Discern (1/1)

[learnedhand_dj]

Title: Discern

Author: LearnedHand

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Rating: Whatever the fanfic equivalent of PG is now.

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is owned by various corporate entities, none of whom would ever have anything to do with me. I am using their characters as crash test dummies to check and see what works and what doesn't

Comments

[lwbush]

I loved Raygun's story, and I loved Liz's, now I add this to the list. It actually makes me want to write another part to it, but considering that it's been all I can do lately to even respond to most of the wonderful posts my friends are leaving, I don't know when this might happen. Still, great Willow voice, and another misuderstanding works its way into the mix.

[learnedhand_dj]

Honestly, I was kind of hoping that someone would want to write another part to it--that's a big part of why I had Willow decide to call someone to come over at the end.

I'm glad you like the way I voiced Willow. I've used Willow in some stories before, but I've never had her be the center of a story, so I was a little worried about my ability to keep up a consistent voice for her.

In my mental outline of this story, the extra misunderstanding wasn't there. But when I wrote out the list of things that happened at the Summer/Rosenberg apartment, I realized that we had another opportunity for some classic Scooby conclusion-jumping, and I couldn't resist. Plus, I think it helps the story come to a logical end.

Thanks for the FB, and don't worry about not having time to respond to posts. Considering that it's been almost 2 months since I last posted a part of Influx, I figure you're actually doing pretty well by comparison.

[lwbush]

Yeah, well I've already gone and started it. I agree with everybody - Dawn it is. But I'm thinking she's only going to realize there are more pieces to the puzzle - she may not quite be able to put them all together. Or even get all of the players together yet. But she'll probably have an idea of who to call who can...

And thank you so much for the inspiration.

[learnedhand_dj]

I love the idea of you writing another part. Thinking about the line-up of Wicked Raygun, Liz Marcs, me, then you, I keep hearing this song in the back of my head...

One of these things is not like the other.
One of these things is different, you know...

Anyway, I'm glad that you think enough of my third part to be inspired to write a fourth part. I presume that Liz is one of your LJ friends, so I'm sure she'll see what you post, but Ray (Wicked Raygun) did ask that I send him a copy of my third part. It'd probably be a nice thing for you to send along a copy of your fourth part, as well, once it's done. I think his email address is on the page for Disbelief that I linked to in the author's notes; if not, let me know and I'll send it to you.

[thirdgorchbro]

Okay, now you've done it. I had pretty much gotten used to the idea that no one would ever do a (real) continuation of these two stories, but now you've gone and done exactly that. Of course the next part has to be Dawn (or, Giles, or Faith, or, well, anyone really), and someone must step up and write it. Er, someone who is not me.

[learnedhand_dj]

Well, if anyone wants my opinion, I think that Dawn should be the one that Willow calls to help clean up as well. I can't see Willow being willing to discuss Xander's drinking in front of anyone else other than Dawn, Buffy or Giles. But I can't see Willow wanting to talk about Xander's one-nighter in front of Giles, so that leaves Dawn (because Buffy is obviously out). Even though Dawn might be a little young for the subject matter, I think Willow might figure she can use that to further shame Xander into accepting help

[naol]

Whoa. It's been so long since the last part of this sequence. I loved this one. Willow is just so completely Willowy in her obliviousness :)

... *cough*... You think you might write more?

[learnedhand_dj]

I'm glad you liked it. Beyond the very rough plot sketch I did in my answer to the above comment, I really can't see myself writing the next piece, if there ever is one. For one thing, this story was just so darn hard to write! I don't feel comfortable writing in the first person, especially as one long internal monologue. I had to go through it many, many times to change pronouns and other things that made it sound like Willow was talking to anyone other than herself. And I had a hard enough time voicing Willow; I think it would be a lot harder to voice Dawn.

That said, if no one else steps up after a while, I could conceivably write something else after this one. Although I did find this to be hard to write, it was enjoyable to stretch my writing muscles a little and do something I wasn't quite comfortable with. Maybe I'll look at this again during the break between Influx and Exodus, which, at the rate I'm going, will be sometime in 2007.

[liz_marcs]

Awwww, this is great!

You pulled off the perfect Willow voice. *envies*

Our poor little woobies. *sniff*

I definitely loved the Willow-speak through the whole thing. Nice use of first-person narrative (not one of my strong points).

I love this. I was kind of hoping for something like this as a follow-up. Thanks for granting my wish two years after the fact.

[learnedhand_dj]

Wow. Thanks for the positive feedback. I'm kinda surprised, actually. This is so far removed from the type of thing that I usually write, I was having a hard time figuring out if it worked or not. Maybe I should try first-person stuff more often. *grins*

I'm sure you've heard from Lori by now with the fourth part that she just wrote. It looks like the time between parts is shrinking rapidly, from 2 years to less than 2 days.

The great FB from this story must be going to my head, because when I was singing along to Stacey's Mom (by Fountains of Wayne) on the way back to the office today, I started thinking about writing a songfic based on it. Except this would be sort of a filk fic, called Buffy's Mom (natch). Egads, a songfic? Next thing you know, I'll be writing Spander slash.

Um, actually, that'll never happen.