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today i am thinking about [throws dart at list of "cool shit in clowntown"] smau authors' ingenuity in working within the confines of the medium (and even expanding past them!)
let's talk about it for as long as my brain will focus
let's talk about it for as long as my brain will focus
y'all are SO smart. i've always rly liked epistolary-style storytelling, so i was bound to get into smaus – i think the form presents some neat challenges for writers because in so many ways it's about the pieces of the story that you can't see, the "taking place irl" stuff
there's only so much that can reasonably take place via texts and social media, right? i love seeing how people work with this. one way is obviously having other characters see stuff happen and tell each other about it, and the choices ppl make wrt witnesses are interesting
especially bc the reader ends up not only with an idea of what's happening off the "page" and in the meatspace, but you get it filtered through someone else's eyes, which is obviously adding another layer onto it.
for ex: i loved the bike confession in derry high this week bc by having jessica hanlon overhear it & posting a transcript, bill and mike get this big dramatic i love you moment & it also shows the love she has for both of them, the longterm bonds already present w their families
or the kaspbrak simps in derry u! their chats not only flesh out the verse itself with their own lives but we also get a feel for what the fuck the vibes must be like in that lab between drs k and t, the Professional Interaction vs personal correspondence
can't not mention the runners concert confession bc i'm still stunned by how smart that was! another way of giving us that dramatic public scene while playing with the fan culture AND the way the speech was doubled in the in-verse tl and the real-world tl as ppl flipped out
the use of twitter there brings me to my next thought, which is smaus that bring in elements outside of texts. i've seen ppl use transcripts really well in things like new guy, fixer upper, super losers, into cap, plus anything that involves radio-richie or podcasts
obviously have to mention the work that goes into derry unsolved, as christina and rilee do outside research into real-world shit and write scripts for a show within the verse, my god!
i haven't reread unbroken line recently enough to go into all of it but rants really killed it with the different elements he brought in, like the variety of scripts, the magazine covers, the dream/mood apps, the videos...and the way he uses those in the climax, my god, y'all
OBVIOUSLY the stan culture stuff via twitter, discord and tumblr in cringe fail comes in here too, scams and irene are doing a genius job and it really folds in so many fucking layers of talking about fandom and parasocial relationship and social media, good god
the notes passed between birdman and patty in super losers are incredibly cute and show the development of their bond (plus we get to imagine sweet lil bird pals carrying them back and forth!)
or like, lost transmission is built around this mystery, right, so as the characters are going through logs and discussing the info on and off the visible "page," readers get to, too – not to mention lynne is somehow holding both present and past logs AND the mystery in her brain
i haven't caught up on deadlights yet, but i think that's the one i've seen use that auto-transcription voicemail feature iphones have and i think that's SUCH a clever idea!
until eternity is another one i think about a lot bc kaia??? did some wildly cool stuff with a ouija board that really like. made it all feel tangible, which is a wild word choice to describe talking to ghosts, but you know what i mean?
i love the way ree does trivia night answer cards for didn't see you coming – it's not only fun to try and guess what question they're answering, but it's like a quick way to show a night out and what each loser might have knowledge in or about!
also leo's bullet journals in dsyc give us insight into her character, how she's feeling, what her school life looks like, things we might not get from her texting her dad or her friends, another way of fleshing out the 'verse (bc we also see what the teacher-losers assign!)
that's something i see writers do with non-text-message content in smaus, is expand to other mediums as a way to show us interior stuff that characters wouldn't necessarily share more widely. super smart and feels realistic, as we def have some Keep It To Myself type losers.
derry thrift...richie's letterboxd entries were so sweet and a lovely way to show how his feelings for eddie grew over time with this activity they shared together as something special between them. and i loved eddie's notes to himself as he worked thru his feelings, too!
every time i remember derry university eddie made a fucking...research outline about fwb i go bonkerballs. it's SO neurotic and perfect, and the edits we see him make over time...hoo boy. same for his List Of Things To Work Through At Next RT Meeting which is still SO funny to me
aberration obviously uses a ton of mediums but i mean. THE FUCKING POSTCARDS, HELLO. AND EDDIE'S JOURNALS. EDDIE'S JOURNALS? EDDIE'S JOURNALS. guts us to see all the pain and fear and love he has inside of him, even when he can't say it out loud yet/anymore.
i also wanna touch on how fucking cool rockie's work is in mist upon the hill, the colors and the codes and narrators and the polls...i need to reread to understand better but it's so complex and a really unique way of formatting a story told like this!
anyway! that's a lot of mostly jumbled thoughts that boil down to: i think smaus are really, really cool, and i think everyone writing them is doing such interesting work with the format and medium and i just admire your brains so much. thanks for telling us stories.
