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>>Something I've noticed about T&R is that it can be >>read differently if one's opinion on one certain >>question differed. >> >>How much of T&R was written seat-of-the-pants? The >>plot seems structured enough to merit a past >>outlining, or at least a list of "Points to reference >>later." However, the prevailing opinion within the >>strip is that stuff happened, and The Cartoonist was >>just there to tell it. >> >>(Also, I knew for a long time before the ending that >>"The Cartoonist" and the author were differenet, >>however personally similar they could be. It's hard to >>run a story that incompetently.) >> >>(Also also, I loved the invention of the word >>"Omnincompetent.") > >I often had ideas of where things would go, but until >very close to the ending I frequently allowed these >ideas to get derailed by other ones. There's a strip >somewhere where the Cartoonist talks about a planned >MSG-taking-over-world ending that wouldn't be >happening because he subsequently realized Orpuddex >could stir Beta Tapiocus; that's a typical example of >how the plotting worked for most of the strip's >lifespan, buildup towards one event then a shift to >another idea when I saw a detail I'd missed. >In the very early phases I had absolutely no plans; >the nature of the Time of the Oval wasn't clear to me >until sometime around the official Fourth-Race-was-Man >revelation, and the idea that all the different types >of cyclic recurrence had to end together in one event >wasn't until after my Borges kick.

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