Do something once...

and it's an experiment. If the experiment is successful, and you want to try it again, it's done as a lark. Do it three times -- it's a tradition

I'm speaking, of course, of the Pro-Fun Troll Hoedown. Last year, it went from "lark" to "tradition," and so there is an expectation, by me at the very least, that there will be a Hoedown again in 2003... Or maybe a grand masque.

You see, in the rather unexepected-until-the-nearly-last-minute turn of events in the plot of the most recent story, a new Timelord entered the arena of Doctor Who fanfiction: Florestan -- a Timelord from the time when Old High Gallifreyan was still the common tongue. And whatever happens at the celebration this year, Florestan will definitely be in on the hosting... and Hoedowns, as such, may not be his favorite cup of tea.

And so I realized that I'd better take the time to get to know this Florestan character better, before the party guests actually start knocking on the door, asking to be let in. So my next fiction writing attempt will be to follow Eloise (She's the little troll grinning at you right now) and Florestan though a few scattered moments after the last Hoedown.

And that means getting to know Eloise better, too, and fleshing out more of her biograghy... and there's the rub. Continuity breakdown of the first order. You see, during the very first Hoedown, which was only an experiment at the time, I wrote of Eloise's origins in a fairly literal, if goofy way, as this quote from "Chaos in Cyberspace" -- Chapter 8: Know Your Enemy is direct evidence:

"My dear Doctor," the troll^* interjected, "I do more than visit Cyberspace, "I was born here -- right here on Rad-wah. She gazed off into the distance, wistfully. Over yonder, in the valley between those two mountains, there’s a lovely arching bridge that provides perfect shelter from the rain. She snapped out of her reverie. All trolls, pro-fun and nasty, are born in Cyberspace, and then, sometimes, we move to dimensional space, and make our homes on the mundane planets..."

---
But since then, the hoedowns have gotten darker and more complex, and consequently, in my imagination, so has Eloise's biography, and I no longer envision her being born on "Planet Rad-wah" (aka Rec.Arts.Drwho, or RADW) at all, but in some alternate universe that is a much closer parallel to Earth -- perhaps so close to Earth that a casual visiter wouldn't be able to tell the difference, except to think that maybe they had traveled back in time about 150 years.

So here's the conundrum that was going around in my head as I woke up this morning: What do I do about this?

Do I ignore what I wrote during that first Hoedown "Experiment" completely, and just go off in an entirely different direction, writing a story in the sort of dark tones of serious fantasy fiction set on alternate "Earths" (such as in Phillip Pullman's His Dark Minstrels trilogy, or the fantasy novels of Jane Yolen and Patricia McKillip)? Or do I try to incorporate some aspects of the spoofy-goofy "planets of Cyber-space"?

On the one hand, I think the first option (ignore what I wrote in 2000 completely) better fits the character Eloise has become over the last three years. On the other hand, I have a certain fondness for the first Hoedown, mainly because it was the first, and its creation opened the door to many dear friendships (including those with alryssa and gordon_r_d), and don't want to write it off as just an experiment.

So ultimately, I'm left with this question: Which is more important -- integrity of character, or ingretity of continuity?

Comments? Suggestions? Help?


^* "The Little Troll" didn't even have a name, yet, back then. The name Eloise didn't even come to me until halfway through the second Hoedown.