Spuffy Stuff

The first things you will find here are a series of three essays that appeared on Live Journal and which became the first entries on the newly-formed Riters R Us community there. The first one was written some time ago when I had seen one too many “peaks into the room” or one too many “she wasn’t phased by his…” and the other two were written to expand upon the theme when the first one generated so much interest and comment. I hope I have provided some useful information in a clearly understandable and entertaining way. For more helpful information about writing fan fiction, please click on the link for the Riters R Us community http://community.livejournal.com/riters_r_us

The second essay section is also from a RRU entry; one in which I talk about vampires, biting, claiming and other canon/fanon issues of interest. The memories of RRU contain links to many other sites, blogs and posts that may be of use to writers. In addition, the membership includes many English teachers from both the US and the UK who are always available to answer questions about word use, grammar issues and punctuation, as well as discuss the differences between how the language is used on both sides of the pond.

peak - (noun) the top of something. ex: The mountain’s peak was covered in snow. (verb) to reach the top of something. ex: The soccer team peaked just in time for the tournament. (adjective) of or constituting a climax. ex: It was the peak shopping day of the season.

peaked - (adjective) sickly ex: You look a little peaked today.

peek - (noun) a quick look. ex: A quick peek at his face showed.....(verb) to look quickly and perhaps without being seen. ex: Dawn peeked around the corner into the living room to see....

pique -(noun) displeasure. ex: She tore up the note in a fit of pique.

(verb) to stir to action or feeling. ex: His words piqued her curiosity and....

phase - (noun) an interval or developmental stage. ex: The two-year-old was going through a destructive phase.(verb) to bring in gradually. ex: The new software was phased in slowly.

faze - (verb) to cause a person to be self-consciously distressed (or not). ex: Buffy wasn’t fazed by Xander’s angry words..../alternatively/ The angry words of her friends didn’t faze her.

pear -(noun) an ovoid fruit. ex: He ate a pear.

pare - (verb) to peel something. ex: We need to pare down our expenses/ alternative/ Did you pare the apple yet?

pair - (noun) two of something. ex: I got a new pair of boots today. (verb) to put two things together. ex: I paired the skirt with a red blouse.

peer - (noun) a member of the british nobility. ex: His father was a peer of the realm. (noun) an equal. ex: He was judged by a jury of his peers.

(verb) to look at. ex: She peered into the box.

pier - (noun) part of a wharf or dock. ex: They went fishing off the pier.

aloud - with noise ex: The class was reading aloud.

allowed - okay to do ex: I’m not allowed to cross the street by myself.

bare - (adjective) uncovered,naked (ladies and others) ex: The cupboard was bare. Her new dress showed off her bare shoulders. (verb) to reveal something. ex: He bared his soul to her.

bear - large, grouchy, hairy mammal ex: Does the bear ___ in the woods? (or, alternatively, an absolutely wonderful writer of Spuffy fiction who lives in the UK where I don’t think they even have bears...)

bear - to endure ex: I couldn’t bear it if he left me. (sob!)

course - (noun) a class you take. ex: How many courses have you taken?(noun) a path followed. ex: His course led through the woods and....(verb) to follow or chase something. ex: She does lure-coursing with her dog.

(verb) to flow. ex: The water coursed through the canyon...

coarse - (adjective) - rough, abrasive, not refined. ex: The coarse texture of the......

bait - (noun) something you use to catch fish....

bate - (verb) to become less active, subside. ex: She waited with bated breath.

taught - (verb) larned ‘em good. ex: She taught first grade for several years.

taut - (adjective) tight. ex: Spike’s taut abdomen was..... (or, less interesting - the rope was taut between the posts.)

pour - (verb) to release a liquid, or to gush. ex: Please pour me another drink! The barbarians poured through the gap in the wall.

poor - (adjective) not rich. ex: I am very poor, please donate. 0r not good at. ex: I am very poor at foreign languages (noun) non-wealthy people. ex: The poor are always with us.

pore - (noun) a hole in your face. ex: Will this cream shrink my pores? (verb) to peruse thoroughly. ex: Giles pored over the text in front of him.

