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| - With the rise of the internet, a new method of breaking the fourth wall has been developed; a blog kept under the alias of one of the fictional heroes (or, occasionally, villains) in a comic, show or book. The writing will be done "in character," and readers may be allowed to correspond with the character as if they were a real person. They are becoming increasingly popular, with many major series having some sort of Character Blog in operation. Quite a few webcomics like to employ these as well. The Character Blog may serve several functions:
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| abstract
| - With the rise of the internet, a new method of breaking the fourth wall has been developed; a blog kept under the alias of one of the fictional heroes (or, occasionally, villains) in a comic, show or book. The writing will be done "in character," and readers may be allowed to correspond with the character as if they were a real person. They are becoming increasingly popular, with many major series having some sort of Character Blog in operation. Quite a few webcomics like to employ these as well. The Character Blog may serve several functions:
* It can provide a new angle to the existing plotline, by writing the story in first-person perspective rather than the omniscient view of the story that the audience usually gets. This can be highly effective if there are blogs for different characters in the same show - The Ditz will probably have a very different take on things than The Smart Guy, for example.
* It can offer supplemental stories, filling in the time that the characters were "off air" or providing relief from the main storyline, such as doing a silly entry or personality when the Canon plotline is rather dark. May also fill in backstory or provide more Character Focus than the canon can afford to provide, or keep the audience informed on a character who is currently Out of Focus or uninvolved in the present rotating arc. This is a popular use of the Character Blog for webcomics, which often don't have the time or space to fit in all the stories an author would like to tell - it's much quicker to write a text entry than to draw a comic.
* It acts as a Fourth Wall Mail Slot, allowing the fans to interact with the creators, with the alias of the fictional character as an intermediary.
* Basically, it makes the character seem more real. Usually, the Character Blog is seen as positive, a quirky addition that exists between Canon and Fanon; it adds to the story, but isn't mandatory reading. Webcomic Time can be a headache to such blogs, since the comic may take several weeks to tell a day's worth of story, while the blog is kept in real time. It's not without its pitfalls, however. It's much more difficult to hide things such as Writer on Board or Creator Breakdown when writing a blog, and the assumed identity may slip from time to time. Conversely, a writer assuming the identity of a character with strong Jerkass tendencies has a fine line to walk between portraying the character accurately, and using the fictional personality as an excuse to sneer at any fan who ventures a question via the blog. A lack of professionalism in the blog's writing may result in an extreme example of the GIFT theory. It may also be confusing to young readers, or to people who stumble across the blog without being familiar with the show. It's unlikely, but the possibility exists that the character is mistaken for a real person, particularly if the source material is obscure. Since a full-on blog can take a lot of work to update regularly, characters often instead create microblogs on Facebook or Twitter. May be part of a larger Alternate Reality Game. Compare Vlog Series. A complete work in this form is a variety of Log Fic.
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