How I Write

My personality type was always telling me to pack light, run fast and loose, don’t ask permission, beg forgiveness instead if things went wrong, and improvise your way out of trouble.    

Richard Grant

                                                               

          Since I’ve been blogging for the last year about my travels across Second Life (SL) I’ve been asked by my inworld friends and other acquaintances about how I write.  I think they mean where do the ideas for my stories come from?  Sometimes they ask about what the motivation is behind my blogging.  I think they are going to be surprised about the method to my madness.

          I know many writers (real writers, not hacks like me) have a methodology which they use to produce their stories.  Serial writers of popular fiction have templates which they use to turn out their regular installments like a well tuned assembly line.        

          I, on the other hand, do not follow such conventions.  I like to be a merry wanderer without commitments and deadlines.  (OK, I’ve failed miserably with the last, I do blog regularly.)  However, as I said previously there is a method to my madness and this is what I’m blogging about now. 

          Although, one nice thing about wandering about inworld is that I get to come home to my own bed in Real Life (RL) each evening.  (Virtual worlds have many advantages over reality sometimes.) 

          So what do I do?  Nothing terribly complicated.  I start by going walkabout.  In the beginning, I was looking to meet the various communities inworld and see what they were about.  I’ve been with vampires, nudists, and the BDSM community.  Then I hang around with them for awhile.  (I have to admire how they put up with me.)  I go where my leads take me.  For example, meeting someone in Nowaki, the neighborhood that I live in when inworld, led me to the BDSM community inworld.  Which in turn led to other folks and places. 

          While hanging around (and wearing out my welcome) I try to learn who is in the community.  What do they do?  How are they different from other communities?  Why do they let me hang around?  And, finally, what am I doing there myself? 

          I find myself staying longer and longer within these communities trying to answer these questions.  I’m also finding how open and hospitable folks are in SL. 

          This blog is the second in a trilogy I’m writing on the first anniversary of my beginning to blog about SL.  Next week, I’ll blog about pushing the edges of the envelope in SL.

          I want to thank all those who have helped me and guided me along my way over the course of the last twelve months.  The list is too long to write but I thank each and every one of you.  What I am truly grateful for is how each of you opened yourselves up and gave me something which I could share with the broader group. 

As always, I’m grateful to all for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was passing through their lives. 

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

     If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.