Whale vs wale (as in: Buffy was waling on Spike all night.) Apparently either is correct according to my dictionary/thesaurus as this is a slang word, but since the derivation is probably wale (as in a raised welt or mark from a blow), I prefer to use wale.

wail – to cry loudly ex. The banshee’s wail made the hairs rise up on my neck

rain - (noun) water than falls from the sky. ex Is the rain over yet? (verb) to precipitate ex: Dawn rained blows on Spike’s head.

rein - (noun) a leather strap attached to a bridle and used to control a horse (verb) to use the reins to pull in or control. ex: Buffy had to rein her her natural instinct to stake the vampires.

reign - (noun) sovereignty, royal or supreme power/ the time during which a sovereign rules. (verb) to rule. Ex. In Sunnydale’s vampire community, the Master reigned supreme.

Those old standbys that everyone learned in elementary school:

to - a preposition used any time either of the others would be incorrect.

too - also or an excessive amount. ex: I love you, too! You are too much!

two - 2

their - possessive ex: It’s not their fault you failed the test.

there - not here ex: I put it over there.

they’re - they are contracted ex: Xander and Anya can't come with us, they're getting married today.

your - possessive ex: I’ve got your number, Bub!

you’re - you are contracted ex: “You’re in sooo much trouble!)

its - possessive ex: The dog wagged its tail.

it’s - it is contracted ex: It’s amazing how fast he can wag it.

Most writers actually seem to do a very good job of using the proper Americanisms/Britishisms (and, yes, I’m aware that neither of those are probably actual words! Call it artistic license!) You need to remember to watch other expressions that wouldn’t ring true when coming out of the mouths of Americans. ie: Buffy has never called her mother “Mum” or “Mummy”, and none of the Scoobies speak in a manner remotely resembling either Giles or Spike. Again, I don’t see this a lot, but I did read a story fairly recently that would have been quite good except that it was incredibly obvious that the author was from the UK and had no clue how to write dialogue in “American”. It is hard to concentrate on a story which has Xander saying things like, “quite” or “I’ll just pop round to the Magic Shop.” or “right then, I’m off...” These are just examples - not necessarily verbatim quotes from the story. The one I’m thinking of actually had all the major Southern California-born characters speaking as though they all came from the same part of London. It was disconcerting, to say the least. Important! Buffy has never said she “fancies” something in her life. About the only time you might see/hear it used that way in this country would be if someone says, “So, you fancy yourself an expert, do you?” Aside from that, we rarely “fancy” people or things; and a California Valley Girl like Buffy? No way. (Got an update to this in which a member of Riters R Us pointed out that in the deep South it is still used, but generally by uneducated people. Still wouldn’t apply to Buffy.)

If the British authors out there will let me know about improperly used UK slang or sentence structure that you’ve noticed in stories, I will be happy to add your comments to the page to assist us poor Colonials. After all, for most of us our only exposure to the English language as it’s used in England, is probably Monty Python or the occasional BBC program on TV :-) and I am sure we are all appallingly ignorant of the different regional accents and expressions in your country.

I have no desire to smother anyone’s creativity with these hints. There are so many very talented people writing fan fiction that I am constantly amazed. There are writers who show tremendous amounts of imagination and creativity, whose lyric prose is so beautiful it gives me shivers. Writers who come up with amazing plot lines and follow them through perfectly. Writers whose grasp of characterization makes the reader go “Yes! That’s Buffy!”, whose dialogue doesn’t need attribution because we can tell who is speaking just from the language and cadence. There are writers whose stories make us laugh and cry; writers who can present a love scene in a way that makes us need a cold shower (or a warm vibrator) afterward; and, of course, those shining examples who can do all of the above at the same time and make the rest of us go, “Ooooh, I wish I could do that!”.

Since we are writing fiction, we can be more flexible with grammar and punctuation than would be necessary in some other forms of writing. (That’s why they call it “creative writing”. :-) Artistic license permits a certain amount of leeway in manipulating our sentence structure and punctuation in order to tell our stories. The main thing to watch here is the clarity of the work. If you become so “creative” in your punctuation and/or sentence structure that the reader will have a difficult time following you, then it’s time to go back to a basic grammar book and clean it up. The proper use of quotation marks, italics, commas, etc. is much too complicated for this paper. Just be aware that there good reasons for most of those boring rules of grammar and your readers will undoubtedly appreciate your following them as much as possible.

Okay, here’s the part where I try to justify my offering suggestions to other writers - aka my “credentials”. First and foremost, I am an omnivorous reader and have been since I was five years old. Without telling you how long ago that was, let me just say that it constitutes many, many years of reading and evaluating all sorts of writing; consciously critiquing the work if it was school or work-related, or unconsciously, if I only needed to determine if I wanted to read more in that genre or by that author.

