You often talk about your emo!Gene, but I don't believe I've ever seen you write a Gene I thought was emo to the point of being OOC. Where have you pushed him over that line?
the message of the story
I know I've talked big about deciding things, but a lot of that is ideas that have become clearer with distance. When I wrote this, I really had no plans for messages or issues, just a story. It's odd that my commentary makes it sound as if I planned things; I can only think that some of this stuff was going on subconsciously as I was writing.
*stands and gapes at you in raw fascination and envy*
Hah!!! Seriously, it's not a question of discipline, it's the only way I can do it. I don't have "vision"; I can't keep the overall shape of things in my mind, so I have to do it step by plodding step. I can't remember two things at once, for example whether Sam has put his trousers on yet and what he's going to say about Rathbone. So I go through the bits in individual strands, getting them each in the right order, and then I entwine them, hoping the joins won't show. (If you think this is disciplined, you should see some of the early planning for An Unhappy Man. In fact, do - for the accident at the end I'm emailing you the table of actions and the multi-coloured first draft, so you can have a good laugh and gape at me some more, because I don't know if I'll ever get round to doing the commentary - there's just TOO MUCH!)
And you make it look so easy!!!! Well, thank you, but the key word here is "look". I read an interesting comment once, made to a person with severe confidence issues: "You're comparing your insides to other people's outsides."
emo!Gene...remember the "suicide by perp" in Shadow Box? That was originally part of Appearances, where Gene was convinced that Sam was cheating on him and ergo decided life wasn't worth living. Riiiiiight. Just ridiculous, yes? Oh ghod yes. But I loved the set up and refused to dump it, even when Drayce was screaming at me about OOC emo!Gene. So presto-change-o, I dropped the emo bit and shoved it into Shadow Box and it worked. But that is WHY you don't see emo!Gene in my stories, because I won't let him see the light of day. (I suspect my next epic, Legacy will actually tip into emo!Gene harder than I ever have before).
I understand what you mean about retro-grade planning, still, it is clear from your comments that those ideas were knocking around there somewhere. It's just fascinating to see that.
Hopefully I'll get time at work to get to the rest of your commentary today. My internet connection was shut down at home so, gahhhh, I'm UNMOORED! aaaiii!!!
the message of the story
I know I've talked big about deciding things, but a lot of that is ideas that have become clearer with distance. When I wrote this, I really had no plans for messages or issues, just a story. It's odd that my commentary makes it sound as if I planned things; I can only think that some of this stuff was going on subconsciously as I was writing.
*stands and gapes at you in raw fascination and envy*
Hah!!! Seriously, it's not a question of discipline, it's the only way I can do it. I don't have "vision"; I can't keep the overall shape of things in my mind, so I have to do it step by plodding step. I can't remember two things at once, for example whether Sam has put his trousers on yet and what he's going to say about Rathbone. So I go through the bits in individual strands, getting them each in the right order, and then I entwine them, hoping the joins won't show. (If you think this is disciplined, you should see some of the early planning for An Unhappy Man. In fact, do - for the accident at the end I'm emailing you the table of actions and the multi-coloured first draft, so you can have a good laugh and gape at me some more, because I don't know if I'll ever get round to doing the commentary - there's just TOO MUCH!)
And you make it look so easy!!!!
Well, thank you, but the key word here is "look". I read an interesting comment once, made to a person with severe confidence issues: "You're comparing your insides to other people's outsides."
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I understand what you mean about retro-grade planning, still, it is clear from your comments that those ideas were knocking around there somewhere. It's just fascinating to see that.
Hopefully I'll get time at work to get to the rest of your commentary today. My internet connection was shut down at home so, gahhhh, I'm UNMOORED! aaaiii!!!
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