The setting was beautiful enough to slightly warm even the heart of a well-paid script hack. “I’m not much for revolutions,” he said, “even as a plot device. But the plan the thing you sent me describes, it looks like a great place to live. It’s not too fantastical either. You can almost see how to get from here to there. There’s no plot, I know, I can add one easily, but the future it describes is what will make the series a hit, not the plot or the characters I add. Who knows, it might even inspire somebody to do something. Make it real.”
The man on the video call smiled. “We want to graft a plot on it, yes. But tweak the setting too.”
“How? Or why? It’s perfect.”
“You know.” The client moved a hand vaguely. “The classics. Snake in Eden. Man against technology. The grim underbelly of utopia. Badass action hero saves the day.”
“Um,” replied the writer. “Yeah.. I’ve done that a hundred times. But are you sure you want that? What you got here is a white paper but it’s a good future. It’s a good plan. Change it too much and it’s just – it’s just fictional.”
“Very sure.” The man smiled. “It’s not our first time either.”
The writer shrugged and the meeting moved on to the more important details of the contract.
(Originally posted on my blog.)