As an English major in college, I obviously had to spend huge amounts of time both reading and reviewing all sorts of written work from limericks to lengthy essays, modern short stories to classic novels. Not to mention, having my own papers to write for my English classes (as well as many others in which the professors weren’t interested in using multiple choice to judge what we actually knew about the subject). All of these were critiqued in their turn and returned to me to be rewritten and/or regretted.

By no means do I claim to be an expert on creative writing, but I do have a certain amount of technical ability and many years of writing experience of one sort or another. While I am fairly new to fan fiction and had not, until recently, done any “creative” writing in many years, I HAVE written pretty extensively for various publications (and web sites) relating to a hobby of mine. Included in that would be a regular column that I did for several years in a published magazine put out by my other hobby. Okay....this sounds incredibly pretentious and condescending. Good thing I put it at the end of the page!

Let me begin by saying that writing good fiction is an art, a God-given talent with which, alas, not everyone is born. The ability to come up with original and interesting plot ideas; to write believable and intriguing characters, snappy and realistic dialogue, and to present those things in such a way that the reader is moved somehow is not a gift that is given out to all and sundry. That is very sad, but quite true. So, confusing grammatically correct, properly spelled stories with those that are truly well written is as big a mistake as dismissing a good story because the writer can’t spell worth beans.

That’s where having a good beta comes in. I’m not sure where the term “beta” came from in on-line fiction, but to me, it is just having a good, old-fashioned editor. Someone whose job it is to double check your work for you (after you have spell/grammar checked yourself, because it is your job in the first place) and make sure that you have dotted all your i’s and crossed all your t’s, so to speak. In addition to looking for typos, a good beta will spot any errors in continuity, misused words, awkward language, and anything else that detracts from your story. His/her job is to point these elements out and/or offer suggestions. Your job is to listen, think about it, ask questions if you don’t understand why it needs to be changed and then try to fix it.

How much or how little your beta has to do depends on what shape your story is in when you send it. It seems to me that common courtesy would dictate that you have done your best to eliminate as many mistakes as you can before sending it so as not to waste your beta’s time on things you could have and should have found yourself. At the very least, use the spell check and grammar programs that come with your software. They aren’t perfect, but they take a hell of a lot of the drudgery out of proofreading. Then you are ready to concentrate on the writing itself.

It is important to have a good working relationship with your beta, and to trust his/her advice. If you are going to get defensive and angry every time your beta offers a suggestion or questions something about your story, you will soon run out of people willing to actually help you become better. You may still get someone to read through and catch any typos, but without someone who is willing to speak up and say, “Hey, I think you used that word too many times already,” or “This is a little over the top. Do you want to tone it down a little?” or “I think you have too many short, choppy sentences here. Do you want to think about combining some of them?” the story might end up being a well-spelled, grammatically correct bore.

How do you decide if you are writing well? The easiest way to do it without risking getting your feelings terribly hurt or putting someone on the spot is to go by your reviews. If the only positive reviews you get are from your closest friends, maybe your story is not as good as you would like. Having no reviews for a story is generally not a good sign. You’ll want to look for reviews that say things like, “Good job,” “You made me laugh/cry,” “Beautifully written”, “You captured the characters so well,” things like that which are complementing you on the writing itself as well as the story elements. “Great plot”, for instance, might be a way of saying, “The writing was terrible but I had to say something.”

How do you learn to write well? You begin with understanding what is and is not good writing and what makes it so. You must read. Voraciously and with discrimination. You must read well-written fiction. It does you no good to imitate bad fiction, so you must read the good stuff until you can tell the difference for yourself. Once you’ve learned to recognize poorly constructed sentences, cliche´-riddled sex scenes, stiff, awkward dialogue and so on when you see it, you will be less likely to use those things yourself. If all you are reading is poorly-written fic, then you will never learn how wonderfully different the good stuff can be.

Or, better yet, go to the library and take out some anthologies of short stories. “Best of” books are always a good choice. There are annual editions of both Fantasy and Science Fiction’s top stories every year, as well as anthologies of award winning fiction from those genres -- the Hugo Award winners, for instance. Something like “The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories” would be a good start; you should be able to find one edition for every year for the past who-knows-how-many years.

