And so it begins.... [14 Jun 2003|03:17am] G'day All, OK I've gone through and joined every writing related community (and some journals) under the sun. Now I'm working on getting the website sorted out. then I'll come back and start scouring around for stuff to check out. considering the high number of communities for it out there I'm interested to see what the general standard or stuff on LJ is. Until Next Time, The Watcher. 2 comments|post comment

TWD V2.0 [11 Jun 2003|01:37am] [ mood | hopeful ] Hi, Welcome to the reopening of TWD - The Watcher Diaries. TWD V2.0 is likely to be a little different that v1.0. For those of you unaware V1.0 was basically just a yahoogroups list.. now v2.0 will have the backing of a website and more. TWD's mission has also changed slightly. There won't be quite the same restriction to Buffy and Angel as previously, and nor will it just focus on fanfiction. Hopefully with a change in attitude I can keep TWD v2.0 running unlike it's previous incarnation which died when I got busy with Real Life (tm). That's about it currently the only other entires here are a couple of older entries from the v1.0 days (the dates on them have actually been preserved as the sates they were originally written.) Until Next Time The Watcher. post comment

Forge - Mad-Hamlet [16 Oct 2001|09:00am] Forge Series by Mad-Hamlet http://www3.mb.sympatico.ca/~shadow27/madhamlet.htm Broken Pieces Heat Strike When the Iron is Hot Steel Blade The universal rule of sequels says that they suck. As in all rules there is the exception. Forge is it. So you say to yourself, "Self, I'm gonna write a sequel to my wonderful series Prisms. How shall I go about it?" Now we need to gather ingredients first. Ok a good helping of viable premise, add to that a large scoop of what made the first one so good. Then you need a generous sprinkling of good characters, well this is a Buffy fic so that's a given. Next up it probably helps if you have something new and different from the first one, or else it wouldn't be a sequel it'd be a remake (and they tend to be even worse than sequels in the suckage stakes) and finally and possibly most importantly you have to pull it off convincingly. So lets look and see how we did... A viable premise... Check.. got one of those.. it just so happens to use and pivot around one of my fav characters so that's always a bonus and we continue on (at a natural pace, nothing overly sped up or time distorted) from the previous series. Also we have a credible backstory, fits in nicely with the story and is also feasible within the buffyverse. Large scoop of previous success.. Yeah I can see that, same characters, same sitch, same writer, good technically, no "gimmicky" tricks that you see so often in sequels to try and make them better. Ok that's all good. Good characters. Well we've got all the main ones from last time haven't we plus everyone's favourite psuedo-bad slayer. Can't go wrong here. New and different.. Oh yeah we got two lots of that.. This series gets a little.. umm naughtier (which is for the most part never a bad thing esp when it's not gratuitous) and we have a cool new psuedo-bad slayer. We're certainly cooking now.. And to the final point can we pull it off? You have the link. Go and see for yourself. My personal opinion. Yeah absolutely. In many ways I liked this more than Prisms. Technically and story telling wise Prisms was great and I really liked it. I liked THE STORY in this one even moreso. Without giving the game away too much this one focuses around Buffy, Willow, Spike and Faith this time around. Think about it for a minute. What's the one thing they all have in common? Conflict, within themselves and between one another, yet in a not too small way there's a great deal of respect between them. The other main aspect of these four's relationships is the underlying subtext (and not completely in a Xena/Gabby way either) just the unspoken things that pass betwen them when they interact. The Buffy/Faith thing and their relationship both in terms of each other and how they affect Buffy's friends, not to mention the Slaying aspects. Willow and Faith and the silent vying for Buffy's attention, not to mention the issues stemming from when Faith grabbed Willow at the end of season 3. Then there is the Spike/Willow thing, Lover's walk and the "chip" incident. And we all know about Buffy and Spike. this is great fodder for a writer and Mad-Hamlet makes great use of it in both a positive and a negative way. It helps and it hinders and sometimes hinders when it's trying to help. This is the way life is and it's nice to see it reflected in fanfic. Ok onto the individual parts. Heat is a winner far and away. Great character interaction. Intense emotion. Conflict and comfort and sometimes comfort FROM conflict. It expresses the complexity of human emotions and relationships without being overbearing and cliched because it tells a story with loads of realism and a deft hand. What helps the series as a whole is Hamlet's wonderful handling of what is essentially the crux of the series. Heat is where it all comes together. It's like Prisms episode "Red" or the battle scene, except here the only demons being battled are personal demons (unless you count Spike getting hit a couple of times) and the sad fact of the matter is everyone can relate probably more to fighting those demons than trying to deal with a six headed beast that's just sprung up from the Hellmouth. And just like "Red" in "Heat" pressure is applied where needed and released just at the right time. It's a scene that would really stretch actors were it filmed (but the four featured are all terrific and I'd love to see it) but it's a scene so much more suited to the written word. It exudes emotion right until you think you're going to break and you're left with as much of a feeling of satisfaction as the characters when the battle is finally "won" It's an aspect of Buffy we see from time to time but not really enough as for the most part it doesn't translate well on TV.. Joss does better than alot of people with it but this stuff is the raison d'tre of fic. It really separates the sheep from the goats. As far as the remaining "episodes" go. For the most part, other than Steel, they don't suffer any for the wonderful job done on "Heat". Faith was used brilliantly.. and I'd say it's one of the best Faith fics I've read that doesn't feature her as the central character. Spike once again makes his presence felt and Hamlet handles him without "de-fanging" him. The story telling scene is truly a winner. The rest of the scoobs don't make too much of an appearance but in many ways the fic is stronger for it. It focuses on the job at hand and dispenses with the "niceties" of life some fic writers love to throw in just to up the word count. Broken starts off well and deals with each of the characters present situation using multiple POVs. Pieces, shows a little more of Willow and Buffy's emotional states and ends very much like Act Two of a TV series where you see the "mini-cliffhanger" just before the break. Heat is the crux and is handled brilliantly. It's actually a great read on it's own (not that I recommend that). Strike while the Iron is Hot is exactly that. Everyone gets hit over the head with a clue. But it's done in such a way as to not be gratuitous or insanely cliched. Sure it's a plot device but all stories have AND NEED them. It's nice to see them done well for a change. Steel is I'm a little sorry to admit a bit cliched. It may just be becuase I'm somewhat of a cynic, or possibly becuase I'm a writer but I knew exactly what was going to happen before I even read the episode (except for a little bit at the end) Not that that is a bad thing.. If it were I don't think I'd ever see a Hollywood movie again. It just seemed a little bit too much like a TV show, yes yes I realise there will be choruses of "but it IS a TV show" I know that but after the highs of "Heat" maybe I kind of expected a little more. The "main character realisation scene" yes we all know what I'm talking about. Where the lead charcter realises what he's done is wrong, or who the bad guy is, or whatever. It was good but not as good as the rest of the fic, If you know what I mean (and I'm guessing you probably don't) call the rest of the fic an 8 out of 10 Steel might be 6. If I were going to say change anything it'd be this esp the "mcrs". Then again it could possibly be me and that after Heat I set my aims to high.. You read the two and tell me what you think... Having said that of course it's a bit like pizza or sex even when it's bad it's still pretty good :-) Finishing off is Blade which picks up a bit to finish on a strong note. Especially the final scene. It rings VERY true. On the whole it's a delicate subject that's handled very well by Hamlet, many fics that have dealt with this go too far either way and sink into the vast pit that is unrealistic fic.. Which seems kind of strange considering we are talking about vampires and the like. Hamlet has this one sitting right where it should in terms of emotion, both for the reader and for the characters. And so once again we reach the end of another Mad-Hamlet Series, only 3 or 4 to go now :-) You've heard what I think now go out and read it and let Mad-Hamlet know what you think. Until Next Time -TW post comment

