Internal Fanfic Conversation

[shipperx]

Have you ever convinced yourself to do something in fanfic that the fan in you didn't want to have happen?

I have "issues" with BtVS (BOY, do I have issues). And my issues are screaming to have Spike behave in one way while the inner writer in me insists that I do the opposite. Inner fan resists not only because of said issues but also because of the crapola Joss, Fury, et al spilled over Spike with the "bad boyfriend" shinola. Anyway, while musing over the fanfic I'm always working on, it hit me that I really needed to change part of the plot. The problem is the inner fan was throwing a hissyfit at the inner writer.

Fanfic Writer: I really think Spike needs to do X.

InnerFan: No! That's not what I wanted to have happen! I didn't want Spike making the same mistake again. He was supposed to have learned something.

Fanfic Writer: Do you want him to be a Mary Sue?

InnerFan: No. But I wanted him to mature.

Fanfic Writer: Mature? Spike?! Look, can you deny that doing X is perfectly within character for Spike?

InnerFan: (Grudgingly) No.

Fanfic Writer: And would it increase tension and drama in the last third of the story?

InnerFan: (Now pouting) Yes.

Fanfic Writer: And isn't this part of the personality that made you fall for Spike in the first place?

InnerFan: Well, yeah, but Joss kept saying--

Fanfic Writer: Forget Joss! Joss had a screwed up view of what constituted heroes and what Spike needed to do to become one.

InnerFan: But Spike would be backsliding! He should--

Fanfic Writer: If you say 'evolve' I'm gonna smack you. We love, Spike, right? And why do we love him?

InnerFan: (Stubbornly Mute)

Fanfic Writer: Say it.

InnerFan: No.

Fanfic Writer: SAY IT.

InnerFan: We love "Love's Bitch."

Fanfic Writer: So Spike is gonna do X.

InnerFan: (pouting) I guess so.

* You know, I once read an article that said the imaginative process of writing sort of resembles mild schizophrenia. Please note that the schizophrenia is only mild.>:)

Comments

[jenjojen.livejournal.com]

Logic sucks, doesn't it? Especially when voiced by, well, inner voices. LOL.

So when do we get to read said fic?

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The first 8 or so chapters were posted *ages* ago. I've just ceased posting until I finish the entire story. When I finish and revamp some of the earlier stuff (like the section that got Jossed due to "LMPTM") I'll re-post the story from the beginning and have the whole thing come out very quickly. Right now I'm stuck on Chapter 12 though.

[kassto.livejournal.com]

That's fantastic!

I have those conversations with myself even if I'm not writing. I have no need for Spike to be heroic. Just so long as he's not eating people and being a complete turd. I have no problem with him doing good stuff because he wants to get into someone's pants. I say fair enough. I say to all the mass murderers/terrorists of this world, who are strapping explosives to their bodies at this moment, intent on blowing up innocent civilians... I say to them, Hey. Here's a cute chick. Do good stuff and it might just impress her! And if he did, well that's a fucking victory!

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I tend to have to fight the urge to make Spike TOO heroic. Thank god for his sarcasm. I have a high appreciatioin for sarcasm and it helps alleviate my desire to make him too much the hero.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Heh. Honestly, I think this is how we know we are actually writing stories and not just typing up our fantasies. It's a good thing. Who cares if it means we're crazy?

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I always have to fight against the urge to protect the characters I love. Protection of characters is rarely a good thing.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

It could be worse. My characters tend to be telling me they're going to kill other characters, shag characters they shouldn't or take over the world.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

...Um... that's pretty much what my Inner Fanfic Writer is saying. (Well, not the "take over the world" part.) But inner fanfic writer definitely wants Spike to shag Buffy even though she's still (stubbornly) hung up on Angel. And this morning IFW started whispering about the possible need to kill Wesley.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

Poor Wes does suffer so prettily...
Embrace the Dark Side, young padawan, it is your destiny.

And you can always slaughter Buffy after Spike's shagged her in the great ME tradition of have sex and die. It'll be canonical ::nods::

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Alas... Buffy does not die. That would be all to easy.

As for Wes... I still don't know. SOMEONE in Wilah is going to have to bite it. In my story Wilah function as sort of a mirror Spuffy... the same only different. Wes wants Lilah and is shamed by the want. Lilah is willingly particpating in "very bad things." There need to be consequences. The question is... should the consequence be Wes going on after Lilah's death? Lilah seeing the consequences of her actions in Wesley's death? Or both of them going out in some darkly twisted Romeo/Juliet way... and if so, am I overdosing on the dark because the plot has some positively Jossian bleakness to it's planned (near) ending.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

With the caveat that without knowing the Spuffy side of the ending and whether you want poetic symetry or contrast, the death with the most possibility seems to be Wes'. If you want Lilah to really make a plausible change to the grey side of the force where she goes straight (where she becomes a normal lawyer and there's always something in it for Lilah, but without, you know, killing people or abetting slaughter), you need to make her suffer and realise the cost and pain of her actions. And since Lilah only really cares for Lilah, Lilah's mum and Wes (pretty much in that order), you're talking dead Wes.

If you kill Lilah, Wes puts it all down as sad but something the whore fundamentally deserves and heads back to panting after madonna Fred. In doing which, doesn't really get either women, but Wes is deeply fucked-up that way and he won't make a major change in his moral stance.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I'm leaning toward doing both Lilah and Wes in. Alas, theirs is a star crossed and dysfunctional love. . . but I do love that screwed up pairing.

[rahirah]

Oh, yeah, I know those voices in the head...

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I hate it when the voices win.

. . .wait, that didn't sound right. >:)