Log Fic

One style of Mockumentary, where it's a recognizable type of computer document — IRC chat log, forum posts, guestbook, Facebook posts, blog entries, email, etc. It's almost always a Fan Fic or history fic, mainly because it's an "easy" form, and it's almost always at least part-comedy, mainly because it would be hard to take this seriously anyway.

It could also be an Apocalyptic Log. May be integrated with a Fourth-Wall Mail Slot. Character Blog is a variant usually done as part of a larger work. Compare Gag Dub.

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Examples:

Fan Fiction

• The Avengers Shouldn't Text, which is a Slice of Life log of texts between the The Avengers set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• The number of Facebook fics in the Glee fandom is insane. Some of them are really good. Others... not so much.
• The book Ophelia Joined the Group "Maidens Who Don't Float": Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook by Sarah Schmelling is a collection of several classic lit titles as told through Facebook updates.
  • Jesus on ThyFace: Social Networking for a Modern Messiah does something similar for the New Testament.
• Since Homestuck is made largely of chatlogs, there are tons of fanfics for it that are based around just one long chatlog.
  • There's also the fic "Self-Imposed Challenge", written as a series of forum posts.
• A British design studio recreated the film Home Alone entirely through tweets, including a Twitter page for every character who had a part, in realtime over Christmas 2009. They did the same for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York over Christmas 2010. They don't plan on doing Home Alone 3 or 4... "ever... as those movies suck. That is all."
• "Lonebot" and "Curlehbrace" reenact Cave Story through the Twitter feeds of the player character and Curly Brace.
• This summary of Watchmen in the form of a Facebook feed.
• On CollegeHumor:
  • 5 Star Wars Status Updates
  • Gamebook: 5 World of Warcraft Status Updates
• Cracked.com
  • A Series of Emails From Cyberdyne's New Tech Guy pokes fun at terminally unsafe behaviour of certain characters in the Terminator movies.
  • A borderline example in 6 Movie Plots That Could Have Been Solved In Minutes — a blitz Fix Fic for Twilight Saga: New Moon (It Makes Fun Of Context).
• Korrabook has the cast of The Legend of Korra post on a Facebook-esque social site about the events that happen in the series.
• Fan Fic to Horatio Hornblower miniseries called "Hornblower and the E-Mail Saga" by Laura is made up entirely of e-mail messages. Characters have funny and punny e-mail addresses (for instance, horatio_hornblower (at) handsome_heroes.com). They face various problems connected to the Internet and the world of IT that mirror the events in the Navy from the series. Part 1 based on "The Even Chance", Part 2, based on "The Frogs and the Lobsters" and Part 3, based on "Mutiny" and "Retribution".
• Act One of The Next Frontier takes the form of Jebediah Kerman's Captain's Blog.
• Most of the Harry Potter fic The Naked Quidditch Match takes the form of "m-mails" (equivalent to e-mails) exchanged among characters.
• Sub Rosa is a Sherlock Holmes multimedia fic in telegram form - each telegram is an image - and set during the Great Hiatus.

Literature

• Encryption Straffe has sections of chapters shift to this when the characters are having conversations online.
• The Ink Black Heart: Most of the series of Cormoran Strike Novels are told by Switching P.O.V. between detective partners Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. This one sometimes departs from that formula, with several chapters instead consist entirely of chat logs from online fantasy game "Drek's Game". Sometimes there are as many as three separate chat logs on the page, consisting of three vertical columns, as players and moderators of "Drek's Game" talk to each other.
• The short story ''Wikihistory'' by Desmond Warzel is formatted as a Wiki discussion page.
• The online novel Ultimate Dream is written in the form of a Character Blog, with comments on each entry by the character's friends. The story progresses in the form of blog posts by the Deadpan Snarker narrator, as she and her friends play a Role-Playing Game and get sucked into the gameworld.

Live Action Television

• iCarly has a reasonable number of this. The general idea is often some kind of 'gossip blog' run by Wendy, with the characters posting messages on the site. Wendy will write an article claiming xyz have happened, and the characters come in so that Hilarity Ensues.

Theater

• Water by the Spoonful: Most of the scenes between "Haikumom", "Orangutan", "Chutes and Ladders", and "Fountainhead" take place in an online chat room for crack addicts. This is represented by the actors in different locations, delivering their lines without making eye contact, with screens behind them showing their chat room posts.

Video Games

• The plot of Cytus II is told through blog posts and comments on the Twitter-like social media site iM. The DLC characters, meanwhile, have their story relayed via diary entries, recaps of camera and audio recordings, and e-mails.

Webcomics

• MSPA Homestuck could be the introduction to many people of this style.
• There was a brief sequence in Zebra Girl following Sam in an IM conversation.
• Gunnerkrigg Court's side story City Face has metafiction Bonus Material — comments where City Face himself, other birds and City Fairies laud or abuse each other, internet guestbook style.
  • This strip of Quarter Life Comics.

Web Original

• NFL Quarterbacks On Facebook
• The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog have this as a framing device.
• Scourge chat logs series. "Wyrms before worms!"
• Dorkly.com has the whole "Gamebook" column (Artificial Stupidity is featured more often than not):
  • Dorklassic: 5 Videogame Status Updates
  • A GoldenEye N64 Henchmen Reports Back to His Superiors
  • Zelda and Link are Having Relationship Problems
  • Sims Facebook

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