As if I didn't waste enough time every day, I've discovered the joys of fiction blogs. Not just blogs about fiction, but blogs as fiction, with fictional characters contributing posts day by day.
I suppose this is old news. Blogs enhance all media, from news reporting to memoir writing, and Blogs as artforms are a natural fit.
Two blogs which I've discovered and deserve attention include Ravenstone. This Blog reads like a young adult novel and follows a 13-year-old boy named Jamie, who loses his mother and has to go live with his grandfather on the border between England and Scotland. It's exceptionally well written and potentially addictive as you settle into Jamie's life and read about all the trouble his natural inquisitiveness gets him into.
Another good blog is Swing Time, a Blog of normal people in Brooklyn in the summer of 1941. You can tell what they are building up to. Then there is Dear Owen, an offbeat blog containing the letters of Ms. Winifred Kensington-Smythe to her missing manservant. It's... odd. And quite funny. And almost impossible to categorize. So, I'll just leave you with my recommendation to go and visit.
These Blogs have all the bells and whistles of non-fiction blogs, including the ability to comment on the posts as they are posted. The author of Ravenstone encourages readers to treat Jamie as a real person and write to him and share their observations on the things he encounters. Intriguingly, I have some difficulty commenting on these blogs. In Ravenstone, the author dumps in a clue that a fellow student who bullies Jamie mercilessly is himself subject to regular beatings from his thug-like father; should I comment and tell Jamie so? As I said to the author, picking up on clues the protagonist hasn't yet picked up on and pointing them out would be like an audience member in a play standing up in the middle of the performance and say to the starring detective "hey, you idiot, the murderer is him, right there, all the clues point to it!" It just doesn't feel right.
I'm actually jealous of these blog writers. I don't have the discipline (and the willingness to work for free) to publish something this involving. Indeed, I need to end my search for new fiction blogs now, or else I'll be glued to my computer all my live-long day.