“An’ Foolish Notion”, End notes

[aadler]

[ Endnotes posted 08 Mar 2017 ]

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

To begin with, it wasn’t exactly a coincidence that I drew my daughter in the remix event; gen_remix was a small affair, we both entered because we had recently become interested in remixes, and we were among a relatively low number of participants who had listed BtVS/A:tS as our primary (for me, practically the only) fandom. Though she’d been doing fic for a few years at that point, sroni hadn’t exactly built up a massive body of work, and I chose her then-untitled Hallowe’en ficlet because I happened to like it. There wasn’t a lot there, though, and simply in the course of expanding it I fell into most of what the story would become. The background theme of Buffy hunting some sensed-but-still-unseen threat? that was mainly the set-up for at least some action-fight stuff, simply because I do that at the least excuse.

Is there any particular significance to the title?

It was a glancing allusion to a notion expressed in one of Burns’s poems:

O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion.

In this particular instance, the people at the costume party were dressing more or less as they saw themselves (or believed they were seen by others), with some deliberate irony but likewise with genuine reference to parts of themselves. Not really that deep, but I wasn’t exactly trying for Proust.

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

This wasn’t the first ensemble story I’d done — that would have been “In Ev’ry Angle Greet” — but it had been some years, and I was fairly well pleased with my success in depicting the personalities of people we’d come to know well. And I thought my handling of the kiss at the end was nicely done, with it being of recognized significance without a big deal being made of it at the moment. (And, yes, I enjoyed dressing Connor as Inigo Montoya.)

As with several of my stories, I can’t really name a least favorite part. This was intended to be a small tale, slightly amusing and slightly entertaining, and in my judgment it came out just that way.

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

It’s possible that a few more personal interactions in the build-up might have added something to the narrative, but honestly I think the balance worked out just about right.

Was there a different direction I could have taken the story, and what would have been some of the advantages of the not-taken path?

Nothing comes to my mind. There are, of course, many different ways to approach any story, and my own history with remixes shows that I can go in pretty much any direction. With this one, though, I can’t see any reason why I should even consider a different approach. It just worked for me, simple as that.

Any observations to add at the end?

Not really. This wasn’t an ambitious story, and for what I intended, I was satisfied.