A Novel Million Blog
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Three years on... where are things at?
Hi all,
well the time has passed and if anyone has been following the website (http://www.anovelmillion.com/) you will notice a large lack of activity (as well as here with the blog). So what happened, where am I, what is the future?
OK, so the website and progression of stories did not roar ahead as hoped three years ago and my own personal obligations needed to become a focus. Basically, the website started off with a bang and a lot of press interest. This was also seen in the website stats- a lot of people were interested in my website but unfortunately there were not too many people actually purchasing words. Since the website was based on an evolving story, the lack of new input to the stories was not a good thing. The website was needing a lot of my time (and i mean a lot). At the same time as the website, I was a few years into my PhD and needing to conduct some seriously long experiments. Under these circumstances one thing needed to happen, so I stopped focusing on the website and more on my PhD. Obviously people were still looking at the website, but since I wasn't receiving requests to contribute to the stories/buy words it was easy to switch my time to the PhD.
The PhD got serious. I talked at a number of conferences around the world, have published papers and am now officially a Doctor (of philosophy). During all these times, I was checking the website emails but not actually promoting the website since it requires a lot of time and (believe it or not) money. In fact, all of the money that I made (plus some) went on advertising in the beginning. Anyway, the website remained online in the background just in case I had time to give it another go in the future.
Where am I now? Well I finished my PhD and became a Doctor last year. I then celebrated with a few holidays- Sth America and India. I finished up in New Zealand January 2010 and I am now doing a post-doc in France. France is great- I love it here. I live in a chateau (now converted into apartments) on the beach and am loving the change in culture, language, environment. I'm not sure what the future will be with my personal life, but things are going well at the moment.
And what about the website? It's still online and welcomes submissions. I definitely lost the energy to continue my blog and promote the website with everything else that was happening in my life. I also learned from the period when the website began that it takes a lot of energy to run the type of website that I have. I am not going to be so active in the future unless it takes off, but I have decided to put a bit of my energy back into it.
So it's back online and open for submissions. But the websites success, and the amount of energy that I actually devote to the website is really based on the input from others. Let's hope that people will read this blog, realise that I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth, and will contact me with their interest and contributions- this is where the real fate of the website lies.
au revoir pour maintenant! (bye for now)
Oh yeah, to check out my website and what I am talking about, here is the link http://www.anovelmillion.com/ ¶ 3:09 AM 52 comments
well the time has passed and if anyone has been following the website (http://www.anovelmillion.com/) you will notice a large lack of activity (as well as here with the blog). So what happened, where am I, what is the future?
OK, so the website and progression of stories did not roar ahead as hoped three years ago and my own personal obligations needed to become a focus. Basically, the website started off with a bang and a lot of press interest. This was also seen in the website stats- a lot of people were interested in my website but unfortunately there were not too many people actually purchasing words. Since the website was based on an evolving story, the lack of new input to the stories was not a good thing. The website was needing a lot of my time (and i mean a lot). At the same time as the website, I was a few years into my PhD and needing to conduct some seriously long experiments. Under these circumstances one thing needed to happen, so I stopped focusing on the website and more on my PhD. Obviously people were still looking at the website, but since I wasn't receiving requests to contribute to the stories/buy words it was easy to switch my time to the PhD.
The PhD got serious. I talked at a number of conferences around the world, have published papers and am now officially a Doctor (of philosophy). During all these times, I was checking the website emails but not actually promoting the website since it requires a lot of time and (believe it or not) money. In fact, all of the money that I made (plus some) went on advertising in the beginning. Anyway, the website remained online in the background just in case I had time to give it another go in the future.
Where am I now? Well I finished my PhD and became a Doctor last year. I then celebrated with a few holidays- Sth America and India. I finished up in New Zealand January 2010 and I am now doing a post-doc in France. France is great- I love it here. I live in a chateau (now converted into apartments) on the beach and am loving the change in culture, language, environment. I'm not sure what the future will be with my personal life, but things are going well at the moment.
And what about the website? It's still online and welcomes submissions. I definitely lost the energy to continue my blog and promote the website with everything else that was happening in my life. I also learned from the period when the website began that it takes a lot of energy to run the type of website that I have. I am not going to be so active in the future unless it takes off, but I have decided to put a bit of my energy back into it.
So it's back online and open for submissions. But the websites success, and the amount of energy that I actually devote to the website is really based on the input from others. Let's hope that people will read this blog, realise that I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth, and will contact me with their interest and contributions- this is where the real fate of the website lies.
au revoir pour maintenant! (bye for now)
Oh yeah, to check out my website and what I am talking about, here is the link http://www.anovelmillion.com/ ¶ 3:09 AM 52 comments
Thursday, May 31, 2007
D.I.A.H.
Still here for all concerned and whomever might want to converse via email.
Life can be shit,
Life can be fun,
The world is an interesting but dirty place.
Ignorance and stupidity rules.
Menial tasks prevail,
Self-centered deception is rife.
Interesting truthfulness is rare. ¶ 9:57 PM 0 comments
Life can be shit,
Life can be fun,
The world is an interesting but dirty place.
Ignorance and stupidity rules.
Menial tasks prevail,
Self-centered deception is rife.
Interesting truthfulness is rare. ¶ 9:57 PM 0 comments
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Hello people
Blog wise, I've been absent. But believe me, I've been busy. Yeah, lots has been happening with me. I've been working a bit more and have just started an experiment. I can basically see the next month being torturous due to an enormous work load. I've got to wake up early for another huge day tomorrow etc. etc. for another month solid. The last person who said they wanted to put something into the story has gone quiet again. No worries, as I said last time, unless this thing starts to go huge, it's more of a background thing at the moment. Hi mum. ¶ 10:58 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
ou est mon tete?
