Time to leave Goatswood and those who became familiar faces for the past 12 days. Ernest, the picky but generous stationmaster, Augustus, the innkeeper, ambitious but loyal as well, Isabella and her daughter Kelly, which one the darkest soul, Fred, Ron, Millie, and a few others whose lives were forever changed in the course of that day, when bad weather brought them together at the picturesque Gothic Victorian village of Goatswood in Second Life (SL) and in our imaginations!
For the remainder of June Avatar Blogger Month, we move from long-fiction to flash-fiction. The next project is called “Blind Jump Into…” and it’ll be a series of stories inspired by pictures. One day, one picture, one story. No plot drafting, no character preparation, just a keyboard and a picture.
A last note for today. The shot above was taken at Retropolis. Many of you who are SL residents might remember the amazing build by Tricia Farella. Retropolis is now gone, but I chose this picture for its powerful symbolism. We’ll have more pictures, new stories and powerful words. I hope you take the challenge and embark with me in this trip.
And onwards we sail!
Agnes Sharple
Botgirl Questi
Bumblebee (Wendz Tempest)
Canary Beck
Carissa Arthurine Somerset
Eva Marie
Fuschia Nightfire
George Coghill
Ironyca Lee
Jeremy Owen Turner
Joseph DeLappe
Kathleen Cool
Katie Vizenor
Krista Hoefle
Kristine Schomaker
Lizzie Gudkov
Aero Bigboots
RMarie Beedit
Marmaduke Arado
Isabella Medici
Nadya Tolokonnikova
Nathan Shafer
Pixel Reanimator
Ravanel Griffon
Scarlett Luv
Strawberry Singh
Tabitha Raincloud
Toni Tyldesley
Trilby Minotaur
Vanessa Blaylock
Xue Faith
Yordie Sands
So exciting! One of the biggest things I’ve come to learn is how much truth there is in fiction. (Windows 8 User’s Manual has “facts” but not deep “truth” / Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is “fiction” and also powerful human “truth”)
Fascinatingly, your “fiction” set on “virtual” “places” gives them a sort of resonance, or deeper presence, or “truth.”
Thank you, Van! A virtual world such as Second Life is an extraordinary resource in what writing is concerned. The fact that the characters go from characters (constructs) to becoming people (with feelings, fears, people we could perfectly imagine sitting next to us) existing in a specific location that actually exists, virtually, is something extremely powerful. As I walked through Goatswood, preparing for “It Takes a Village”, the characters and the story came alive, slowly at first, then faster and faster, turning these characters into a “someone” with whom we establish a relationship of proximity/distance, a connection. This is the magic of fiction. Having the possibility of bringing fiction and virtuality together is an amazing and unique adventure.
Yes, yes, yes Lizzie! There are so many peeps running around a virtual world like Second Life trying to cipher the experience: lots of anthropology PhD candidates wandering around collecting data… lots of peeps from every corner of the globe wandering around looking for dates… lots of merchants trying to figure out whether selling hair or selling real estate will be a better business… even a bunch of peeps making art of all kinds… So many souls in their myriad ways trying to grok the placefulness of virtual reality.
I think you’ve really got “the magic of fiction” and in a sense, sometimes rich, sometimes poor, a virtual world is a sort of beautiful fiction (perhaps not life as it is, but life as it should be) So writing fiction about a fictitious place… it’s this crazy, house of cards, wings of wax, that could just as easily melt when you get too close to the sun, but somehow manage to hold together, and provide remarkable vistas on the human experience.
Picasso famously said,