I confess: When I first saw the news item about Second Life in The Writer magazine’s most recent issue, I was a bit ticked off — and then my holier-than-thou self-righteousness took over and quickly sparked a full-blown exodus of all life forms from the room. (OK, that’s exaggerating a bit, but it still wasn’t a pretty sight, believe me!)  Why?  Because, as I wrote in an earlier post, I’d pitched a story about Second Life to The Writer in early 2008, and after lengthy consideration, they finally decided it didn’t meet their editorial needs.

As editor of a literary journal myself, I don’t get terribly bothered by rejections; I know how subjective, and sometimes downright irrational, editors’ choices can be.  (I’ve made more than a few crazy decisions myself!)  But I knew back in March, and even more so now, that writers of all genres should have the chance to find out about Second Life’s writing resources and community.  So when The Writer said an article about Second Life didn’t fit their editorial needs, I knew they were behind the curve of the 21st century.

A group of writers meeting recently at Story Mountain Center for Writers in Second Life with novelist Michelle Richmond (The Year of Fog and No One You Know)

In fact, I felt so strongly about spreading the word to other writers, that when the article was rejected, I decided to try a different approach — and this blog was born.  I also kept a keen eye on The Writer to see how long it would take them to catch up.

It took until the January 2009 issue, in which they published about 10 inches of copy titled “Second Life Explores Books Virtually,” as part of the monthly “Take Note” column.

But even though I’m glad this most-hallowed of writers’ magazine has finally revamped its “editorial needs” regarding Second Life, I’m still a bit disappointed in its lukewarm assessment: Book promotions in Second Life “are still infrequent,” the column concludes, and in the future, “writers may find themselves touring a virtual world.” (Emphases are mine.)

Hah!! There are so many author and writing events in Second Life each day, you’d have to retire from work and all other pursuits to attend them all!  Just the nickle tour of the writing landscape in Second Life reveals these activities:

• Second Life Cable Network (SLCN.TV) carries two regular shows (broadcast inworld and on the Internet) in which authors (including New York Times bestselling authors) are interviewed in front of a live audience in Second Life:  Authors in Your Pocket (with authors like Emily Giffin, Kristin Hannah, Tasha Alexander, Mary B. Morrison, Robert Gregory Browne) and Meet an Author  (with authors such as Paddy O’Reilly, Isabel Losada, David Boop, Michelle Richmond).
• Athena Isle Writers group meets regularly for informal discussions with published authors such as L.A. Banks, Michelle Richmond, Sarah Susanka,  Roberta Isleib, Michelle Gagnon.
• Novelists Michael A. Stackpole (Secret Atlas, Cartomancy, Star Trek novelizations), Paul Levinson (The Plot to Save Socrates, The Silk Code), and Jane Watson (Hindustan Contessa) are just a few authors who have established offices/bookstores in Second Life where they have regular office hours.
• Warren Adler (author of War of the Roses and many other novels) and Amazon.com teamed up in Second Life this year to provide a series of talks about the future of literary short fiction.  Adler announced the winners of his short story contest at one of those talks.
• Novelist and comic book author Warren Ellis, the award-winning creator of graphic novels such as Planetary, Transmetropolitan, and Fell, and author of the “underground classic” Crooked Little Vein, has just been hired by Reuters to write a weekly column for the Reuters Second Life News Center, starting in January.

Now that’s just the teeniest, tiniest tip of the iceberg of what I know — and I’m still discovering new people and activities in the Second Life writing community all the time.

I have personally met and had one-on-one chats with more published authors since entering SL in February 2008 than in the previous five decades of my life combined!

The one thing I haven’t yet discovered in Second Life (if you know about it, please tell me!!) is a central information source for writer-related events.  So I’m starting one right now!  I’ve collected all of the ongoing events I know about and put them on this Google calendar, which is freely available to the public:

The calendar will appear as a permanent sidebar on this blog, so you can always see it no matter what page of my blog you’re viewing.  You’ll also find the calendar on the Internet at this link.

Now for the fine-print (but in regular-size font):

• This calendar is nowhere near complete!!!  I’m extending an invitation to anyone who hosts or sponsors an event to add it to this calendar by emailing me or giving me a notecard inworld (my SL name is Alas Zerbino).
• If you host or sponsor regular writers’ activities, write to me about getting direct access to the calendar so you can add your events yourself!
• This is a totally unofficial calendar unconnected with any of the people, organizations, or places listed.  If something’s incorrect, if you don’t want your events to be included on it, etc., etc., just let me know!  My goal is to serve the writing community in Second Life, not to piss anyone off!!
• This calendar is not connected in any way, shape, or form with Second Life© or Linden Lab, the company that owns SL.

Within a short time, I will also create a feed from this Google calendar into a display at my homebase in SL, Story Mountain Center for Writers, where anyone can view it inworld at any time.

I also invite all of those interested in writing resources and opportunities in Second Life to spread the word about this calendar and let me know of other resources like this!

Oh — one last thing:  Despite their somewhat Luddite-like (”luddistic”?) approach to Second Life, The Writer magazine has always been, and remains, the one trade journal I read religiously — and will continue to!  I highly recommend it to all writers.

