The setting was beautiful enough to slightly warm even the heart of a well-paid script hack. “I’m not much for revolutions,” he said, “even as a plot device. But the plan the thing you sent me describes, it looks like a great place to live. It’s not too fantastical either. You can almost see how to get from here to there. There’s no plot, I know, I can add one easily, but the future it describes is what will make the series a hit, not the plot or the characters I add. Who knows, it might even inspire somebody to do something. Make it real.”
The man on the video call smiled. “We want to graft a plot on it, yes. But tweak the setting too.”
“How? Or why? It’s perfect.”
“You know.” The client moved a hand vaguely. “The classics. Snake in Eden. Man against technology. The grim underbelly of utopia. Badass action hero saves the day.”
“Um,” replied the writer. “Yeah.. I’ve done that a hundred times. But are you sure you want that? What you got here is a white paper but it’s a good future. It’s a good plan. Change it too much and it’s just – it’s just fictional.”
“Very sure.” The man smiled. “It’s not our first time either.”
The writer shrugged and the meeting moved on to the more important details of the contract.