I did give some thought to that. There's an ambiguity to the story about how much the Doctor is actually real, or just a figment of the child's imagination. But I do rather like ambiguity, really - and since it's a story which is supposed to *celebrate* that imagination, I think it'd have been somehow churlish to have reined it in in that way. The ultimate conclusion that Harry must draw is that he'll never precisely know just how much of his little childhood adventure was real, and how much he created himself. In the same way, that when I was a child, the most potent memories I have had that same ambiguity. There's so much I only *think* I remember - which, years later, seem so extraordinary and wonderful that they couldn't entirely have been true. (Could they?)
It's a story for eight year olds. It's a story designed to let eight year olds think that, if they let their imaginations run just that little bit more wild, they too can blur the line between Coherent Reality and Wild Fantasy. There obviously *is* a line, somewhere - there obviously is a place where Harry's encounter with the Doctor is real (in fictive terms!) and where it isn't. But the magic of it is that it's an impossible line to see. I think if I had, it'd have made everything I wrote rather trite.
(Although, I dare say, to an adult reader, it might all be trite anyway! But this was very much intended as a children's tale. And, in all honesty, the children I know and have been told about who have read it seemed to get the trick...)
Ultimately, the idea of it all being an 'origin' story, or whatever, reduces the intention a bit, codifies it, and puts it into a continuity that ties in with the Doctor Who Series Canon TM. Just for once, having written stories in different media for Doctor Who over the years that always can be slotted into 'canon', I just wanted to write a story about kids writing stories. Like all the ones I visit at schools actually *do*. Maybe that's the limitation of writing for Doctor Who, though. Maybe we shouldn't attempt stories which don't give much of a fig for the wider picture, and just selfishly follow their own mandate. (I mean that. Maybe we shouldn't! I really don't know. The only thing I know is that I had more fun writing this than - say - a TV episode about a Dalek. It's just more personal. And I'd hope that even a story for pre-teens in a Doctor Who storybook might have room for something a *little* personal...!)
Thanks for your input, though! And for your (many) kind words, both in your review, and in your patient response. I think we may be coming at the story from different and irreconcileable angles. And that's great - it's what it's all about! And thanks for letting me do that Pompous Writer Thing and witter on about it all. I haven't had much opportunity to get my thoughts about it in order!
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dancing_serpent
Re: Storybook
Date: 2007-10-12 01:32 am (UTC)I did give some thought to that. There's an ambiguity to the story about how much the Doctor is actually real, or just a figment of the child's imagination. But I do rather like ambiguity, really - and since it's a story which is supposed to *celebrate* that imagination, I think it'd have been somehow churlish to have reined it in in that way. The ultimate conclusion that Harry must draw is that he'll never precisely know just how much of his little childhood adventure was real, and how much he created himself. In the same way, that when I was a child, the most potent memories I have had that same ambiguity. There's so much I only *think* I remember - which, years later, seem so extraordinary and wonderful that they couldn't entirely have been true. (Could they?)
It's a story for eight year olds. It's a story designed to let eight year olds think that, if they let their imaginations run just that little bit more wild, they too can blur the line between Coherent Reality and Wild Fantasy. There obviously *is* a line, somewhere - there obviously is a place where Harry's encounter with the Doctor is real (in fictive terms!) and where it isn't. But the magic of it is that it's an impossible line to see. I think if I had, it'd have made everything I wrote rather trite.
(Although, I dare say, to an adult reader, it might all be trite anyway! But this was very much intended as a children's tale. And, in all honesty, the children I know and have been told about who have read it seemed to get the trick...)
Ultimately, the idea of it all being an 'origin' story, or whatever, reduces the intention a bit, codifies it, and puts it into a continuity that ties in with the Doctor Who Series Canon TM. Just for once, having written stories in different media for Doctor Who over the years that always can be slotted into 'canon', I just wanted to write a story about kids writing stories. Like all the ones I visit at schools actually *do*. Maybe that's the limitation of writing for Doctor Who, though. Maybe we shouldn't attempt stories which don't give much of a fig for the wider picture, and just selfishly follow their own mandate. (I mean that. Maybe we shouldn't! I really don't know. The only thing I know is that I had more fun writing this than - say - a TV episode about a Dalek. It's just more personal. And I'd hope that even a story for pre-teens in a Doctor Who storybook might have room for something a *little* personal...!)
Thanks for your input, though! And for your (many) kind words, both in your review, and in your patient response. I think we may be coming at the story from different and irreconcileable angles. And that's great - it's what it's all about! And thanks for letting me do that Pompous Writer Thing and witter on about it all. I haven't had much opportunity to get my thoughts about it in order!