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 share with you the biggest lessons I learned from participating in NaNoWriMo 2008:

1.  It’s not easy to write 50,000 words in 30 days, if those 50K words are ones I want to form the basis of a new work of creative fiction.

I’ve earned my income from writing during my entire career, so the mechanics of generating 50,000 words in a month just didn’t seem like much of a challenge to me.  And though I even assumed (correctly!) that 50K creative fiction words are a heck of a lot harder to find deep in the recesses of my imagination than 50K words of business or training documents, what I didn’t understand before is that it isn’t the word-count that’s so challenging (or so important); rather it’s the “idea count.” I ran out of ideas a heck of a lot lot sooner than I ran out of words.

2.  The power of group energy is vastly underrated!  Without the nearly 120,000 NaNoWriMo writers from all over the world supporting my efforts, I know I would have stopped — probably in the first week.

I tend to follow a rather mystical philosophy of life, so I’m quite aware of all the research and anecdotal evidence showing how two or more people focusing on a single goal can generate exponentially more brainpower.  But it was NaNoWriMo that illustrated big-time the amazing power of energy generated by thousands of people with a single focus, despite the fact that these people were separated by thousands of miles, and most never met face to face.

Instead of going to a coffee shop or other typical writing location during NaNoWriMo, I’d log in to Second Life and imagine myself writing at my beach house with my dog Shane, a gift from PennyWhistle Cameron

3.  I can make my inner editor shut up (for a while at least)!

As one of the most self-critical people I know, I’ve always provided lush accommodations for that crabby, annoying editor that lives inside me.  Usually, whenever Ms. Inner Judge wishes to speak, I listen!  But for the month of November, I kicked her out on the street, where she wandered homeless (though still crabby!) for most of those 30 days.  Granted, as soon as midnight struck on December 1, she battered down my doors and moved right back in.  But I’ve learned I can live without her constant attention, and I’ve instituted a new “quiet time” policy for her and all her friends that prohibits them from making noise 24/7.

4.  Using Microsoft Word ors its cousins is the most anti-creative way to write a novel.

Have you ever realized just how many gazillion ways Word, et. al., can distract you from the creative process itself?  I start typing, manage to tap out “Chapter One,” when I suddenly remember the tables feature in Word I was going to check out, and then as long as I’m doing that, I might as well see if I can also convert the table to Excel, and oh yeah, which has better sort functions — Word tables or Excel?  But the formatting is so much better in Word — which reminds me that I wanted to check out those new fonts I found online, and as long as I’m in the text formatting window, I really should also take another look at how the new fonts mix and match with my existing ones, and now it’s two hours later and all I’ve written for my novel is “Chapter One.” Which leads me to lesson #5. . .

5.  A totally blank screen/page and plain old Courier type is the most inspirational word-processing software imaginable.

Thanks to the NaNoWriMo forums, I stumbled upon the best writing software invented since the demise of typewriters:  Q10.  It was developed by a like-minded NaNoWriMo participant several years ago and combines the beauty of the blank page with all the necessary, mostly hidden, functions, such as word counts.  It covers everything on your computer screen — including the task bar with all of its little icons tempting you to read email or surf the ‘Net or play a game or . . .  whatever distractions you have there!

The first page of my NaNoWriMo novel on Q10 — looks like a plain piece of paper and sounds like a typewriter!

And best of all, it can produce the symphonic sounds of typing with each keystroke and carriage return.  For those of us who grew up with typewriters, rather than computers, those clicks and clacks are like a personal cheerleading squad, and the swoosh of the carriage return after every paragraph is like a standing ovation for determination.  (Another similar program touted by many WriMos is WriteMonkey.  Both programs are free.)

6.  It was way more fun (and supportive) to jump into NaNoWriMo with the great support of fellow writers in Second Life, than it would have been without them.

The NaNoWriMo SL parcel gradually filled with whatever writers in the group felt like setting up, from pillows all over the ground to a guillotine and hanging rope for big-time procrastinators!

One of my most rewarding moments each day was logging in to Second Life, teleporting to the cozy, silly, delightfully cluttered plot of “land” that was home to the NaNoWriMo SL group, and logging in my word count for the day.  Invariably, I’d encounter a fellow WriMo, and we’d share our victories and angst, maybe dance for a while atop the old school bus, or just sit quietly in our favorite chair or beanbag and keep each other company as we plugged away at the keyboard.  I’ve made many new friends there this month, and the thought of each new writer friend inspires me to keep on writing.

7.  Even after years of letting my creative self atrophy amongst the cubicles of Corporate America, my imagination, released from all the chains of “normal” life, can still produce incredible surprises!

This was the biggest lesson of all for me:  There still is a creative spark that burns inside me, and fueled by the daring and supportive energy of an event like NaNoWriMo, it can burst into occasional flames of brilliant, beautiful ideas — at least brilliant and beautiful compared with what I previously thought possible.

