HONEST NON-REVIEW IMPERSONAL DISCUSSION OF PLOT MECHANICS AND IMPACT THEREOF. SO. MUCH. LOVE. <3<3<3
Enslaved was originally a 1,500 word one-shot drabble. It of course only stayed that way for about 18 hours, but I realized right off that if it were expanded, the two forces driving the story would have to be 1. Zuko learns Water Tribe and 2. Zuko earns/is granted his freedom. Along the way, I've added in a third one, that is 3. Zuko resists assimilation.
I initially didn't even see any avenue for romance between Zuko and Katara given the slave setup, since Zuko would never submit to ownership and I don't think Katara would be interested in him as a person if he were also property. There were so many steps between point A (a war party returns with an exotic slave) and point B (ZUTARA!!!) that I couldn't even see it until I started breaking down those steps one by one.
I wrote out a 20-chapter outline in late August to give the framework for taking those steps, and that really helped me organize everything in the progression that's unfolding now. I also wrote the ending in October and the epilogue about three weeks ago, so I know exactly where it's going as I fill in the path to get there. Until... almost a year ago now, good heavens, I hadn't written fiction in ten years, and have been pleasantly surprised that all that technical writing experience makes storytelling way easier -- or at least better.
I've also been a little surprised at how much of this is being driven by personality analysis of the characters. This is almost embarrassing to admit, but that Avatar Meyers-Briggs Quiz (http://www.freewebs.com/anliya/avatarquiz/results.html) was actually really interesting and useful for me to get a grasp on how the characters would act. I don't agree with all of the assessments, but Zuko as ISPJ and Katara as ESFJ ring pretty true.
I'm INFJ and my father is classic ISTJ and my SO is ESTJ and my main collaborator in real life is ESTP, so I've got a fairly good sense of how the variables play out (according to my own interpretations, of course). I've assigned Zuko the inflexible, over-analyzing, painfully honest, but ultimately "scientific" (able to change opinion based on evidence) properties of ISTJ, while Katara gets the empathy and caring of ESFJ, with the inherent contradiction of Feeling and Judging (which I am pretty familiar with myself). Then they both get that interesting oblivion of Sensing rather than Perceiving where they get so hung up on what they think that they don't think of what others might think. If that makes sense.
So having analyzed them to that degree has become a significant driving force of the story as well, and certainly helps with setting up interactions so that they ring "true" (to me, at least, and apparently to a lot of other people ^^;) It's also shaped the less concrete driving tensions in the story. "Zuko learns Water Tribe" and "Zuko gains his freedom" have given way to "What is Zuko going to do now?" and, frankly, "What is Zuko going to brood about now?" Damn that IJ introspective anxiety.
This has also worked for bringing in all the other characters so far, just to sort of bounce them off Zuko and see what happens. One of the things I love about Avatar is indeed that every major character is a well-developed individual with a distinct personality that drives their sub-plot, so I've tried hard to maintain that in the story. Each interaction is really bringing something out, too; let's see, we've had Toph and Suki and Aang... and Jet now, and Song and Jin... It's been interesting to analyze the canon interaction and see what part of that is relevant to Enslaved.
SHARKFLIP SPEAKS! pt I
HONEST NON-REVIEW IMPERSONAL DISCUSSION OF PLOT MECHANICS AND IMPACT THEREOF. SO. MUCH. LOVE. <3<3<3
Enslaved was originally a 1,500 word one-shot drabble. It of course only stayed that way for about 18 hours, but I realized right off that if it were expanded, the two forces driving the story would have to be 1. Zuko learns Water Tribe and 2. Zuko earns/is granted his freedom. Along the way, I've added in a third one, that is 3. Zuko resists assimilation.
I initially didn't even see any avenue for romance between Zuko and Katara given the slave setup, since Zuko would never submit to ownership and I don't think Katara would be interested in him as a person if he were also property. There were so many steps between point A (a war party returns with an exotic slave) and point B (ZUTARA!!!) that I couldn't even see it until I started breaking down those steps one by one.
I wrote out a 20-chapter outline in late August to give the framework for taking those steps, and that really helped me organize everything in the progression that's unfolding now. I also wrote the ending in October and the epilogue about three weeks ago, so I know exactly where it's going as I fill in the path to get there. Until... almost a year ago now, good heavens, I hadn't written fiction in ten years, and have been pleasantly surprised that all that technical writing experience makes storytelling way easier -- or at least better.
I've also been a little surprised at how much of this is being driven by personality analysis of the characters. This is almost embarrassing to admit, but that Avatar Meyers-Briggs Quiz (http://www.freewebs.com/anliya/avatarquiz/results.html) was actually really interesting and useful for me to get a grasp on how the characters would act. I don't agree with all of the assessments, but Zuko as ISPJ and Katara as ESFJ ring pretty true.
I'm INFJ and my father is classic ISTJ and my SO is ESTJ and my main collaborator in real life is ESTP, so I've got a fairly good sense of how the variables play out (according to my own interpretations, of course). I've assigned Zuko the inflexible, over-analyzing, painfully honest, but ultimately "scientific" (able to change opinion based on evidence) properties of ISTJ, while Katara gets the empathy and caring of ESFJ, with the inherent contradiction of Feeling and Judging (which I am pretty familiar with myself). Then they both get that interesting oblivion of Sensing rather than Perceiving where they get so hung up on what they think that they don't think of what others might think. If that makes sense.
So having analyzed them to that degree has become a significant driving force of the story as well, and certainly helps with setting up interactions so that they ring "true" (to me, at least, and apparently to a lot of other people ^^;) It's also shaped the less concrete driving tensions in the story. "Zuko learns Water Tribe" and "Zuko gains his freedom" have given way to "What is Zuko going to do now?" and, frankly, "What is Zuko going to brood about now?" Damn that IJ introspective anxiety.
This has also worked for bringing in all the other characters so far, just to sort of bounce them off Zuko and see what happens. One of the things I love about Avatar is indeed that every major character is a well-developed individual with a distinct personality that drives their sub-plot, so I've tried hard to maintain that in the story. Each interaction is really bringing something out, too; let's see, we've had Toph and Suki and Aang... and Jet now, and Song and Jin... It's been interesting to analyze the canon interaction and see what part of that is relevant to Enslaved.