Season Towers

In the current environment awash with paperback novels, publishing wisdom says you get between 3 paragraphs and 3 pages (more often the former than the latter) to interest a reader. This applies to fanfic no less than to published fiction. If you can't grab a reader by that point, the reader puts the book down and tries something else (unless really desperate). That's the hard, cold, brutal truth.

This thesis is based on Lydia the Watcher's line in the episode "Checkpoint" (Buffy season 5). On first meeting Spike she says in awe, "I wrote my thesis on you!"

We submit this collaborative effort as the thesis Lydia wrote. We have given her the last name Chalmers. Since we imagine this thesis to have been completed in May of 1998, any information about Spike or Sunnydale which has appeared since then will not have been available to her.

There are a number of these things: overused words and phrases that are basically empty, and that provide an escape route from the more evocative phrase you could have used instead. Frankly, I want a list of these. I know of a few that plague my own writing, but I'm sure there are loads more that I don't even think about.

Of course, all this talk of honesty doesn't mean the narrator might not be fooling himself. The unreliable narrator is one of the charms and risks of first-person. (I am firmly convinced that House, for example, if he were writing his own story, would be one of the most unreliable narrators in the history of the planet. Which is ironic from someone who values realism as much as he does.) The risk to the author is that some readers may not pick up that the protagonist's view of his reality is inaccurate, or to what degree he's fooling himself -- and whether, on some level, he knows it and is avoiding opening that closet door.

What were some of the Firefly stories you never got to tell?
He hemmed and hawed, “Should I tell you this?… Oh well, what’s he going to do, fire me?” The original show was darker and this story was more in keeping with that tone.
It opens with Mal and Inara fighting (as they do). Mal tells her she pretends to be a lady and wants everyone to bow before her and kiss her hand but she’s just a whore. Then the Reavers attack and take Inara. While trying to get her back they learn that she had something that would make anyone who had sex with her die. When they finally track down and board the ship they find all of the Reavers dead and Inara shaking and traumatized.

If you're having a hard time coming up with a character, period, look at your story and find all the tangential people who could become involved. For example, if you're writing a fic in which Spike is playing poker, think of the types of people (or demons) he'd be playing with. Choose one to write about. On a similar note, what about the waitress bringing them their drinks? How does she react to the situation? You might never use this character in your story, but it's a great way to imagine how original characters could become involved.

The key to understanding Darla’s view of relationships is her human life. We are told very little about her, but it’s what we are not told that is every bit as crucial. For example, we have no idea what her name was as a mortal. Angel [see note B] discovers in the episode “Darla” that the name Darla didn’t come into common usage until 100 years after she had died. He assumes the Master must have given her the name

Keep in mind also what it is they have as common ground. They've both got an extremely practical streak, and both tend to pull away from their friends when they could most use them. They both internalize a lot of things, have unresolved parent issues—not to mention the unresolved Angel issues.

many fans do not seem to differentiate between types of souls (i.e. human, vampire, vengeance demon, Mmm Fashnik, etc.).

As long as all of the 'verse demons were evil, the term soul and the definition like-a-conscience, was sufficient. Whistler, Doyle, Lorne and their ilk have muddied the waters, and this is an attempt to filter them. Although some of these terms, definitions and explanations are non-canonical, they draw on canon, don't contradict it, and attempt to fill it in, and wank it a little so that it works.

Make a list of what the reactions of his friends/family/random group of strangers are going to be. Look at it. Can your list be neatly divided into a "omg squeee thats so kawaiiiii!!!!1" category and a "wtf thats wrong get out of my house and go angst, u sicko!!!!!!11!"? If so, you are guilty of stereotyping your characters and oversimplifying human emotions, and you are hereby sentenced to reading the rest of this rant.

Where they actually fit lies in where they differ: Faith has a tendency to keep people distant while Xander has a tendency to reach out to people. Faith is a loner while Xander prefers to live in a crowd of people (although the fact he’s working alone in Africa without his Sunnydale friends might be an element to consider when writing post-S7 Xander). Faith is a fairly good judge of character with a strong bullshit detector, but she doesn’t always know how to translate her judgment into good communication skills. Xander’s ability to judge strangers is not as good, but once he gets a bead on someone’s character he can usually find the right words to say to spur them into action or help them through a difficult situation. In the heat of battle, Faith tends to take the lead and fights in the thick of the action; Xander tends to focus on the periphery by backing up the people with the physical power or removing innocent bystanders and the injured from the field of battle.

I wasn’t sure if she was going to work as a major nemesis for Angel in the second season, but then my view of a nemesis was pretty limited. Try imagining the bad guy in the huge black cape, but from the moment I heard Darla (Judgment) say:
"Angel . . . it's been a long time . . . I'd love to see that boy."

I was simply riveted and couldn’t wait to see what tricks Darla had up her sleeves for Angel and crew.

In plotting an action-adventure type film, how your hero fails is at least as important as how he succeeds. If the plot requires the hero to fail, try to figure out a way for him to fail as impressively as possible.

Consider RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Indiana Jones is perhaps the greatest action hero in the history of the movies. And in his debut film, he flat-out fails from beginning to end.

Connor helping Jasmine voluntarily as opposed to everyone else highlights both sides of his nature, again. He finds out she eats people and accepts that, which is on a par with Faith being willing to help the Mayor consume Sunnydale High on his Ascension. The abdication of moral responsibility in trade for affection from a beloved person, or the conviction that anything that beloved person wants makes it right. (The Mayor? Would have loved Jasmine and her idea of how to create world peace.)

Having watched The Wish for the first time in ages the other weekend, I had my usual moment of thinking about nature/nurture in the Slayer world. All is good if the slayer is nurtured, but when too much is left to nature the slayer (Faith or Wish Buffy) becomes a darker character. Is this something to do with who they are in terms of their human character not being able to cope with the loneliness/ work of slaying, or to do with the demon element that gives them their slayerness becoming too dominant because there isn't enough humanity around them to nourish their human side?