Peter Bensen
asked
Max Gladstone:
I really love your dialogue, your people keep talking and don't stomp off for some hollywood moment. So I wonder how much do your characters write their own stories? Do you find yourself with a very different plot than you started with?
Max Gladstone
Thank you! My characters often write their own stories—mostly by coloring the story I planned to tell. A moment I thought would be triumphant becomes tragic, or vice versa; characters who initially stepped onto the page as antagonists grow their own agendas.
That storm-out-for-ACTION!! scene ending often confuses me in films and fiction. (Just once I want to see someone forget their keys.) It's one thing for characters to reach the point where words are meaningless—but so many plots would be solved by "just talk to one another, you idiots!!" (Deadpool lampoons this beautifully. "No way this person who loves me will still love me now that I no longer look like Ryan Reynolds." *90 minutes later* "OH WAIT NEVER MIND THAT WAS DUMB.") Of course, meaningful conversation requires emotional openness, while action plots derive thrust from emotional isolation—in a way, traditional action plots use that suffering and violence to *excuse* the big emotional beat at the end. Hm.
That storm-out-for-ACTION!! scene ending often confuses me in films and fiction. (Just once I want to see someone forget their keys.) It's one thing for characters to reach the point where words are meaningless—but so many plots would be solved by "just talk to one another, you idiots!!" (Deadpool lampoons this beautifully. "No way this person who loves me will still love me now that I no longer look like Ryan Reynolds." *90 minutes later* "OH WAIT NEVER MIND THAT WAS DUMB.") Of course, meaningful conversation requires emotional openness, while action plots derive thrust from emotional isolation—in a way, traditional action plots use that suffering and violence to *excuse* the big emotional beat at the end. Hm.
More Answered Questions
Dyrk Ashton
asked
Max Gladstone:
Three Parts Dead - Loved it, and that doesn't happen often. A brilliant mind willing to take risks with flashes of striking imagery and things left unsaid. A writer with a real vocabulary who isn't afraid to use it. A rare and wonderful find. Thank you Max! What's next for you after Full Fathom Five?
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