Read Giant Girl Rampages

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Is Melly For Real?

"Giant Girl Rampages" is the story of Melly Mills, a fifteen-year-old with a problem fitting in--mainly because she's approaching eighteen feet tall! This story is a work of fiction. It takes place in a world that defies the laws of physics and biology as we understand them. If the story were printed on paper sheets and glued into a cardboard cover we'd know how to react to it, because we're all used to visiting the world of books and returning to our own world without blurring the line between the two.

But instead of being fixed in a static book, Melly's story is unfolding in real time, in first person narrative, in an interactive medium most people use to convey facts or honestly-held opinions--the blog. And a funny thing happens when a story is told through a blog. Readers experience the blog-novel at the same pace as their lives, they gain the ability to communicate with at least one of the characters, and the line between reality and fiction fades away.

In the blog format, Melly's voice seems more immediate, personal, and trustworthy. Is she reliable enough to make the outrageous events of "Giant Girl Rampages" seem like they're really happening? We wouldn't have thought so, but readers have surprised us by treating Melly like a real person despite her impossible height. They give her unsolicited advice in their blog comments, ask questions about her life, and explain how their own experiences relate to hers.

The blog-novel exists in an electronic environment where readers and characters interact, and in that environment Melly Mills is as real as anybody else. She believes in her existence as strongly as anybody else. And if you accuse her of being fictional, be prepared to prove that you're not just a figment of her imagination.

6 comments:

  1. Well, this is certainly an interesting venture.

    I've made comments already, and it's fun being in this kind of interactive story.

    I'm prolly gonna be following this for as long as it goes, given this is the first blog-novel I've ever seen. Never even heard of 'em 'till now.

    Also, how've my suggestions been so far? Just curious if those are the types of things you're looking for or not.

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  2. Hi, Ben. Thanks for reading and for all your comments. They've been great so far and we've been pleased at how the comments between Melly and the readers really enhance the story and help us fine tune future posts.

    --Giant Girl Creative Team

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  3. You're welcome.

    Just wanna make sure I'm not making things more difficult with my comments or anything. I've attempted to subtly open up a few reasons for Melly to do something, such as how I suggested Melly go out and ask Dr. Crisp if there's anyway to determine she has a brother or sister-it gives you guys a free, almost filler-esque blog entry if the idea wagon falls apart for the day.

    That, and I just like interacting with the story. It's a very enticing format, I gotta say.

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  4. Thanks. More comments are more fun and we're getting all kinds of ideas for future blog entries.

    --GGCT

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  5. Ok, I'll keep up the comments then!

    Looking forward to see where this goes.

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  6. BGR team,
    nice work with Melly. Is is going well? I'm doing a crime/humour blog novel The Curly Situation and am writing a newspaper story (I'm a Australian journo) on the burgeoning world of blog fiction. Can you contact me via the Curly site? I'd like to know what kind of response you've had to Melly.
    Cheers, Jason

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