Word meters were constantly updated by NaNoWriMo SL’ers throughout November; final numbers:  2,206,384 total words were written by 72 authors, an average of 30,644 words per author

I am humbled by the generosity of all those who made my NaNoWriMo experience the gift it became — from my friend and fellow novelist David Bridger, who convinced me to sign up and who then got too ill to continue the journey with me this year; to Chris Baty, who invented NaNoWriMo 10 years ago and keeps it going year after year, and all of Chris’s fellow organizers; to published authors like Janet Fitch and Piers Anthony and Meg Cabot who sent us WriMos email pep talks throughout the month; to every writer who has ever participated in this event; and most especially to my fellow Second Life WriMos whose support and humor made it happen.

My reawakened imaginative self thanks you all for the inspiration to create — and even more so for the intestinal fortitude I found to silence my inner editor for those lovely four weeks!

“Yahoo! I did it! I’m one of the 21K+ winners of NaNoWriMo 2008″

And now I can’t wait to begin the revision process (and hope I didn’t piss off that inner editor of mine too much!!!).

Did you participate in NaNoWriMo and if so, how did it go for you?  Any lessons to share?  Did you use Second Life to support your writing?  What were your experiences in SL?  Please share with all of us by adding a comment to this post!

It’s National Novel Writing Month!

(What???!! You’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo??!! Go directly — do not pass Go, do not collect $200 — go directly to www.nanowrimo.org. For the rest of you, read on…)

For years I’ve observed my fellow writers come together with other writers from all over the world and cheer each other on to the finish line of writing 50,000 words on a novel in the short month of November. NaNoWriMo is a sacred ritual, a rite of initiation complete with hardship, endurance, ceremony, celebration, and a vision quest for that new novel.

And I’ve always resented that I was too busy to participate.

“Praying” at the “altar” in preparation for the NaNoWriMo Quest

Well, this year (thanks to our economy), I wasn’t too busy. And so I signed up.  I read the pep talks online, shared my excitement on my social media networks (Plurk, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and at midnight-plus-one-minute on November 1, typed the first sentence of my new novel. (But only the first sentence; it was, after all, past midnight and well past bedtime!  I mean, we have the whole month, right??!!)

But would I have to cut down on my virtual Second Life to participate in this other sorta-virtual online experience?  As it turns out — no!  For NaNoWriMo has a huge, supportive presence in SL!

There are no fewer than eight SL groups set up to support this year’s NaNoWriMo’s,  or simply “Wrimos,” as these rabid novelists.  I joined the one with the most members — NaNoWriMo SL, which also incorporates another older group, SL Wrimos. (To find the others, use the Search function in SL.)

The NaNoWriMo SL group has set up a funky little spread in Second Life where you can recline by the fire (and write) or sit at picnic tables (and write) or participate in one of the organized write-ins (and write), or come by and add your decorative touches to the place (and then write).

Entering my word count into the NaNoWriMo SL Central Database Counter

This group has also come up with a bunch of fun incentives for us slackers and procrastinators:

• A Central Database Counter, where group members can update their totals as often as they wish, and wear a sign over their heads that displays that word count.
• Daily “word dares”: If you’re blocked, try to write something (for your novel) incorporating the word of the day.
• “Word Wars”: occasional 30-minute “showdowns” in which you “begin by first beheading your inner editor,” and then write nonstop for 30 minutes.
• A daily writing competition: s/he who writes the most words that day wins “a cute lil funky medieval house.”
• A free set of NaNoWriMo SL Plotbunny Ears, and a NaNoWriMo Snuggle Bear (see the picture at right of me wearing them; also note my word count displayed above my head).  (One way to use these as an incentive: Decide you must keep them on until you’ve reached your daily quota!)

Check out NaNoWriMo SL’s website for our group’s daily word counts and more, including the continually updated calendar that shows what’s going on in SL-NaNoWri-Mo-Land.

But there’s MORE!

Many of the regular writers’ groups and venues in Second Life are offering writing spaces, write-ins, competitions, and other kinds of support and fun to keep us Wrimos’ focused on finishing this sacred November quest!  Here are just a few:

• Bookstacks Isle, a great spot for book lovers and writers to hang out, is offering lots of places in its pub, around the island, and at its cozy cottage for Wrimos’ to come and be inspired — and write!
• Bookstacks is also offering weekly “costume” write-ins and a contest for a month’s free rent on a house — but you have to write those 50K words to qualify!

Working on my novel at the Bookstacks Isle Pub

• The great folks at one of SL’s most active writing organizations, Written Word, are offering all Wrimos’ free writing huts in the space where their just-ended Autumn Writers Exhibition was held “to be together and encourage each other through their writing.”
• Written Word is also encouraging them to read excerpts from their novels at the weekly Writers’ Circle open mic ,and is offering space on their website for those who wish to publish excerpts.

Story Mountain Center for Writers offers a variety of places for writers to hang out and write, including the Hemingway Cafe, patio, deck, beach, mountain cave, rocky shore, and this garden waterfall setting.

Coffeeshops and writers’ gathering places all over Second Life are providing spaces to encourage writers to individually or as a group write up a storm! You can pick just about any environment imaginable in which to sit in write (or chat, if you prefer), from bars and pubs to mountain caves and serene gardens, a few of which are shown in some of the accompanying photos.

sLiterary has set up this NaNoWriMo shrine/writing retreat for Wrimos

I’ve discovered I love National Novel Writing Month — mainly because of the “permission” it gives me to lock up my inner editor for the month and just create! Every time I find myself stuck or wanting to go back and revise some of that schlocky first-draft stuff, I remind myself of that permission, and let all my novel ideas (crazy or silly as they may be) flow through my fingertips onto my monitor!

