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The novel’s pace is going to be picking up in the coming months and I just wanted to let people know that I am continuing to develop new ideas to expand the storytelling through the Twitter medium, especially the idea of conversations. Right now, other than a few breaking-the-fourth-wall tweets and the Szgany project, there isn’t really any conversation going on. Now, this may be because no one is interested in talking to fictional characters, but given how many questions @Wendell_Howe gets, I doubt this is the case.
I think, instead, that there is a lot of confusion about the nature of the characters and their place on Twitter. That said, I’m going to clarify some points.
1. Unlike @Wendell_Howe, the RTD characters are not actually on Twitter (it being 1887 and all). Their tweets are "translated" from their short diary entries and their @replies are really letters and telegrams (with a few exceptions). This translation basically involves turning names into handles. So if Mina refers to Lucy in her diary it will be written, sometimes, as @LucyHolmwood2b.
2. So when you @reply to a character, your message is translated back. To them it is a letter or telegram. Any reference to anachronistisms will either be ignored completely or treated as gibberish. It’s not an insult to you, it’s just how the characters would think.
3. This brings us to the primary rule of character conversation. If they are in a position to receive a letter or telegram from you then they can view your @reply.
I like the idea of this
I actually tried to tell you in a Tweet once what I’m going to tell you now. It didn’t work! 🙂
I agree with your rules above and want to flesh out some real situations:
1) In his current position, @JHarkerEsq cannot receive Tweets, but he can send them? I would say no, his tweets are the contents of the letters that he was coerced to write. (Have we ever seen those letters?)
2) People like Mina and Lucy and all can write and receive tweets, but the tweets are delivered by pony express or however it was done back then. So, while you, the “twitter agent” for these characters, receive the tweets, then translate them into letters to the characters that are sent through the wormhole…
3) I could see a character conveying parts of upcoming diary entries in tweets, as if they were sending snippets throughout the day and had unlimited money to spend on messengers, etc. I think that’s what you’re doing.
So, I’m just rambling here, but I was trying to figure out the same thing that you have.
Re: I like the idea of this
I made a brief exception for Harker with the Szgany episode, on the assumption that he was tossing letters out of his window and possibly could receive some in return if they were tossed back. It’s a stretch, admittedly, but it worked for that portion of the story. Now the Szgany are ignoring him, so there are no more tweets from him.
The letters he post-dated to Mina are never shown in the novel, but have been created here to give a sense of what Mina is hearing from him.
For the rest of the characters I’m going to assume all conversational tweets are telegrams unless there is a reason to construe them as something else. This should also cut down on response time.
For Quincey & Art, yes, they are sending a lot of telegrams that make up a “diary” of sorts. They are spending a lot of money, but they’re rich so it’s OK.
We’ll see how things go and if we have to fudge the rules a bit, that’s OK too.
Re: I like the idea of this
Have you ever checked out Alan Moore’s take on Mina, in the “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” series of graphic novels?
The physical evidence of her earlier encounter with the Count us quite evident, and must be constantly hidden, throughout her long, long life.
I highly recommend the series, the fourth volume of which recently came out.
Re: I like the idea of this
I only read the first two volumes, but they are terrific. I love the pan-literary scope, similar to Anno Dracula, though that was only vampires.
The thing about Mina in LoEG is that I’d seen the abominable movie version first so I was actually disappointed at first to find that she isn’t a vampire. But then I realized how excellent the character really is.
Re: I like the idea of this
Volume 3 is the biggie: The Black Dossier. That has so many mind-blowing things going, over such a grand space of time, and tying in with so many literary genres and metaphors, that, for me, it changed my entire conception of the series.
Volume 4 is similar and introduces us to different actors, both in the League and a new potential Nemesis.
I had read the books before I saw the movie. I much prefer Mina as an incredibly strong, resourceful woman, with no supernatural powers.