Those are the two genres with which I’m the most familiar, but there are others. The mystery writers have their own awards and anthologies of the year’s best stories, as do horror writers. I have no idea if there are similar anthologies of romantic fiction, but I would be surprised if it wasn’t so. If you’re unsure what to look for, or where to find it, ask your local friendly librarian. And be aware that just because something got published on real paper, with a binding and an ISBN number, doesn’t mean it is necessarily good. Look for those works that have already been singled out by knowledgeable people and recognized for their excellence.

I remember reading not too long ago an entry on a tag board from a new author and her goal was to write as well as… “mumble ,mumble”-- a fairly well–known writer of fiction that includes vampires. My first reaction was, “Oh honey, you can shoot higher than that hack!” LOL. And, no, I am not talking about Anne Rice, who can and often does write quite well; but even she has put out some smaller books which I’m pretty sure she phoned in to her publisher while she was having her nails done. She has also, in recent years, decided that she has no need for an editor, and the decline in the quality of her work demonstrates eloquently how untrue that is. Learn to discriminate. Educate your taste and learn to recognize what does and does not work.

You want your story to be as original as it possibly can be, particularly when using a world and a cast of characters created by someone else and familiar to thousands (millions?) of people; which is what we are doing. We are taking Joss Whedon’s characters and making them do things that he didn’t; these are his characters and when a fan fic author bends them so much that they are unrecognizable, he or she is no longer writing fan fiction. I’m not sure what it is that’s been written, but fan fiction isn’t it.

You want your writing to be fresh and entertaining with minimal or no clichés, no Scoobyisms in the narrative, (although they are fine and to be expected in the dialogue) and with properly used dialogue as seen in or in keeping with the show as needed. A disclaimer in the beginning should cover any quotes from actual episode dialogue, and any time you are using actual scenes from an episode of a show, you should try to be as faithful to the dialogue as possible right up to the point where your story veers off into re-writeville.

And, I presume this would be a good time to remind writers from other countries that Buffy Summers, the ultimate Valley Girl, would never be heard saying “ I shall be…” or “ I don’t fancy him…” as I saw recently in an otherwise pretty decent story. Americans simply do not use those expressions in ordinary speech. If you are in doubt about your use of American or British slang, check with one of the very helpful people on your flist. We are blessed to have people in the fandom from all over the world, so no excuses for not being able to write believable speech for any character. Don’t ruin a good story by having Buffy sound like Mary Poppins, or having Spike sound like he comes from Brooklyn! Your American characters should sound like Americans - speech patterns, idioms and vocabulary all included. Ditto for your British characters. While Giles and Spike have both spent a lot time in the USA, they are still natives of the UK and should sound like it. If you aren’t comfortable with your ability to replicate those speech patterns, run your dialogue past someone from that country. Let me add here, that (IMHO) to really ring true, the characters should sound like they did in the show. So, Spike’s lines were spoken by an American actor who was using different British accents in an attempt to find the character. And the character he was playing had invented a persona for himself that was an imitation of what he saw as a lower class tough guy; one who had not lived (as far as we know) in the UK for a long time. Giving him an authentic British accent of any sort (Cockney, posh, Northern, whatever) will not necessarily ring as true as the author might hope. I don’t think there is any substitute for immersing oneself in the dvds of the show until the characters and their speech patterns and quirks are as familiar as your own family’s.

In some ways, our job as writers of fan fiction is easy – we have been given a setting, we have very distinctive and interesting characters who live there, and we have a host of possible situations in which to place them. On the other hand, we owe it to the brilliant man who gave them to us to do right by them. They need to be who they are in order for a story to work; so in addition to reading you also need to watch reruns on FX, DVDs on your laptop, whatever. Somehow you must immerse yourself in the show to the extent that you are comfortable with the characters and how they are likely to have reacted in any given situation. We can, and do, tweak them to make them do what we want and need for our stories, but they should never be changed so much as to be unrecognizable. Then they become somebody else and you are not writing Spuffy (or Bangel, or Xanya or Giles), you’re writing original fiction—not a bad thing, but not the goal of fan fiction.

So, I’ve babbled on way too long about learning about what good writing is. Now it is time to talk about what seems to bother discerning readers the most; lack of good technique. Not everyone is going to be able to learn how to write really, really good fiction; there is just too much of a natural talent issue involved for anyone to learn to do it if they don’t have the gift. But there is no excuse for not being able to write with clarity and proper use of the language, because these things can be both taught and learned. And these things, coupled with the ability to tell a story, will make you a star.

