Thanks for the imagery JMS!!

 [ Summary: Asks how JMS sits down to write an episode of the show and
   how he would handle a story if he had no background and was given a
   deadline. ]

 #: 640242 S5/Babylon 5: General
    21-Jan-97  13:46:30
Sb: #640039-Writing
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

       It's a combination of things, and very hard to explain.  I come to a
given episode knowing I have to do X...X might be "this is the one where I
have
to plant the info about the giant space ferrets," or "this is the one where
Lennier gets nailed in bed by Londo."  Then I kind of check in on the
characters in my head...I know what they've been going through, and I see how
they're feeling about it, where they are, what's going on...then I sit down
and
"watch" the events in my head like watching a movie, or watching the news.
Some scenes are vaguer than others, so I keep replaying it in my head until I
can see the whole thing...then I write it all down.

       In the latter case you mention, having nothing, and being under the
gun,
I always, *always* start with character rather than a series of incidents or
plot points.  Because character is the key to everything: plot, structure, all
of it.  All you need to know is who your character is, what he wants, how far
he will go to get it, and how far somebody else will go to stop him.  The rest
follows naturally.

                                                                     jms




================================================^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
###  http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/quark  ### dhnex@ncbpnylcfr.bet
================================================vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Been there, Remiel.  Done that.  Wore the tee shirt, ate the burger, 
bought the original cast album, choreographed the legions of the 
damned and orchestrated the screaming...