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Sneaky writers who blog as their own fictional characters
April 8, 2007
By Katie Haegele
On the Internet, as the old joke goes, no one knows you're a dog.
In fact, no one has to know who you are at all.
The anonymity afforded by digital media has led to some interesting developments in fiction--an arena where making pretend has always been the order of the day.
Scott Stein, Associate Director of the Certificate Program in Writing and Publishing in the Department of English and Philosophy at Drexel University, has just published his second print novel, a satire called Mean Martin Manning. Manning is a recluse who hasn't left his apartment in 30 years, and who has become the pet project of a persistent social worker named Alice Pitney. Before the book was published some of its characters were already online, blogging, posting comments, and promoting their own projects.
Stein maintains four different websites relating to his novel: Martin's personal page (www.meanmartinmanning.com), Alice Pitney's blog (http://alicepitney.blogspot.com), the "official" website of a TV show from the book (http://www.itsdrkaren.com), and the Martin Manning for President site (http://www.mmm4prez.com), the only one not run by characters from the book. (His platform? "Everyone leaves everyone else alone.")
Different levels of reader interaction are possible on the sites, and the characters who blog are able, of course, to comment on other blogs. Stealth blogging, Stein calls it. Pitney has even left comments on the political print magazine *Reason*'s blog "Hit and Run."
"She waits until the thread topic is appropriate, and then writes something provocative," Stein says of his uptight alter-ego. "At first, a couple of the regular commenters took her seriously, argued with Pitney or insulted her, and others quickly figured out that she wasn't real. Some people have had some fun with her, playing along."
Stein says it's not his intention to fool people; each site features a picture of the book's cover somewhere. Rather, he says, the nature of his novel allows him to signal to readers that these online personas are fictional.
"Since the novel is a satire, and an outrageous one, Pitney isn't exactly a subtle character. What seems like tongue-in-cheek is pretty true to how she is in the novel -- so over-the-top that out of context you might think she was performing a parody. If some people ask themselves at first, She can't be serious? and then they realize that she is satirical, not real, that's fine."
In the UK, novelist and journalist Alison Norrington is preparing the launch of her fourth novel, Staying Single, as a blog written by the novel's protagonist, unlucky-in-love Sophie Regan. Sophie has vowed to remain single for a year and she will begin blogging about it on April 25, with chapters to be delivered by email, text message, and podcast. Reader interaction is encouraged, and Norrington plans to include short documentaries contributed by readers on the Staying Single blog (http://sophie-stayingsingle.blogspot.com).
But Sophie will also be a character in Second Life (www.secondlife.com), a highly developed three-dimensional online game where players create their own characters. Characters in Second Life have careers, families, and a whole world filled with stores, art galleries, and the like for them to visit. Reuters even has a bureau there, with journalists intervewing people in character and reporting news such as real-world businesses that also operate within the game (http://secondlife.reuters.com/). Sophie will talk via instant message with other characters within the game, as well as with the flesh-and-blood readers of her blog.
"I would like for readers to really engage with Sophie as a real character," Norrington says. "Although she is fictionalized she is very much a real person in terms of her thought processes and emotions. As a published novelist I am very aware that writing a good book means getting the reader to unpack her bags and settle in for the duration."
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