#merely mine

[merelymatt]

Soo umm I don't know if you noticed but I think that person over there is making a podcast? Yeah just making one like by themself. They don't ... look like they have any money? Or a growth plan or an engagement platform or a target audience segment or any endorsements lined up. They're 《whispers》 they're not even with a brand I don't think. They're not stopping though. What like makes them think they can just yknow DO that.

[merelymatt]

The thing I get most in my head about, reliably, is asking people for things. More especially asking people to do things for me.

It'll be an annoyance.

Even if it's nothing major. Even if it's something they've happily done a hundred times before.

It'll be an imposition.

Even if I know they love me. Even if it would make me happy if they asked the same thing of me.

It's kind of exploitation if you think about it.

Even if it's a work thing, and they're being paid to do it and I'm being paid to ask them to do it.

I can anticipate the spiral, and I build in time to navigate the spiral before the thing needs doing, and I can reliably break out of the spiral once I'm in it, but the spiral still always happens.

I think that's why I wrote I Need A Miracle.

It wasn't an intention I set out with consciously: to get into character as a variety of people who want and who find it in themselves to ask, even when the things they want are vast and life-changing; when they are, unquestioningly, imposing. But looking back at the finished scripts now, as casting gets under way and I start to think about how I launch and talk about the show later this year, I can see more clearly why, out of all the possibilities, this was the concept that bubbled to the top and demanded to be written first.

Every character in I Need A Miracle does nothing but want. That's the concept: every episode is a prayer, a plea to a higher power for divine intervention. We never hear anything beyond these pleas, these prayers. Anyone who doesn't want anything won't pray for anything, so we'll never hear their voice.

There's an idea that all characters in drama must want something. Here, though, the wanting is front and centre. It's not just what's driving their decisions and actions. It's the reason they're speaking to us. They're all forced to articulate what they want – and not only that but justify why they deserve to get it, because not all prayers are granted.

That ought to have been hard to write, for someone like me who's embarrassed to want things, and who's shy about making those desires someone else's problem or responsibility.

But it wasn't hard. When it's someone else's desire, it's easy! Of course they deserve it. It's not even that big an ask. Anyone would be happy to oblige.

That's the quickest, most effective way I've found to break out of the spiral. Think: if someone else asked this of me, would I think it was rude, or an imposition, or overstepping the mark? Nine times out of ten the answer is: no, I'd actually be stoked to be asked.

[merelymatt]

The question with The Wizard, The Witch and the Wild One was always going to be "which worldbuilding detail will I find to fixate on", not "will I find something to fixate on", and the results are in:

it's the naming conventions

In Suvi's corner of the story so far we've had Soft, Stone, Steel, Archmage Silence, and Silver ... and Suvirin.

It's a clear convention but has not yet been lampshaded by any of the cast, which is of course delicious.

Is it an Empire convention, a Citadel one, a wizardly one? I'm guessing Citadel/wizard, since people like Roselyn and Grandmother Wren are presumably Empire citizens but don't follow the convention.

But is it something adopted later in life? Because Suvi follows the initial S but otherwise breaks the convention of the name being a dictionary word. Will she be expected to pick – or be bestowed with – a dictionary S-word when she's no longer an apprentice, is that it?

And if so ... what will it be? Sand? (sort of combines Soft + Stone)

OR did Soft and Stone break convention when they named their daughter?

[merelymatt]

This is true: the Wolf is Death, The End, Endings.

This is true: the Authors have of late taken to changing the Wolf.

This is surmise: the Authors no longer see the value of Endings.

This is surmise: the Goose and Gander are trends, tastes. Sometimes our tastes turn to the grimdark and gritty, sometimes to the bright and hopeful.

This is true: something is preventing the Gander from moving on from the Neverafter.

This is surmise: something wants the Neverafter to remain in Times of Shadow and never know Times of Plenty. And the Authors never want it to End.

[merelymatt]

Do you ever think about how there's a Bond movie called Octopussy and they just got away with calling it that

[merelymatt]

Andor: every one of these fascists is pathetic and deserves a beating

The Mandalorian: don't you feel sorry for the widdle lost fascist who can't follow his heart's desire to do a eugenics

[merelymatt]

it's wrecking absolute deck

[merelymatt]

Man Door Hand Hook Cawdor, a Scottish creepyplaysta