Blogging as Performace Art

There's a great article on newlywed Dustin M's Blog Fiction site about how blog fiction is a performance art--and we're not just saying that because he mentions GGR or gives the Giant Girl Creative Team credit for preplanning plots based on reader feedback. We do make some changes behind the scenes when readers lead us one way or another, but in this case Melly would have come around even if an attentive reader hadn't been bashed her over the head by a clue-bat--which we totally enjoyed, by the way.

But posting day-by-day in a real time format for a "live audience" does feel a bit like acting in a live theatrical production. If Melly flubs her lines, or if a post doesn't go up in time, or if a commenter comes too close to a secret plotline, there can be a whole lot of ad-libbing and shuffling of scenes in the background in order to smooth things over.

And we've had similar problems to the one Dustin describes about User Pool, where an entire plot was inadvertently spoiled by an enthusiastic reader who happened to draw just the right parallel to just the right movie. Ours was to a lesser degree, and Melly was able to dance around a bit to make up for it, but that's the danger of writing live and without a net!