Juiced On Writing

Last Friday I attended – in Second Life, a full day story quest. I chose to go down the genre route of Murder Mystery, and had the nicest Friday of my busy life just going around the settings in the event, meeting other writers on the quest, and writing up my story.

Today I have received notification that my story submitted (I think I accidentally submitted it twice, really, as I fumbled on the technical side of a virtual postbox) won the competition for the genre, and I have been invited to an awards ceremony in Second Life next week.

Luckily, it’s set at 8pm Saturday night my time – and as I have no social life it’s not a problem for me to turn up. What I’m interestingly shy about is several other things -

1. This is my first public appearance, and I don’t do well in public. Even if I can’t really see people staring at me in a virtual world. Even if I’m hiding behind an avatar with real-look skin, and who’s half the width but several inches taller than me in real life. The thought of being in public makes me want to withdraw my inner child and feed it prozac or something.
2. I don’t know what to wear. Should I go for formal, or casual? My daytime persona in Second Life is as ‘writerly’ as I can get it – ie. I wear business type clothes, and I wear glasses. But in my SL evenings I move into the fantasy realm, including putting together a much remarked upon maori warrior princess outfit (see notes below on things not to do with that). Will turning up to a writer’s awards with a sword or bow cause some consternation, do you think?
3. Second Life provides even more of a problem than simple wardrobe selection. I also am wondering about hair. I have become a collector of hair over my month in second life – I have several styles, all red and curly, which I swap around with much abandon. And then there’s the blue hair I use for one mermaid costume. Again, I wonder what might be appropriate for a writing ceremony. Obviously as a noob I have yet to define my persona to such an extent that I am comfortable in my new purchased skin.
4. I don’t want to read out my story. That is the ultimate terror. Second Life is all about virtual voice overs – I’ve attended several author readings myself, and watched virtual podcast and television recordings where people struggle against skype and other technology. But for me, I’m really not wanting to put my voice on the line, or hear it, for that matter. It’s bad enough the thought of actually attending in public.

Some of these things must be shared with real life contest winners or newly published authors as they contemplate their first public appearance, surely? Granted, the predicament over hair may not be an overall real life concern, nor would you normally encounter wardrobe malfunctions – although I believe JK Rowling has experienced cleavage problems herself. So this IS important, made double so by the following fact.

This invite is for me, somewhat ironic and utterly unexpected. It’s great news that I won with the story, don’t get me wrong. But – this was my first ever short story, and my first ever piece of fiction I submitted to anything – real or virtual. Seriously. No one has ever read my fiction before.

Given that I had a story to submit under deadline, and lots of first and second life distractions, I would be wrong in suggesting that the story is not without its flaws – in fact, on reading back on it, I would rewrite it given the chance.

I would suggest that I did well in writing it (enough for somebody else to like it, thank goodness) because of how the story was presented to me. The organisers of the Storyquest really did well in finding all those inspirational locations, setting out the hints (for me, it was a body), and prompts (each location contained story guiding questions) and giving us a lead in how to write short stories.

Short Stories, as a medium, have never been my own favourite. Perhaps I was forced to write too many of them in my high school years – I was in an extended English class, and my teachers favoured getting us to write lots of fiction, and studying lots of Shakespeare. I tend not to read other short stories – even those published in writing magazines. For me, novels are my own calling – telling a longer story.

So, I hadn’t really explored the short story structure at all before embarking upon the StoryQuest last week, and to be honest, given the distractions of feeling the emotions of the settings I quested through, I fell back into structures I knew from novels, just shortened them. And just wrote. Helped along by what I took (sometimes small, sometimes large) from the settings I was exploring – from a murder scene through Shakespearean mutterings and caves, to the final tranquil and very spiritual Japanese inspired Tempura Island (which I go back to regularly).

The Learning Experience in second life holds twice weekly sessions on creative writing, which is themed around writing a short story. Both these sessions are set at times where I am either working, or at college at night studying for an NVQ. I’ve counted myself unlucky in timing for some time as I’m unable to get to those sessions, but hope to make a 10pm one during the Easter Holidays over here.

The StoryQuest gave me a high impact lesson on short story writing, and in using the reality of the many second life SIMs created with such love by SL users to influence the course of a story project. All within an eight hour period (with time off in the real world for lunch and school trips). And that kind of lesson came free. What a fantastic learning experience that was, then.

Now, if only I could work out what to wear.

Side Notes: Things Not to Do When Wearing a Maori Warrior Princess Outfit for the First Time

On the day that I put this outfit together, from various retailers in Second Life, I teleported over to listen to a reading at Milkwood. The reading was set around some sitting stones, and I sat there, and as is my egotistical habit, instead of concentrating on focusing my camera on the actual author’s avatar, I zoomed it around onto me, and checked out my much constructed warrior princess outfit (complete with lag-free bow).

Only to notice that my metal breast armour bikini, from the side, exposed my virtual pink nipples. Now, skimpy clothing in second life is the de-rigour for any female avatar, but showing one’s nipples around – especially at something like a literary event, is not. You might get away with it at a club, maybe, but at an author’s reading?

What to do? I was horrified. But no one was looking, right?

So I went into edit mode, trying not to draw attention to myself with any drastic movements as I changed position and rotation on those darned metal arches. The next forty minutes saw me cursing like a trooper and glowing increasingly red in real life, as my breast armour darted in and out of my skin, skewed around my breasts, once arrived somehow around my back, and my nipples were more often showing than not.

Did they notice? There were a couple of times when the author stopped reading, but surely she was too busy with her Skype and all, and drinking glasses of water. But did the rest of the attendees, scattered around the rocks, sit there getting an eyeful of non-literary titties and just were kind enough to not tell me off in public?

Or were they, like me, off doing something else while their microphones filled them with the story? I could only hope.

Could I just teleport rudely back home, and would they think the server or grid went down on me? Would they think it even ruder if I just walked out on the reading like that?

Suffice to say, I will never wear my warrior princess garb to another literary event again, and I’m not sure I can actually face any of those people again also. Lesson learnt that not all breasts in second life are made the same. Mine appear to be of two different sizes, for a start.

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