Friday, October 10, 2008

Alas And Alack!

National Novel Writing Month site.
Weekend Novelists Forum Index

The Free Dictionary.com

From The Desk of Liz Ensley:


I have no idea if anyone purveys this blog: but OpenOffice froze my system, so I finally ended up deleting it. With National Novel Writing Month around the proverbial corner, well, I want to take no chances.

That is, if I can tear myself away from World of Warcraft long enough.

Yes, I'm still studying their world-building. Whether or not you accept it as such, MMORPGs are also a form of literary entertainment.

What? I hear you say. Heresy! It's gaming, so how can it be literary?

Well, for one thing, it's clearly inspired, not merely by te influences of television, but alos from sources of literary merit. The essential plot(s) (multiple, non-interactive story lines) are also clearly thus inspired. Not to mention some fans have not only been inspired to write about their characters, perhaps on blogs, but also to draw comics. Yes, I love comics. ^_^ And hopefully, I wil have no argument as to the literary merit of the graphic form fo storytelling.

And this, friend, is the crux: WoW is essentially a form of graphic storytelling,even with the corny jokes pre-programmed into the characters.

Anyway, even with the expansion coming out this month, there is a lot of story involved. How much of this was pre-conceived and planned for, and how much improvised with each update? The world may never know.