Jumping on the meme-wagon

[aadler]

 
It didn’t start with him, but I got this from bastardsnow:

Comment to this post with the name of a character that I have written in fic.

In my reply I will tell:

1. What initially prompted me to like the character enough to write about him/her.
2. One of his/her best traits.
3. One of his/her worst traits.
4. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character.
5. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I best captured the character.
6. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future.

Comments

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

Think I'll have to go with Harmony there.

[aadler]

You deliberately tossed me an easy one, didn’t you? Okay, here goes:

1. What initially prompted me to like the character enough to write about her:


I gave her an appearance in In Ev’ry Angle Greet (and thoroughly enjoyed working with her), but that was a thematic choice rather than any preference for the character. It operated as a debut for her; her starring role, obviously, was in First Do No Harm.

Why did I choose Harmony for that story? Well, she’s fun. Joss was famous for getting as much mileage out of his characters once they were dead as he did when they were alive, but Harmony was someone we’d been seeing for years (since the series premiere, as I recall), and she showed more personality as a vampire than she did as a human. At the same time, it seemed to be essentially the same personality: still the bubble-head stuck eternally in high-school mode, but with a bit of carefree killing tossed in for extra flavor. It just looked promising … and I’ll have to say she delivered the goods in spades.


2. One of her best traits:


As a person, her sunny optimism. As a character, how utterly oblivious she is: she’s not only clueless, she doesn’t have a clue that she’s clueless. Makes for many laughs.


3. One of her worst traits:


As a person, her self-centeredness. As a character, my biggest problem is that I can’t let myself write her too sympathetically; she’s cheerfully evil, matter-of-factly amoral, one of those routine hell-creatures that really should be killed. She’s just so much fun to watch.


4. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character:


Unexpectedly easy. I kept going back in and revising to keep her dialogue from showing too much intelligence, but I have to pay close attention to dialogue for everybody, and with Harmony I at least have a general feel for her voice.


5. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I best captured the character:


Story: First Do No Harm. (Big “duh”.) Paragraph, the third-to-last paragraph of that same story.

She smiled at the memories of Cromwell. Two thousand bucks, and she’d finally made the good-guy thing work. Sort of. It was hard keeping track of all the little persnickety things a hero was supposed to do and not do, but she’d totally nailed the basics. She’d put a scare into Dustin (Katie might wonder why her boyfriend had gone lukewarm all of a sudden, but she’d recover and find some nice, reliable idiot); she’d cleared the way for Doc and Judy, who’d never have had a chance if not for her; she’d stopped a plague, slaughtered a warehouse full of demons and taken down two evil masterminds (such as they were), and all without killing anybody who didn’t have it coming to them. Really, why did people make such a big deal about the whole soul issue? All you had to have was a positive attitude.


6. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future:


No plans currently. It could happen, but nothing in the works.

[trinfaneb.livejournal.com]

Haven't had a chance to read your stuff so far, but Harmony has grown on me over the years for the same reasons you list. I really loved her talking to Willow outside the Bronze after graduation. I cheered when she became Angel's secretary. "Harm's Way" is one of my favorite episodes (but I'm a sucker for "Lower Decks" type stories).

I had this funny idea about Drew Carey and Mimi working at the Cleveland Branch of Wolfram & Heart and now its evolved in my head that Drew and Harmony date and then get married. After all of his failed marriages, she's the keeper. Harmony finally gets some lasting happiness even if she's not too sure why she's with a guy that looks like Dilbert :)

I met Mercedes McNab at a con a few years ago. She's as funny as Harmony, but more intelligent. I admire her for putting so much into her performance over the years. You can really see that work pay off when Harmony gets some of the limelight.

[aadler]

I never watched that much Drew Carey, but the comedic potential is obvious.

As far as “Lower Decks” type stories … the majority of the fic I’ve done has followed that basic approach. Check it out at this site; you’ll probably find a few that tickle you.

[trinfaneb.livejournal.com]

Drew's show was pretty funny, especially in its first 4 or 5 years. If you listen to some of the stories Lewis told about Drugco you can tell Cleveland is in fact located on top of a Hellmouth :) In my mind Mimi is a quarter-chaos demon and uses her mojo to make all kinds of weird stuff happen to Drew.

Thanks for the link to the site, I'll have to check out your stories! They sound like the type of stuff I like. Alot of the stories I write are about minor characters and their off-camera role in big events.