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The age problem.
Jun. 7th, 2016 08:09 pmOne thing I forgot to mention in the prior entry was the interesting and difficult balance between wanting time to move along to match real-time and yet not wanting to actively depict the characters growing older. On the one hand, I've watched ages standing still over the passage of time in several series I've been involved with, from Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys to Detective Conan and The Baby-Sitters Club and I am totally okay with it and even like it. But when it comes to my own stuff, I don't know if I can make myself be that illogical. In this case I'm not discussing time period problems; I have absolutely no issues whatsoever in taking a series set in the 1960s and setting it in the present-day instead, if in my estimation it really isn't a period piece and could easily happen in any modern time period. I'm discussing the passage of years regardless of actual time period. Like, in books written over, say, two years, you have books set in all months and seasons, yet the characters perpetually remain a certain age in the narration. It's the best way to do things if you really don't want/need your characters to age, as those series really don't since aging the characters is not important and doing so might even hurt the stories' charm. But when you have a developing timeline like I do with my Ginger and Lou fics and the passage of time has been mentioned up to a certain point, there's really no way to logically make the ages stand still.
The problem is that I picked up the stories using Christopher and Luke's real-life ages at the time of The Queen of Peru: Ginger is 47 and Lou is 41. (It's one of the only times I've left the characters the same ages as the actors instead of trying to make them a little younger.) Technically speaking, since time does pass and characters grow and change in these stories, Ginger should be 50 and Lou 44 by now. And yet I picked those earlier, particular ages for them and those were the ages I wanted them to be, like if I was making profiles for them and such. So because I can't come to a decision, ever since their ages would have technically changed from 47 and 41, I haven't made any specific mention of their ages in the stories. I've brought up Lou's 25th class reunion and I've mentioned that now they've known each other for over twenty years, but I haven't outright given their ages anymore. I suppose that unless I change my mind about being okay with upping their ages in the narrative, that's the best compromise I can come up with.
The problem is that I picked up the stories using Christopher and Luke's real-life ages at the time of The Queen of Peru: Ginger is 47 and Lou is 41. (It's one of the only times I've left the characters the same ages as the actors instead of trying to make them a little younger.) Technically speaking, since time does pass and characters grow and change in these stories, Ginger should be 50 and Lou 44 by now. And yet I picked those earlier, particular ages for them and those were the ages I wanted them to be, like if I was making profiles for them and such. So because I can't come to a decision, ever since their ages would have technically changed from 47 and 41, I haven't made any specific mention of their ages in the stories. I've brought up Lou's 25th class reunion and I've mentioned that now they've known each other for over twenty years, but I haven't outright given their ages anymore. I suppose that unless I change my mind about being okay with upping their ages in the narrative, that's the best compromise I can come up with.
