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