Yes, I went and saw last night’s Doctor Who special. I went into it with an open mind and came out feeling entertained and a little inspired to do a blog post.
Without spoiling it too much for those of you awaiting the DVD release, this episode centered around dreams. Dreams tend to “skip” the boring scenes like the so-called abridged Princess Bride, and take you right to the intense bits that leave you screaming your head off IRL. (Does that only happen to me? :D)
You, of course, understand within the dream that there were stuff in between, but the finer details don’t matter. In the episode, those bits were always brushed off with a blasé explanation like, “It’s a long story.”
I find this happens with me when I’m writing a long story. I’ll often start by writing the most crucial parts of the story, be it the witty ending that I must get onto paper before I forget, or a climactic scene in the middle. How all of that came to happen? Well, it’s a long story, and I can write the other parts later — in no particular order, mind you.
Like the intertwined lifetimes of River Song and the Doctor, things don’t always happen in a straight line, but they can still make for a pretty good story. 🙂
PS. I’d include a gif of Clara saying “It’s a long story,” and then covering her mouth in horror, but of all the episode screencaps up on the DW tumblr page, I couldn’t find that one. 😦
Allison the Writer 