“Walking After Midnight”, End notes

[aadler]

[ Endnotes posted 01 Mar 2017 ]

Since this is a remix, what prompted the direction this story took in differing from the original?

This was the first remix I ever did, so I was relatively sedate in my approach; I took the basic scene laid out by bastardsnow and built on it a bit, then threw in a subplot to work everything else around, then finished with a resolution. No question, it was a substantial expansion on the original story, but still basically amounted to original-plus-an-action-sequence. And keep in mind: it may not be a universal with me, but my approach to most remixes is ‘take what’s there and add some action’.

I also did something that would feature in other remixes to come: remixing one story by a particular author, while including elements (or hints of elements) from other stories by the same author. (In this case, it was ‘that look in the boy’s eyes’ which was a strong part of bastardsnow’s “About That Bomb”.)

Is there any particular significance to the title?

But of course! It fits in with the basic theme of the story, plus (for the very few who don’t know already) it’s the title of a country song by Patsy Cline. (Remember Xander’s Season 1 comment about “Country music: the music of pain.”?) Additionally, this story is a remix, which term originally referred to re-doing an existing song; I don’t know the difference between ‘remixing’ and ‘covering’ in music, but I at least know where the basic nomenclature came from. This wasn’t the first fic in which I used a song title (or well-known lyric) as a story title, and I haven’t always done it with remix stories, but it’s an approach I’ve tried to follow as a general habit.

What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?

Most, of course, is the byplay between Angel and Xander. This was the first story where I actually used Angel as a featured character (though I’d shown Angelus in “All Ye Who Enter”, and he’d made a non-speaking appearance in “Glass Ceiling”), and the contrast between the two characters offers a vast menu of possibilities.

As for ‘like least’ … this isn’t exactly a thing, but it did catch my notice. When, in “Prophecy Girl”, Xander showed up at Angel’s place to browbeat him into following Buffy to the Master’s lair and saving her (which incident was in fact mentioned in this story), it prompted a number of people to sit up and ask, “Uh, how exactly did Xander know where Angel lived?” In the same way, since a substantial part of this story involved a reluctant Angel making sure a drunken Xander got home safely, a re-reading of the story had me wondering, “Uh … how did Angel know where Xander lived?” It could be explained easily enough, I suppose, but it wasn’t. Maybe some ex post facto narrative tinkering is in order …

Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?

Aside from the preceding comment, no. This story did what I wanted it to do. To make it better, I would have had to write a different story.

Do I have any plans to follow up on this story, or to use the character(s) or situation in a subsequent fic?

Not directly, but links already exist. The Ptarmiiki had already appeared in “Each Proud Division”, and would be mentioned in “Oaxaca Nights”; the ‘Carlie’ Xander spoke of at the beginning of the story would be the same Carlie Nochs who was mentioned in “Yet to Be Seen” and “Queen’s Gambit”; and in “All Ye Who Enter” Angelus made a comment about the same Léonie mentioned in this story. (Also, “An Eye to the Future” noted the same ten-block radius around Willy’s, in Sunnydale, that is referenced here.)

Any observations to add at the end?

In a way, this story started a less-than-positive trend for me. This was my first remix — I hadn’t even heard of remixes till encountering nwhepcat’s take on one of liz_marcs’s stories in the 2006 RemixRedux — but once I jumped into the pool, it turned into a near-addiction. Since 2006, I’ve written significantly more remixes than non-remix stories. It isn’t that I stopped doing ‘original’ fiction, it’s more that that remixes are just so darn much fun, and inspiration comes so easily when I’m playing with other people’s ideas.

Never mind. I’m still writing, and I’m still doing remixes, and both will continue till I stop. No telling when, but it’s always possible I’ll keep doing it for the rest of my life.