What is a Blog-Novel?

There are lots of blog/novel hybrids out there that could legitimately be called blog-novels. Some are paper-printed novels that imitate the journal-entry format of a blog. Some are traditionally-written novels serialized to the web using blogging software. And some are blog posts collected into print volumes.

Our definition is... A blog-novel is a traditionally-structured work of fiction published online in real time as a standalone blog. This requires all six of the following elements:

1. A blog-novel is traditionally-structured with a clearly-intended beginning, a clearly-intended middle, and (if the story is not still being written or on a clearly-intended hiatus) a clearly-intended ending. Structure is what distinguishes a blog-novel from unstructured blog-fiction and blogs of genuinely unstructured life.
   
   
2. A blog-novel is a work of fiction and would be unmistakably fictional to a casual reader. Disclaimers are provided that the story is fictional, or enough fantastical elements are included to make it totally obvious. This requirement excludes works that are presented as factual, just as memoirs are distinguished from works of fiction, and for the same reason: Readers feel deceived when they take a work as fact and later discover it's not real, and pissing off your readers is just bad form.
   
   
3. A blog-novel is published online. This requirement excludes works in print or other media that merely co-opt the formatting and sensibilities of a blog.
   
   
4. A blog-novel is published in real time with a one-to-one time scale so that time passes between posts at the same rate for the characters as it does for the reader. The story might not necessarily take place in the same year, century, or universe the readers are in, but if a week passes between posts for the reader it should be a week later for the characters as well. And if there's ever a six-month gap between posts, there had better be a darn good in-story explanation!!!
   
   
5. A blog-novel stands alone so that the blog or blogs that make up the narrative contain all the information required for a reader to understand the story. This requirement excludes blog-fiction in which required plot points are given in another medium, such as blogs by fictional TV characters who merely comment on events taking place in their shows. A blog-novel may adapt stories from television shows, movies, manga, comics, and print novels, or may incorporate characters from other sources, as long as the resulting story can be read and enjoyed by an audience unfamiliar with the source material. A blog-novel can also be adapted into another medium without losing its blog-novel status. This definition also excludes blog-fiction used as just one element of an immersive story environment in which vital plot points may be provided by forums, social media, traditional websites, email, or instant message.
   
   
6. A blog-novel is published as a blog: i.e., as a first person narrative from a character or characters who intend to be writing journal entries and who mean for those journal entries to be viewed by the general public. Blogs are linear, serialized, epistolary, and interactive, with the possibility for including multimedia elements.

Blog-novels have their roots in eighteenth century pamphleteering and the serialized publication of fictional works from the eighteenth century to the present day, such as Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy (1759-67), many of Charles Dickens' novels, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, and Henry James' The Ambassadors (1903, with each of its twelve parts appearing in The North American Review before being published as a whole that same year).