 McClellan, Jim (2004-04-08). "How to write a blog-buster". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2023-06-09.
  3. 1 2 3 Rettberg, Jill Walker; Walker Rettberg, Jill (2014). Blogging. Digital media and society series (2. ed., rev. and updated ed.). Cambridge: Polity. ISBN   978-0-7456-6365-4.
  4. "'There is Someone Out There'". The Indian Express. 2004-05-16. Retrieved 2023-06-09.
  5. Segar, Emma (2017). "Blog fiction and its successors: The emergence of a relational poetics". Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 23 (1): 20–33. doi: 10.1177/1354856516678369 . ISSN   1354-8565.
  6. Santana, Stephanie Bosch (2018). "From Nation to Network: Blog and Facebook Fiction from Southern Africa". Research in African Literatures. 49 (1): 187–208. doi:10.2979/reseafrilite.49.1.11. ISSN   0034-5210.
  7. Adenekan, Shola; Cousins, Helen (2013), Awadalla, Maggie; March-Russell, Paul (eds.), "African Short Stories and the Online Writing Space", The Postcolonial Short Story, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 199–213, doi:10.1057/9781137292087_13, ISBN   978-1-349-33930-3 , retrieved 2023-06-09
  8. Harris, Ashleigh (2018-07-03). "Introduction: African Street Literatures and the Global Publishing Go-Slow". English Studies in Africa. 61 (2): 1–8. doi: 10.1080/00138398.2018.1540173 . ISSN   0013-8398.
  9. Steele, Catherine Knight (October 2016). "The Digital Barbershop: Blogs and Online Oral Culture Within the African American Community". Social Media + Society. 2 (4): 205630511668320. doi: 10.1177/2056305116683205 . ISSN   2056-3051.
  10. Monroe, Jim (2004). An opening act of unspeakable evil. Toronto: No Media Kings.
  11. Guarracino, Serena (2014-11-30). "Writing "so raw and true": Blogging in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah". Between. 4 (8). doi:10.13125/2039-6597/1320. ISSN   2039-6597.
  12. Roering, Johanna (2008). ""I Love Mer/Der. When They Aren't Together, I Die": Television Characters Blogging". In Hotz-Davies, Ingrid; Kirchhofer, Anton; Leppänen, Sirpa (eds.). Internet Fictions. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN   9781443803038.
  13. Rettberg, Jill Walker (2021). ""Nobody Is Ever Alone": The Use of Social Media Narrative to Include the Viewer in SKAM". The Journal of Popular Culture. 54 (2): 232–256. doi: 10.1111/jpcu.13015 . hdl: 11250/2767120 . ISSN   0022-3840.