On Science Fiction and Fantasy

[smarriveurr]

Mainly for Firynze, but also interesting to a lot of my friends.

I often read the blog of a fellow called John Seavey, mainly because I discovered his series of articles on storytelling engines, how a status quo contributes to the writing of ongoing stories, particularly in comic books/tv series. Interesting stuff - he dissects how a given character's

Comments

[firynze]

Episodic and/or procedural content are a lot easier to generate than whole arcs. This is why there are so many CSI variants, and it really is why having Clark Kent be a reporter is so convenient - at a loss? Just send him out to investigate something and stumble on a mystery!

[smarriveurr]

*nod* That's pretty much his point. If you're setting up to write an ongoing series at an issue a month for years on end, it's really great to have a nosy, somewhat hapless best friend (and a photographer - I mean, I'm not in the newsroom, but I know those guys do the craziest crap to get the shot), a girlfriend who can not only get into trouble, but goes looking for it, and a way to feed the Superhero side investigative information...

And, of course, you can throw arcs into your episodic content when the muse strikes, but it's really handy to be able to go "Damn, I used up all my juice on that six-issue exploration of Batman's relationship with his Bruce Wayne alter ego. Fuck it, the Penguin is going to rob a few jewelry stores, and Vicki Vale will mention it to Bruce Wayne in passing." Instant issue, just add Biff-Kapow.

[firynze]

EXACTLY. I can't imagine writing a longstanding series in any medium without having the ability to toss in a few freestanding biff-kapows when it just all gets to be too much.

[smarriveurr]

Bottle episodes are our friend, and even writers have a sort of resource for bottling. ;)

But Seavey does go into a bunch of cases where writers screw their storytelling engine for the sake of a quick story, or a "shock" to sell issues. Also, false status quos (Statuses quo? Statii quo? Status quo since it's u-stem?), like "Hulk is on the run from the military" or "The castaways are trying to get off the island", where, as soon as you resolve the issue readers really care about, you have no engine. So you can either tease the audience until they stop caring, or end the series.