Saloon fight y'all!

[Garren Jacobsen]

So, my MC just so happened to be in a quasi-wild west saloon. And it just so happened, that he got into a fight in said saloon. But, you see, this MC is from a huge city in my world. A city with moving pictures, long before the 1920s type tech due to magic. The kind of moving picture shows with a live guy playing an upright piano. And do you know what his favorite was? "Westerns." He particularly loved the saloon fights and the catchy saloon music. And now I just couldn't resist.

So he started mocking the outlaws and prayed that someone would start playing the piano. So old Death, a friend of the MC, comes sauntering in as bold as brass and starts playing. And I cannot help but think this is a nano convention to help me entertain myself through it all that won't make the final cut. And I don't care.

Do any of you have something similar?

 

[Heliotrope]

When that starts to happen in my stories it's because I'm bored with the actual story, and that is not a good thing. Don't cut it! Maybe your subconscious is telling you something

Subconscious: "Brian..... this is a comedy... why are you not seeing this! Oh for goodness sake let me do it." Subconscious sends logical writer brain for coffee and takes over the keyboard...

 

[FifthView]

Are you writing a flashback scene for S2 of Westworld?

Like Helio, I wonder if your subconscious is trying to course-correct. That's so hard to know, heh. Is it the subconscious trying to help you or is it ultimately one of those little darlings you'll have to file in the "to be used in another story" file.

I've had something of the opposite experience in my Nano project. Me wondering if the long scene I just spent 6 hours writing will prove too tedious, boring, and unnecessary after I've finished the rough draft.

I have recently had the experience of creating a magical effect on the spot that seemed, er, flighty and crazy and cool. (There's an inside joke pun in that list of modifiers.) I always have the problem of trying to default to a Sanderson-esque sort of rules-based magic, but for this world I'm going with a more sword-and-sorcery, dark fantasy, anything goes sort of magic. So instead of spending time on how the magic is used and what it does, in pre-planning I only decided the role that magic played in the political structure of that world. Then comes my first POV scene with the sorcerer. What do I do? I create a cool mechanism for communicating long distance. I'm probably going to keep it.

I think we can sometimes experience that tug of war between staid development and going with the cool as Sanderson often suggests. Don't be afraid of the cool!

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

So, my MC just so happened to be in a quasi-wild west saloon. And it just so happened, that he got into a fight in said saloon. But, you see, this MC is from a huge city in my world. A city with moving pictures, long before the 1920s type tech due to magic. The kind of moving picture shows with a live guy playing an upright piano. And do you know what his favorite was? "Westerns." He particularly loved the saloon fights and the catchy saloon music. And now I just couldn't resist.

So he started mocking the outlaws and prayed that someone would start playing the piano. So old Death, a friend of the MC, comes sauntering in as bold as brass and starts playing. And I cannot help but think this is a nano convention to help me entertain myself through it all that won't make the final cut. And I don't care.

Do any of you have something similar?

Trust the story. That's my motto.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Update, Death and the MC had a conversation. When confronted with why he knows how to play and why did he play there Death replied "I have hobbies. One of which is playing for this specific saloon."

 

[FifthView]

Shoulda been...

"I have hobbies. I like to raise the spirits of those I'm about to take."

 

[Heliotrope]

"Dude, in my game you ain't nothin' if you can't play a killer honkey tonk."

"I used to play with the symphony, but I prefer a live-lier audience."

"Plus I was no good at classical. When I played Mozarts fifth for him he killed himself.... laughing! But then he actually did kill himself. Now he gives me lessons every Tuesday and Thursday at five thirty. Good guy, really.."

 

[FifthView]

"For some reason, tickling the ivories makes me self-conscious about my weight problems. My therapist says I need to confront that, so...here I am."

"Problems? Plural?"

"Oh sure. You know, tornadoes and hurricanes are some of my busiest work days. I've thought of wearing lead boots, just to keep from being knocked around so much, but my muscle development isn't so great."