To be a decent writer, you must begin with a good knowledge of your own language and how to use it. Clarity is very important in any kind of writing, including fiction; therefore, proper word usage and punctuation are key to allowing your readers to understand you. As is word order. “As they were walking through the park, Spike and Buffy spotted his old Desoto.” is quite a different picture from “Spike and Buffy spotted his old Desoto walking through the park.” One is about two people finding something during the course of an evening’s stroll; the other is about a very talented automobile. Nor is ( “Dawn!” shouted Buffy), the same thing as (Dawn shouted, “Buffy!”)

So punctuation and grammar (the proper use and placement of clauses among other things) are vital to producing intelligible prose that tells the story you are intending it to tell. If you snoozed through the twelve years of language that all American public school students are required to take, you can find yourself an old used English grammar text somewhere that will allow you to look up just about anything you aren’t sure is correct. I also have an awesome little spiral booklet called, “A Pocket Style Manual” by Diana Hacker, which I don’t consult nearly often enough. It fits in my purse or my laptop carrying case easily and covers clarity, grammar, punctuation and spelling mechanics, usage, etc.—a very useful tool. In fact, as I’m glancing at it here, I’m finding it so awesome I plan to read it cover to cover before I post any of this. LOL.

I’m not going to belabor the homonym/homophone issue here as it can be found elsewhere, but I will point out that there is no way for spell check to handle a sentence like, “If you cite my essay on homonyms, please refer readers to my web site where they will see other sights.” Only a pair of educated human eyes can deal with something like that. So, again, get a detail-oriented beta if spelling is not your thing. And if it isn’t, that’s okay. (Not really mine either. I’m pretty sure I know which tree my dyslexic acorn fell from. LOL) The important thing is to know that it isn’t, to accept that knowledge and to take extra care to check things before making them permanent.

Having said that, let me add that when one is writing creatively, one is allowed to take certain liberties with the language in order to create a certain style, so long as those liberties do not make the writing incomprehensible. If you think you might getting too “creative” an important factor to consider is: can a reader who is unfamiliar with what you are trying to say understand your writing? This is where a good beta--one who can rein in your more flowery tendencies is invaluable. One who can tame your purple prose into a more mellow lavender can save you much embarrassment if you have gone hog wild crazy with the five syllable words that may or may not actually exist.

A good dictionary and/or thesaurus can be your best friends. You can find synonyms for words that you’ve used too often or too close together as well as check out the meaning of any words you’ve planned to use but about which you are unsure. Try not to let yourself be rushed into posting new chapters if you don’t think they’re ready for prime time. Sometimes, if you just let a chapter sit for a day or two and then come back to it, the perfect word for that sentence that was driving you crazy will just pop right into your head. The only danger to be found there is that if you just grab a word that is listed as a synonym for another without understanding how is should be used, you can mess up your whole sentence. Be sure the word you choose is one you have seen in context often enough that you have a good grasp on how to use it properly.

A non-native English speaker (although you would never know it to read her) has requested a review of the words “than” and “then”. I double-checked myself in my Pocket Style Manual and here is the short version: “than” is a conjunction and is used in comparisons – “Mine is bigger than yours.” (it’s a guy thing), or “Her butt is bigger than mine.” (girl thing). “Then” is an adverb denoting time – “Spike took off his hat and then they recognized him in spite of the funny suit.” It is often used to show a time line. “First we tied him up and then we tortured him.”

Some Ideas about Vampires, Vampire Lore and Vampires in the Arts (visual as well as written)

Anyone who was caught up in the latest LJ mini-kerfuffle about claiming, bloodplay, biting and so forth may have realized that some of the apparent conflict stems from the responders having been comparing apples and oranges (Apples and oranges with fangs, perhaps, but apples and oranges nevertheless). The comments below are coming off the top of my head. I have not gone out to research any of this and my memory may be faulty (a surprise to everyone, I know. LOL) or categories may have changed over the years, but this is what I understand to be true.

Vampire fiction falls into the very broad genre of Science Fiction--also known as “speculative fiction” for obvious reasons. Science Fiction is divided into three somewhat less broad areas: “hard” SF, fantasy and horror (which can be set in the realm of either science or fantasy).

