I’ve blogged about blovels before since I think they’re intriguing and, let’s face it, a brilliant idea! Serving up a novel in chunks was good enough for Charles Dickens so I think it should be good enough for the rest of us.
I was interested to stumble across a few vaguely official definitions of a blovel. One at http://friendfeed.com/blovelspot suggests 40 or so chapters of 1,000 characters each. That seems too short to me. Elsewhere 40 or so chapters of 500-1000 words are suggested which I would tend to agree with, which would give you a decent sized novella at the end of it. You post a chapter at a time, at least one a week, but no more than one a day.
Other important aspects to take into account are:
Structure: have a beginning (approx first 10 chapters), a crisis (chapters 11-30) and a resolution (31-40).
Narrator: go for the first person, but you can hop between characters to give their viewpoints of a situation.
Try and end each chapter with a cliffhanger.
So, are you inspired? Here are some blovels currently out there that are worth a look.
1. Something Fishy by Rorie Stevens
Entertaining mystery-romance, with some fishing thrown in. But you don’t need to be an angler to enjoy this well written story.
2. Land of Kuro by Mykall: Asian dystopian fantasy
3. Broken Vow: Widowmaker’s Return by R A Evans: the author’s first go at fantasy
4. Hourglass by I’m not sure! Science-fiction
5. Before The Dead (B4TD) is: “a novel project between two authors (B and K). We are going to try to bring to you a story of adventure, terror, and horror. We hope to update every month or so.”
6. The Ladiez and their Confessions by Quiyada: Follow India, Sasha, Hillary and Jazmine, “unedited and uncensored”.