Tips, hints, random musings

I really tried to stay away from the bullet-point format for these how-to's, but inspiration eluded me. Actually, inspiration has skipped town altogether. So, in no particular order, and based solely on my own opinions, I give you:

Random Tips for Darkfic Writing - with examples from the archive

1. Actions have consequences, both internally and externally. In her "Hypnotism" (part of The Nightmares Series), Lasarhiona writes of a small rebellion gone wrong. Willow wants to hypnotize Giles. He says no. She does it anyway. The consequence? Nothing less dire than the loss of trust and friendship, and Buffy's horrified reaction.

2. Failure is always an option. Some of the best stories on the web are post-apocalyptic stories where evil has triumphed and the good guys are sent running for their lives. "Our House" by Puca Dentata is a perfect example. A. C. Chapin's "Essential Fragility" takes this same theme, but down a different path. The apocalypse was averted, but the cost was high - seemingly too high, as Buffy, Willow, and Giles attempt to put their lives back together. Both of these stories show how total and complete failure can seem.

3. Dark doesn't always equal death. You don't need to kill off everyone's favorite character (if there is such a being) to make your story effective. Often, as in Rowan's "Wolfself", just the contemplation of murder can be more chilling than a blow-by-blow description of the act. Along the same lines, some of my favorite stories have absolutely no death or torture or anything like that. Just a melancholy feel, a sadness, a sense of desperation or despair.

4. Use the quiet characters. There's been some wonderfully dark stories about Jonathan, and the Oz-fic is rampant and usually well-written. We don't know what these guys are thinking - you can tell us. Tell us the story of the other people in town, as Ailie did in "Sunnydaler".

5. "Good" and "Evil" aren't absolutes. Angel is the walking embodiment of this idea. He's not particularly good - in fact, he can be weak at times - and he's not totally bad. And I'm not just talking about the demon side of him, but the person himself. Take a look at Kita's "Komodo" - a man completely torn between the revenge he needs to have, and the knowledge that this particular revenge is wrong. He does it anyway.

6. There is no such thing as being "Jossed". Not really related, but important nonetheless. Don't try to second-guess Joss and the Whedonites. Write your own story. You've got a freedom that he doesn't - no censors except those you place on yourself, no rules, no guidelines.

7. Avoid melodrama. This isn't Party of Five or Dawson's Creek - this is Buffy, and for the most part, the gang avoids high emotion. This is a generation of kids whose wonder years were spent in the materialistic '80s, and who spent their teenage years in the high-tech pop-culture laden 90's. They don't gush, they don't cry over every little thing. Their patriarchical figure is a repressed Englishman (although the two phrases are not synonomous - just take a look at Ethan Rayne, for goodness' sake) who expresses himself through his eyes and his actions. Save the big emotions for the big events.

8. Let your writing have some basis in canon. This one's a little controversial, and there's a growing sense of a fan-on - one example being that, contrary to the show, Angel was Spike's sire. I've found that the stories that touched me most deeply were stories where I could see how the author's idea might have come to light on screen. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't go nuts with the ideas - please do. That's the fun. Just don't suddenly make Wesley a gun-toting macho freak, or Cordelia a weepy soap-opera ingenue without reason and explanation. Make them gay, make them nuts, make them yours - but try to remember where they came from.

Capturing what makes for an excellent darkfic is difficult at best. It's a very nebulous area, and open to much interpretation. Your angst is my irritation. My perfect moment of introspection is someone else's boring character study. The best way to hit the dark target is to write it well. Get it beta'd, if you have a mind to. Put it aside and read it later - especially if you made yourself cry when you wrote it. (That's usually a good sign that there was more going on in the author's head than actually made it to the story.) Let the story come from you - you can't force this stuff.