pulling the story together
Jun. 26th, 2011 10:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliHaving events in your stories reach backwards and forwards and tie things together helps unify that whole thing.
However, after philosophical reading of Rusty & Co., I conclude that it can be nothing more than pulling the setting together, and using old tales in lieu of new exposition. Bumping into another character again means no new introduction, for the readers or the characters, but doesn't necessarily unify the plot. Rusty & Co. gets away with it because it's not an overarcing plot, but a series of comic stories. (Comedy tends to have that kind of advantage in plot.)
In order to pull the plot together, you have to have cause and effect. The character is ticked off, or grateful, or simply less suspicious, because the events that went before, so that they lock together and constrain the characters' paths. (Railroading your characters is a good thing in a story.)
However, after philosophical reading of Rusty & Co., I conclude that it can be nothing more than pulling the setting together, and using old tales in lieu of new exposition. Bumping into another character again means no new introduction, for the readers or the characters, but doesn't necessarily unify the plot. Rusty & Co. gets away with it because it's not an overarcing plot, but a series of comic stories. (Comedy tends to have that kind of advantage in plot.)
In order to pull the plot together, you have to have cause and effect. The character is ticked off, or grateful, or simply less suspicious, because the events that went before, so that they lock together and constrain the characters' paths. (Railroading your characters is a good thing in a story.)