[SNIP!]
The WHY of the pushing is a key ingredient in making the story
acceptable.
But then it needs to be revealed in an appropriate manner at a suitable
point. The 2 ways of approaching this are:
1 - Explain all in Chapter #1 and then explore the ramifications of the
change.
2 - Show the differences and reveal hints about what has changed.
This author has obviously chosen method 2, a move that (IMHO) offers more
potential to the story but is usually much harder to write.
Your right about slow development being more difficult and often more
rewarding, but the simple fact is that stories work if the characters are
sympathetic, if they start off with "All the virture that I abhore, and
none
of the vices that I admire," then by the time you reveal that they do have
a
few redeaming vices, those folk who haven't decided to stop reading are
going to be very scheptacle. There's no need to reveal everything at once,
just enough to get the readers guessing and wondering.
And in this point lies one of the flaws in the FFML.
If the story was released as a whole, then it would be judged as a whole.
But the FFML tends to work on segments rather than complete stories.
Readers, being the fallible humans that we all are, mostly judge what is in
front of them with only minimal attention paid to the notion that more is
needed to make the story stand on its own. But then, I suspect most of the
FFML membership treats the list as a place to get hold of stories, not as a
place to help improve stories.
Given that the charter of the FFML calls for help in C&C authors are also
mildly at fault in one respect. If a story requires additional information
(such as the nature of the event that caused the fanfic to diverge from
canon) to allow useful C&C, and that information is *NOT* provided in the
early chapters then the author has 2 options.
A> The author can accept that the C&C they get will be largely useless or
focussed on elements of the story that would be explained by the additional
information, or
B> Provide the required information in some fashion, a footnote to the
chapter, a seperate post, a webpage with further details of the idea
(remember to provide a URL). ;-)
Much depends on how the author views the FFML, if the author really just
wants to release their story to a wide readship and prefers C&C to be along
the lines of "Liked the story"... do nothing. Intentional or not, this
seems to be the level the FFML operates on in most cases. :-(
If an author truly wants useful C&C for a series (and not a 1-off) then when
posting the 1st chapter, a follow-up post explaining the series idea would
be nice. Note that I said a *FOLLOW-UP* post, I tend to agree with those on
the list who decry an "idea" post by itself. This would allow the 1st
chapter to set the tone of the series and would give interested C&Cers
additional data to enable them to (hopefully) maximise the relevance of
their C&C for the series.
Some authors may protest that this will let secrets out of the bag and
lessen the story for the reader. To this I say: "Is the FFML your
audience? Or is it your assistant?"
Each author must decide this for himself.
[SNIP!]
Hmmm... this isn't really what I intended when I started. Ah well, I hope
some find my words of interest.
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"The Major" | "Funny Games, Strange Cartoons, Confusing
David Bateson | Computers and too many Books! No
| wonder you're weird."
majorb@one.net.au | - My Sister.
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