From the category archives:

Adventures

In Search of the Original Written Word

by Joan Kremer on January 8, 2010 · 17 comments

in Adventures, Second Life, Writing in general

There I stood at the ancient birthplace of my modern life’s passion.  The desert sun seared the air around me, but I shivered with the thrill of standing before the earliest writing known on earth:  massive walls covered with the hieroglyphic alphabet of Ancient Egypt. I put my hand as close to the wall as I [...]

Tagged as: Egyptian writing, hieroglyphs, virtual writing community

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How Second Life Helped Me Lose Weight, Fly Above My Fears, & Advance My Writing Career

by Joan Kremer on August 14, 2009 · 13 comments

in Adventures, Benefits of SL, Virtual tools

Introducing the newest scientifically-based weight-loss program (drum-roll, please):  Hanging out in the virtual world of Second Life! Before you laugh yourself blind, let me say I’m telling you this in all seriousness.  One of the recent news stories making the rounds of the mainstream media is an article reporting on a study that shows SL users [...]

Tagged as: authors in SL, creative visualization, discoveries, International Spaceflight Museum, Story Mountain Center for Writers, virtual worlds, writers resources

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‘The Rabbicorn’: Another Way Second Life Enhances the Storyteller’s Art

July 17, 2009

It’s sort of a cross between an illustrated storybook and Disneyworld without the crowds, noise, and vendors.  It’s a story you can literally immerse yourself in.  And it’s something you’ll find only in a virtual world like Second Life.
I love discovering ways in which writers use the 3D elements of Second Life to create work [...]

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Memo to Universe: Please Use Second Life Code to Fix These First Life Programming Bugs!

June 7, 2009

May 2009 will go down in my personal history as one of the most miserable months ever — personally and professionally.  And it made me think about how wonderful first life could be if only it had a few more of Second Life’s features!
But before I launch into my wishlist of features I think [...]

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Writers Can’t Hide from the Mic – Not Even in Second Life!

May 14, 2009

I’m trying very hard to develop at least a minimal amount of affection for the sound of my voice.  It’s tough, when I’ve hated hearing it for nearly half a century!  After all, I’m a writer!  You know — one of those people who can think as they type, but not as they talk. 
But thanks [...]

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Second Life Condenses Time, Expands Resources for Writers

April 25, 2009

Second Life collapses time.  Case in point: my almost-lifelong effort to find or start a writers’ group for sharing and feedback.
For creative writers, the value of sharing their writing with other writers and getting feedback, support, and helpful critique is immeasurable.  Some writers even say it’s essential for getting published.  Whether that’s true or not, [...]

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Are You Missing What (Second) Life Has to Offer?

April 12, 2009

For the first time in my life, I’m proud to call myself an evangelist. 
Wait!  Before you click that X-to-close button (especially those of you who know me personally), I’m NOT talking about religion in any shape or form!  No, what I’ve become downright evangelical about is Second Life . And especially this virtual world  as [...]

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How to Use Second Life to Support Your Writing Schedule

April 6, 2009

Every writer I know has a bag of tricks they use to motivate themselves to just sit their butt down and write on those days when it simply feels too hard — an excuse often couched in the disguise of the moment:  “I think I may be coming down with something,” or “it’s too hot/cold [...]

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A Writer’s Guide to Learning About Second Life (Part 1)

February 17, 2009

“Why aren’t more writers flocking to Second Life?” I asked my partner one day.
“Because SL is pretty overwhelming at first,” my partner answered.
I laughed. “You should know! Remember how you wore two sets of hair for the longest time? Kept wandering off and getting lost?” (see photo below for example)

No verbal response [...]

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The Story Trail in SL: A Magical Experience for Creative Writers

February 1, 2009

When’s the last time you combined a walking meditation in a  lush, serene natural setting with a creative writing session?  Where you didn’t have to worry about cold, heat, rain, snow, mosquitoes, gnats, or any other bothersome aspect of nature. Where all you had to concentrate on was your writing and the gorgeous surroundings?
For most [...]

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Seven Lessons I Learned from Doing NaNoWriMo 2008 Virtually

December 3, 2008

Well, I was proved wrong once again:  Participating in National Novel Writing Month was incredibly more challenging and far more rewarding than I ever expected!
I herewith apologize to all my writer friends whose participation in previous NaNoWriMos I discounted — don’t ask if you were one; I’m too embarrassed to say — and now [...]

