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beccaelizabethI have been thinking, and today's thought is that sometimes my fan brain and my writer brain pull in quite opposite directions.
As a fan I love my favourite characters. I want to think the best of them. If they seem to have done something horrible then of course it was an accident, because I loves them and hugs them and doesn't want to think they'd ever do that. Even if I saw them do that.
So the Doctor left Jack behind because he thought he was dead, and lied to Rose so she wouldn't worry, and when he finds out the truth he'll be delighted and there will be happy hugs and going off to save the universe together.
You know, a happy ending.
But my writer brain re-examines this, and... that's only a good ending. If there's going to be a next story, then what?
Well obviously plot, save-universe-together type plot.
But...
What if he did leave him on purpose?
Suddenly you have a *character* thing going on. You have motivations that have to be puzzled out, leaving room to reveal more about our favourite guys. You have conflicting desires that have to somehow be resolved. And since we know of course it will resolve as happy-hugs-ending that means taking whatever the reason was and working through it. In the middle of saving the universe with his new and old companions, and a mixture of trust and doubt and heartbreak, and the ways that can interfere with plot, and... you have *character arc*. Just from, well, believing what we saw rather than the very good excuses my fan heart wants to come up with.
And you still have save the universe together plots, but you have character stuff powering through them. And the stories can work on more levels.
And all it takes is letting him be just a little more of a kind of flawed we know he's been before.
I *like* it.
If - and only if - we play through to the ending.
It's like a romance novel - it's no use starting the thing if you don't know there's an acceptable ending.
Except of course it has to be an acceptable middle too, and stories that diverge again afterwards, but there's still ways to do it that are payoff and ways that are just no fun at all.
*nods*
So by that point my fan and writer brains are in agreement.
It's just the writer brain then goes on to ask "What's the worst thing we can do to him now?" to generate more plot, despite the fan brain's ongoing conviction that really what we need to do to him is more of a 'what plot'. Possibly with curtains and babies.
Because if the fan brain actually won I wouldn't watch that and rarely read it.
But if the writer brain's first question wins, and it stays worst thing, I wouldn't watch/read that either.
Stories I look for gots to feed both.
As a fan I love my favourite characters. I want to think the best of them. If they seem to have done something horrible then of course it was an accident, because I loves them and hugs them and doesn't want to think they'd ever do that. Even if I saw them do that.
So the Doctor left Jack behind because he thought he was dead, and lied to Rose so she wouldn't worry, and when he finds out the truth he'll be delighted and there will be happy hugs and going off to save the universe together.
You know, a happy ending.
But my writer brain re-examines this, and... that's only a good ending. If there's going to be a next story, then what?
Well obviously plot, save-universe-together type plot.
But...
What if he did leave him on purpose?
Suddenly you have a *character* thing going on. You have motivations that have to be puzzled out, leaving room to reveal more about our favourite guys. You have conflicting desires that have to somehow be resolved. And since we know of course it will resolve as happy-hugs-ending that means taking whatever the reason was and working through it. In the middle of saving the universe with his new and old companions, and a mixture of trust and doubt and heartbreak, and the ways that can interfere with plot, and... you have *character arc*. Just from, well, believing what we saw rather than the very good excuses my fan heart wants to come up with.
And you still have save the universe together plots, but you have character stuff powering through them. And the stories can work on more levels.
And all it takes is letting him be just a little more of a kind of flawed we know he's been before.
I *like* it.
If - and only if - we play through to the ending.
It's like a romance novel - it's no use starting the thing if you don't know there's an acceptable ending.
Except of course it has to be an acceptable middle too, and stories that diverge again afterwards, but there's still ways to do it that are payoff and ways that are just no fun at all.
*nods*
So by that point my fan and writer brains are in agreement.
It's just the writer brain then goes on to ask "What's the worst thing we can do to him now?" to generate more plot, despite the fan brain's ongoing conviction that really what we need to do to him is more of a 'what plot'. Possibly with curtains and babies.
Because if the fan brain actually won I wouldn't watch that and rarely read it.
But if the writer brain's first question wins, and it stays worst thing, I wouldn't watch/read that either.
Stories I look for gots to feed both.