Write Your Own Christie Qustion...

Daryl

I am going to enter the WYOC competition for chapter two but I have a small question.

Does the characters have to be the same as in the A Murder is Announced novel or not?

And also, would my chapter have to follow on from the winning first chapter (which I assume will be posted on this site)?

Many Thanks,
Daryl

GKCfan

I believe that you do have to follow from the winning first chapter, which means the characters included in the first chapter ought to appear in some capacity (or at least most of them).  You can add new characters that don't have to appear in A Murder is Announced.  You can give the characters different personalities, but you can't "ret-con" the characters.  For example, if it's well-established that one character is a drunk who hates classical music, you can't suddenly make that character a teetotaler Mozart lover (unless the radical plot change is part of the plot!).

mary.fitzgerald.560

My question is about how to resolve a contradiction in Chapter 1 that will affect how I approach Chapter 2. In Agatha Christie's introduction, which I believe is still a part of the finished book, she has Edmund as an unemployed young man who is writing a book and doesn't do any real work according to his mother, In the continuation of Chapter 1 that was published here, Edmund is a slightly older veteran of WWII who drives a truck and wants to start his own business. Do we try to combine the two Edmunds or just choose one and let the contradiction stand?