Once Upon A Time

I suppose a lot of people think all of writing is plotting. It’s an easy mistake to make. Something like Lost will be popular because of how the plotting structures and perpetuates a mystery, and then be unpopular because of how poorly plotted the finale is. OuaT, I think, is reasonably well-plotted. For instance, our antagonists both have clear goals and engaging motives—Cora is an abusive mother and wants her daughter to fail and be hurt so she can control her. She’s an irredeemable version of Regina circa season one. While Hook is the personification of Rumpelstilskin’s sins, someone who wants and deserves revenge for all the lives Gold has taken (when everyone else in the cast has made peace/tolerated this).

But I’d like to take a moment to talk about technical writing, which is simply conveying the plotting to the audience in an entertaining manner. It goes very unappreciated. A lot of Lost knockoffs thought they could one-up Lost by having plots that were completely planned out, but the technical writing floundered. And I honestly think OuaT has some of the more embarrassing technical writing I’ve ever seen.

( Spoilers )