Hard science fiction consists of speculative fiction grounded in reality and in hard or “real” science of one sort or another. It is based on known technological or biological facts and information and follows the currently known laws of physics and nature. Which is not to say that you cannot find hard SF that seems almost magical in its depiction of the future or of other universes, but those stories are still based on the assumption that the things that occur there are the result of explainable, natural phenomena or technological advances.

It has it’s own widely accepted concepts that may or may not ever actually exist, but which are used in stories all the time with the understanding that someday they might. Most obvious of these is FTL travel. Everyone uses it; sometimes with an explanation of how it works in that particular imaginary universe; sometimes it is just presented as a given that will exist at some point in the future. It can be argued that it will never be achieved, but it cannot be proven that it won’t. Ditto for time travel, extended life spans and other commonly accepted visions of the future. These are acceptable in hard SF, even though they may come under the heading of “science so advanced it seems like magic.” (Arthur C. Clarke)

Vampire stories that are written for this part of the genre must follow the rules of nature, as we currently know them. There have been many stories and books written in this “hard” science genre about vampires -- always with an assumed biological explanation for the condition and a scientific slant. Many times, it is a virus that spreads from person to person and that causes a condition in which the affected person is highly allergic to the sun, lives a very long time, and must have human blood to survive and thrive. Sometimes the vampires are aliens. They can be predators or parasites, or even prey. Sometimes they produce other vampires – intentionally or accidentally; sometimes they are one-of-kind and can only extend the life of their human mates (The Hunger) for so long. Whatever the story, there is always some basis in biology and science. They may be strange, deadly and creepy; but they are creatures of the natural world as presented by that author.

Clearly, anyone writing in this genre would have to adhere closely to the laws of physics and nature. Their vampires would be unlikely to turn into bats, wolves or foggy smoke. As is the case with the real blood-sucking creatures that exist in nature, they would be more likely to have saliva that inhibits clotting rather than causes it and they would be unlikely to have mystical bonds with other vampires.

However. (You knew there was a “but” lurking there, didn’t you?) However, the Buffyverse is set solidly in either of the other two categories– fantasy and horror. Fantasy is a field in which you do not have to be overly logical (in terms of what’s physically possible – NOT in terms of your plot!), where you don’t have to follow all of nature’s laws because you are writing about a world filled with magic and supernatural beings and events. Ditto for the world of horror, IF it is set in the realm of fantasy rather than hard SF. Both fantasy and fantasy-based horror have elements of the supernatural. It is inherent in the genre.

And that’s where the Buffyverse has staked its claim (Gah! – someone punish me – quickly!). It is clearly within the world of the supernatural. Joss did his SF thing when he made Firefly. With Buffy and Angel we are completely in the world of fantasy. There are rituals (Dear god, are there rituals!), there are prophecies, there are prophetic dreams, demons, minions and vampire families, and there is magic -- lots of magic. So, IMHO, any fics set in that verse can pretty much have their vampires able and willing to do whatever the author chooses to have them do; although, obviously, if the author goes so far afield with ascribing habits and traits to his or her creatures that they become unrecognizable, they have ceased to be vampires and have become something else. Perhaps something equally deadly and scary, but not vampires as we recognize them.

I googled vampires and claiming and found that there are so many sites about vampires that all I could do was bookmark a few and vow to go back and explore all the information out there a bit at a time. From previous reading, I do know that almost all cultures have legends or stories about vampire-like creatures, and that although the attributes and characteristics will vary from country to country, the idea that the vampire in some way drains the life essence from its victims is universal.

The major ideas behind “our” vampire lore come mostly from Dracula – Bram Stoker’s novel that he based on middle European legends and myths and also, no doubt, on the earlier story written by Dr. Poldari. So we all know that vampires drink blood (duh!), can be killed by sunlight and/or wooden stakes through the heart, and so forth. These are accepted as givens. Some lore would have it that the vampire must sleep in a coffin containing dirt from its homeland; that it cannot cross water, that it cannot remain awake in the daytime, that to be bitten by one automatically causes vampirism and on and on.

Here we get into the broad brush with which vampires have been painted in literature, film and television. Different authors have taken the legend and tweaked it to suit themselves – in some cases adding to the lore in the process. Anne Rice has presented a somewhat different sort of vampire; one with a long, colorful history and it’s own Adam and Eve (so to speak). Each writer of vampire fiction, Chelsea Quinn Yarbrough, Tanith Lee, and others whose names escape me at the moment, has added his or her own “lore” to make their stories work for them. Joss Whedon has added his own twists to the “facts” already out there. And every fan fic writer who has taken the initiative to write his or her own version of vampires and their habits, culture, and physical abilities has added to the now huge selection of imagined vampire characteristics from which a writer may choose.