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How Much Can Virtual Worlds Be Blamed for Individual Choices?

November 19, 2008

The blame game: Given our myths and legends, I think it’s fair to say that humans have always played it. From the Garden of Eden story, to the tales from Mount Olympus, to this morning’s newspaper, we humans have used every trick in the book to blame anyone or anything else for our own choices. [...]

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The Future of Business in Second Life (an SL Bloggers Mix ‘N Match guest post)

November 12, 2008

Editor’s Note: This guest post by Gwyneth Llewelyn, “a blogger, philosopher, activist, and entrepreneur in the Second Life® world,” is part of the Second Life Bloggers first annual Mix ‘N Match blogging event suggested by Vint Falken of vintfalken.com and ArminasX Saiman of secondeffects.com.  (Check either blog for more details about this event.)  Each participating [...]

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Help! I’m an Introverted Writer in an Extraverts’ World!

October 5, 2008

Methinks it used to be far easier to be an introverted writer.  And since 95 percent of writers are introverted (according to Ursula LeGuin), me-double-thinks it used to be a whole lot easier to be a writer, period!

Writers today have to be almost as expert at the extraverted skills of marketing and sales as they [...]

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How Second Life Cured One Writer’s Allergy to Networking

September 5, 2008

We all have “those words”—you know, the ones we belittle as “manufactured” or “PC” or too trendy to do more than sneer at.  For some, words like maximize and impact, used as verbs, top their list.  For others, it’s terms like collateral damage to mean killing innocent people.  For me, a word that’s long topped [...]

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How I Became a ‘Movie Star’ in Second Life

August 21, 2008

Where else but in a virtual world (or if your name was Judy Garland) would a small-town Midwest-U.S. gal get to star in a movie?
Well, “starring in a move” may be stretching it a bit (or a lot!), but fact is, I had the awesome experience of being among the cast of one of the [...]

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Why in the World Did I Start this Blog???

August 16, 2008

Did you know that there’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 million to 200 million blogs today? So why in heaven’s name would I want to become blogger No. gazillion-and-one?
Good question—and one a writer/blogger friend asked of other bloggers. She invited us each to write a post on own own blog about how we [...]

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The Twists & Trials of Reading a Book in Second Life

July 28, 2008

For a writer, books are as important as oxygen, so why spend time in a virtual world where I can’t pick up a good book, flip its pages, lie on the beach reading?
Those were some of my thoughts as I stumbled through the first few days as a Second Life newbie. Right away, I [...]

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How I Learned to Teach Published Authors to Sit Down, Turn Around, & Perform Other Sophisticated Tasks

July 21, 2008

I’ve recently become the primary moderator for the weekly Second Life meetings of the Athena Isle Writers Group. Thanks to an awesome author/networker/Second Lifer-er Cybergrrl Oh (Aliza Sherman in First Life), the group attracts writing experts and successful published authors of the caliber of best-selling cookbook authors Elizabeth Yarnell and Janet and Greta [...]

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Second Life Experiences: As Real As Your Brain Thinks!

July 15, 2008

“Joan, you’ve gone too far!” my First Life writer friend said after reading point 4 from my previous post. “You can’t tell writers they can learn to fly—or whatever!—by watching a cartoon avatar move around on a computer monitor!”
Thankfully, we were on that old-fashioned social-networking device called the telephone, so he didn’t see my [...]

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The A to Z of My Birth Into Second Life

July 5, 2008

I know I’m not a cat because I’m still alive after decades of following my curiosity into a vast assortment of situations–some good, some not-so-good. That’s how I got to Second Life, too.
I’m always on the lookout for what’s new. What’s new out there? In there? Beyond here and there? And so [...]

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Grrr…. Or, How Second Life Saves Me Time, Money, and Anguish

June 27, 2008

I live within driving distance of a terrific writers’ resource: The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. The Loft offers great classes, workshops, and author presentations, and makes it easy to find a peer group for that ongoing support and critique so key to writing success.
I’m a long-time Loft member and have utilized their resources [...]

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A Writer in Wonderland

June 26, 2008

A kid in a candy store! Yeah, I know it’s a cliche, but sometimes those are the only ways to describe something. And I’d never felt more like a kid surrounded by all the free candy I wanted — or like Alice in only the best parts of Wonderland — than I did [...]

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