Authorly Update - Possibilities for Growing Pains
Instead of writing yesterday I spent what little free time I had (and, being a church musician, that wasn't much) working on the outline and timeline for Growing Pains. It seemed prudent to work through the numbers and iron out any careless errors to make everything match up with what I've already established in the previous parts of GP.
It involved essentially writing the (very bare bones) outline of Jack and the Doctor's shared timeline as it exists in the GP-Universe, up to the events of GP. I've been writing this character, Old!Jack, and having him reminisce so much about his relationship with the Doctor over his three thousand years of life, and I wanted to think through enough detail of their shared lives so that my writing would seem coherent when someone read the whole story in one go.
This, I find, is the biggest danger of posting a WIP in terms of the writing itself, the crafting of the story. You, yourself, can lose track of what you're writing when there are days or weeks in between writing sessions. Sometimes it pays to reread the entire thing before you start writing again, but if I did that every time... especially with multi-part stories... I would never actually have time to write. It leads to random changes in tone across chapters and occasional plotholes the size of the Grand Canyon. A beta would probably help to resolve this issue, but I find myself too impatient after I've finished a part to my own satisfaction to actually wait for a beta to read it!
But I digress.
Working on their timeline wound up spawning plot bunnies. If I stretch my Time Lord senses I can feel a series somewhere in the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey ball of possible futures. It would be a project the size of which I have never before attempted, but the timeline I wound up with just has so many stories worth writing hidden within it. It covers three thousand years, after all.
I shall have to think about this as I write the final part of GP, since it will affect how some of it gets written. The idea of Rose as a main character in the possible future series is a sticking point... her return into the GP-Universe would be an excellent story for the series, so I need to be careful what I do or do not say about her in GP.
For example, if she's a main character in the GP-Universe, why isn't she in the final part of GP? (I think, by this point, I've dropped enough hints that you all know Old!Jack's Doc will be there.) I'd have to rework the Jack-Doctor shared timeline to include her, as well, starting at whichever point she returns in.
The thought occurs that I can solve this by having her return be post-GP, but that causes plot problems of its own. Rose will be an immortal like Jack in this series if she's in it at all, and time runs differently in the universe she's been in. Will she come back older than both Jack and the Doctor combined? (Actually, that might be fun.) She's been away from them so long while they've spent millennia together, how will their dynamic change? How will each character react to seeing the other(s) again? Who will Old!Rose even be? (Old!Jack is a mellowed, wiser Jack. Old!Doc is a more stable, emotionally open Doctor.)
Also, if her return is post-GP, then she has nothing to do with the timeline I've already worked out for Jack and the Doctor. I can tell their story in a second fic, and then perhaps tell Rose's in a third? I have no details for Rose's story yet, only the above ramblings, and I'm not even sure yet how I want to tell the stories that come from the Jack-Doctor shared timeline. (One fic, several shorter fics?)
Am I just thinking too much?
There is lots for me to think about, as you can see. Actually, that rambling is not a bad example of what typically goes on in my mind when I start settling in to work on a plot bunny. Maybe you can consider it sort of a DVD extra for this blog: The Making of an Adaliafic. (Then I can feel like I'm giving you something worth your time, and not just me babbling into a text editor.)
So... does anybody have any thoughts or concerns to add? I'd like to hear what you think about all this, as well. :-)
It involved essentially writing the (very bare bones) outline of Jack and the Doctor's shared timeline as it exists in the GP-Universe, up to the events of GP. I've been writing this character, Old!Jack, and having him reminisce so much about his relationship with the Doctor over his three thousand years of life, and I wanted to think through enough detail of their shared lives so that my writing would seem coherent when someone read the whole story in one go.
This, I find, is the biggest danger of posting a WIP in terms of the writing itself, the crafting of the story. You, yourself, can lose track of what you're writing when there are days or weeks in between writing sessions. Sometimes it pays to reread the entire thing before you start writing again, but if I did that every time... especially with multi-part stories... I would never actually have time to write. It leads to random changes in tone across chapters and occasional plotholes the size of the Grand Canyon. A beta would probably help to resolve this issue, but I find myself too impatient after I've finished a part to my own satisfaction to actually wait for a beta to read it!
But I digress.
Working on their timeline wound up spawning plot bunnies. If I stretch my Time Lord senses I can feel a series somewhere in the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey ball of possible futures. It would be a project the size of which I have never before attempted, but the timeline I wound up with just has so many stories worth writing hidden within it. It covers three thousand years, after all.
I shall have to think about this as I write the final part of GP, since it will affect how some of it gets written. The idea of Rose as a main character in the possible future series is a sticking point... her return into the GP-Universe would be an excellent story for the series, so I need to be careful what I do or do not say about her in GP.
For example, if she's a main character in the GP-Universe, why isn't she in the final part of GP? (I think, by this point, I've dropped enough hints that you all know Old!Jack's Doc will be there.) I'd have to rework the Jack-Doctor shared timeline to include her, as well, starting at whichever point she returns in.
The thought occurs that I can solve this by having her return be post-GP, but that causes plot problems of its own. Rose will be an immortal like Jack in this series if she's in it at all, and time runs differently in the universe she's been in. Will she come back older than both Jack and the Doctor combined? (Actually, that might be fun.) She's been away from them so long while they've spent millennia together, how will their dynamic change? How will each character react to seeing the other(s) again? Who will Old!Rose even be? (Old!Jack is a mellowed, wiser Jack. Old!Doc is a more stable, emotionally open Doctor.)
Also, if her return is post-GP, then she has nothing to do with the timeline I've already worked out for Jack and the Doctor. I can tell their story in a second fic, and then perhaps tell Rose's in a third? I have no details for Rose's story yet, only the above ramblings, and I'm not even sure yet how I want to tell the stories that come from the Jack-Doctor shared timeline. (One fic, several shorter fics?)
Am I just thinking too much?
There is lots for me to think about, as you can see. Actually, that rambling is not a bad example of what typically goes on in my mind when I start settling in to work on a plot bunny. Maybe you can consider it sort of a DVD extra for this blog: The Making of an Adaliafic. (Then I can feel like I'm giving you something worth your time, and not just me babbling into a text editor.)
So... does anybody have any thoughts or concerns to add? I'd like to hear what you think about all this, as well. :-)