This site contains the aptly-named More Tales of MU (also known as MOARMU), a companion story to the original Tales of MU (or TOMU.
What’s a companion story?
It’s a story told in parallel. You could read one story or the other and still find them entertaining, but because they overlap and intersect in places, you get a fuller picture of events by reading both. In some cases, this may simply be little in-jokes, but in other places, one story may provide information that provides a new interpretation of events in the other. In some cases, it will be possible for a reader to have inferred what happened anyway, with the other story merely confirming the details.
Okay, so why would you write a companion story? Why should I read it?
Basically, because there’s things I’d like to say about life at MU that I won’t have the chance to do in the other story.
After writing Mackenzie Blaise’s perspective for a year, I have to say, I love doing it… but she’s very limited. Her limitations are the reasons I love writing her, but I’m eager to show that I’m capable of more, and to open up the world of MU a bit more.
Aside from having some peculiar biases, Mackenzie is very introverted and introspective by nature. She can go on for paragraphs about what she’s thinking and feeling, or spend an entire chapter detailing an elaborate fantasy… but she rarely stops to say much about her surroundings, or even describe the people around her. That originally grew out of my attempt to play to my own strengths as a writer, but it’s grown into a character trait of hers.
After a year of solid writing, I’m feeling ready to stretch a bit more.
Laying aside the question of her characterization, she’s one person, living in one place, surrounded by a close-knit group of people. That’s a pretty small window into the world… to the point that some people mistake the window for the world, and think the world consists of nothing but, to borrow a phrase from the immortal Homer, “jerks and lesbians.”
So, the short answer is that the companion story offers a different perspective. It’s a different person, from a different background, with a different personality and different interests, taking different classes, and hanging out in different places with different people.
How often will this story update?
To be seen. One thing I’m doing that is highly experimental (for me) is actually writing the bulk of each chapter out in advance. I’m going to be trying to get most of a week’s worth of material done on the weekend. That might end up being three chapters. It might end up being five. We’ll see.
The timeline in MOARMU will move a bit faster than the one in TOMU did at first, as the protagonist is not going through such a drastic period of adjustment as Mackenzie did. By the time it catches up, things should be moving at about the same rate in both stories… some readers have noticed that things are moving a bit quicker in places for Mackenzie.
Will this story replace or supplant the original?
Not as such, no. I’m still loving writing Mackenzie, and of course, the key to my gig is that I write what I like. Also, I’d be a fool to turn my back on something that is so successful. The updates this story receives will not “take the place of” regular TOMU updates.
Of course, if this finds more success, there might be periods when it gets attention and the “main” story gets less. If I ever do get tired of either protagonists, MU might become a bit of an anthology.
Conversely, if this little side project simply falls flat… if it fails to catch readers’ imagination or keep stimulating mine, it could just fall by the wayside, and just be an interesting little side note.
Who knows? I’m having fun here, and so I’m not in a hurry to get to “the end of the story”.
