Monday, January 5, 2009
Books Wovel!
Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 1:42 PM
Slog tipper Maggie directs us to NPR, which has an interview with Victoria Blake, the publisher of Underland Press, which is publishing a web novel.
While she was working as an editor at Dark Horse Comics, Victoria Blake used breaks from work to surf the Web. "I noticed that I was using my random 10 minutes in between tasks to go to gawker.com, which is my favorite media gossip site," she says. "I realized that if I provided prose — fiction — that I would want to read, myself ... that I would use those 10 minutes to read prose, not gossip."
They're calling them "wovels," which to me sounds like a derogatory slang term for a Transylvanian prostitute, but is actually a name for The World's Safest Snow Shovel™. The reader can also decide which way the plots go. If Underland provided an RSS feed for their wovels, I'd love to follow them. Unfortunately, the NPR story also says there will be new installments every Monday, but the last installment of the current wovel was on December 5th. If you're gonna go serial, you've gotta keep up the schedule.
Share via
2
I love serial novels, so this I think that is a great idea, but not so hot about the "choose your own adventure" aspect.
I had no idea there was a lack of safe snow shovels....
I had no idea there was a lack of safe snow shovels....
3
OMFG. Make them stop. 'Blog' is bad enough. 'Wovel' is almost as bad as 'sheeple'. Portmanteau words are generally hideous crimes against language and aesthetics.
6
Hey! I like that shovel. I would totally have one of those if I lived someplace where you had to shovel much snow. Around here the thing to have is one of those amazing unbreakable umbrellas.
8
I think it depends on how you write it and who you want your audience to be.
For example, Purple Mark just finished all 44 chapters of his novel this past week, and now just has to go back and edit it for loose ends and tie-offs, but still isn't sure if it would be better as a book (my choice, since it's a dream book and I think a graphics addition to a physical book would be cool) or on the web.
But other things lend themselves more to episodic chapters and the hyperlink aspects of the web make it easy to allow more freedom in how you approach it.
For example, Purple Mark just finished all 44 chapters of his novel this past week, and now just has to go back and edit it for loose ends and tie-offs, but still isn't sure if it would be better as a book (my choice, since it's a dream book and I think a graphics addition to a physical book would be cool) or on the web.
But other things lend themselves more to episodic chapters and the hyperlink aspects of the web make it easy to allow more freedom in how you approach it.
10
I think that the date for the last entry is an error, and meant to be 01/05/09 - if you look back, there's entries up to 12/29/08, and if you click on 01/05/09, you get the one dated 12/05/08.
Also, while "wovel" might not be the best term for the work - maybe the emphasis should be on the work itself, and not what it is termed.
Also, while "wovel" might not be the best term for the work - maybe the emphasis should be on the work itself, and not what it is termed.
11
As someone who use to live in Up State NY where the average snow fall is around 160 inches each winter, I think the novelty of the "wovel" would wear off very quickly.
12
I'm baffled by the "keep up the schedule" part of the story - not only have there been weekly installments since the novel began serialization in November, but where did you get December 5th from? Installments are posted on Mondays, 12/5 was a Friday. Well, thanks for writing about local culture, I guess.
Most Commented on Slog
-
WTF? by Dan Savage
-
Your Wife Died Alone... by Dan Savage
-
Meanwhile in Vancouver by Dan Savage
-
Health at Every Size by Dan Savage
-
The Democrats Have 60 Votes in the Senate for Health Care Reform by Jonathan Golob
-
The Cost (and Fear) of Dying by Anthony Hecht
-
Is Your Teen Out of Control... And Smoking Hot? by Dan Savage
-
SL Letter of the Day: Hot For Twinks by Dan Savage
-
Real Salt Lake vs. Galaxy Open Thread by Christopher Frizzelle
-
Levi Johnston's Butt by David Schmader
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (12) RSS