mjj (flemmings) wrote,
mjj
flemmings

We have left undone the things we should have done

Messing about with tags reveals that Kaiei at the Southern Ocean has been in the works not for the two years I think it was but for three. It's the Fic That Will Never be Written. But alas, like certain of my fics that, for all intents and purposes, weren't written (Rivers, Heaven, some of the early dj stories) it contains basic information that's referenced in later works. I could write the post-Kaiei works and let people figure for themselves what's being talked about, which might lend a certain spurious appearance of subtlety to the story: rather as my average reader has to deal with references to the slender pear tree without knowing the original occurrence of the term. In this case however it's me the writer who doesn't have complete access to the text. This may prove problematic.

I'm going to try an experiment which will be interesting, perhaps, and possibly profitable. I intend to write *about* the story- to myself, sorry, not publicly, if only because public talking about a story is the surest way of killing it dead. I'll make lists of what did happen and what must happen and what everyone feels about what happens and what themes seem to be at work and what the structure of the story might be like if I wrote it. Possibly this is everyday MO for novel writers but I'm not a novel writer. Short stories need only know where they're starting, or occasionally where they're ending, but never an itinerary of all the stations in between. However, if I have a detailed itinerary and A Guide to Local Customs and possibly a glossary (or indeed the detailed Gamemaster's Guide to Kaiei at the Southern Ocean) somewhere in the mass of detail there may be a story.
Tags: dragons, writing
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