P.S. It’s also because of NaNoWriMo that I made an incredible word-processor discovery! For NaNoWriMo, and I suspect for all of my future first-draft writing, I’m using this wonderful, free (though donations are welcome) word processor designed by a NaNoWriMo for NaNoWriMos.

Q10 is its name, and it covers up all the distracting icons, menus, and eye candy on your computer desktop with a plain white (or whatever color you want) page that looks like a sheet of real paper.  You can also have an optional status line at the bottom or top.  Nothing else but words! And the coolest thing about it is that it sounds like a typewriter — keypresses produce that old IBM Selectric sound, and an Enter press generates the “music” of a carriage return. (You can turn the sound off if you want).  I love it — just me and my words!

If you know of other Second Life places, groups, or events that support NaNoWriMo, or if you’ve had some great NaNoWriMo fun in SL, let the rest of us know, too — add your comment to this post.

When’s the last time you wandered through a fair-like exhibition full of writers and writing resources?  For many of us, the answer’s “a loooong time ago.”

When’s the last time you rode a magic carpet over that exhibition? If your answer is anything BUT “never,” I know you’ve been to one of the year’s best events in Second Life: The Autumn Writers Exhibition (AWE) in Second Life.

A bird’s-eye view of one section of the Autumn Writers Exhibition (AWE) in Second Life

Thanks to the great folks at the Written Word community in SL, more than 100 writers, songwriters, comedians, magazines, newspapers, writing groups and other resources are gathered in a jumble of colorful tents and displays on Cookie Island in SL until November 2, 2008. It’s completely free (to both exhibitors and visitors) and requires no First Life travel!

What’s this got to do with magic carpets? you might be wondering.

Written Word co-owner Hastings Bournemouth is also a building/scripting wizard who created a way to fly over the entire exhibition, from one tower to the other, while seated on a carpet.  Not only is the ride great fun, but it puts the whole exhibit—and the island it’s on—in perspective.

One or two avatars at a time can ride the magic carpet over AWE

In addition to such fun (and free!) experiences as taking the tower elevator and the carpet rides, here’s a sampling of what you can find among AWE’s displays:

• Published and unpublished writers to chat with
• Samples of original writing (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, songwriting, scriptwriting) from some of the best writers in Second Life
• Second Life publications that buy freelance material
• Venues—from coffeeshops to the West of Ireland Cultural Center and Library—that offer a range of opportunities to writers
• SL groups and venues for playwrights and actors, musicians, and storytellers

Just a few of the more than 100 booths at AWE in Second Life

“The exhibition is similar to a literary festival that I’d like to go in RL,” the other owner of Written Word, Jilly Kidd, said in the Second Life Newspaper’s report on the event.  Jilly and Hastings organized the first AWE last year, and it was so successful, they decided to do it again this year.

Cash Prizes for Writing & Exhibiting

This year’s AWE is proving to be even bigger and more exciting—and potentially profitable for authors and exhibitors both!  Jilly and Hastings are offering three prizes of L$5,000 each for:

• The best display by an exhibitor
• The best original poem or song submitted
• The best original fiction or nonfiction story submitted

The writing competition is open to anyone.  Here’s a summary of the guidelines:

• All entries must be original writing, on the theme of Autumn.
• The prose can be fiction or non-fiction up to 2,000 words, and the poetry can be a poem or song lyric with no limit in length “but don’t make it a whole book-length poem!”
• Entries must be received by October 31, 2008.

Jilly adds, “Entries that have appeared on other websites and in other publications will be considered because you can’t see too much of a good thing and we believe setting limitations on writers and artists is unfair.”  Visit AWE for more details.

Occasional poetry/short prose “slams” will also be held during AWE. Just “turn up and enter, and the audience decides—winner gets L$2,000!” according to the AWE web page.

Starting Oct. 26: A Week of Special Events

The final week of AWE, beginning October 26, is the “Main Events Week” and includes readings by published poets and novelists, interviews with publishers, and music, comedy, and fireworks.

The best way to get all the details on these events is to join the Written Word group in Second Life.

To teleport to the marvelous 2008 Autumn Writing Exhibition, use this SLURL:  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cookie/40/175/21.

And be sure to take a ride on the Sheherazade magic carpet!

(At left, my avatar, Alas Zerbino, enjoys a ride on the magic carpet as it passes a row of AWE booths.)

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 are at the craft of writing.

So what’s an introverted writer to do (other than surrender to despair)?

There’s advice all over the Internet, of course.  One of my favorites is a blog called Shrinking Violet Promotions, although just about every writing-related site (including this fascinating article from Atlantic.com) says something on the topic.  But I know from my work as an instructional designer that just reading about a skill does not produce mastery; you must also practice it in realistic situations.

What does that have to do with Second Life?  Simple: Second Life lets us introverts practice being extraverted without making complete fools of ourselves!

