Because I've been wondering myself just how all this got started…

The Short Version:
Mostly because I wanted to find out if I could...

But also because I wanted to know what had happened to Oz, and for him to have better closure than he got. Because I really wanted him to have at least a brief reunion with the rest of the gang, so that we could find out. And because I'm not fond of stories that start out by saying 'imagine it is five years later and X, Y and Z have happened', instead of showing us the events of X, Y and Z as they unfold…

In essence, Tales from the Monico is the story of how X, Y and Z came about. Or it will be, when I finally get to the end and write the story that started it all off!


The Long Version:

First and foremost I should point out that I never had the slightest intention of writing Buffy fan fiction. There is plenty of that out there already, of all shapes and forms, and it was not a fandom I'd explored extensively. I've never really taken part in the online community attached to it. I enjoyed watching the show, and that was all.

Except that with me, it is rarely as simply as enjoying watching a show. I have a bad habit of de-constructing and asking questions as I watch, especially with shows I enjoy. Buffy and her sister-show Angel definitely fell into this category.

It started when I invested in the Buffy DVDs (well, they were on sale, you know) and had a blitz on watching all the early seasons again. I couldn't even say that I had a favourite character, although the fact that I've based an entire universe around Oz suggests a sneaking fondness for him. It is true: re-watching, I was reminded how much I had liked Oz as a character, how much I missed him when he left, and how much untapped potential the character had.

I felt that as a character Oz had a great deal of potential that was never really explored. There was so much about him we never learned. We never had an in-depth look at the nature of lycanthropy, although the opportunity was there for two whole years, and we never really learnt the Buffy spin on werewolf lore, other than a couple of isolated snippets. We never got to see how Oz – always the laid-back, go with the flow guy – coped when forced to take a leading role, although there were hints that he was quite capable of doing so when necessary. We were told that he was a brilliant, if rather lazy, student, but never really got to see this in action. And so on. And then he left, apparently broken-hearted, and was never seen or heard of again. His entire leaving story was tied up with Willow and her character development, at the expense of finding out more of how it really affected Oz.

Then came Angel season five, which dealt – albeit briefly – with werewolves, and told us a little more about them. Specifically, we were told how dangerous it is for them to be cut loose from human attachments, which is pretty much what happened to Oz. This is the quote that did it for me, regarding a werewolf Angel had killed when it attacked a girl:
Gunn: He left his wife and kids a couple years ago, kept moving, staying in the middle of nowhere most of the time. First year or so, a few mangled bodies showed up here and there, but the last six months, guy was leaving corpses like bread crumbs.
Angel: Probably tried to control it for a while and just gave up. Thought he had to fight it alone, ended up with nothing worth fighting for.

So I wondered what would have happened to Oz after he left Sunnydale that last time, given his circumstances. Although he seemed, as always, calm enough on the surface in that final scene, he had to be in a bad place emotionally, given the events of that final episode combined with what he must have been through off screen in the preceding months, and I really wanted to know how things had worked out for him. I couldn't imagine him losing all hope the way the werewolf described above had since he was always such a well-balanced character, but he did leave Sunnydale in a bad way and I could see him having a rough time for a while before regaining his equilibrium.

Far too many fan-fics seemed to have him drifting around aimlessly and pining after Willow forever more. I wanted to hope for a more positive resolution, and felt that what he really needed was to put down roots down somewhere else, somewhere he could begin to feel a bit more settled. He needed to make new friends, people he could care about, instead of allowing what happened with Tara to scare him to the extent that he distanced himself from other folk forever more. I really thought he was a strong enough character to be able to get over his past and move on. I wanted the opportunity to see how he was, to find out if he'd been able to move on.

It also set me to thinking about the final season of Buffy, and it occurred to me that Oz was the only character not to get a positive resolution. Everyone else either stayed to the bitter end, or died. Even Riley had happy closure in the end. But in a show that was so good as tying up loose ends, Oz was a loose end left hanging. And I really wanted for him and Willow to eventually meet again, having finally reached a place where they could be friends

Safely Someplace Else was my first attempt at Buffy fic, and will no doubt be revised later on, when the rest of the saga catches up with it. It is pretty rough, and barely touches on the issues I was pondering. Call it an experiment - dipping my toes in the water.

I thought it would end there, naïve fool. But I'd started thinking, and couldn't stop. It occurred to me that someone who (a) is from Sunnydale and knows about vampires and demons, (b) has helped prevent an apocalypse or two and (c) is a werewolf, is never going to have that normal a life. I liked the idea of the gang fondly imagining that Oz was getting on with a relatively normal life, when in fact he was spending his time doing anything but. So I plotted a few conversations where Oz met up with the gang late season 7 and they caught up. That story might even be written out properly and completed one day.

And then I got interested in the back-story…

And so Starting Over came about, the start of the saga. And the next thing I knew I had a very sketchy framework for a sprawling series with an entire ensemble cast of original characters all clamouring for attention and merrily going their own way. I have no idea if it will end up going where I want it to. But since none of it is anything like anything I've attempted before, I'm finding it an interesting process.

Tthe Examining Oz section was the research I did in an attempt to at least try to keep Oz in character and in line with established canon. He has such a quirky way of expressing himself, which can be so hard to capture. But I can try. The research also helped throw up some areas of doubt that I wanted to try to address in my series, thus providing little bits and pieces of material for me to use.

