Stirring Pots - Where Stories Come From (the backstory of Angels & Vagabonds)
I've decided it might be of interest to some to talk about where some of these stories came from, and what shaped them. So we're starting this off with Angles & Vagabonds.
I've no clear idea what sparked this one, other than I'd been reading some fan fic and I didn't always agree with some of the ways Jack was made into a way-too hardnose guy. To me, Jack has always looked out for his team--even when, yes, he did want to kill them. They all--at times--press his buttons. It's part of him being a guy who on one hand seems to profess that he likes things smooth, but on the other he goes out looking for difficult sitautions and people.
I've also never thought Daniel was a guy who needed to be cut much of a break--the guy can hold his own (against his team or anyone else), and I've always thought Daniel sometimes pushed Jack just because he could. It's a tough dynamic--a delicate one, and great fun to play with.
Now in all of this, there is strain in S4 and S5--it's subtext and it's there, and it's smoothed out in S7. Everyone seemed more than relieved to get Daniel back. So I wanted to poke more at that strain to see what might really be pushing on these folks--and then of course, you throw your characters into the worst situations and see what happens. So I started throwing. The story just took off from there.
FigNewton gave me her usual great beta--and asked for a little more at the end. And I agreed. When you put characters through the ringer, you often need to give readers just a little more of ease down. I've a few stories I love--but they end too soon. Yes, it's nice to leave folks wanting more...but you can overdo that, too. So...the ending got a nice twist that I'm rather fond of.
The other thing I always love to do is give everyone a star turn. Teal'c gets a great speach--you can have him say things no one else could get away with. Sam does Tesla science--one of my favorite bits here. Jack gets to be Jack (both military and a petulant five-year-old at times), and does his Jack-style of bonding that Daniel gets and not many others do. And I got to bring in Siler, Janet, and SG-3 Marines--always fun.
So that's the backstory.
It turned out longer than I anticipated--more of a novella than a short story. But that's the way it goes. You often don't know where a story is going to take you, and that's the most fun of all.