Seriously, Second Life is being used by all kinds of individuals and organizations to learn and practice life-skills. Here are just a few (really neat) examples:

• Avatars Help People with Disabilities
• Real-Life Fears Faced in Online World
• ‘Naughty Auties’ battle autism with virtual interaction
• Interview With the Agoraphobic: Fighting the Fear in Second Life
• CBS Second Life Show on how SL can help people with health challenges

Likewise, Second Life can help us introverted writers practice the extravert skills required of 21st Century writers.  Especially those of us who live long distances from First Life opportunities for practice.

“Hardly anybody ever writes anything nice about introverts. Extroverts rule. This is rather odd when you realise that about nineteen writers out of twenty are introverts. We are being taught to be ashamed of not being ‘outgoing’. But a writer’s job is ingoing.” ~ Ursula LeGuin

“How in the world can that be?” I can hear some of you thinking.  Well, here are two areas where I’ve made major improvements — and all from the safety of my home office:

1. Reading/speaking to an audience

One of the most common ways writers market themselves is by giving public readings.  Not a skill we are born with — especially introverts!  When I read my first story to an audience in SL, it was a disaster.

(Part of the problem was that I didn’t know how to use a PC mic to speak in SL, so my delivery most closely resembled Roseanne Roseannadanna shouting a speech into the depths of Mammoth Cave.  Hence, I highly recommend first learning the basic techniques of SL voice chat; these videos by Torley Linden are fabulous for that!)

But the beauty of it is that no one could see the abject fear and humiliation on my face or the fetal position I assumed when I realized the extent of the disaster!  Instead, I just apologized in text chat, said I was having microphone problems.  And the next time I was called up to read before this group, no one left, or even hissed or booed!

Since then, each time I’ve read a story or poem in SL, I’ve worked to improve some aspect of public reading, one skill at a time — first the technical intricacies, then voice modulation, then performance reading, and so on — all from the safety of hiding behind an avatar who always looks composed!

I’ve even managed to win a “Circle Slam” reading contest in SL (though I have to admit there was not a lot of competition).

By the time I face my next First Life audience, both my confidence level and reading skill will be about a thousand percent higher than before SL.

2.  Networking with other writers

This one relates to an astonishing discovery I made.

First, understand that as an introvert, I prefer to listen than to talk — which means I have only the teensiest bit of experience carrying on a spontaneous, witty conversation with someone I just met.  Now, assume that person is an agent or an author I’m in awe of, well, needless to say the term “shrinking violet” becomes the understatement of the year! So when I meet writers or agents or publishers in First Life, my tongue usually ties up in knots, and I transform myself into as close an approximation as possible of the wallpaper.

But, in Second Life, most communication is done via text chat, which is — well, writing, of course! My best skill!  Many writers talk about how they learn what they think by writing it down.  I’m the same way.  So in the virtual world, instead of responding to someone with bumbling “ah’s” and “ummm’s” and keeping my voice as low as possible so I can swallow a word if it sounds too stupid when it comes out, I can write my conversation!  Even review it and edit it before anyone sees it! In the world of text chat, no one hears my pauses, my stutters, my faux pas.  They only “hear” the actual words I want them to hear; my self-edited statements.

As a result, I’ve developed more confidence in my ability to come up with relevant, even witty responses to others — even to authors way “up there.”  A skill that’s spread into First Life!

Now when I meet someone, I have more trust that I’ll make the right response, which means I have less of the anxiety that prevents me from even thinking of something halfway intelligent to say and more belief in the worth of my contribution.  I no longer pray for the floor to swallow me; instead I open up to the other person, get to know him or her, share a little of myself — in essence forge another link in that network that’s so critical to a successful writing career.

And best of all, I sometimes make a new friend!

These are only two of the infinite ways to improve the skills needed to be a writer in the 21st Century, but you get the idea!  I’ll bet a lot of writers have discovered this awesome aspect of Second Life — if you’re one of them, how have you seen your skills grow?  We’d all love to hear about it, so please share in a comment!

Roughly eight months ago, I tiptoed around a hedge and peaked at my first poetry reading in Second Life.  I was still a newbie who knew nothing about HUDs that let avatars know who else is around, so I thought I was hiding pretty good.  That is, until I heard a woman’s voice say, “Welcome, Alas! Come on in and join us.”

Now, I’ve attended plenty of poetry readings in First Life, but this was an open-mic reading, and given the rural First Life area in which I live, open-mic poetry readings come along oh every two ice ages or so.  As a result, I’d stood up and read my poetry in front of people only twice—ever! I was trembling.

Fortunately, my avatar didn’t tremble along with me, so she was able to put on a calm, confident face and stroll into the small gathering, a single poem clutched in her inventory.  And she/I read it.  Out loud. To about ten other avatars who applauded when I finished.

Since then I’ve gained considerable experience in SL reading my written work aloud to others, and every time I do that, I further develop the skills and confidence I need to read to give a good reading in First Life.  I still tremble a bit, but now I also have fun!