Anyway, life carries on and this website is hanging out in the background at the moment. I think that one day I might become a celebrity due to the lack of forward movement on my stories. We'll see. Anyway, I'm really just trying to come to terms with the fact that I am in the last year of my PhD and have a lot of work left to do. I'm lacking motivation in a large way and am sort of wondering why I'm doing it at all. I really need to knuckle down and lead a boring life for the next 12 months, but at the moment all I want to do is hang out with friends. I'm kind of awakening from the monotonous slumber of a 4 year relationship.
I'm potentially talking at a conference in Australia later this year, so that's something to look forward to...as well as a few other potential plans that I'll elude to at a later date if they happen.
My computer is now back up and running and it only took about 4-5 days to rectify! I remember having a crappy computer in my Honours year. It kept giving me grief time after time. Here's hoping that the same thing doesn't start happening now. The flies have starting having sex around the house and are pissing everyone off. I definitely noticed their absence this summer and thought we might actually not see them, but they've made a late appearance.
¶ 9:57 PM 0 comments
So this whole website idea is definitely not snowballing!!! Last month I was thinking that maybe this was going to be a good year for it (but it is still early days in 2007).
Anyway, life carries on and this website is hanging out in the background at the moment. I think that one day I might become a celebrity due to the lack of forward movement on my stories. We'll see. Anyway, I'm really just trying to come to terms with the fact that I am in the last year of my PhD and have a lot of work left to do. I'm lacking motivation in a large way and am sort of wondering why I'm doing it at all. I really need to knuckle down and lead a boring life for the next 12 months, but at the moment all I want to do is hang out with friends. I'm kind of awakening from the monotonous slumber of a 4 year relationship.
I'm potentially talking at a conference in Australia later this year, so that's something to look forward to...as well as a few other potential plans that I'll elude to at a later date if they happen.
My computer is now back up and running and it only took about 4-5 days to rectify! I remember having a crappy computer in my Honours year. It kept giving me grief time after time. Here's hoping that the same thing doesn't start happening now. The flies have starting having sex around the house and are pissing everyone off. I definitely noticed their absence this summer and thought we might actually not see them, but they've made a late appearance.
¶ 9:57 PM 0 comments
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Arrgh
Computers are driving me crazy. Since my computer tried to download the new version or internet explorer last thursday things have not been working. Ive had to fully re-format my computer twice and reload all the software, and then the updates...... It's a long process believe me. Hopefully it's almost over.
Potential new entry to the Word Story which was talked about late last year. Just waiting to hear back from the author. ¶ 9:15 PM 0 comments
Potential new entry to the Word Story which was talked about late last year. Just waiting to hear back from the author. ¶ 9:15 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Still ticking in Nelson
I've just said goodbye to the final holiday-goer in NZ.... my sister. She left yesterday, and I can officially re-focus on my PhD now. Last weekend was a pretty funny affair, with Saturday and Sunday spent recovering from a very large Friday night. But late-nights-out are a thing of the past, and late-nights-in are going to be standard fare I do believe.
I've now got some photos of the trip around NZ. Just looking through them I can actually only find two of all 4 of us together. So they one are being included as a point of necessity. Those two were taken towards the end of our road trip and we were all feeling the effects of too much abuse and not enough sleep (although we did pick it up most nights again!). The others are showing a bit of the camping, partying, scenic aspects of our trip. No prizes for guessing which one is my sister. Happy birthday to Kylie for today. ¶ 11:33 PM 1 comments
I've just said goodbye to the final holiday-goer in NZ.... my sister. She left yesterday, and I can officially re-focus on my PhD now. Last weekend was a pretty funny affair, with Saturday and Sunday spent recovering from a very large Friday night. But late-nights-out are a thing of the past, and late-nights-in are going to be standard fare I do believe.
I've now got some photos of the trip around NZ. Just looking through them I can actually only find two of all 4 of us together. So they one are being included as a point of necessity. Those two were taken towards the end of our road trip and we were all feeling the effects of too much abuse and not enough sleep (although we did pick it up most nights again!). The others are showing a bit of the camping, partying, scenic aspects of our trip. No prizes for guessing which one is my sister. Happy birthday to Kylie for today. ¶ 11:33 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
1672 characters sold!!!
This is officially the largest effort to date. We had actually been discussing this last year, but the whole thing went on the backburner for both of us. However, he's come through with the goods in the festive season. Now, hopefully I can also get the Word Story moving forward again with an entry from the last person who contacted me late last year.
Watch this space!
Oh, and two days back into my research, it's become pretty clear that there's one or two things on my plate in the near future. ¶ 8:19 PM 0 comments
Wow!! this is the biggest contribution yet.... Cheers to the Christmas period....I'm back from holidays and my reliable VIP author has put in a mighty effort. Only a mere 1672 characters for the Million Character Story!!! This has pushed the story into a substantial lead over the Word Story in terms of completion.
This is officially the largest effort to date. We had actually been discussing this last year, but the whole thing went on the backburner for both of us. However, he's come through with the goods in the festive season. Now, hopefully I can also get the Word Story moving forward again with an entry from the last person who contacted me late last year.
Watch this space!
Oh, and two days back into my research, it's become pretty clear that there's one or two things on my plate in the near future. ¶ 8:19 PM 0 comments
