thread: 2011-04-12 : A background in Principled Freeform
On 2011-04-25, Emily wrote:
In your posts, there's a few times where you describe people looking a bit suspicious, like they're thinking "Are you breaking the rules, or are you going somewhere that will make this worthwhile (and therefore rules-legal)?". Is that an accurate description?
Breaking rules? The issues I remember us struggling with were: 1) does this break my concept of the world? (re the Ret-conned murders in the winter) 2) does this break my concept of this character? (re the sexuality of the shared play character Avis) 3) does what you did violate our shared contract of what information I had or needed before you whomped me with that grief? (re my character Trey "helping" Murinus Mus with her Twilight by bringing in the unscrupulous doctor) and 4) Can I make this decision on an outcome given that I play this other character who will also be affected by it (re various internal conflicts of interest).
I may be mis-reading your question, but the rules, as Vincent just said, were always secondary to the integrity of the fiction. These four issues (as well as many others, I'm sure) were places where the sticking points became clear. The rules we adopted were to help us avoid being caught by them, I would say.
Just read a load of writing advice by an old murder novelist, and he observed that suspense can appear in a novel even when the character involved is someone you know will survive. Providing;
the expression of the scene is so graphic and vivid that you can imagine being in the situation, and you can imagine that feeling of being in danger well enough to suspend your broader view of their survival chances.
This gets to the heart of it. Instead of relying on weighted mechanics that we've agreed ahead of time will allow us to mutually accept outcomes that may lay grief here there and everywhere, we committed to creating and finding ways through the fiction that gave us the needed feelings, experiences and dramatic satisfaction to let the events ride. Good, bad and indifferent! Not an easy road to walk.