If you’re a poet, you know how few avenues First Life offers for getting your poetry in front of others—either in print or orally.  Well, the situation in Second Life is just the opposite!  There’s a wealth of opportunities for poets here. Whether you’re too shy to participate in an open mic in First Life, or, like me (as I wrote in an earlier post) have no opportunities without driving halfway around the world, your treasure awaits you in Second Life.

Now, just about any day of the week, I can sit down at my keyboard (from wherever I and my PC are located in First Life), and within minutes be:

• Sitting at the feet of a major poet
• Reading poetry at one of many open mics
• Getting free or inexpensive writing instruction
• And hundreds of other activities

In fact, SL offers so many resources, I can’t list them in a single post. So consider this part 1 of the “Poets’ Resources Series”!

Today I’ll share my journey through “open-mic wonderland” this weekend, when in the space of 48 hours, I participated in three awesome poetry events, reading my own work and listening to some terrific poetry by others.

(There are a lot more open-mic events every week in SL, and I’ll be adding them to this series as I proceed.)

Friday at Poetry in Pixels

Always looking for new experiences in SL, I did an SL event search for upcoming “Arts & Culture” events.  Topping the list was a “Poetry Open Mic” at a place I’d not heard of before:  Poetry in Pixels. Starting in 15 minutes.  I immediately teleported there to check it out.

Poetry in Pixels is a four-story art gallery and library that’s part of Tammy Connolly’s beautiful building reminiscent of both Zen Buddhism and Frank Lloyd Wright.  In a cozy, book-lined room on the third floor, open-mic readings are held every Friday. The 15 minutes flew by, and before I knew it, the hour-long open mic had started and finished . . . and I still didn’t want to leave.

The reading was moderated by friendly, supportive Violet Nishi.  I hadn’t planned to read during my first time here, but Ms. Nishi and the others encouraged me so much, I ended up sharing two poems.

About six others attended (a smaller-than-average group, from what I gathered), and the poetry ranged from political satire to love poetry to impressive literary work. I especially enjoyed “listening” to a French poet using a translator device that displayed each line in both the original French and an English translation.

What to Know about Poetry in Pixels’ Readings:

When: Fridays, 2 to 3 p.m. SLT

Where: Lockhart-Shaulis Memorial Library inside the Poetry in Pixels Gallery on Artstonia.  (SLURL)

What: Both poets and poetry-lovers are invited to come and share their writing, or just listen to the others.

How: Readers can use either voice or text chat to present their poetry. If you don’t have a PC microphone for voice, you can type your poem into text chat, line by line, or use a line-reader tool (or a translation device like the French poet did).

Cost: Absolutely free, though you may want to donate a few Linden dollars to the upkeep of this beautiful space, where you can also borrow books “written and donated by the many talented writers and poets of SL.“

Second Life group:  For updates and notices about the weekly open mic and all other events here, join the Poetry in Pixels Gallery Group.

Saturday at Rhythm & Rhyme Lounge

From the calm and soothing . . . to the wild and crazy! Rhythm & Rhyme’s Saturday open-mic reading was as lively as the lounge it’s set in.  Owner Jewel Reyes opened with a video of a fabulous spoken-word performance from First Life, then led a discussion about its techniques. (Great bit of learning thrown in there for free!)

Ms. Reyes opened up the live event by reading several of her own works, which were stunningly written and delivered. Then she invited those in the audience who wished to read poetry or any other “spoken word” forms.  Speaking to an audience of roughly 15 avatars (some sitting at the bar or in booths, others moving about while listening), those who took the stage offered a great variety of poems ranging from the sublime to the hilarious.

I left the Rhythm & Rhyme Lounge feeling enlivened and inspired.

What to Know about Rhythm & Rhyme Lounge’s Readings:

What & When:  Currently, Rhythm & Rhyme hosts two poetry/spoken-word open-mics each weekend:

• Open Mic Saturdays, 1-3 p.m. SLT, featuring the “Spoken Word Video of the Week,” followed by the open mic.  Readers with work related to the week’s theme (new theme every week) read first, then if time permits, spoken art on any theme can be presented.
• Open Mic Contest on Sundays, 3-5 p.m. SLT, for “all spoken word artists, poets, singers, rappers to come share your creativity and compete!” Prizes are awarded to the top three vote-getters, ranging from L$1,200 to L$350 in gift cards and cash.

Where: Rhythm & Rhyme Lounge on Phoenix Determined.  (SLURL)

How: All readings are done in voice chat, so you’ll either need a microphone and have your SL viewer’s voice features enabled, or ask someone else with a PC mic to read your writing.

Cost: Absolutely free; in fact, at the Saturday readings, the Lounge intermittently awards Linden-dollar prizes to random members of the lounge’s SL group in attendance (though you will be enticed to spend your winnings on the beverages at the bar!).

Second Life group: For notices of all events, join the Rhythm & Rhyme Group, whose “focus is on creativity, respect, and sharing of knowledge.”

Sunday at Blue Angel Poet’s Dive Bar

I’ve heard about the famous Blue Angel Poet’s Dive Bar from almost my first day in Second Life.  It’s an SL institution; owner Persephone Phoenix is one of the “oldest” avatars in SL, having joined in 2004.  The Blue Angel weekly poetry reading is one of the longest-running in the virtual world—since August 2006.

