--- Nidoking <Matthew.P.Katinas@rose-hulman.edu> wrote:
However, the amount of criticism I'm
receiving
over this issue seems to indicate that everyone wants all of the
information up front. Should I release some sort of "Mystery and
Suspense FAQ" to give the answers to all possible questions before
writing the story, so that there is absolutely no confusion?
I can't speak to "General Time Paradox" in specific, having not read
the earlier chapters carefully, but I have noticed in the past that
often with serialized stories, when the author thinks hesh is
creating "mystery & suspense" hesh is actually just confusing or
annoying the reader.
I've done it myself.
But to pick on someone else's work...around a year ago, there was an
alt-universe Ranma fic where Ranma showed up at the Tendou house with
a "sister" in tow. The sister's nature was such that concealing it
would have provided the "mystery" the author was looking for.
Instead, pretty much all her secrets were spelled out for the reader
in the first chapter.
Meanwhile, Akane, who supposedly was unchanged from the `canon'
version, was acting hostile and bizarrely. Subsequent correspondence
with the author made it clear that there was a `good'reason for this,
that was supposed to be a mystery and build suspense. Sadly, it
instead made the story look like mindless Akane-bashing.
Anyhoo, it becomes a question of figuring out what to conceal when,
and making the audience *want* to wait for the answers.
I will say that having Artemis say that the Senshi powers "were
designed to work against the Negaverse" makes him sound even dimmer
than usual, since most of the readers know that just plain isn't the
case. Either Artemis is having a Swiss cheese memory moment, or he's
lying.
Hmm... the possibility he's lying does add a certain amount of
suspense...
Seeya,
SKJAM!
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