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

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 of us, the answer to that question is probably “can’t remember, it’s been so long,” or “in my dreams.”

But writers in Second Life now can enjoy that experience whenever and as often as they like, thanks to writer and teacher Jena Ball, who has created the beautiful Storybook Island in Second Life for that very purpose.

I recently spent a lovely afternoon (when my physical world temperatures were far below zero and heaps of snow covered the ground) wandering the Story Trail at Storybook Island and writing, and I came away quite excited at the outcome.

Here’s how it works:

• Jena, who goes by the avatar name of Jenaia Morane in Second Life, has created a trail over hills, through dales, along the ocean, and around a pastoral pond at Storybook Island.
• Story Trail starts at the bottom of a hill, where a single flower grows under the pine trees and next to a tree stump on which you can sit.  You click on the flower to receive a notecard with excellent instructions on how to prepare for a meditative, creative approach to the journey.
• Then, at your own pace, you climb the hill and walk along the high ridge, stopping five more times along the way.  Each stop is again marked by a single flower growing next to a tall pine and a tree stump for sitting.  You click on the flower, and receive a notecard with a writing exercise to complete.
• The seventh, and last, stop on the trail invites you to sit down and write the story that has been incubating in your mind as you completed the exercises along the way.  There’s the standard stump if you wish to sit, or you can step across the stones to an island in the middle of a pond, where you can relax and write in real comfort.

By the time I reached the island, I was delightfully surprised by what my fingers had typed in response to the exercise.  Without thinking about it, just letting the ideas flow as I sat amid the beautiful scenery and listened to the sounds of nature, I ended up with several scenes or partial scenes I can use as I revise the novel I wrote during National Novel Writing Month!  An excellent afternoon’s work! 

Although you can travel the Story Trail however you wish—fast or slow, doing as many or as few of the exercises as you wish—and the exercises are such that they can be done repeatedly, Jena’s goal for Storybook Island expands beyond just the individual writer:  She is gathering stories for The Virtual Worlds Story Project, an initiative to “collect, preserve, and share stories in both physical and virtual worlds.”

“Ever since I first set foot in Second Life, stories have been coming to me.  Stories that made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt.  Stories that made me furious.  Stories that tore at my heart and brought me to tears.  And stories that made me happy to be alive.  Throughout, one thing has been abundantly clear — Second Life is real, as real anything I have experienced in my first life, and profoundly intense, engaging, and eye opening besides.”  ~ Jenaia Morane

“I hope writers will really get going here,” Jena said through her avatar, Jenaia Morane.  “It’s how we will make sense of virtual reality.”   It’s a big part of her vision:  “My goal is to make SL quite real to the rest of the world, to help them see that there is something unique and valuable to be learned in a virtual world about what it means to be human.”

Awesome, Jena/Jenaia!

I totally support that vision, because it’s exactly what I’ve come to realize about and hope for Second Life.  Even better, she’s implementing these lofty ideas with real programs.  Storybook Island is one.

Another includes free writing classes, starting Feb. 14, where you can get feedback on your Story Trail stories, as well as learn the craft of writing short stories.  (More information is at Storybook Island, as well as at Storybook Hut in Karuna on Second Life.)

And at the end of Story Trail, you are invited to submit your stories to be considered for publication both in-world and on The Virtual Worlds Story Project Web site, as well as for broadcasting on I Avatar: Stories from the Virtual Edge, an every-other-week radio show to be broadcast on Radio Riel, an Internet radio station based in Second Life, starting February 11.

“Stories are welcome in a variety of formats including: narratives, poems, lyrics, audio files (music, song, readings), videos, photos, paintings, and 3D builds,” according to the submission guidelines.  Authors are also encouraged to submit stories that fit certain themes, which will increase or change over time.  Current themes include:

• Writing for Our Lives — stories by those dealing with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses
• From the Edge — stories by the disabled in Second Life
• Love Me, Love Me Not — stories of relationships in SL
• Show Me the Lindens — making business pay in virtual reality
• The Teacher Within — life lessons from virtual reality
• The Healer Within — stories about those who seek to help others in virtual space and how their lives are changed and impacted as well
• Crossing Over — how Second Life touches and informs first lives and vice versa
• The Agony and the Ecstasy — stories of artists working in virtual reality

Jena Ball is a professional writer and writing teacher, with a long list of publication credits.  She’s taught “traditional” online writing classes for 11 years. (Strange, but I didn’t expect to call e-learning “traditional” quite so soon, but SL has changed all that!)  As Jenaia Morane, she also writes the blog Days of Our Second Lives, where you can read her fascinating post about how she came to create Storybook Island and The Virtual Worlds Story Project.

So, whether you live just south of the tundra (like I do) or in the balmiest climate on earth, I think you’ll find something quite magical in the virtual outdoor world of the Story Trail in Second Life. 

Have you found places like this in your Second Life travels, where the location or the objects there or just the ambiance make it a special place for your writing?  Add a comment below if you have; I’d love to hear about — and visit them!

Tagged as: authors in SL, Jena Ball, Jenaia Morane, Radio Riel, Story Trail, Storybook Island, Virtual Worlds Story Project, writers resources