But my First Life schedule always seems to get in the way of attending one of these readings, so this weekend, I resolved to attend—and was I ever glad I did!

The Poet’s Dive looks just like its name—an old, beatnik-type bar that even offers you a free beret when you arrive.  Approximately 15 avatars were sprawled out on blue beanbags around the stage when I arrived—literally a laid-back affair!

Ms. Phoenix, who is a poet of remarkable skill and talent, started the event by reading a few of her works and those of another attendee (who didn’t have voice capabilities).  Then she called on each of the poets who’d signed up to read. She introduced each one with applause, and gave excellent, supportive feedback to all of them.

The two-hour event concluded with a Poetry Challenge, which I unfortunately couldn’t stay for.  It does sound intriguing—the notice for the event invites everyone to “stick around for the Poetry Challenge at the end of the event to keep your lead sharp. BYOB (Bring Your Own Bongos).”

What to Know about Blue Angel Poet’s Dive Readings:

When: Every Sunday, 5 to 7 p.m. SLT

Where: The Blue Angel, “a dive bar for poets and literary events” on Windermere.  (SLURL)

What: “Bring your meter, your rhyme, your free verse, your spoken word: in short, your poems to the Blue Angel Poets’ Dive and dive in to some wordy wonderment.”

How: All readings are done in voice chat, so you’ll either need a microphone and have your SL viewer’s voice features enabled, or ask someone else with a PC mic to read your writing.  A “line reader” at the Blue Angel displays the poetry in text chat as the poet reads it aloud.

Cost: Absolutely free, though you may spend a few Linden bucks on some of the inviting drinks available at the bar!

Second Life group: To receive updates, IM Ms. Phoenix for an invitation to The Blue Angel VIP Group: “We burn cold like neon, not as gods but as angels, amped on alternating current and fading against the black night — or something.”

You can watch a YouTube clip from a Blue Angel open mic reading here.

I’ve already got a list of open mics for my next post in this series, but I know there’s a ton of options in Second Life for poets to read and even publish their work. What venues have you found?  And if you’ve given them a try, what did you think?  The unheard poets of the world want to hear about them!

Tags: Poetry, Poetry reading, Second Life

What writer’s toolbox does NOT include that basic implement we call the writing prompt?  For many of us, a writing prompt is equivalent to the common hammer or screwdriver.  It’s ubiquitous, useful for just about any construction or repair job, and often works better than a bucket-load of more sophisticated tools.

Entrance to the headquarters of INKsters on the writer-friendly Cookie Island in Second Life.

So of course the writer’s prompt has made it into Second Life.  But one SL group, INKsters, is particularly great at getting us sometimes-slacker writers to pick up that tool and actually pound out a few paragraphs on a regular basis.

How?  By making it fun, easy, and financially rewarding!

INKsters Competitive Writing Group is the brainchild of the writer behind the hilariously named ItsNaughtKnotty Cannned avatar (note the three capital letter in the first name spell INK).  She speaks for a lot of us writers in Second Life when she says she’s “positively intoxicated by the literary community in Second Life.” The daily writing prompts/competition is one way she spreads the “high” around.

As ItsNaughtKnotty herself explains it:

“The INKsters give you a mechanism, loads of encouragement, and maybe a hint of guilt now and again, all in an attempt to spur you on to becoming a successful writer. I started this group . . . because I wanted to force myself to write everyday and hoped a few people wanted to try to do the same thing. Since then hundreds of people have thought the idea made a lot of sense and I’ve published more fiction than in the rest of my life combined.”

Below is the Second Life home of ItsNaughtKnotty Canned, founder of INKsters daily writing competition.

INKsters was one of the first writing groups I discovered in Second Life, and ever since, I’ve been encouraged, guilted, and humored into markedly increasing my daily writing output, thanks to their daily writing prompts.

The prompts range all over tarnation and back, as you might expect.  ItsNaughtKnotty, with the help of others in the gang, comes up with a month’s worth of prompts at a time–sometimes centered around a theme; other times not.  But it doesn’t matter, because the point is to get you writing–about anything you can.

“They’re designed to expand your mind and suggest a possible direction for you today. Please think divergently and create something beautiful, funny, poignant, interesting or informative,” says ItsNaughtKnotty.

The really cool and motivating aspect of the INKsters daily writing prompts is this:  You know whatever you submit will be actually read by someone (ItsNaughtKnotty herself), and if she picks your submission as the day’s winning entry, you will be paid real money.

(Well, truthfully, it’s not a lot of real money–somewhere in the neighborhood of about a penny in US currency–but it’s 25 Linden Dollars, which is a large enough amount to look very nice in one’s Second Life bank account.)  Plus, INKsters publishes all entries (with winners’ appropriately noted) in a monthly Second Life equivalent of a photocopied ‘zine that’s sent to all INKsters group members and made available to all Second Life residents.

Because of INKsters, I’ve been wielding the writing-prompt tool a lot this year—and have a lot more creative writing to show for it—even though I only enter the contest a fraction of the time (usually because I can’t get my piece down to the 500-word limit, or I forget to submit before the 11:59 p.m. cutoff).