And finally, just so you know, I do have a destination in mind (via three separate phases) that is intended to take Oz on a long journey to 'enlightenment', aka a final resolution of his wolf issues, and then back into the fold of the Scooby gang, for a brief reunion at least. They have a lot to catch up on. It'll just take a really, really long time to get there.


Why original characters?

Because I wanted to have an ensemble cast and there weren't any other canon characters available for use...

There are two main reasons. Firstly for the simple reason that, just in terms of the sheer mechanics of writing him as a character, Oz works best in a group. He is a pensive, internal kind of guy, not big with the talking. He needs other people around him to bounce off and interact with, so that they can do the bulk of the chattering leaving him free to sit back and think, and throw the odd comment in here and there.

Secondly, in terms of Oz as a person, his life needs to be moving forward. He really can't spend the rest of his life moping and pining for Willow. Or rather, he could, but being stuck in such a rut would make for fairly boring and repetitive stories. No, to move forward he needs to be meeting new people, making new friends, having people around him to interact with, and care about, and puzzle over, and so on. He's a guy who enjoys observing human behaviour.

And, thirdly and linked to number two, having a group of diverse characters should, hopefully, generate situations and circumstances to which Oz must then react. This then creates opportunities for his character to be drawn out and developed, and for him to continue to learn and grow as a person.

And, of course, there's no point having original characters if you aren't going to do them justice and allow them to be strong personalities with their own character development and progression, etc. Therefore the original characters will all receive a greater or lesser amount of 'screen-time' and action, where I deem it necessary to (a) advance the plot, or (b) develop their character. If you're going to have them there, you might as well give them as many dimensions as possible.

Starting Over introduced the first two original characters in what was to become an ongoing series, David and Emma Gibson. Oz drifts into their café, befriends them, and stays – mostly because he's got nothing better to do. And because these nice, normal people represent the stability he needed most at that time.

David and Emma represent Us: they are ordinary folk who find themselves dealing with extraordinary things, reacting as best they can. They could be anyone – real Average Joe's, because drama/sci fi shows are full of these innocents who stumble into incredible events and then afterward are left to get on with their lives, which we never really see and to which I ask – how? Is it possible to just carry on with a normal life and pretend nothing happened?

But if it stayed as just those three, I realised, Oz would always be the one who had to take the lead, since the other two knew nothing at all about supernatural issues, and I didn't think he'd be comfortable in that position full time. And he would be very much on his own as a supernaturally oriented person living among normal folk. I didn't want him to be tthat isolated on a permanent basis, and also felt that he needed to have someone else in his life who 'belonged' to the supernatural. A sounding board, someone who could be a good matey friend for him, that he would be able to confide in; someone who would understand his problems, at least in part. Clearly, the very supernaturally naïve David and Emma weren't going to fill this role. I also felt the series needed someone who would be a strong enough personality to take a leading role when necessary, since Oz as a character prefers to remain in the background and go with the flow.

And so Elli came into being. She was a concept I'd had floating around for a while without ever committing it to paper, and I drew up her background before I started to actually write her as a character, so for better or for worse the way she behaves is very much informed by where she comes from, although that may not be evident until more is revealed about her past. Just taking her at face value though, she comes from another world, she is fairly knowledgeable about certain kinds of supernatural activity, although her otherworldly knowledge doesn't always tie in with the way things work in this world, and she's carrying a whole load of baggage of her own, which means she can empathise with Oz and his issues. Because her outlook is otherworldly and she has such different expectations, she challenges Oz in some ways to think about his own situation in a different way, and she is also intended to be a catalyst for other things, much later, although it remains to be seen if that works out or not.

But four main characters felt wrong, too square. And so Charlie came about, a third character already up to their neck in the supernatural. But since Elli was so obviously not normal from the start, I decided to go with the contrast and have Charlie come as a surprise – someone who would appear perfectly normal until her secret was revealed. She was also introduced much more gradually than the other three characters, again mostly for the contrast. And since both Oz and Elli 'belong' to the supernatural, in effect, Charlie is more someone who has grown up around it and knows a lot, but represents the more human aspect of it. Although, that said, she does have her poltergeist power going for her as well. And she, too, has a past that may or may not be delved into at some point.

And, of course, there are the recurring characters, specifically the two police officers Mike and Mat. Because they were useful, and I liked them…And also a few occasional or non-speaking extras where necessary.

I've described this series in the past as highly experimental, and it really is. Overall, the main aim from my point of view (quite apart from needing to scratch that itch!) is to develop my own skills as a writer by attempting different things. This series is providing that for me, in several ways. Oz is a challenging character to write, balancing the need to further his story with the need to remain in line with his established character and the universe from which he comes. Writing episodically is another challenge, having to not only write self-contained stories, but to keep up a tight continuity. I find it hugely enjoyable! Creating, writing and hopefully developing original characters is also a challenge: finding out if I can do it. Can I create, write and develop characters who are believable, likeable and engaging? I'm not sure, but I'm giving it a good go. I'd never written a crossover before, so again, that was an experiment. And so on. Almost everything about this series is a challenge and an experiment. It may not always work, but I'm learning a lot from the attempt, and I really hope that anyone who ventures in will enjoy reading the stories as much as I've enjoyed and benefitted from the process of producing them.

And one final note. This is my universe, and therefore everyone in it is beautiful. Unless otherwise stated. <g>


© J. Browning, February 2005