Kevin P. Kenney <104102.352@compuserve.com> asks:
> Is this a fair assessment?
> Have we lost a few percent of what you originally wanted the
> story to be because of this? On a larger scale, how many threads
> are there that you don't know the resolution to yet? (Hey, nothing
> is set in TV till it is aired.) How many mysteries have you not
> decided the answer to yet, since you're still willing to use
> something cooler that you think up later? How much may we lose
> because you can't fit it into episodes?

Nothing dropped behind is ever essential; if it's essential, it
stays in, and gets paid off. A story thread that hits a
reality-speedbump just gets modified, flows into another thread, just
like life. You just keep on the road until you get to the end. It's
just what the characters do.

jms

Bill Hirst <104106.431@compuserve.com> asks:
> Joe, do you think writing B5 is like writing a novel, except that
> you have to turn it in one chapter at a time?

Yeah, it is a lot like a novel, but as you say, once a chapter
is done, you can't go back again...so it's like writing a novel in
steel instead of paper; you can't erase what's done. So anything you
modify has to be forward-directed, rather than backtracking. It's
quite an elegant dance, really. And a definite challenge, just to do
it, let alone incorporating the real-world speed bumps (an actor breaks
a limb, isn't available for some reason at an important point,
whatever). So you have to keep the general outline in your head at all
times, and be able to shift and slide but keep on going where you're
going.

jms

{original post had no questions}

Exactly. B5 has to be an organic process; it's a history of
the Babylon station and the people who lived there once upon a time.
It should have the feeling of a real place, and real people. Stuff
happens to real people. The key is to turn it to your advantage, and
use it to make the story stronger.

It's like trying to tapdance while people are rolling bowling
balls at you and firing burning arrows...if you can keep to the rhythm,
and even add some interesting new steps because of all the commotion,
while making it all feel perfectly natural...then you've got something.

jms

{original post had no questions}

Exactly. And that's the point that a few non-writers make when
they go after that aspect. Writing is fluid...if you alter course a
little, it's usually because you found a better way to do something.
This is done all the time, in every conceivable art form.

Also, the B5 basic storyline was conceived by me in 1986/87; I
was a fairly good writer then, I'm better now...it's almost 10 years
later, and I've written a lot of stuff, learned more about my craft,
and the writer of 1996 has some better ideas of how to do things than
the writer of 1986. I'd be a fool to stick to every single note from
10 years ago if I think of a better way to do it now; the goal is to
tell the story as effectively as humanly possible, not to be rigid.

jms

Philip Hornsey <74053.2101@compuserve.com> asks:
> Regarding changes that have been made, if Pat had not become
> available, and if AT had not chosen to leave, would Talia have
> been Control and then come back later with an altered
> personality, or was the Control thing a trapdoor (set up from the
> beginning with the mirrors and such) that you *could* spring
> *only if you needed to*?

I'm busy enough on the threads that are happening...if I get
into all the threads that might happen I think my head will explode....

jms