Hello, all! 

We are so stoked to bring you the April Scoobies of the Month! (Also, you guys were beyond amazing during Short and Spuffy, so thank you again!)

First up, we have our Author of the Month: Simmony
 
Tell us how you got into Buffy the show and Buffy fanfic.

To fully appreciate how I did get into Buffy, I need to flashback to how I didn’t. The year was 2006ish, teenage me was a Charmed superfan, and a school friend was a Buffy superfan who annoyingly kept trying to get me to watch her favorite show. I’ve always been averse to doing things others asked me to do, so I successfully (tragically?) refused to watch Buffy for well over a decade. Then spring of 2020 rolled around, and I was supposed to visit my American host family for three weeks, vacation time irrevocably approved and everything. But travel was impossible that year because of a small circumstance called the global Covid-19 pandemic, so I was stuck at home with three weeks of downtime and nothing to do. Literally nothing. Everything was closed. I’m not sure how I decided to start watching Buffy during that time, but I did, and I binge-watched all seven seasons in a matter of weeks.

Fanfic had never really been on my radar, and for sure not in the ‘me writing it’ sense, though I’ve written stories since I could hold a pencil. That’s where we circle back around to my school friend. I was talking her head off about the show after I’d finished, my brain bubbling over with all the usual questions (“OMG THEY KILLED SPIKE? Please tell me he isn’t actually dead!”). Clearly, I didn’t know AtS existed. She (a fellow writer of OF fantasy) suggested I channel my feelings into fanfic to give Spike and Buffy a happy ending. I brushed her off, all elitist mid-twenties ‘fanfic is embarrassing’ girl. I was determined to resurrect my teenage hobby of making fan videos instead (and I did), but that still left me wanting more and finally digging into post-series Spuffy fics to satisfy the urge of seeing their story end in a better place. Long story cut short, the more post-series content I read, the more I wanted to put my own spin on the genre, and before I knew it, I was doing what my friend had suggested and writing my first fanfic, about a month after finishing Chosen.

Where do you find inspiration for your stories?

It depends! The two most common places are probably site challenges and Discord server conversations. I screenshot them, put them in my phone’s notes app and add to them until I have enough to brainstorm an actual outline. Other places might be real life conversations, books, movies, TV shows and...my brain? On rare occasions, it comes up with ideas.

Who is your favorite character to write and why?

Spike! He was the most challenging character to write when I first got started because of the Britishisms and evil tendencies, but all that makes him easier to write nowadays. I can really escape into his POV and way of thinking/acting/speaking. It’s great escapism.

Which story of yours are you most proud of and which was the hardest to write?

This is tough to answer. All stories that I’ve finished are a source of pride, and all of them were hard to write when I inevitably got stuck 2/3 of the way through! I think the story I am most proud of is To All We Guard, which was supposed to be a one-shot but ended up a 29 chapter almost 230k story. It taught me so much about story structure, character arcs and developing believable AUs. It also took me the longest to write (about 1 ½ years including beta feedback and edits). The hardest story to write was probably Loop. I really underestimated how difficult it would be to write an engaging story that all takes place during the same day, and I made up some serious lore to go with the plot. It also included writing a significant number of fight scenes, which I struggle with (part of why I decided to write Loop, lol, I do make life harder for myself). Surprisingly, making Buffy and Spike fall in love while repeatedly murdering each other was the easy part. These two, I swear...

As a writer, what would you have changed on the show and why?

I assume this is a fairly common answer, but I would have made Spike’s redemption arc work without the assault scene in Seeing Red. I feel like there are a million better ways in which that storyline could’ve been executed, and maybe Spuffy fans would face less backlash from casual fans for endorsing a pairing with THAT in their past if more thought had been put into the implications of including such a scene. I think it was a highly questionable choice for the characters, actors, and audience. Oh, and I would have scrapped Angel’s sudden reappearance at the end of season seven. Just mail that amulet, dude.

Thank you, Simmony! We're so lucky to have you here as a writer and commenter! You? Rock!

_________

Next up, we have our Commenter of the Month: acekoomboom

Tell us how you got into Buffy the show and Buffy fanfic.

Last time I answered this question a couple months ago for the February AotM award, I went more for the direct answer (reruns). This time we'll go a little bit out of the way into how it stuck. Yes, I watched Buffy reruns pretty regularly as a kid and fell into fanfic just bc I was already reading fanfic of other things, but I do not stick to things. I consume and get hyperfixated on new content constantly. Any other fandom I've ever written for hasn't lasted more than a year. Usually it's just a week or two window of writing and then I'm hanging up my hat for good. I never rewatch anything, with very few exceptions. So why have I been in the Spuffy fandom for over a decade and am still actively writing for them?

Fan community. Spuffy and those Spuffy-specific websites we all know and love and nailed me down to a ship and a show in a way nothing else has before. The way there are so many events and community buildings things (like these interviews, the discords, people naturally pairing up to do cool things bc it's such a curated space) makes it feel solid and real in a way that a lot of spaces on me the internet don't. Love y'all 🫶

What motivates you to leave comments?

I think the answer is layered. On the one hand, I want to remember what I thought of it. If someone mentions a fic that I have read, I can go back and read comments I left on it to see how I felt about it and participate in that conversation. Another thing is taking the time to pause between chapters, to collect my thoughts and know how I felt about things and how I stand on it, summarizing or highlighting things or going on tangents makes it so much more of an enjoyable experience. It makes it exist differently in your head. Sometimes reading physical books I will even put the book down between chapters to gather my thoughts. There's just something magical about it!

And also, I do it for the author. I believe encouragement to be one of my big skills in life, and I like to put it to use in many different areas of my life. I love to encourage people, to make them feel like they can or they did do something great, to uplift and speak life into people. Commenting is such a personal and special way to do that in my eyes.

Do you also write or are you strictly a reader?

Both bay-bee! I think I posted fics on this site before I'd ever posted comments.

Were you a lurker before you started leaving comments or did you comment right away?

I wouldn't have ever called myself a lurker, just because I commented too much even in the beginning, but I wasn't as consistent as I am now. I wasn't always commenting, and if I was commenting I wasn't always doing it after each and every chapter. But I still had a lot to say and enjoyed saying it.

How important is it to receive a reply from the writer when you leave a comment?

Not important at all to me, personally. I only even think about it when I get the email. I love getting replies, having sprawling text threads in the comment sections, but it doesn't bother me or even register for me if I never get a reply either. Unless it's someone that I have already had long sprawling chit chats with and then I don't get a reply, then it's personal 😂😂

Thank you, acekoomboom! We adore you here! Never stop writing and leaving comments!

And that's a big ol' wrap for April! You guys made March one for the record books, and we're so proud and grateful to have you all here! You're our reason why! 

Be good! :)
Chelle, Dusty, GetItDone, and GriefCounseling