“Time & Tied” PARTS 15 & 16
- Original Date Of Completion: APR 8, 2001
- What I Was Doing: Looking For Work
- Hard Date Change: Used to be Sat. Sept 29, 2001
- Other changes of note:
-Added the discussion of them running out of coins.
-Julie became a bit more vague in her ruminations.
BEHIND THE WRITING
There was a bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes by this point.
I’m sure I had a timelines file (to keep dates straight), but I tended to overwrite it when I added detail. Conversely, my character file was saved separately after major updates. Version 2 (Feb 24, after Clarke’s story, aka Parts 10/11) had bits for not only “Carrie Elizabeth Waterson” and “Frank Dijora”, but also: “Julie LaMille”, “Phil Clarke”, “Luci Primrose”, “Laurie Veniti”, “Corry Veniti”, “Lee”, “Tim” and “Chartreuse”.
Chartreuse’s entry there read, very simply: ‘Girl who’s into herbal remedies, has braids and bows in hair.’ So naturally, she’s the person who managed to get a 2014 spinoff here, in “Epsilon Project”! Granted, her entry fleshed out a BIT more in Characters Version 3, the one that gave birthdays to the main five. In it (Mar 14, right before the tribute ep, Parts 12/13) it referenced Chartreuse’s ‘valley girl’ speak - but she still didn’t have a last name. Basically, some characters can surprise you in how they evolve.
Also at this time (actually right after the tribute ep), I finalized a new ‘opening sequence’ as you might see on an actual Television Program. Remember, TV is how I originally envisioned this story, not as a serial. I’ll toss that full text OP (opening) into a later Commentary. The 6 month mark here also marks the first recorded time when I went BACK to my earlier writing, making some revisions to Episode 1. (It still began “At the back of a rather nondescript two story house”, yawn.)
It was after releasing the latest episode (parts 15/16), that I decided I needed a class schedule for all my characters. To know their interests, particularly electives, and what non-homeroom classes they shared. My files show these schedules would be completed May 8, so right after our next upcoming episode (Parts 17/18). I don’t know - is all of this typical background work for most people? Should it have been done much earlier? What do you think? Feel free to comment.
ABOUT PARTS 15 & 16
Spoilers (up to part 16) follow.
Character-wise, Luci was overdue for some screen time. You can only have a person be mysterious for so long, particularly when they’re a main character. I WAS wondering if people would think she was behind the time machine somehow. Instead, she was the one who made the mysterious phone call to Frank. Did anyone foresee that? (I am going to presume that no one worked out how she knew about the machine due to a “future” Frank… but maybe I’m wrong?) Luci’s also brought up some interesting logistics about time travel, and offered a new way going forwards.
At the same time, we’re seeing a bit more into Carrie’s relationship with paradox. She’s the central character for a reason. And Julie won’t let me forget about her plot either, though as the audience, we know she is jumping to conclusions in terms of what’s really going on. Then there’s the new incidental characters - Theresa, Lee and Chartreuse. We’re building to something here. (If your reaction is ‘COOL!’, yay, if your reaction is ‘FINALLY!’, apologies.)
Plot-wise, the “running out of present day coins” discussion was added (as I noted above). At the time of first writing (in 2001), I wasn’t sure how many more trips/coins I might need. Putting it in here now adds a bit of a ticking clock, which helps lead into Carrie’s insistence she take her trip sooner rather than later. (Originally, her deadline was more due to Frank’s lack of progress.) Regrettably, if you think about it, this scenario is unrealistic.
It’s not exactly research, but I’ve always tended to look at dates on coins. If Frank has ten present day coins now, this means he and Carrie must have had around twenty… by the middle of September. Even if you assume “hoarding” current dates, I don’t think 20 is plausible - do you? Of course, this is a universe that would allow future incarnations to slip key coins into businesses of the present, so that’s my reasoning.
We also got to see another ‘malfunctioning’ trip here, my way of reminding you that - despite the 1955 trip going so well - this time machine has that random element. Because when things like “leap seconds” occur (as one did last June 30th), I don’t see how you can avoid a bit of randomness.
Episode 8 was originally called “The Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes”, riffing off lyrics in the song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”. I shortened it to “With Kaleidoscope Eyes” for Part 15, then “And Logical Mind” for Part 16. Luci in a nutshell. Up next, the Veniti twins, and all hell breaks loose.
Coming This Friday: Observer Effect
(I think I’ll be giving up on Wattpad, their new editor removes all ENTERs when doing cut and paste.)
