Disaggregated Material

Fiction is like a game. As in sports or virtual reality, rules are established at the outset of a fictional story. How many characters will there be? What capacities do they have? Is the action restricted to a tiny space, maybe a house or a village, or is it dispersed across galaxies? Over what span of time does the story unfold: A single day? Centuries? Since every story takes place somewhere in space and time, why does an author choose one space-time continuum and not another?

However broad or narrow, frameworks of time and space regulate characters’ conduct. If the parameters of the story permit, characters may possess superpowers, such as an ability to shoot spiderwebs from their wrists. Or they may be ordinary folks in an ordinary town on an ordinary day facing ordinary problems. Once their motivations and roles have been determined, they should respect the rules of the...