Live-screening the writing process for fans?

I've been thinking about doing this if I ever become successful enough. Showing your screen live while you're writing, editing, outlining, drafting, etc. Only for some stories, and perhaps only for a select group of fans?

This shows them your process and may be of interest to people in general.

There would be some slow moments of course, where you delete whole paragraphs only to retype them again. But the ecstasy in seeing a story unfold in real-time might be interesting. Could be a chat next to the video where the fans can guess at what may happen next or just comment away.

What do you think?

 

I wouldn't think a livestream would be very interesting—about like watching paint dry. But maybe an edited version. Record it live and then edit out all the boring stuff (which would be an incredibly boring job). Better yet, don't record all of it, just parts. And intersperse closeups on the words with shots of you staring pensively into space, scratching your ass, and then pouring and chugging a tumbler of whiskey. The Writing Life, amirite?

 

Over on Youtube, there are some authors who do this. Most of them just put their camera at an angle at the room and livestream themselves typing on the computer instead of their screen though, and they title their steam "Write With Me" so it's less aimed at hardcore fans of their novels and more just fellow novel writers who happen to follow their content. There is one author though who does as you described and livestreams their entire writing process including beta revisions and such. Typically they do it two to three times a day for an hour+ each day and there's around 3~15 people who watch regularly while doing their own writing so, like...

You can absolutely do it, I just don't think you'd attract a lot of people, and the people you do attract will probably be more fellow writers than your actual readers.

 

Would there be anything left after editing out the boring stuff? Watching paint dry or grass grow would be more interesting in my opinion.

Honestly I think your time could be better spent elsewhere. I don't think even hard-core fans of your work would find this interesting beyond the 30 seconds of curiosity factor.

 

Possibly a brief video of the editing process, but only as a refined experience rather than a livestream.

Eh, when you end up with big fans, they'll want bits and pieces of what inspires you or why you made certain decisions. Trivia, basically.

 

I read an article about something like this years ago. It was a country in South America, but I can't remember which one. Anyway, they would have these writer writing and there story showing up on a big screen. It was held in a bar, and I think the bar goers were somehow voting. The writers were going head to head with a crowd right there cheering them on. It went on for a series of nights, and the winner was given a book deal. I think you might need to get your viewers into a bar for this to work. Seriously, though, there has to be something fun about it. Otherwise, as I always say, no one likes to read a first draft.

 

I suppose you could consider that Bob Ross' show was the same concept, except he's actually doing something.

 

Yeah, this would probably not be very popular at all, but more for a small niche of hardcore fans or people interested in the profession, perhaps.

Isn't writing doing something?

 

I recently found out Pirateaba does something like this on Patreon, the difference is the video is of the screen where the writing is going on. Keep in mind this is only available to subscribers.