beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

the more I think about 2-10 the less satisfied with it I am as a piece of writing. I've already mentioned the genre questions, but now I'm getting dissatisfied with the backstory we got. And what's up with that? Don't we want to know more about our guys? And, well, yes, but...

There's a kind of backstory bit that's a payoff. We've got a question, the backstory gives us an answer.

Why is Owen such a prickly hedgehog? Because (x). Why is he acting so different in 2-05? Because -(x). It's the piece of the equation we need to make the character add up. We can play with it now, add it in or take it out and see what happens to our people. See how we can fix it, or improve it, or whatever. Character payoff! Questions answered!

But then there's backstory that's all setup. We don't have a question. We were trundling along thinking we had sufficient answers in that respect. And then whoosh, new data! And we're left with a whole lot of questions, trying to make it all fit, and often lacking the (x) that would slot it together.

Or, worse, we're left with very few questions and no particular fit, some random data that does nothing to the whole picture, or only tells us things we already knew and almost doesn't count as backstory at all.

2-10? No payoff. All setup, at best. And it didn't have to be that way! So simply could the script have given us character gold, just by leaving out a line!

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oh heck, my car is here and I've only one shoe on. gotta dash! Have to finish later.