The point here (yes, there is a point), is that no one can be “right” or “wrong” about what their vampires can and will do, because we are talking about imaginary creatures. And, if we are to write about the creatures in Joss Whedon’s version of the universe, they are very much a part of the supernatural world and therefore not subject to the laws of nature. So a claiming ritual is very much a possibility – although its side effects can vary as much as the author chooses. Rather than viewing the typical “Mine” “Yours” claiming ritual as a cliché, I prefer to view at as a new addition to the huge stock of vampire “lore” from which an author may pick and choose the parts that will work for his or her fic.

Vampires and Claiming

Does it usually take place in an erotic setting? Yes. Does it have to? No. If the author is viewing it as a bonding ritual between two beings who are very much in love and who have chosen to bind themselves together for eternity, then it makes sense that it should happen during love-making. That is the logical time and place for it.

However, it could just as easily take place during a public ceremony that would be the vampire equivalent of a wedding. I don’t know that I’ve read it that way, but it is certainly an option. (Hmmmm - * gets sidetracked by plot bunny….. *) Where was I? Oh, yes – or, as I think I did in one of my fics, it could be used by a vampire as a means of controlling a human minion. The possibilities are endless. And, perhaps, suggesting that infinite number of possibilities was the intent of the original LJ post that brought on all the discussion. The fact that, although claiming has entered the lore – at least as far as fan fic is concerned – lamentably few authors are exploring all of its possibilities. I don’t know.

I do know that in my fics, while I stick pretty much to the “Mine” “Yours” formula, I do vary the effects on the two bonded beings (so far, always Spike and Buffy for a romantic claim) depending on where I want the story to go. Sometimes I give them a very strong bond, with telepathy (more voluntary than invasive, once they learn how to use it), empathy, and some pretty cool orgasmic boosts while lovemaking. Sometimes, it is just a mark to demonstrate ownership to other vampires and it may or may not come with some empathic side effects. Sometimes it is the famous “this is forever” that is, I believe, the commonly accepted duration length; sometimes I have them claiming each other by accident and in those fics they can make it go away simply by staying apart until it has weakened, and so on. The point is, it is very possible to vary the claim in whatever way the author chooses. My choice is to vary it from fic to fic depending on my mood and the circumstances of the story. Another writer might choose to create her own “claiming lore” for her own Buffyverse and, therefore, always write it the same way. That works too.

Vampires and Sex

The original post also addressed the fact that the claiming had become, somewhat predictably, a part of lovemaking or sex (see above for my comments on that). Which led to the inevitable comments about sex in vampire fics, and discussions of how clichéd that too had become; specifically, sex between Spike and Buffy.

I’m not going to go into how to write erotic fiction here – or what makes bad smut. I believe we have at least one excellent essay in the RRU memories (or a link to it, I hope) about writing sex scenes. In defense of many of the “unimaginative” authors (myself included), I have the following responses to some of the complaints made throughout the discussion:

“…insert slot A into slot B..” - Folks, there are only so many orifices into which one can insert body parts, and only so many positions into which the (semi) human body can bend. Even with vampire and slayer flexibility and strength. Cut us some slack! LOL

Vampire/slayer stamina – canon facts. Mentioned more than once during the course of the show, so hardly open for discussion.

Spike and sex; Spike and oral sex – raise your hand, those of you who would not want as generous and talented a lover as most fan fics depict Spike to be? Aha! I thought not! Okay, okay, the specific objection was that the sex had become predictable -- not that Buffy shouldn’t be enjoying the benefits of Spike’s talented tongue. I know that. I just couldn’t resist. *suffers from compulsive sarcasm * But again, we are talking about something that is to some extent a part of the canon and one that certainly has taken on a life of its own within the fanon. Spike is good in bed. At least Buffy finds him so – and I didn’t hear Anya complaining…. *Sorry, mind wandered again.* Perhaps, if it is true that many authors are writing the scenes exactly the same way, it is because that progression appeals to the most readers. Just a thought.

