Online fans take
over writing duties for The L Word

Showtime announced Tuesday that an aspiring Colorado novelist is the winner of an online script-writing contest for its sapphic soap, The L Word.

The contest, launched February 3, invited online fans of the show to write, read, rate, and discuss short scenes based on a "scene mission" provided by writers of the show. Fans submitted scenes, the online community voted, and at the end of each week the most popular scene was added to the script in process. The process repeated for seven weeks until the entire script was completed. Showtime now has the option of producing the finished script.

Jan Naugle, a practicing naturopath from Colorado Springs, was selected as grand-prize winner as part of a random drawing of the seven weekly winners.

The contest was partially sponsored by Fan Lib, a software and services system that creates online experiences such as Showtime's writing contest. (The Advocate)