Live Blogging A Story

This was an idea that Rish and I had a while ago, maybe as much as four months ago. "Let's both write a story, and each day, as we write it, we post it on our blogs." Except, at the time, Rish was right in the middle of a story (that he would later lose the notebook it was written on), and he wanted to finish it up first before moving on to the next one.

 "We'll do it some time soon," we said.  When he finished his story, something came up, and then something else.  Pretty soon it was a forgotten thing.

Sometime in April, we recorded an episode of That Gets My Goat, and somehow we brought this idea up while we were talking.

"Is it safe to say," Rish asked as we recorded, "That by the time this episode comes out, we'll have done this live blogging a story thing?"

"Oh, yeah," I said with my usual groundless confidence, "We'll do it soon."

That episode of TGMG was what is known as in the biz an evergreen episode, meaning that it had no event that its release needed to coincide with.  It could be released at any time.  It was always green.  I went home, pulled the file off my Zoom, and sent it to Rish, and promptly forgot that it ever existed at all.

Fast forward a few months, and Rish was looking for an easy edit, a TGMG episode that he could bust out really fast, so he could get back to the responsibilities and deadlines that were breathing down his neck.  He looked at the episode we'd recorded that night, and figured we couldn't have talked for more than 15 minutes about that particular subject, so it should do nicely.

It turned out to be a full hour of us gabbing, and it wasn't until the 58th minute that we started talking about that live blogging thing.  After spending all the time it took to edit the episode, Rish was loathe to set it aside and edit a different one.  So, now, it turns out we've gotta do this thing that we've talked about at last.  Until we do, we can't release another TGMG.

So, what does that mean?  It means you, loyal reader, are in for a treat (or a trick?).  Rish and I will, starting Monday, be writing stories live on the blog.  Each day, however many words we managed to write will get posted on the blog for anyone to read.  And we will keep going until we are done.

As per what I said on that long ago recorded episode of TGMG, I will be writing a story about family who has a child whose dreams somehow manifest in the real world, and the ramifications of such a circumstance.

The story will be called "Fireflies", and was inspired by the song with the same name by Owl City.  However, it will not be anything like an Owl City song.  It'll be more like a B.D. Anklevich story.  Rish Outfield may be the only one out there who really knows what a statement like that means, because he's the only one who has read very many of my stories.  So, most of you won't know until it comes to an end what I'm talking about, but my plans for this story are 100% classic B.D. Anklevich material.

I hope there's somebody out there who is excited to hear about this other than just Rish and I. I think, based on comments I've heard from people in the past, that there are.  I also hope that I am able to do a good job with this story, and live up to, nay exceed any expectations you might have.  Perhaps, if this works out well, maybe I'll do it again.  Hell, maybe I'll just publish everything I write this way.  Who knows?