Stephanie Marks said:
Watching the text appear? So just big 'ol spoilers and everyone can just see the book as a write it? No. Friggin. Way.
This particular project is a brainchild of mine, so I feel compelled to defend it or at least explain it, even though I should know better.
Maybe the poll questions are too vague.
Let me give you a bit of background. I do a lot of creative writing -- for myself, it's an outlet, not a career for me. That didn't stop me from striving to be as good at it as I could be. Through a bunch of crazy (and fortunate) circumstances, I ended up doing most of my writing in a language that's not my own -- English. As I do most (if not all) of my reading in English, it seemed natural to use the same language for writing. I was at a point where my personal English lexicon exceeded that of my native language. But knowing what words mean, and using them properly isn't the same thing. Add idiomatic expressions to the mix and you have quite a mess. It added another obstacle to my hobby, one I wanted to overcome, not only because I could become a better writer, but it would improve my knowledge and use of English as well.
As I wrote more and more, getting feedback from friends and fellow hobby writers (many of them native speakers), I could see my writing was improving.
And yet, I would find myself doing ridiculous blunders, many of which had nothing to do with grammar. Not directly anyway. After writing three chapters in one tense, I'd realize I just wrote five paragraphs in a different one. Or maybe I'd see that I started off a chapter with a room POV, something that I'd successfully avoided throughout my story. Or I'd see that my latest paragraph was telling instead of showing.
Those kind of mistakes happen. You can find them while beta reading for other writers, or even in advanced reading copies. That doesn't make them any less frustrating.
At some point, I figured out it would be comfort for me to see an established writer do the same mistake. From that desire bordering on schadenfreude, I started building a system/app/service/whatever in my head that would let readers watch writers as they write.
It didn't take me too long to recognize that seeing that my favorite authors were also human wouldn't be the most interesting part of such an application. Watching them create their story, refine it, edit it and so on could teach me a lot. I also thought it would be interesting, not just educational.
That's where
Awethor comes from.
Now, the actual real-world scenario wouldn't really include writing a whole book for everyone to see. You could, if you wanted to, but as I imagine you'd like to publish the thing at some point, why spoil it by broadcasting it to the world?
But think about this: you could tweet to your followers (or announce it on FB or whatever) that you'll be giving them a sneak preview of the first chapter of your upcoming book. You could create it in front of them, or you could have it already written and just type it out (or parts of it) for them, make some intentional silly mistakes, throw in some jokes, rant about a character that keeps breaking away from the plot... You could write a short story, or describe an interesting scene from your life.
It could be a teaching tool, it could be a promotional tool, or it could be an outlet for some exhibitionist tendencies you may or may not have. You could use it privately to watch how you've created a chapter or a story. It could probably have a myriad of uses that have yet to cross my mind.
Or it could be a complete and utter bust.
This is why we've created the short survey. We have this idea and while we all think it has some potential, we're not sure whether it seems that way just because it's been in our heads for so long. This is where you come in and provide a sanity check for the lot of us.
So, thank you, once again! We really appreciate it.
Oh, and my apologies for what is most likely an overly long post.
Anyway, I'd never let anyone watch me write. It would be impossible to focus and it would be way too embarrassing. I'm not interested in watching someone write either.
