Cool. I'd be interested in that. Don't worry about scaring me.
I'll admit I'm fairly ignorant about multiplicity. I've wondered about it a bit- where the line is between fictional characters and multiple personalities. I'm not thinking they're the same thing, but wondering if there's sort of a spectrum or some grey areas in the middle there. Personally, I think of my characters as fictional- I can edit what they do, their main purpose is for entertainment and to create a story, but at the same time there is something going on there- They've done things that I don't expect, the stronger ones tend to really write themselves, and they cross the fourth wall like crazy and do stuff like watch movies with me. My characters have always been a huge part of my life and it feels great to be able to let them out to interact with people in places like this.
At the same time, I'm definitely interested in getting critiques, having people be able to say whether or not my characters have individual voices that come across or not, and a potential problem that immediately came to mind is that if we get somebody who is a multiple, or not in whatever the heck the fictional/multiple middle ground is, I doubt they would like to be critiqued. To solve this, we could have the critique post be voluntary- basically have a post for critiques where people can start comment threads asking for critiques on their own characters, instead of letting people just go ahead and critique whoever they want. Although I'm sure that could lead to some pretty interesting debates if a character/person/jiko/whatever didn't want to be critiqued and had to stand up to defend themselves. Or we could let the fictional people critique the real people as well and let it get REALLY weird! :D
I'm also not so sure if non-fictional multiple people would be so comfortable putting themselves in the same category as fictional people. I imagine that could be a sore point for some of them. But if we're setting up the place as "It doesn't matter if you're real, fictional, multiple, whatever- you can come out and chat here", then if they're not okay with that, they shouldn't be there anyway. Same with any not-multiple-or-fictional people who want to stop by.
About Dekan- I think it's a good idea. My biggest problem with that is since it's from your story, instead of a blank canvas place, it makes me feel a little limited in what I can do there. Like I'm still trying to figure out the rules. And I don't think many of my characters could do well there, since I'm definitely more in the non-magical science fiction thing. I'm looking forward to getting to explore the place a bit, but I don't think even Jim is going to want to stay long.
But I do like the idea of being able to get fictional places involved in this as well. And not just in the way the pizza party happened, with the whole blank space ending up full of psychedelic trees, although that was awesome. Maybe we could let people start posts describing their place, and then let them sort of be the game master in the comment threads for whoever wants to show up and explore or hang out there.
I guess my ideas aren't so good for if you're wanting to do this in a way that's more focused on promoting your book. Your Dekan community would be fine for that as is, and I'll definitely be reading it and interacting there any way I can. I just think a blank-space-in-the-dreaming could bring in a more varied group of people, and while it might be less focused, being a creator/moderator/participant would probably get some attention, and you could promote Dekan there and do both.
Anyway, wow I'm rambling. Just sort of throwing out ideas. Let me know what you think.
I suck at coming up with names, so I probably won't be much help there.
Re: YES
I'll admit I'm fairly ignorant about multiplicity. I've wondered about it a bit- where the line is between fictional characters and multiple personalities. I'm not thinking they're the same thing, but wondering if there's sort of a spectrum or some grey areas in the middle there. Personally, I think of my characters as fictional- I can edit what they do, their main purpose is for entertainment and to create a story, but at the same time there is something going on there- They've done things that I don't expect, the stronger ones tend to really write themselves, and they cross the fourth wall like crazy and do stuff like watch movies with me. My characters have always been a huge part of my life and it feels great to be able to let them out to interact with people in places like this.
At the same time, I'm definitely interested in getting critiques, having people be able to say whether or not my characters have individual voices that come across or not, and a potential problem that immediately came to mind is that if we get somebody who is a multiple, or not in whatever the heck the fictional/multiple middle ground is, I doubt they would like to be critiqued. To solve this, we could have the critique post be voluntary- basically have a post for critiques where people can start comment threads asking for critiques on their own characters, instead of letting people just go ahead and critique whoever they want. Although I'm sure that could lead to some pretty interesting debates if a character/person/jiko/whatever didn't want to be critiqued and had to stand up to defend themselves. Or we could let the fictional people critique the real people as well and let it get REALLY weird! :D
I'm also not so sure if non-fictional multiple people would be so comfortable putting themselves in the same category as fictional people. I imagine that could be a sore point for some of them. But if we're setting up the place as "It doesn't matter if you're real, fictional, multiple, whatever- you can come out and chat here", then if they're not okay with that, they shouldn't be there anyway. Same with any not-multiple-or-fictional people who want to stop by.
About Dekan- I think it's a good idea. My biggest problem with that is since it's from your story, instead of a blank canvas place, it makes me feel a little limited in what I can do there. Like I'm still trying to figure out the rules. And I don't think many of my characters could do well there, since I'm definitely more in the non-magical science fiction thing. I'm looking forward to getting to explore the place a bit, but I don't think even Jim is going to want to stay long.
But I do like the idea of being able to get fictional places involved in this as well. And not just in the way the pizza party happened, with the whole blank space ending up full of psychedelic trees, although that was awesome. Maybe we could let people start posts describing their place, and then let them sort of be the game master in the comment threads for whoever wants to show up and explore or hang out there.
I guess my ideas aren't so good for if you're wanting to do this in a way that's more focused on promoting your book. Your Dekan community would be fine for that as is, and I'll definitely be reading it and interacting there any way I can. I just think a blank-space-in-the-dreaming could bring in a more varied group of people, and while it might be less focused, being a creator/moderator/participant would probably get some attention, and you could promote Dekan there and do both.
Anyway, wow I'm rambling. Just sort of throwing out ideas. Let me know what you think.
I suck at coming up with names, so I probably won't be much help there.