Spike and oral sex bring us to another objection someone had – that Buffy was inexperienced at either oral sex or sex in general. Well, duh! Nowhere in canon do we get any sense that Buffy (who, we must remember, spends large amounts of her evenings slaying ugly things in graveyards, not partying) is or was a hootchie-mama. Whatever minor experimenting freshman Buffy might have indulged in at Hemery before she found out what she was, nothing indicates that she was indiscriminately giving out blowjobs.(I have not seen the movie in its entirety, so if I’m wrong about that, please let me know).

“Our” Buffy seems pretty virginal – in fact, it is part of her Slayer persona. “All things good and pure, etc. etc.” So, with her having had only one first-time roll in the hay with Angel, and one night with Parker (who, granted, probably would have tried for something more all about him) two years later, there is every reason to assume that any sex she has with Spike-- at least early-on in the series-- will be a revelation to her. I leave it up to you and how you feel about Riley as to whether they had a passionate sex life. I believe it was depicted that way on the show, but fanon tends to discount his contributions to her sexual education. Certainly before she began sleeping with him regularly, she was very inexperienced, so any fics set earlier than that are quite justified in depicting her as such.

Anyway, objections to Buffy’s being presented as relatively inexperienced sexually or embarrassed about her body seem to me to be rather misguided and mean-spirited. She IS passionate and capable of enjoying sex when she has it; but she is not a slut and I am puzzled that there are readers who find it unrealistic when they come across her being depicted as someone relatively new to the joys of sex. I seem to be editorializing again. Sorry!

There is a lot of bad smut being written; I don’t doubt it. However, much of it is in the middle of fics that are equally poor all over, so why would you even have read far enough to know that the sex is bad? The only excuse for having a sex scene in any fic that does not unabashedly present itself as a pwp, would be because the story has led the characters to that place. If the writing remains true to the characters as presented in the story, and to the characters as we know them,(sorry – my own private bitch there) the sex should ring true. How graphic that sex should be is something each author must decide on an individual basis.

I, personally, find it difficult to have a scene that is clearly about lovemaking without getting pretty graphic. I wish I could write one that wasn’t, actually. However, when I go back over my earlier fics (before I was willing to risk public humiliation and job loss by writing graphic sex scenes) in which I did a “fade to black” or similar non-specific hinting at sex rather than depicting the actual act I find myself very unhappy with them. They seem to go from decent (in some cases) stories to suddenly very juvenile-seeming fics. Maybe it’s just me. I find it more difficult to depict sexual activities in an original way when I try to keep them innuendo-ish(made up word alert!) than I do when they are more graphic. And yet, I know my graphic scenes are full of trite porn. *wanders off muttering to self about finding new fandom in which no one has sex…*

I think writers get into trouble when they try to shoehorn the sex in well before it is logical for it to be happening between the characters; or when they try to take it to a level that is inconsistent with where those characters are emotionally or chronologically. (Again, I am not referring here to stated pwp fics. Porn for the sake of porn is a different subject and one which I have no interest in discussing just now.)

There is an art to writing good erotic fiction – and it doesn’t necessarily bear any resemblance to ordinary porn of the “he slammed his hard cock into her tight, wet pussy and pounded into her” variety. It can be so subtle as to not mention actual sex at all (I refer you to Seductive Embrace’s posting on the “leather” prompt). In fact, repetitive use of the same words and phrases can make smut boring. Most definitely. Hmmmm – now I seem to be agreeing with the posting that set me off. Damn!

Back to vampires and sex – I believe that the idea that vampires are indiscriminate and omnivorous in their sexual practices is more of a fanon thing than canon -- although “want, take, have” would seem to imply otherwise.

“Cold, dead seed” and similar clichéd phrases have been picked on before by others – but sometimes they work. It’s all relative. If the story is good, well-written, has a believable plot and believable characters doing believable things, then I would not be surprised if the sex scenes could contain every cliché known to (wo)man and still be interesting.

As far as vampires and biting during sex is concerned – this is not canon, at least not so that I can recall – but it is certainly thoroughly ingrained within fanon and for good reason. Vampires bite. They like blood. They enjoy a little pain with their lovemaking (that IS canon – see “Smashed” and other episodes). It is by no means illogical to make a jump from those facts to “vampires like to bite as part of sex”. The leap from there to “most claiming takes place during sex” is not only logical but almost inevitable.

Essays - about writing, vampires, and whatever else I decide to blather on about