Storytellers Unplugged for July

[truepenny]

"When Last We Left Our Heroes," about the competing models of genre series, is up at Storytellers Unplugged.

Comments

[blackmonkeymage.livejournal.com]

you have to have enough closure that the story stands on its own but either (a.) leave enough minor threads loose that the next book can tie on or (b.) have frictionless characters who don’t change from book to book

You really have to do that in the mystery model?

Why?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Well, "have to" is an overstatement. You don't have to do anything. However, the idea of a series in which every book is an entry point means that continuity from book to book has to be as minimal as possible--while, of course, still being about the same characters. Emma Lathen wrote frictionless characters--and did it excellently well. Ngaio Marsh wrote some continuity, but never anything that impinged on the plot of each book.

[blackmonkeymage.livejournal.com]

What about the Discworld books, then?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

What about them?

[blackmonkeymage.livejournal.com]

They have continuity; the characters develop (slowly) between the books; yet it's still the sort of series you can start anywhere. It probably helps that it's comedy, and not making sense isn't necessarily a problem.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Also, it helps to be Terry Pratchett. (If you read the early Discworld books, they're quite different in this respect from the books he wrote later and is writing now.)