Real Novel Preface

From PenguinWiki

[edit] Preface

You do not know me.

My name is not attached to any best seller in the New York times book list. Neither is that of any of my companions. I don't even know who they really are, where they live, how old; whether they're man or woman or child. Rich or poor. Whether they enjoy dancing along to They Might be Giants or Barenaked Ladies as I do, or whether they only listen to the classical sound of Mozart or Chopin.

I am one of "the million penguins".

Intrigued, excited at the thought of collaborating with countless other like-minded individuals in this strange, artistic social experiment being conducted by Penguin Books.

Wondering if out of the babble of millions, can a cohesive, and interesting story be formed.

I am no published author. I am a normal person out there with a mundane day job that pays the bills and little else. For others this may be their day job.

It doesn't matter. We are all equals here with the ability to craft our words, have our say; and be applauded or cut by the editorial decisions of the next writer coming on board.

And there have been many coming on board. In the first days of the story the site being plagued with outages; the administrators saying it was being hit by as many as 10 people a second, more than the average pornography web site.

It has been used, created with, enjoyed by countless numbers; contributors and undoubtedly confused readers alike.

It has been abused by vandals; although even in vandalism some semblance of art exists.

Leaving egos at the door we can find humor in every verb being replaced by "Smurf" or a main character's name change, and sudden "wind" problems. The novel changing from the detective, crime novel; to that of farcical space comedy with low gravity ensuring dead bodies float 5 feet off the ground, rather than slumping in a crumpled heap.

I don't know what will become of us, of our words. Will the novel become more than it is? Will we become more than we are? Or will it just crumble into a pit of never-ending revisions and nit-picking and ego clashes?

Time will tell. I'm hoping for the best.

--Mas 05:06, 4 February 2007 (EST)

Thanks for this Mas. A brilliant summary.--Jhoward 05:25, 6 February 2007 (EST)

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