What straight costs, and what tangled costs
- Freedomthe writer'sTrustthe reader's
Picture the two things a franchise wants at once. Freedom: the next writer can do anything, so the story can surprise. Trust: readers believe the promises hold, so what happened matters. Pull one and the other gives. Every tangle and every fix in this course is a place on that line.
- Freedom wins: promises broken80 of 100 over ten parts, made upTrust wins: promises broken3 of 100 over ten parts, made up
When freedom wins, promises break often. A death stops meaning death, because the dead come back. Readers stop believing anything is final, and stop caring. When trust wins, the writers are boxed in by six hundred promises, and the story stiffens. Nothing new can be said that the list does not already allow.
- Deadthree timesBackthree timesReaders?
A series brings a dead hero back for the third time. Which cost does it pay?
Nothing. Readers like the hero back.
Not yet. They may, each time a little less. The rest of this lesson is about what the third return does to the fourth death.Trust. A death that happens three times stops meaning anything, so the next one will not land.
Right. The writers bought freedom three times and paid with readers' trust each time. Nobody will believe the fourth death.Freedom. The writers have fewer choices now.
Not yet. They have more. A hero who always returns can be killed as often as the writers like. What shrank is what the reader believes. - Retcontrust for freedomRebootall at onceBranchboth, for a mapShelfthe side readers pay
Each fix is a trade on this line. The retcon buys freedom and spends trust. The reboot spends all the trust for all the freedom. The branch keeps both and costs a map. The shelf spends the side readers' trust to free the main story. The keeper spends the writers' freedom, one no at a time, to keep trust.
Set how free the writers are against how hard the owner protects old promises. See what ten parts look like: promises broken, and readers who still trust the list. Made up to show the shape.
Promises broken20 made upReaders who trust50 made upThe writers are: Writers boxed in · The owner protects: Owner protects nothing
Writers boxed in, owner protects nothing: 20 promises broken over ten parts, and 50 of 100 readers still trust the list. Little new gets written, and few believe what is.
Promises broken10 made upReaders who trust70 made upThe writers are: Writers boxed in · The owner protects: Some promises
Writers boxed in, some promises: 10 promises broken over ten parts, and 70 of 100 readers still trust the list. Little new gets written.
Promises broken3 made upReaders who trust85 made upThe writers are: Writers boxed in · The owner protects: Every promise
Writers boxed in, every promise: 3 promises broken over ten parts, and 85 of 100 readers still trust the list. Nothing new gets written.
Promises broken40 made upReaders who trust40 made upThe writers are: A middle way · The owner protects: Owner protects nothing
A middle way, owner protects nothing: 40 promises broken over ten parts, and 40 of 100 readers still trust the list.
Promises broken15 made upReaders who trust65 made upThe writers are: A middle way · The owner protects: Some promises
A middle way, some promises: 15 promises broken over ten parts, and 65 of 100 readers still trust the list.
Promises broken5 made upReaders who trust80 made upThe writers are: A middle way · The owner protects: Every promise
A middle way, every promise: 5 promises broken over ten parts, and 80 of 100 readers still trust the list. Few surprises are left, and half the drafts come back.
Promises broken80 made upReaders who trust15 made upThe writers are: Writers do as they like · The owner protects: Owner protects nothing
Writers do as they like, owner protects nothing: 80 promises broken over ten parts, and 15 of 100 readers still trust the list. Anything can happen, and so nothing matters.
Promises broken40 made upReaders who trust40 made upThe writers are: Writers do as they like · The owner protects: Some promises
Writers do as they like, some promises: 40 promises broken over ten parts, and 40 of 100 readers still trust the list.
Promises broken25 made upReaders who trust55 made upThe writers are: Writers do as they like · The owner protects: Every promise
Writers do as they like, every promise: 25 promises broken over ten parts, and 55 of 100 readers still trust the list. Writers and the keeper fight over every draft.
Where does a franchise land if it wants a story that can still surprise and still be believed?
Writers do as they like, nothing protected.
Not yet. Eighty breaks and fifteen trusting. Anything can happen, so nothing matters, and the readers who kept the promises have left.Writers boxed in, every promise protected.
Not yet. Three breaks and 85 trusting, and the readout says nothing new gets written. A story that cannot surprise is a story that stops.A middle way for the writers and some promises protected: about fifteen breaks in ten parts, two readers in three still trusting.
Right. At one end everything breaks; at the other nothing changes. The middle setting on both breaks fifteen in ten parts and keeps two readers in three. That is what a keeper who can say no, but not always, looks like.Move both controls.
- restarted twice in 12 yearsMortal Kombatone list, kept since 2011Zelda
Time matters too. A keeper slows a draft. A sale hurries it. Mortal Kombat restarted in 2011 and again in 2023, twelve years apart, which is a franchise choosing freedom twice. Zelda took 25 years to publish its list and then kept it, which is a franchise choosing trust slowly.
Tap the fix that throws nothing away.
Tap the part of the picture that answers it.
RetconRebootBranchShelfBranch
Right. Every story keeps its place on its own path. The reader pays with a map, and that is the only price; nothing is rewritten, emptied or set aside.Retcon
Not yet. A retcon throws away the old meaning of a scene. The scene stays; what it meant does not.Reboot
Not yet. A reboot throws away every promise at once. It is the most, not the least.Shelf
Not yet. A shelf throws away the counting, not the books. The stories are sold on and stop binding, which is a loss to the readers who kept them.- A choiceA choiceA choiceA tangle
So a tangle is what the trade looks like from outside. Inside, it is a series of choices, each made by a person with a date and a budget, between a writer's freedom today and a reader's trust tomorrow. Nobody chose the tangle. They chose the sale, the new hand, the prequel, and the fix, one at a time.
- A keepercan refuse anythingForty years of promisesall protectedFive parts?
An owner hires a keeper with the power to refuse any draft, and tells the writers every promise in forty years of stories is protected. Which is the most likely result over the next five parts?
Promises break more, because writers rebel against the keeper.
Not yet. The frames do not need rebellion. A keeper who can refuse any draft catches breaks before they ship; what the writers lose is room, not discipline.Nothing changes, because readers do not notice keepers.
Not yet. Readers do not see the keeper; they see the result, which is a list that holds. The change they will notice is that the story stopped surprising them.Very few promises break, readers trust the list, and the stories grow stiff, because little can be said that forty years of list does not forbid.
Right. That is the setting with the writers boxed in and every promise protected. It is a real choice, and some franchises make it. Its cost is paid in surprise, not in trust.
Lesson complete
Writers' freedom and readers' trust pull against each other. Every fix is a choice of where to stand.