while readers speculate madly, I am the only one who can Fill in the Blanks for alll the bits in this saga that I skipped
yes, the ultimate Authority. Why does it work that way, I wonder? tim and I were just talking about this--how for a while people were speculating that electronic communication was going to change the way narrative worked--that stories would no longer be linear, but you could choose different plotlines and structures--not just stories, but the way people could collect information, too. And it turns out it doesn't work that way at all, that people *want* their stories to be linear--not only that, but if there's an alternative ending, for example, they want to know which ending is definitive. Curiously, I speculate just as madly as my readers re. what could/might happen, and there are all kinds of weird alternative plotlines in my head (you don't want to KNOW what happens to Lleu in the version where he DOES get delivered to Morgause at the end of The Winter Prince), but despite this I know clearly which is the "real" plotline; what Actually Happens.
The book I am working on at the moment has forced me to slightly compromise the historic integrity of my own invented world. It requires that I expand rather fantastically on a short story I wrote about 15 years ago--it wouldn't matter except that the story was published. Someone out there will read both, eventually, and be disturbed by the non-alignment of certain events. In my own defense, well, you could say the short story had to be written the way it is to maintain its own internal integrity. It's like an oikotype of a folktale, a local version that doesn't turn up anywhere else and doesn't travel. And anyway, the book will be much better than the short story, so a little obscure and minor inconsistency won't kill me.
But because the story was *published*, I think, it took much more mental agony to push myself in the right direction for the book and say: Suppose it happened THIS way? MAKE it happen this way.
(Of course, the other thing I have to say in my own defense is: WHO'S QUEEN?)
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The promise of tragicomic spectral appearance by Alex gives me palpitations!
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2007-05-21 03:13 pm (UTC)yes, the ultimate Authority. Why does it work that way, I wonder? tim and I were just talking about this--how for a while people were speculating that electronic communication was going to change the way narrative worked--that stories would no longer be linear, but you could choose different plotlines and structures--not just stories, but the way people could collect information, too. And it turns out it doesn't work that way at all, that people *want* their stories to be linear--not only that, but if there's an alternative ending, for example, they want to know which ending is definitive. Curiously, I speculate just as madly as my readers re. what could/might happen, and there are all kinds of weird alternative plotlines in my head (you don't want to KNOW what happens to Lleu in the version where he DOES get delivered to Morgause at the end of The Winter Prince), but despite this I know clearly which is the "real" plotline; what Actually Happens.
The book I am working on at the moment has forced me to slightly compromise the historic integrity of my own invented world. It requires that I expand rather fantastically on a short story I wrote about 15 years ago--it wouldn't matter except that the story was published. Someone out there will read both, eventually, and be disturbed by the non-alignment of certain events. In my own defense, well, you could say the short story had to be written the way it is to maintain its own internal integrity. It's like an oikotype of a folktale, a local version that doesn't turn up anywhere else and doesn't travel. And anyway, the book will be much better than the short story, so a little obscure and minor inconsistency won't kill me.
But because the story was *published*, I think, it took much more mental agony to push myself in the right direction for the book and say: Suppose it happened THIS way? MAKE it happen this way.
(Of course, the other thing I have to say in my own defense is: WHO'S QUEEN?)
-----------------
The promise of tragicomic spectral appearance by Alex gives me palpitations!