I'm a lot like you. If I don't have any wonder in something, i have absolutely no interest in writing it. If something is plotted out to within an inch of its life, I'll avoid it like the plague. We were discussing that generality in my fiction writing class last night: do you plot a fic or do you just write and see what comes out?
In a genre like steampunk, I think that our method can be both beneficial and detrimental. Detrimental in the way that we may wind up writing something that doesn't work in the storyline because it doesn't do what we thought it did (I'm referring specifically to mechanical gadgets, here; plot bits may be summarily ignored, though this also applies here). At the same time, whatever we dream up may wind up being this incredibly amazing thing that we are astonished to learn has this special thing about it that allows it to get our characters out of a jam, even though we had no idea it existed.
Realizing that I tend to add a flavor of magic to my stories as much as the whimsical side of what I perceive to be steampunk, I don't know as it applies in the same way, but I think what I'm trying to verbalize (and....well, failing. Or at least mutilating) is that I agree with you. It's about the joy, the history, the anachronism, not the technical bits and bobs or the fact that it's up and coming. I'm writing it because it makes me gleeface to have Bitsey romping around, shedding cogs and Zacharias turning a teakettle into a cash register and Felicity facepalming at Henry and Jim as they ineptly bumble through something and come out the other side victorious and completely baffled as to how.
Also, thank you for sharing this. because you've totally shaken me loose on Move the Mountain. :D
ETA: I'll be in Orlando this weekend. I have books for your roommate! And hugs for you both!
no subject
In a genre like steampunk, I think that our method can be both beneficial and detrimental. Detrimental in the way that we may wind up writing something that doesn't work in the storyline because it doesn't do what we thought it did (I'm referring specifically to mechanical gadgets, here; plot bits may be summarily ignored, though this also applies here). At the same time, whatever we dream up may wind up being this incredibly amazing thing that we are astonished to learn has this special thing about it that allows it to get our characters out of a jam, even though we had no idea it existed.
Realizing that I tend to add a flavor of magic to my stories as much as the whimsical side of what I perceive to be steampunk, I don't know as it applies in the same way, but I think what I'm trying to verbalize (and....well, failing. Or at least mutilating) is that I agree with you. It's about the joy, the history, the anachronism, not the technical bits and bobs or the fact that it's up and coming. I'm writing it because it makes me gleeface to have Bitsey romping around, shedding cogs and Zacharias turning a teakettle into a cash register and Felicity facepalming at Henry and Jim as they ineptly bumble through something and come out the other side victorious and completely baffled as to how.
Also, thank you for sharing this. because you've totally shaken me loose on Move the Mountain. :D
ETA: I'll be in Orlando this weekend. I have books for your roommate! And hugs for you both!