Ungrateful Bliss is a fiction blog-book, recently unveiled to the reader through posts that are written by a handful of friends. This blog has been likened to a band, but instead of each person having an instrument to play, each person has a character to write.
It didn’t’ start out that way though. The Ungrateful Bliss journey/adventure began only a few weeks ago with my desire to give the main character, Odette, a voice. It was my experiment in literature to figure out how to present a sympathetic female character who but for one enormous, unforgiving flaw, is otherwise a moral person. I was curious to see what the feedback would be. I have since realized that people don’t often post comments that can only be answered by a fictional character! Even so, viewership has more than doubled this second month, which is exciting for us.
Over the first few days of posting I found that the most liberating part about writing Ungrateful Bliss is that Odette doesn’t get to just tell her story through words. Blogging gives her character the freedom to post her photographs, drawings and her poetry. This gives the reader a totally unique insight in to the character. My husband and I are currently writing a song by “one of the characters” in the blog. We have another talented musician friend lined up to make a dance remix of the song. Because of the “electronic freedom” of blogging, we wil be able to eventually, simply link the finished song to the relevant post.
A little further along into publishing Ungrateful Bliss, and after drawing, what have been described as,”quirky” iPad pictures of my characters, I realized that I could introduce each main character to the world by giving them their own voice. The best way to do this would be (like starting a band) to ask my uber-talented writer friends to contribute to Ungrateful Bliss by choosing a character to write posts for. When considering if this was the right direction for my blog, I thought about how TV shows have a team of writers. So I figured that their contribution would be a good way to add incredible dimension to the story. It was the right decision. “My” blog is now, “our” blog.
Ungrateful Bliss posts are unveiled to the reader mostly in “real time”. For example, one day Odette can write about how she thinks her little daughter might have autism, and the next day she may not mention her daughter. She may instead post raw details about the cute neighbor down the street…just like talking to a close friend on the phone. But if the posts need to be tied together to become more lucid, I can simply add links to refer to past relevant posts. Sometimes though, if an important event happens on say, a Saturday, it may take a few days of posting to describe the events of that one day. If the reader wants to start Ungrateful Bliss from the beginning, there is a “read from the beginning” tab at the top of the blog.
On July 21st, Odette’s younger sister, Astrid debuted her first post…by whispering to the reader, a dreamy secret. Look out for posts by “Chris” coming over the next few days.
Ungrateful Bliss is definitely a Chick Lit Blog. The writers even get the added bonus of posting pics and links of super-cute outfits that our characters “wore out to the club” and cool items we love, like a Darth Vadar alarm clock (something that Odette notices in a bedroom she shouldn’t be in). The creative freedom of this blog is staggering, may I say, blissfully staggering. But since Ungrateful Bliss is based on a book, it will have pre-designed and planned twists, turns, major drama, and an ending…with a cliffhanger.
