My very own Dischism

[mrissa]

Dischism: The unwitting intrusion of the author's physical surroundings, or the author's own mental state, into the text of the story. Authors who smoke or drink while writing often drown or choke their characters with an endless supply of booze and cigs. In subtler forms of the Dischism, the characters complain of their confusion and indecision -- when this is actually the author's condition at the moment of writing, not theirs within the story. "Dischism" is named after the critic who diagnosed this syndrome. (Attr. Thomas M. Disch) -- Turkey City Lexicon

"Eetu, just put it down for a minute and go get something to eat," said Orvokki.

"And will someone make sure Eetu stops working for five whole seconds?" [Sohvi]

"Let me do it, Eetu; you get some rest." [Jatta]

"Back away from the circuit, Eetu, and no one gets hurt." [Sohvi again]

Umm. It is Edward's condition within the story. Still.

Comments

[retrobabble.livejournal.com]

Heh. Interesting - I learned something. *notes that own characters are extremely indecisive* :D

[davidbain.livejournal.com]

How odd. I'm usually absolutely crocked at the keyboard and I've only drowned ... hmmm, two characters.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I think that can be a useful technique sometimes. If you aren't sure where your characters should go next...have them express their confusion about the same thing, and maybe the ensuing in-character discussion will help!

Or, maybe not. Oh, well, if it doesn't work, I can always delete it, right?

[emilylouise97.livejournal.com]

Hey, you don't know me, but you're on my friend Nick's friends page, so I couldn't help but see that you're having an EEG. Don't worry about it at all. I had one a few months ago, and it doesn't hurt at all. To be completely honest with you, you don't even have to stay up if you don't want to, since they give you medicine to make you fall asleep anyway.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

They said they wouldn't be doing that in this case -- they'll need me awake to have bright lights flashed in my face after the night of sleep deprivation etc.

I'm glad it's not painful, though, as the sleep deprivation will be quite enough. Thanks for mentioning it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, the key to that technique is to delete it later if it isn't a genuine contribution to the character arc.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Of course, sometimes it is. :-)

I don't know if you ever say Buffy, but in one season, they realized that, thanks to the actions of a character named Spike, the main characters had been put in a position where they were unable to go where the story needed them to go.

So, they made this problem explicit. "Uh, wait a second", says the main villain. "If you've done this, now they won't be able to fall into my trap." "Oh, bollocks..." said Spike.

I thought it was rather ingenious.