I have the sense that I won't be writing my novel on line; Steve Himmer, who has actually written a novel (more than I can say) has presented the issues with clarity & panache over at his blog, OnePotMeal, so I won't repeat them here. In the context of our discussion, though, I will say that doing the writing in public would change the language game is a way that would impede this particular story. For one thing, I want to use the aesthetic distance of fiction in order to write about certain themes very close to my own nerves; that is, I need the cover of fiction to give myself freedom to write about things like anger, madness, infidelity & brutality. To some extent, I need to be secretive. Without thinking much about it, I opened one of my little Vietnamese school notebooks to a middle page & took out my new CONFIDENTIAL stamp (which they gave me because I now handle student records) & stamped the top of the page where I began taking a few notes for the story I want to tell. I might try to blog a long poem, though. Something philosophical.