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I realize no editor will ever understand that I came up with this idea (nor care more likely about any of it) before it was reported by Rueters but this article sums up part of my maguffin in the short Last Stand thats up in F&F. Now the question is how does one explore such a deep maguffin without letting the reader know it's just the maguffin until farther into the story?
posted
I read the fragment. Thing is, characters in a story don't know it's a maguffin. *They* have to care. That will make me care, too.
I'd say a maguffin is something that, if it were replaced with something else, the story would still work. So I don't think we *ever* need to know it's a maguffin. Unless we analyze (as oppose to enjoy) the story, after reading.
The One Ring was a maguffin. But the good people were terrified what Sauron would do with it; Sauron could have ruled the world with it. Good reasons! What reasons can you make up for MC, and for Lord Protector?
posted
Also, you don't have to let the reader know it's the maguffin at any point in the story. The reader doesn't care one way or the other, as long as he/she cares about the characters.
Posts: 470 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
What's a maguffin? It sounds like something you'd buy at Starbucks... you know, a snack to go with your espresso.
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posted
I thought you were making an oblique reference to the fact that you don't want the reader to ever realize that some critical element of your story is a "maguffin".
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999
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For some reason or other, while watching "Lost" over the holidays, I struck me that the series is probably one of the biggest Maguffin's ever created.
I mean - so far, we've got a series and a half about people trying to figure out what's up with that darned island, and although we care, we're really (well, I am) drawn into the little stories and back history that surrounds the characters.
Maybe I'm wrong. But mebbe "Lost" is a great example of Maguffin trickery.
BTW...What episode of series 2 are you guys up to in the states? We're just coming up to the end of series 1 in the UK.