I Just Write the Thing: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|<poem>'''[[Charles Dickens]]:''' I'm the author [[A Christmas Carol|here]].

'''Scrooge:''' Allegedly.</poem>|''[[The Man Who Invented Christmas]]''[https://youtu.be/eGSIioEjcq0?t{{=}}1m49s]}}

 

{{examples}}

=== Anime and Manga ===

* ''Multiplication'' by [[Shintaro Kago]] shows this in action. A single panel of normal [[Hentai]] is created, and other panels are spun off from it, but the nameless mangaka writing it keeps having to restart from the beginning after it spirals into [[Body Horror]] and [[Gorn]]. (This may or may not be an explanation of the author's own [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?|distinctive style]].)

* Amazingly [[Played for Drama]] in ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' -- {{spoiler|the character Fakir is [[Reality Warper|literally capable]] of [[Rewriting Reality]] by telling stories, but if he doesn't write well enough then his stories start conforming to reality instead of the other way around. In one instance he tries to write that monsters stopped attacking the main character...and finds he has to write that they kept attacking.}}

 

* Played with in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' in the episode "Citizen Joe", where an ancient device allows an ordinary citizen to see the events in Jack O'Neil's life. He tells everyone around him about the stories and eventually starts writing them down and tries to get them published. When the people he's telling the stories to ask questions (hilariously similar to ones that [[Viewers are Morons|Viewers]] or [[Executive Meddling|Executives]] might ask while watching the real show), Joe dismisses them because "that's how it really happened!" Of course, in his case, that really ''is'' what happened.

* The Comic Relief ''[[Downton Abbey]]'' spoof "Uptown Downstairs Abbey" portrays Julian Fellowes this way, making something of a catchphrase out of "How do I do it?" He also protests that he can't do anything about an actress' issues with her character, because "I just do the silly writing."

** Evvy, the stone mage from the second ''Circle'' series made Tamora Pierce change the entire plot because the she didn't like the teacher she was supposed to go learn from.

* The "omnipotent plot" example is played with humourously with Lemony Snickett's ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]''. He's [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|supposedly narrating]] the thing, so naturally he expresses great sympathy and regret during the horrible events that occur within the book.

** Also notable is the true identity of Ronnie Soak. Pratchett found out about it about the same time the characters did.

{{quote|Because this is also a story about sex, although probably not in the athletic, tumbling, count-the-legs-and-divide-by-two sense unless the characters get totally beyond the author's control. They might.}}

** According to the afterword of ''[[Good Omens]]'', which he co-wrote with [[Neil Gaiman]], one of them congratulated the other on a bit both were absolutely sure they didn't write. They suspected the book had begun writing itself when they weren't looking.

* ''[[Sonichu]]'' author Christian Chandler really does believe that he characters uses exist in some sort of alternate reality. He has apparently even "spoken" to some of them in real life.

 

* No matter what [[Play By Post]] role play you play, you will ALWAYS stumble across one of these guys.

 

 

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