ATTN JMS: Writing Question

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: ranger27 <jdeboard at netwalk.com>
Date: 9 Jan 1998 12:46:21 -0700
Lines: 33

 #: 13781 S4/Seas. 1-4 SPOILERS
    07-Jan-98  12:26:01
Sb: #13756-Kosh (Spoilers to ITF)
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      It's not a hierarchy as you or I would understand it...and the
weird
thing is, though I kinda know how it functions, I'll be damned if I can
figure
out how to explain it in words.

                                                                    jms


Good morning Joe -- when I saw the above, I just had to respond.

I am a writer too, and I've always had the feeling that my task, as a
writer, is to take those same wordless thoughts and images and emotions
and spin them down *into* words.
I first began thinking about this when I heard Lorien say something
like, "without words, there can be no thoughts."

Also -- you recently answered a post which essentially asked, "which is
more important, the plot or the characters?" and you answered "The
characters."
That started me wondering -- just how much can you separate the
characters from the plot?  Maybe you have a character with the potential
to be just fascinating, but if you don't give him anything interesting
to do, how will your audience know?
Just playing Shadows' advocate for a moment.

Thank you very much,
Janeen

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 9 Jan 1998 16:20:19 -0700
Lines: 17

>That started me wondering -- just how much can you separate the
>characters from the plot?  Maybe you have a character with the potential
>to be just fascinating, but if you don't give him anything interesting
>to do, how will your audience know?

People are fascinating by what they do or say, you can't have a character who's
fascinating but does nothing, so it's kind of a moot point.

But in general, plot proceeds from character...it's from defining who the
character is, what he wants, how far he's willing to go to get it, and how far
someone else will go to stop him.  From that comes all the rest.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
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