VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 09:32:30 05/03/25 Sat
Author: Mark
Author Host/IP: 75.162.251.214
Subject: Re: New Smoke City - The Gretchen Chronicles UPDATED!
In reply to: AusNick 's message, "New Smoke City - The Gretchen Chronicles UPDATED!" on 04:35:00 05/03/25 Sat

Thanks for the treatment. There was an 11-year gap between the first four stories and my resumption of the franchise when Gretchen was on the cusp of 30.

I'm glad I pressed forward with this character and let her world expand over time even though my writing style has evolved in a way that makes the earliest entries feel out of place. Beyond that, the format is a case study on the virtues and vices of stream-of-consciousness continuity in long-running series.

The virtues are that the real-time format allows me to progress the narrative as the ideas come to me and shoehorn a through line over years and even decades. And in this example, I get to weave an alternative reality where a disruptive force altered the trajectory of tobacco's decline leading to a Lazarus-like reversal. As a writer, it's a joy to live vicariously through Gretchen's world where smoking has made a triumphant comeback, and I hope some readers enjoy immersing in "what could have been" if only smokers had taken the kinds of stands that every other bullied demographic group has done.

The vices of this kind of storytelling are that it's easy to lose the plot. I've introduced more characters than I can possibly manage given that the stories tend to come one year apart. The characters age too quickly and it feels neglectful to leave any out of any chapter because of how rapidly they're aging, but including them all in each story renders the narrative convoluted and overcrowded.

I'll confess that it feels like the Gretchen stories have gotten away from me and narrative management is gonna be a tricky tightrope to walk moving forward.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Login ] Create Account Not required to post.
Post a public reply to this message | Go post a new public message
 * HTML allowed in marked fields.
Message subject (required):

Name (required):

  E-mail address (optional):

* Type your message here:


Notice: Copies of your message may remain on this and other systems on internet. Please be respectful.

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.