The Problem of Puddy
Dec. 24th, 2010 11:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerinWhen I first started writing the character of Puddy in Tales of MU, I had more plans... and more specific ones... involving her than any other character. I knew her whole backstory before I knew anybody else's. I knew where she'd come from and where I wanted to go with her.
But then she moved out of the spotlight and stayed at the periphery of the story. Why? Because she's really a much worse person than I had realized, and I couldn't justify to myself keeping the spotlight on her, especially since this would mean keeping my first person narrator near her. Puddy's progress as a character would come at the expense of Mackenzie's.
That hadn't seemed like a problem to me when I started because... well, it didn't seem so bad to me for Mackenzie to suffer for Puddy's advancement. The angle of them being friends through thick and thin, no matter what Puddy did because friendship counted for so much (even when it basically consisted of them being thrown together in the same place and one of them declaring friendship) seemed reasonable to me. If you've never had a friend like that in your life it might be hard for you to understand that... but if you have, you can probably understand where I was coming from.
But one of the amazing things that came out of my writing of Tales of MU is my friendship with one of the very first MU readers,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
popelizbet. Through my association with her I've met many other wonderful folks as well, and because of this I found the way I thought about friendship... and the Puddy/Mackenzie dynamic... has changed in some pretty profound ways. It no longer seemed reasonable to me that so much of Mackenzie's story should be about how she helps Puddy become a better person, while enduring the things that Puddy does. I couldn't even define their relationship as friendship.
Bigger changes in my life happened because of this adjustment in my thinking than a plotline shifting in a story I write, but the impact on the story is important.
I don't yet know if the plotlines I'd envisioned for Puddy are going to be completely abandoned. There's going to be a bit of a "fast forward" involved in the Volume 2 launch, and while that's not happening because of the Puddy situation, I feel it'll give me a chance to examine my plans for Puddy and decide if any of them are worth keeping. She needs a chance to grow on her own a little before she's worth Mackenzie's (and thus, the reader's) time.
But then she moved out of the spotlight and stayed at the periphery of the story. Why? Because she's really a much worse person than I had realized, and I couldn't justify to myself keeping the spotlight on her, especially since this would mean keeping my first person narrator near her. Puddy's progress as a character would come at the expense of Mackenzie's.
That hadn't seemed like a problem to me when I started because... well, it didn't seem so bad to me for Mackenzie to suffer for Puddy's advancement. The angle of them being friends through thick and thin, no matter what Puddy did because friendship counted for so much (even when it basically consisted of them being thrown together in the same place and one of them declaring friendship) seemed reasonable to me. If you've never had a friend like that in your life it might be hard for you to understand that... but if you have, you can probably understand where I was coming from.
But one of the amazing things that came out of my writing of Tales of MU is my friendship with one of the very first MU readers,
popelizbet. Through my association with her I've met many other wonderful folks as well, and because of this I found the way I thought about friendship... and the Puddy/Mackenzie dynamic... has changed in some pretty profound ways. It no longer seemed reasonable to me that so much of Mackenzie's story should be about how she helps Puddy become a better person, while enduring the things that Puddy does. I couldn't even define their relationship as friendship.Bigger changes in my life happened because of this adjustment in my thinking than a plotline shifting in a story I write, but the impact on the story is important.
I don't yet know if the plotlines I'd envisioned for Puddy are going to be completely abandoned. There's going to be a bit of a "fast forward" involved in the Volume 2 launch, and while that's not happening because of the Puddy situation, I feel it'll give me a chance to examine my plans for Puddy and decide if any of them are worth keeping. She needs a chance to grow on her own a little before she's worth Mackenzie's (and thus, the reader's) time.
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no subject
on 2010-12-24 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-12-24 11:27 pm (UTC)Steff--the constant sexual innuendos, sexual pressure, and focus on sex...it is consistent with the character and all that but...it has always squicked me out as rapey. I've "seen" her play on Mack's known sexual weaknesses for things to get her to agree to encounters Mack isn't always comfortable with. And while it is a HUUUGE stretch to call it rape, it just pings my buttons...which isn't a bad thing.
Amy--It's like she is a rape apologist. She downplays a lot of situations by trying to see the good in people which then puts Mack at risk because she orders her to be nice to them. If Emily came to me and told me that Puddy had done X, Y, and Z...Emily would get told to never be alone with PUddy and not to speak to her again. Sometimes, I just want to slap the shit out of her...again, not a bad thing to have writing evoke such a reaction.
:D
no subject
on 2010-12-25 10:45 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-12-26 01:02 am (UTC)I will say though, I really love the character of Puddy. If you decide to take her in a different direction, or to take her out entirely, do you think there's a chance you would be willing to post a summary of what her backstory and the plot you had planned out was? It was obvious in the beginning that you had put a lot of thought into her, and I'm still fascinated by the character even if she's not long for your world. ^^