Unlikely Masterclass: Fraggle Rock
YOU GUYS. HAVE YOU HEARD. FRAGGLE ROCK IS BACK!!!
If I were to make a pie chart of my brain’s local storage, I’d say 15% is dedicated to normal functions, 60% is dedicated to obscure musicals, and the remaining 25% is Fraggle Rock lore and knowledge. I’m not even kidding.
Its original airing was a bit before my time, but I’ve been a lifelong Muppet fan, and Fraggle Rock was my first true obsession. My first binge (thanks to random lots of DVD-Rs on eBay). It was my gateway to the internet. Fraggle Rock fanfiction was part of what got me into writing. I’m serious. I RP’d as Boober on a fan forum for a LONG time. Which is probably a huge reason why I love D&D and RPGs now.
(If you haven’t figured it out, I’m massively nerding out during this blog post, so buckle up.)
I really love this show. The characters, the humor, the message, THE MUSIC. It’s such a big part of my foundation. I did the waiting for the DVD releases, I flipped out when the whole series started being available to stream. I never even imagined the series would be rebooted.
Reboots of something you love can be hard to get excited for. Time changes everything, and changes to a creative team can be huge for a piece of media. But I have to say, I just finished devouring all of Back to the Rock today, and it felt so true to the original show. Heck, it’s great to see puppetry again. It’s such a wonderful expressive art form.
My biggest question when I heard about this series being a reboot, not a spin off or continuation, was how were they going to cover the story beats without carbon copying each episode of the original show? How do you quickly convey to both an old and new audience each of the Fraggle Five’s characteristics and establish their relationships with each other? And after rewatching the first episodes, I have to say, I think they did a wonderful job. The dialogue and physicality help define the characters so well. The way they talk to each other, you immediately get that they’re friends without needing much of any exposition. A few lines is all it takes to establish who they are, what they care about, and their potential growth and conflicts.
Established within minutes. In a puppet show.
Then Came the Fire is off at the formatters, and I need a pretty big break before I start taking a look at Three Willows Book 3, so I’m at the start of a brand new WIP, caught in the exposition balancing act. I’ve been starting lots of scenes, but not been able to find their endings, which is not an uncommon problem for me, I’m awful with endings. I’ve tried to take a step back and identify some of the trouble spots.
It’s a fresher idea, meaning I haven’t been able to let the plot simmer for 3 years like I did with Three Willows.
There’s a contemporary element, and switching away from 1860s speech is harder than I thought.
A very large part of Thunder is the fact that Sam is new in town, and is meeting all the other characters for the first time, helping the reader meet them too. Now, I’m trying to write an opening scene with a group of characters who have a pre-established relationship, which is very different.
Last time I had some writing time, I went to my ol’ standby technique and only wrote dialogue and vague stage directions, and honestly, I think it helped a little bit? Focusing on one part of a scene at a time tends to be better for me in general than trying to figure out everything at once. It’s helping me peg down the dynamic of how two siblings and a good friend talk to each other. When I know how they talk, I can figure out what needs to be said, and what can be established later. And as I’m learning from Fraggle Rock, dialogue is just the start. People who have known each other for a long time have a natural way of moving around each other and anticipation of the other’s movements as well. I’m excited to work those kinds of things in, in order to quickly orient the reader with who they’re going to hang out with for 200-some pages.
And I can’t say it enough. If you have access to Apple TV, watch some Fraggles. I bet you’ll have a good time. You can find me tearing up over the legacy songs.
