This thread should be particularly devoted to discussing elements of the story background, setting, and characters as they emerge in the story. Hopefully, writers participating in the exercise will be able to hammer out elements of the main characters' personalities and the meaning of referances in the story as they progress. This will then serve as a resource for the writers to get a feel for the characters and setting so as to integrate new action into the story without having contradictions in the setting or the characters acting in inconsistent ways.
I hope that this can serve as a useful supplement to help writers participating in the cooperative story exercise.
posted
I'll occasionally be editing this second post to pose questions about the story elements that have appeared so far in the story (I will also post questions as part of ongoing discussions, of course).
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999
|
posted
There are a couple of minor character mysteries I've noticed so far: One is why Tristram isn't able to see the spirits. Does that say something about him? It could be common, and the fact that he's just repeating the class, I guess, suggests that it is. Maybe his body is somehow empty of a spirit? Or it could just be, of course, that he has no talent for this kind of thing, but this problem could be built up more if it seemed like a good idea to us.
As to Qimat, there seems a modest question of why she feels she must succeed at this, or that there will be consequences if she doesn't. Again, I think we could work this either as something entirely banal: she's a straight-A student but the idea of doing this has always made her queasy and she would end up with a C or even a B if she couldn't do it.
But it could alternatively mean that she's planning to use the knowledge soon, or that she is considering this a test for herself to see if she can stand certain things: perhaps a certain line of work, or participation in something (a spiritual autopsy? A ceremony that's conducted after a person dies, with its spirit in attendance? The punitive killing of her cousin's spirit after it was found it was killing living humans? Seomthing else?).
So where should we go with this? It seems (to me) that ideally, the major conflict in the story should arise from some characteristic about Qimat, and her resolution to follow through with this, other than a certain competence in a classroom situation, is the only standout characteristic we yet know, and one that is effectively emphasized in the opening.
posted
What if Tristam is the main character? He has some nascent skill or ability that ends up being critical, but getting him to accept it or use it is next to impossible for Qimat?
Just how are he and Qimat linked? what is their importance to each other?
Will the teacher just be a drop-in character or will the teacher be important to the stories' evolution?
If frogs have spirit, do they have personality? Thinking processes? Communication ability? Is a form of murder being employed?
Is the class a training ground for spiritual DNA recombinent technology?
posted
About Tristram being the main character: I wasn't thinking about that, because clearly Qimat is the POV character, but it's a good point. He'd have to be established pretty quickly, though.
The teacher seems to be securely set up as a background character, not one central to the story, because no extraneous details (like a name) are given. Not that we couldn't go in a different direction with it if we chose.
Personally, my sense from the start was that it was clearly shown that frogs have spirits, but there was nothing in it that implied any sort of intelligence or anything--actually, it seemed to me like we were pretty clearly told the reverse, that frogs have animal intelligence and that this doesn't change from body to spirit, and for that matter that they don't have the sense to notice when they've been killed (not that this is a drawback in a non-sentient, necessarily).
questions: what other areas of a pseudo-modern (the classroom seemed modern, anyway) society would be heavily altered by this "magic" or whatever it turns out to be? who has access to it? what abilities do these spirits possess, if any (the only seemingly obvious one being they could go through walls, but even this may not be so for intelligent life. as PQ pointed out, the frogs don't appear sentient. maybe more intelligent spirits can't go through walls unless they really concentrate on it--like they mentally do not believe they can, so they can't. this would seem contradictory, but really frogs, which close their eyes when they jump, would remain blissfully unaware of the presence of the wall at all. thus no inhibitions about going through it.)? how old is Qimat? who would benefit most from, heck, just seeing spirits and what professions would develop as a result? what about being able to disect them/do something with them?
i realize some of these questions belong in Back. & Char., but i don't expect answers to them. part of the fun of this project is seeing what people come up with. while consistancy is important, we don't want to go overboard and end up killing the project.
just a thought.
TTFN & lol
Cosmi
Edit: that's not to say that we shouldn't ask these kinds of questions. i, for one, think it's good excersize to come up with different story directions, questions, etc. they can get everyone thinking in new directions. my point is we shouldn't answer all of them before continuing the story.
[This message has been edited by Cosmi (edited December 14, 2002).]
[This message has been edited by Cosmi (edited December 14, 2002).]
posted
It would seem that a spirit that can survive the physical death of the organism already demonstrates a fair amount of ability to recover from tramatic events. What if the spirit simply heals much faster than a body can?
Are there any further ideas about how the school is arranged, administered, where the students come from and so forth?
posted
some things the second entry seems to establish:
*the school (secondary? college?) Qimat attends accepts few students. *Qimat is a "seeker." -is this defined by her abilities? -is this defined by her experience at the school? *there is a goat-like thing (satyr?) in the classroom. -either because Tristram and, as Dr. Trory thinks, Qimat can see it or because of the goat thing itself, all the students besides them are forced to leave the classroom. *Qimat is sympathetic to the frog's feelings (physical, not emotional--it is a frog, after all )
can anyone think of some alternative conclusions than what i listed? some more things i missed?
TTFN & lol
Cosmi
[This message has been edited by Cosmi (edited December 16, 2002).]
Printer-friendly view of this topic
