Writing Believable Jossverse Fluff
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Writing Believable Jossverse Fluff |
| Creator: | Kaz |
| Date(s): | around 2005 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | Angel: The Series |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | Writing Believable Jossverse Fluff; WebCite |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Writing Believable Jossverse Fluff is a meta essay-how-to by Kaz814. It was posted to Double Indemnity is the first Wesley & Lilah site on the Internet.
"I hear you saying, "Believable Jossverse Fluff? Is there such a thing?" Yes, there is! However, I have a few suggestions on how to write believable Jossverse fluff."
Main Points
- 1) Always have proper characterization of the characters
- 2) Have a good, in-depth fluffy plot with the "right" ending
- 3) Don't want to write a long fic? Try a vignette!
- 4) Go with the tried and true romance
- 5) Or eschew the well-trodden path and ignore the romance
Excerpts
1) Always have proper characterization of the characters
For some of the characters, it is difficult to believe that they'd be fluffy at all, so you might immediately rule out writing a Darla fluff piece or a Mayor/Snyder fluff fic. For some of the darker characters, a fluff fic can be challenging, but it isn't impossible! Take Lilah for example: from the first sight of her, we were shown the hard ass lawyer. But in Season 4 of Angel, we saw another side--a side that obviously cared for Wesley. Just because she's evil doesn't mean she lacks feelings! This is true for all the characters on both Buffy and Angel. Regardless of what we're shown, they're still people (err...well, characters) and they all have emotions, some are just more evident than others. Pick a fluffy scene (show the Mayor and his wife or Lilah watching Wesley sleep or Darla muses on her feelings for Drusilla) and explain the feelings behind the characters!
One way to make dark characters fluffy is to write a fic that has comedy leanings. Perhaps Caleb's day goes incredibly wrong--he's a dark character, and you can still write him dark, but he can have a bad day just like anyone else (which can be very amusing and fluffy for the reader). True, he might kill whomever displeases him, but if done properly, this can contribute to the overall fluffiness.
Just don't sell the characters short in fluff fics. Too often, they become blatant Mary Sues (or Marty Stus) and lose much of their resemblance to the original Jossverse character. Remember all the characters have backgrounds where both good and bad things happened to them. Don't ignore canon if you can help it (it makes the story more believable) and keep the characters in character. But also keep in mind, that love can make you do the wacky (though all fluff fics aren't romantic fics, which I'll get to in a moment.)
2) Have a good, in-depth fluffy plot with the "right" ending
It isn't as difficult as you think. Just because it's fluff doesn't mean it's all cute little bunnies and people in love having romantic, candlelit dinners. Yes, fluff can mean those things, but fluff isn't exclusively those things. Fluff can have plot, a bit of drama, even a smidge of angst thrown in. A good fluff fic is meant to take the reader's mind off of reality and absorb them in your fic, creating feelings of fluffy happiness. Happiness can coincide with hints and bits of the darker sides of Sunnydale. The trick is intermingling the fluffy bits with the drama and angst -- and I'd recommend against making either full-blown in a fluff fic. A hint is all you need. Does Xander regret losing Cordelia in Season 3? Well, you can show that, but then go on to have them get together! That brings me to another point.
Good fluff inevitably has a happy ending --you can totally ruin a good fluff fic by not having a happy ending. I'd advise against this unless you're planning a sequel. An angsty or depressing ending leaves a reader with very different feelings at the end of the fic. By giving the readers an unhappy ending, you are no longer writing a fluff fic, you're writing an angst fic. By writing everything but the ending fluffy, it isn't the happily-ever-after they were promised and I know from personal experience it's shocking and upsetting if that's what one was expecting. That doesn't mean the characters can't hit a few bumps along the way. So you want Fred and Gunn to live ride off into the sunset for an idyllic life? Great! But where would the interest in the story be if everything went smoothly from the beginning? Have some setbacks -- Wesley's hurt feelings or a demon-of-the-week that gets in the way of their expressing their feelings.