Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

I had thoughts in my head but I am tired. They were going to be along the lines of how do you keep from messing over your series (besides meticulously plotting every detail which many of us aren't going to do). It might even be a case where you DID plot stuff out but then a cool idea hits you and you want to use it. Let me use a few examples from long running shows/movies and one short running one.

1. Joss Whedon's Buffydom. He's messed up his own series more than once or at least didn't think things through. I swear he had a cool idea 'little blonde girl saves the world' (okay he's said as much) but the whole idea of one girl in all the world was always a stupid idea. She can only keep one tiny part of the world safe. All the baddies have to do is NOT be in that city. So the series ends on trying to fix that.

I think Angel is a perfect example of a cool idea coming late and the creator being unable to resist (Spike too). We know Angel was meant to be one and done (Spike too) but the fans loved him so much they kept him. Somewhere someone decided that OOO what if Angel goes bad and it's Buffy's fault (truth, S2 Buffy is my favorite year) but to work around the gypsy curse they decide a moment of pure happiness makes him evil again. Uh...has this ever made sense? I still don't know why they went with this but fans have been working around it for years.

2. Star Wars - Lucas can say he planned it all out ALL he wants but that just makes it worse. You can't convince me he had planned out anything beyond A New Hope. Otherwise he purposely gave us an incestuous kiss. I sincerely believe the idea of Luke/Leia being twins came later but they were stuck with that kiss. (And let's not get into Ben not realizing Leia is a second hope when A New Hope establishes well that Leia knows Ben from some time before the movie)

3. The Owl House (still need to watch the finale) There is definitely a different theme in S2 vs S1 though S1 does lead up to it) but again I'm not sure they really plotted it all out well (because maybe they didn't think they'd get S2) I say that because in S2 the whole plot of the Day of Unity is based on the 9 coven systems. However in S1 in Convention Gus says there's 9 main covens and hundreds of small ones (baking coven, tiny cat coven etc) . This makes no sense if Emperor Belos needs the 9 covens as a means of harnessing (and destroying) people. Unless these are unstated offshoots of the main 9, why would they split power they need into hundreds of factions of little covens (It feels like they did it to be cute before the main villain's plan was finalized).

So how do YOU keep from making mistakes or jumping on cool new ideas that don't quite fit your world but would be fun inside of it anyhow?


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Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> So how do YOU keep from making mistakes or jumping on cool new ideas that don't quite fit your world but would be fun inside of it anyhow? <<

I worldbuild from the core out. That means I start either with the idea or the form, then do the other one, then work out from there. I try to have clear guiding ideas for each setting, so I can tell what fits and what doesn't. Frex, for A Conflagration of Dragons, I handbuilt the Six Races from elemental traits, and the dragons are a separate build; I'm not going to mess that up by throwing in some other race after the fact. A good framework prevents many mistakes.

I keep notes. Some I make beforehand, others after. I have many thousands of pages of notes about characters, locations, etc. I have repeatedly oopsed a book with language notes. So if I'm wondering, "Where did this character go to college?" I can check my notes and there it is. I don't have to try and remember all that -- there are way too many characters -- so looking it up means I get it right.

I know what kind of mistakes I tend to make. For instance, it's hard for me to navigate in my head, because the timespace continuum has a flimsy grip on me at best. So I try to find a floor plan or images of a place that I can use to organize character movements, descriptions, etc. If I've got a reference, they'll stay consistent.

Re: Thoughts

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks that's helpful.

Oh good, I'm not the only one who needs to find floor plans and images for places. I am admittedly awful at picturing that in my head. I need that even more than character sheets, though I have those too. I'm 100% likely to forget where a tattoo is or a scar. I have to keep track of that stuff

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Thanks that's helpful.<<

Yay, I'm happy I could help!

>>Oh good, I'm not the only one who needs to find floor plans and images for places.<<

Definitely not. The timespace continuum has a flimsy grip on me at best. I have a hard time navigating or telling left from right, but if I have an image, I can keep things straight.

>> I am admittedly awful at picturing that in my head. I need that even more than character sheets, though I have those too. I'm 100% likely to forget where a tattoo is or a scar. I have to keep track of that stuff.<<

I really like the PDQ game engine. That offers a great framework for describing characters. It's what I use for Polychrome Heroics. Ordinary characters just have a name, physical description, and Qualities. Superpowered characters also have Origin, Uniform, Powers, and Motivation. I like to throw in education for most characters with a college degree, because that really helps shape their knowledge base.

Re: Thoughts

[cornerofmadness]

same here, I struggle with picturing places, often if I'm out and away from my main photo stash, place holders go in the manuscript til I can see them

oh that engine will be helpful thanks

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> same here, I struggle with picturing places, often if I'm out and away from my main photo stash, place holders go in the manuscript til I can see them<<

Yeah, I have some favorite floor plans that I've reused multiple times.

>> oh that engine will be helpful thanks <<

*bow, flourish* Happy to be of service.

Re: Thoughts

[cornerofmadness]

sounds good, thanks

[spikedluv]

Notes. Lots of notes! *g*

[cornerofmadness]

definitely that