Octaves of the Heart Interview with James Walkswithwind
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Octaves of the Heart Interview with James Walkswithwind |
| Interviewer: | Octaves of the Heart |
| Interviewee: | James Walkswithwind |
| Date(s): | early 2000s |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Buffyverse |
| External Links: | online here, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Octaves of the Heart Interview with James Walkswithwind is posted at the Buffy website Octaves.
For others in this series, see Octaves of the Heart Interview Series.
Excerpts
The weirdest things happen when you think you're just going to write one little story for a fandom. Or maybe two stories. I started watching Buffy during second season (I think. Ask my wife.) Somewhere along the way I got caught up on reruns, and got this idea for a Xander/Angel story. Before writing it, I decided to get my feet wet and wrote a short missing scene from "The Pack".
Then I got this idea for another story, also riffing off The Pack (Dreaming of the Devil). Then I paired Xander with Oz (Stand With You). Then I was mucking about with a few things and ended up in Xander/Spike land. Angel wandered into his own show and after that posssessed-boy episode, I was very firmly in the Wes-love, which led to all sorts of Wes/Angel stories.
Meanwhile, I picked up a couple co-writers, which kept me writing a few series for..er.. four years? Maybe? This got me into the Giles love, mostly Giles/Xander and Giles/Wesley. I never did take to Giles/Ethan because there is no way you can write a good, in-character story for those two and have it end up happy. Or start out happy. Even though I enjoying torturing characters, I only like it if it's one possibility. I prefer to use characters and pairings whom I believe can be happy, if only they do X or Y or Z or some combination thereof. (I was going to add 'or maybe they're canonically happy' but then I realised - anyone who is canonically happy gets royally screwed: e.g., Angel/Buffy, Xander/Anya for awhile, and Willow/Tara and you see how *that* turned out. No one on these shows has ever been able to retain happiness with a relationship. In fact, being happy is just begging to be smacked down. Which, while dramatic for awhile, after several years it Gets Old. It's possible to have dramatic tension and horror and struggle and yet be happy with a partner.)