Second Life: Writing

When I first came to Second Life I was intrigued by the writing community. I wanted to write a novel, set in Second Life. I started writing it several times, but was never motivated enough to finish. I felt discouraged by this, I thought writing was my thing; in Real Life I had been writing poetry, short stories and academic work all my life. So instead, religiously, I went to book reading events and writing forums, perhaps looking for inspiration. But I found these events dull. Until the day when I encountered Huckleberry Hax. He was reading a chapter out of one of his books at an event. I found out that Huck had written several novels set in Second Life. Needless to say, I became a great admirer. It was also around this time that I met Igor Ballyhoo and I became involved with the art community, which for some reason appealed to me much more than the writing community. I gave up on wanting to write a novel and started working on Nordan Art and the blog writing began. I invited Huck to read at Nordan Art. At some point we partnered and Second Life writing and reading became a big part of my life again. We went to Second Life reading events together and I no longer found them so dull. Through Huck I have learned that in order to be a Second Life fiction writer you had to be driven; Huck wrote all the time, he couldn’t help himself, he just had to do it. He wrote Second Life novels, short stories, poetry, AVENUE Magazine articles and blog posts and had found a way to make it all seem easy and natural. Writing was clearly his thing. Huck was well-known in the Second Life writing community. He was also invested in getting his written work published and found ways to do this. All of his books were published and available online. Obviously, writing was hard work and if you wanted to get your work noticed by larger audience you had to invest time and energy into properly promoting yourself. It became clear to me that writing fiction in Second Life involved so much more than simply half-heartedly beginning drafts of a novel.

Photo above by Flora Nordenskiold.