Where we see the concrete world disintegrating

[sovay]

My story "On the Blindside" has been chosen for reprint in Rich Horton's Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2006. This really pleases me. I've talked about this story before, but it's still one of my favorites—I don't know if that's the right word, but there are stories to which I have more or less of an emotional attachment, and this is one of the more. It's also one of the stories that makes me wish I could write continuing characters, but it's been proven by experiment that I can't; the best I can do is tangential relations. Still. Thanks to Tim Pratt, who published the story in the first place. Even if it weren't also snowing, this would make for a good day.

Comments

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

(Oh, and total congratulations. I thought that part when I saw the post while sitting in class, and by the time I got the chance to actually respond I forgot I hadn't said it already!)

[sovay]

(No fear. Thanks!)

How do you have trajectories without plots?

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

I suppose in the sense that I can see the charaters' gradual personal development over time, but not any set of events against which that development is set that I could excerpt out and call a story. This isn't universally true, but it's true of the things I write that seem most to interest people.

[sovay]

If I am reading you correctly: how do you know how the characters develop and not know what events cause that development?

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

When you put it that way, interesting question. I suppose mostly that the development I know about is a logical consequence of where they are now, or that I know that they're going to run in to some sort of influential circumstance but am not sure what. Of course this could all be subject to change when I discover what events they actually encounter.

[sovay]

When you put it that way, interesting question.

Hey, I try . . .

Of course this could all be subject to change when I discover what events they actually encounter.

At which point you will have plot, yes?

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but that's harder than it sounds like it ought to be...

[sovay]

I'm not claiming it's easy. (I don't even know how it works in my own case: only that it does. Characters tend to evolve based on their own rules, not on whatever I may desire them to do. I'm seeing this a lot with the latest story.) Only that if you can trace a character through a particular trajectory, given that they do develop and that some event necessarily determines that development, theoretically you should be able to figure out what that event is. It's like algebra, only for creativity. : P

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Actually, in the cases where I know what will happen with the characters, I do usually have a better idea of the plot. Ah, well.