Fear and shivering in 'Second Life'

On my web writing blog, The Publishing Spot, I recently tried a new experiment -- running a bit of feature journalism alongside my usual interviews and publication tips.

In "Fear and Shivering in Second Life," I'm trying to explore how the first-person reporter POV changes inside the online world of Second Life. This is only the first installment, and I'm looking for some advice from other journalists about how to proceed ...

"My super screwed up last month, leaving my building without heat for 5 days; without hot water for 7 days; without a stove for two weeks. Gas companies were called and city inspectors inspected, but I still spent $110 in electricity running a space heater 24 hours a day. On top of all that, I lost my shot at publishing the best story I had all year.

"As I contemplated burning furniture for warmth, I 'escaped' to a wacky press conference held entirely inside the computer-generated world of Second Life. Time has passed, wrapping both these events together in my head—much like a wooly mammoth and a diamond mine buried under the same glacier. Something compels me to tell both stories, even after the editors killed them.

"In real life, I was pounding away on my laptop and breathing puffs of frozen air. In Second Life, I was lounging on the tropical island pictured above, with a crew of pixilated characters that included a blue skinny Martian, a Goth girl with a shimmering halo, a foot-tall monkey with cymbals, and some guy dressed tight black pants who floated in mid-air, bitching about everything he saw."

Keep reading ...

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