Fandom Snowflake Challenge, Day 1

[aadler]

 
I remembered doing this before, but was surprised to discover that the last time was three years ago. Well, I’m back now. (This is being hosted at this site.)

Fandom Snowflake Challenge, Day 1

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator.

Last year I specifically set out to average one fic per month for 2014. I was going strong, too; even when I fell behind, it was only a little behind, shouldn’t have been a problem to pull it out by the deadline. In the final two months, though, I just … fizzled. Wrote nothing, even defaulted on the third phase — non-mandatory, fortunately — of a remix event I had myself originated (cof_remix, the Circle of Friends Remix). Even though I fell well short of my own announced intent, however, I did some work I kind of liked, so I’ll select from that.

(All the following stories are in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel: the Series fandom.)

“Maxima Culpa”

The first fic I wrote in 2014, and it varied from what has become a basic trend for me. Over the last several years, most of what I’ve done has been either from ideas I’ve let percolate for a long time (over a decade, in some cases) before finally setting them down, or done fairly quickly by inspiration from someone else’s work (remix). “Maxima Culpa” was my own idea, worked around in my head for less than a week, and then I felt ready to write it. It didn’t give me any problems, was completed in quick order, I was satisfied that I’d accomplished what I set out to do but didn’t feel the story was especially remarkable in itself.

The response it got, however, was well beyond anything I had expected; somehow, the story seemed to strike the right chords with those who read it, and there was considerable expression of favorable attention. I’m not mystified, exactly, the story was decently done: it showed a bit of life in Sunnydale ‘backstage’ of canon (which I’ve been doing since I first started Buffyfic); it made good use of a previously established OC; and, it even presented a new and unexpected aspect of Buffy’s character. As I’ve said already, I wasn’t at all displeased with the story itself, I just didn’t expect external audiences to like it as much as they did. That’s never unwelcome.

“Rough Trade”

The last story I wrote in 2014, and it managed to combine the two trends I named above. The story itself is a remix, and started out as a remix … five years ago. I was given eilandesq (M. Scott Eiland) in RemixRedux 2009, and initially began my own version of his “Blessed Relief”, but ground to a halt and couldn’t figure where to go from there, so I ditched that idea and remixed something else of his (producing “Family Skeletons”) instead. I hadn’t thrown out my abortive beginning, though, and when I ran across it again some time later I decided it was too good to waste. In this year’s cof_remix I got the opportunity to at last do the story I’d originally had in mind, so “Rough Trade” is both a remix and an old idea that I finally got around to doing.

So, Spike and Cordelia, the BtVS masters of aggressive snark: how astonishing is it to realize that the two characters met only three times in canon, and never had more than a few minutes of dialogue together? That just doesn’t seem right. I didn’t exactly set out to remedy that in “Rough Trade”, but I did take advantage of the opportunity. I’d actually done a Spike-Cordelia story before — “Oaxaca Nights” — but that was pre-chip Spike and pre-capable Cordelia, so the dynamic in this story was more nearly one of equals, and I had fun with it.

“Into the Abyss”

Pretty much in the middle of 2014. My first notes on what would become this story go back … oh, at least nine years, and I’d been playing around with the idea for years before that. Set in the summer between Seasons 2 and 3, this depicts a brief part of Giles’s search for the runaway Buffy, and a bit of complication he encountered during that search. It also allowed me to show our formal, formidable Watcher through the eyes of an outsider, an OC female who has issues of her own with which he might — possibly — help.

I had first intended to do this one for the 2013 summer_of_giles, but found it more demanding than I had expected and wound up turning out a different story for that year. (That doesn’t occur as often as it may sound, I just happen to have chosen two stories for which it was true.) I was better prepared when summer_of_giles came back around in 2014 … but even then, the tale kept getting longer, and I posted the final chapters nearly a week after the event was technically over. I loved the story, though, especially the closing lines, and I got a response that I thought was thoroughly justified (unlike my surprise with “Maxima Culpa”), and I didn’t at all mind having given Giles a little personal involvement in the long gap between Jenny and Olivia.

Okay, then. More tomorrow.

Comments

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

I know I've read at least two of these, but a reread may be in order. I am so sick of not having time to read things I want to read because my "part time" job has me sitting in from of the laptop and reading things I'd rather not be bothered with. Will make a NY resolution to carve out time for pleasure reading (and writing) just as I have for work-related stuff.

I'm not familiar with the Fandom Snowflake Challenge - how does it work?

[aadler]

They explain the basics here, but it’s simple enough: every day, for the first 15 days in January, you look at what they’ve posted at the Fandom Snowflake Challenge, and follow the instructions there. That almost always involves making a post on your own LJ (or DW), sometimes calls for some other action and maybe a notification to them on the pertinent post there. velvetwhip and dragonyphoenix are others on my own flist who are also following this one, so you can look to them for further examples of how different people can go about the same task.

The first time I took part in this, in 2012, I missed the first day’s post and so I just did Day 1 and Day 2 on January 2nd, then proceeded from there.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

All three stories are splendid! You truly are an immensely talented writer. I scrupulously avoided OC stories until I discovered your work, but you won me over.


Gabrielle

[aadler]

An original character in fanfic is just like any other element: certain uses work better than others. My own intent was always to show the familiar characters as seen by the newcomer, though several stories wound up serving the similar-but-slightly-different function of giving us a look at how that world affects people besides the familiar characters. When both can be done at once (as with “Maxima Culpa”, and to a lesser extent “Into the Abyss”), that doesn’t hurt at all.

[sparrow2000.livejournal.com]

I think you are aware how much I loved both Maxima Culpa and Into the Abyss, but I haven't read Rough Trade or the others you mentioned in passing, so they will definitely go on my ever increasing 'to read' list.

[aadler]

My fic-list awaits your pleasure, here.