All entries submitted to the daily writing competition are published in monthly anthologies available for free to all Second Life residents.

Plus, I’ve grabbed the brass ring three times in the few months I’ve been tracking the contest. (Of course, two of those three wins were shared with everyone else who submitted that day, because ItsNaughtKnotty liked them all, but still, she liked mine, too!)

Yet even when I don’t win the daily contest, I feel like a winner just because I’ve spent that much more time focused on my creative writing.  And it never hurts to re-read what ItsNaughtKnotty says about the “vagaries of competition”:

“Sometimes your most beautiful work ever is overlooked in the judging process, and sometimes a total piece of poop wins, and those of us who’ve been writers for a long time are so used to this, we don’t even notice it anymore. We hope you understand completing and submitting your writing makes you a champion. The competition is a motivational tactic to help all of us feel a sense of urgency to create something beautiful from nothingness every day.”

How can you not want to write every day with a cheerleader like that on your side?

To get the aid of the writing prompts, you don’t even have to have a Second Life account.  Each day’s prompts are posted on the INKsters blog.

Second Life headquarters for INKsters and the group’s daily writing prompts. The blue mailbox on the left is where you submit your prompt response for the daily writing competition.

But to enter the writing contest, you do need to step into Second Life and deposit your writing in the mailbox that “Shakespeare” manages at the INKsters headquarters in Second Life.  (And it’s worth your while many times over to join the INKsters SL group, which you can also do with “Shakespeare’s” assistance.)

So if you’re in Second Life, or thinking about going there, head on over to INKsters’ welcoming corner of Second Life and discover the amazing usefulness and fun of the daily INKsters writing prompt and competition.  And if you’re not, make the INKsters blog a regular stop on your daily writing journey.

The virtual world offers many more tools for us writers, of course!  What have you found in Second Life that’s enhanced your writing practice?  It’s a big virtual world out there, and I’d love to hear about what you’ve found!

Tags: Second Life, Virtual world

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 started blogging, and then share our posts on her blog. So here’s my story . . .

Writers today “must write a blog,” the experts say—especially if they have published or want to publish books. I agree that advice makes sense in this Internet Age, but I put off starting a blog for a variety of reasons: too busy, nothing to say, too public, too blah, blah, blah… And so the years passed.

Early this year, quite by accident (as I reported in my first post to this blog), I stumbled into a writer’s wonderland in the virtual world of Second Life. None of my writer friends knew anything about Second Life, though it was filled with all kinds of opportunities for them. “Self,” I told myself, “you’ve got to get the word out to writers everywhere.”

So I wrote up a query for an article on writing resources in Second Life, and sent it off to The Writer magazine, which I consider the premier writers’ periodical in the English-speaking world. The editors there contemplated the query for more than two months before finally deciding it didn’t quite fit their editorial needs. Now, maybe they were just being polite, but in retrospect, I agree; it wasn’t the type of article they publish.

So the next step was to pick another writers’ magazine to send the query to. But before I did that, an idea struck me like . . . well, not like lightning, but definitely with more finesse than the Bluebird of Happiness’s droppings! The idea: write a blog about writing and Second Life!

It was one of those “kill two birds with one stone” concepts (sorry, Bluebird of Happiness): I could say everything I wanted to say about Second Life with no editor (other than myself) hacking and slicing words and sentences, AND, I’d finally get that necessary-for-a-writer blog a-goin’!

Fortunately, I happened to be in the middle of a great class on blogging given by blogger Teddy Gross (in Second Life, of course!), so with his guidance (or perhaps “pushing” is a better word, Teddy?!!?) and the support of fellow class members H.R. Starr and Rich Ocheis. I created the WRITERS IN THE (virtual) SKY blog!

Whether my blog has any greater impact than a drop of water falling into the ocean, I don’t know. But it’s been great fun, and I’ve met a lot of wonderful people in the process–including Sharon Hurley Hall, whose “Blogging Start Group Writing Project” on her blog was the impetus for this post.

That’s my story of my blogging start . . . and, as the cliche goes, I’m sticking to it!

Tags: about, discoveries, writers' resources

If you’re a writer of any kind or genre—fiction, poetry, journalism, creative nonfiction, etc.—you’ll be happy to hear about the many potential markets for your work in Second Life —way too many to list in a single article, in fact!

In this post, I focus on a periodical market that’s distinctively Second Life and the subject of my last post: magazines you can read like a book while in this 3D virtual world. In that post, I talked about how to read an inworld book.

Above, the THiNC headquarters in Second Life displays the two components involved in “printing” a book: a laid-out book and a printing press. Below, another popular printing press is the IntelliBook Factory. This press uses a similar process, but automates a few more of the steps.

But how do these books get “published”? Simple: inworld books and magazines (i.e., those manufactured like a book you read virtually) are “printed” on “printing presses” invented by the Gutenbergs of Second Life.

Strange, you may be thinking, given the mass, weight, and size of a first-life press. But not really! I grew up in a print shop (my parents published the local newspaper and did job printing at their shop). I played and worked amidst the letterpresses, Linotype machines, and later, offset presses. When I learned about the SL printing process, it actually reminded me a lot of the presses I grew up with <