That might be interesting.  It sounds like something that might do well in an episodic format if it goes long at all, though.  The kids these days have no attention span.

I agree with Tojo.  The kids have no attention span.  They like visuals. 

Also, to get someone to read a whole conversation it has to be pretty damn interesting. 

It's a good concept, though.

If you haven't already seen Greg Pak's Robot Stories, I think you might find it intriguing and useful (addresses the role of technology in human intimacy, among other things). Your premise/synopsis seems to have equal parts [Gregg] Araki, Rian Johnson's Brick (film) and Chuck Palahniuk's Rant (book). I don't think it needs the redundant focus of the Internet to highlight a burgeoning sense of depersonalization in our culture...where we have more ways than ever to connect with each other but still feel alone, misunderstood, or unfairly judged. Regardless, see the Palahniuk regarding "oral histories," as IMs are essentially abbreviated versions of same.

Consider this: Would you ever do a prose piece that was basically nothing but dialogue, and not even linear, intelligible dialogue at that? (i.e., avoiding chatspeak or SMS formatting...I don't think I'd personally read a whole novella of LOLs)

I ask since it will require considerable tech effort before I even get to the point of writing the thing. If I'm just riffing off a stoned idea, I might want some outside perspective before blowing a lot of time on something no one will watch.

I'm thinking now it would have to be episodic, at least at first while I try different things and get a feel for it. Still needs more thought.

choad wrote:

Hero 29/M/Mountain View
Princess 28/F/Emeryville
Foil 29/F/Santa Cruz
Dude 32/M/San Jose

I know enough about each of these disparate places to wonder what these characters see in one another.

I find it helpful to continually ask myself, what do they want?

If they're as stoned as Orangeplus, it's likely to be a 7-layer Burrito.

How left handed is this going to be, anyway?

orangeplus wrote:

The cities are chosen for effect. I would think most bay area residents would be able to come up with workable stereotypes of people who choose to live in those places and about their lifestyles. I can see in each of them a fully formed character through the lens of people who grew up in suburban central valley California, bounced through the state college system and fell into their places in the world. It's not something I want to spend time explaining in the course of the story, but I know these people, even though they are not modeled on any particular friends of mine, they are all familiar types. Choosing those particular cities allowed me to write their personal stories in my head. I already can guess how they will behave in certain situations, what's important to them, what kind of lifestyle they lead. None are big pot smokers, but one has a bogus dispensary card, just in case they might want to.

See, since not everyone lives in San Fran-fucking-cisco, none of the cities meant jack shit to me.  I just kinda skimmed over them as unimportant names of places.  As a lifelong sci-fi devotee, I'm used to doing that with planet Zyrklon or whathaveyou, and if a real human place's name has no attached information in a story I'm reading it hits that same hardwired neural algorithm.

orangeplus wrote:

the "reader"'s browser will become the image of a fictional (Hero's) desktop as he is having multiple conversations concurrently, as well as opening and using links to medie (youtube, etc) to opening twitterish, blogish, forumish applications to help move the plot along and make points.

I have no constructive opinion about the storyline, but I think this sort of presentation would be a  novel and potentially effective way to tell a story.

Good luck with this!