On line novel: The Binding

[Doug Johnson]

"On Monday, March 13, Slate will launch an exciting new publishing venture: an online novel written in real time, by award-winning novelist Walter Kirn. Installments of the novel, titled The Unbinding, will appear in Slate roughly twice a week from March through June. While novels have been serialized in mainstream online publications before, this is the first time a prominent novelist has published a genuine Net Novel—one that takes advantage of, and draws inspiration from, the capacities of the Internet. The Unbinding, a dark comedy set in the near future, is a compilation of "found documents"—online diary entries, e-mails, surveillance reports, etc. It will make use of the Internet's unique capacity to respond to events as they happen, linking to documents and other Web sites. In other words, The Unbinding is conceived for the Web, rather than adapted to it."

http://www.slate.com/id/2137804/

Anyone interested?

 

[Shade]

If they really meant 'written in real time,' ie seeing the words appear on the screen as he writes them, then I'd be interested!

As for breaking new ground, bar the gimmick of a few links to other online resources, it seems like any other serialised novel (eg Ronan Bennett's Zugzwang, currently appearing in the Observer). And for cross-referencing cleverness in web-fiction, I recommend Carfilhiot's blog and Fauxhunter's site.

 

[Doug Johnson]

The first installment was kind of interesting: literary, sci fi combo.