Plot detangled

I solved the murder mystery component of a plot I've been attempting to wrangle.
It's a bit frustrating, the time between knowing what the murder scene looks like and only as much as your detective knows, and figuring it out. It's a bit difficult to write so much as the next scene, with only those parts. Now I know.
... I feel all accomplished and stuff, yet I've not set pen to paper for the actual writing of this.

Also, when I say 'solved', I mean I know the how and why of things. I haven't named the characters or described them or anything useful like that.

Poll #5828 The naming of things

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

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If I name a character Captain Jack, is that

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obviously a rip off of Torchwood AND Pirates of the Caribbean AND Master and Commander AND many folktales and songs all at once
2 (28.6%)

Pretty generic, since all those others have already used it
5 (71.4%)

If that Captain Jack has a flexible relationship to mortality, does that change things?

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Yes, he's clearly Torchwood AND Pirates
4 (57.1%)

No, there's still several of them, it's still just a fairytale name
3 (42.9%)

If that Captain Jack has multiple copies, does that change things?

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See, now you're just down to Pirates, that's cheeky
2 (28.6%)

Nothing wrong with ripping the good bits from Pirates to completely new contexts
3 (42.9%)

Don't worry, nobody will notice
2 (28.6%)

If I have a mix of characters from various fandoms yet am not writing a fanfic crossover, do I need to rename them all to file the serial numbers off?

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Yes, people are going to notice if you have one from Star Trek, one from SG1, some Doctor Who, a splash of B5, and...
5 (71.4%)

No, they're stirred together so much nobody will notice
0 (0.0%)

As long as the surnames change they're not the same anyway
2 (28.6%)

The way I figure it is, if I take a bunch of characters from fandoms that would never meet, throw them at each other, in a setting that is a whole new 'verse (even if it do use familiar tropes like stargates and psi, it remixes those too), and don't worry about keeping them 'in character' compared to the television versions but just let them be the people in my head, I'm not in fact writing fanfic. I wouldn't call it original, but there's a grand shortage of originality in a great many stories and they worked out okay. (I am not Shakespeare. But Shakespeare was a bold one for ripping and remixing sources.)

The only part I'm at all concerned about is if I'm going to have to rename people once I'm done. Already it would be difficult to rename Captain Jack. I'd have to rename the Ground Assault Command as well. And I still need a name for the sort of pilots that go from planets to Fleet ships in deep space and zoom around doing dogfights. They're not the air force on account of not always being in air. If I start trying to work in Vacuum and Ground I can get some really unfortunate acronyms.

ST:TNG Inheritance & Homeward

I'm watching the season 7 DVDs of Star Trek the Next Generation. ( Read more... )

So I've stopped watching for a while.

Are there any more suicides this season? Child deaths? People driven mad by horrible traumas? Because there's a limit to how much of that I could watch in a row. I have reached that limit for the day. Possibly the week.