“Reality Check”, End notes

[aadler]

[ Endnotes posted 02 Apr 2024]

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

As indicated, it actually began with “Alternative Lifestyle” itself; lindagable’s quick drabble provided me an opportunity to write a story I’d been wanting for years to do someday. On that basis, I’d put a fair bit of thought into it before the remix assignment gave me the opening, so it was mostly a matter of fitting the already-developed ideas into a suitable framework.

Is there any particular significance to the title?

Not actually, no. It was a working title that wound up being serviceable for the larger story.

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

Liked most: I was happy with the contrast between older-scarred-ruthless Xander and the happy ‘goofball’ Xander we know as the original, especially in that the latter kept measuring up to the former (and even backing him down, in a way, and even winning in a straight-up fight between the two). I also was fairly pleased with the Three Queens, their identity-reveals and their brief cameos.

Liked least: this one is a maybe, and depends on whether or not readers recognized who ‘Callie’ was. I make a regular practice of trying to put across pertinent facts without ever explicitly stating them, and it gives me a lot of pleasure. Every time, then, it comes down to Did I do a good enough job of laying down enough indicative information to make things clear? Obviously I think I did, or I would have put in more, but I always wonder.

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

I say this all the time, because it keeps being true of me: this one came out pretty much exactly the way I wanted it to be, and making it any better would require not only that I be a better writer, but that I have a better sense of what makes an effective story.

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

Not really, no. Telling a story from a different POV is always a possible variation … but, since this one attempted to consciously mirror “Alternative Lifestyle” in its structure as well as its style, I just about had to keep the POV with the AU ‘visitor’ (Annie in AL, Alex in RC) being confronted with her/his this-universe counterpart. Making it third-person limited, instead of first-person, was about as much adjustment as I could do. Yes, telling it from Xander’s POV, instead of Alex’s, could have opened up some interesting possibilities, but it would have necessarily taken me away from what I wanted to do with the story as well as in it.

Any observations to add at the end?

“Alternative Lifestyle” has been one of my favorite stories since the first time I ever saw it. This one was never intended to be an attempt to ‘improve’ it, only to offer loving tribute. I hope I accomplished that, and know I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the effort.