Prisms - Mad Hamlet [14 Oct 2001|09:00am] Prisms Series http://www3.mb.sympatico.ca/~shadow27/madhamlet.htm Without giving too much away (even though it's revealed early on in the first part) the Prisms series deals with a delicate topic. It also makes great use of changing perspectives and POVs. There's enough information in the story and enough identifying characteristics that it's easy to identify who's POV is being used without gratuitous tactics being employed by the author. First Spike (Black) then Buffy (Blue), Giles (Violet), Xander (Green), Willow (Orange), Everyone (Red), Someone VERY interesting (Yellow) and finally Buffy & Willow (White) First off I'd have to say that I really liked all the parts for varying reasons and it's great to see a writer who is confident enough in their grasp on all the characters to have a stab at writing from all of their perspectives. It's not as easy as one might think. If pushed to name a favourite I'd probably have to say Black, Yellow or Red. To digress slightly, I've seen a fair bit of "Spike bashing" for want of a better term in light of the Season 5 ending Spike/Buffy ship/non-ship. People are pulling out all manner of reasons why Spike can't be with Buffy etc.. and to a large extent getting down on the character. well I have to say in terms of pure storytelling Spike is an AWESOME character and Joss (and the rest of the writers) for the most part use him REALLY well. Being who (and what) he is he's able to say (and do) a lot of things that other characters can't. And he's played brilliantly by James Marsters. Even though I live in Australia I've seen the first two eps (Bargaining and After Life) and a number of my suspicsions have been confirmed but more about that later. In this fic (or series) you get a bit of a look at how good a "plot device" Spike is, along with the wide range of possibilities available for writers with him. A few of the more traditional writers should take note, a long with some of the more agressive redemptionists who'd love to see him turned into a fluffy bunny (then the only person he'd scare would be Anya). So many kudos to Mad-Hamlet for the excellent Spike utilisation. Onto the Yellow. which I won't say too much about coz I don't want to ruin the story for anyone. But this is an EXCELLENT "chapter" for any number of reasons the least of which being what WASNT said. It goes to show the power of omission in writing. The readers have an imagination (especially if they are Buffy Fans) and you needn't always fill in all the blanks for them. Whilst not overly long it conveys so much and meshes in beautifully with the remainder of the story. Filling in an aspect that is all too often left out in the Buffyverse. More kudos to Mad-Hamlet And finally Red. Red is the almost obligatory (for a buffy story) "battle scene" of sorts and is VERY well executed, both technically, with MULTIPLE POV changes, and storywise with a strong pacing and rhythym. To a certain extent it's the finale of the story with the two following chapters being somewhat akin to season 4's "Restless" (without the bizzare dreams and certainly no guys with cheese) as epilogues of a sort. Even though when categorising the fic it'd be placed firmly amongst the Buffy/Willow fic it's in now way centric to either character. Whilst it does revolve around a certain event. All the characters are given plenty of room to move and depth. Unlike a number of recent fics I've read which will have a single scene just to have that character present in the story. Mad-Hamlet hasn't needed to by ignoring the characters who weren't involved. Once again more authors should take note. Speaking of characters that weren't involved. It brings me to the point of canon. The Gospel According To Joss and Marti. Well Mad-Hamlet much be an avid churchgoer coz for such and UN-canon fic it's amazingly true to the series characterisations and reactions and in some instances past events. I'll say right here and now I really like this. I read plenty of non canon and even some alternate universe fic and don't have a problem with it (hell I just finished a story where Tara was a vampire) but unless very nessecary for the story I really like to see the characters true to themselves as they are on the show. Afterall that's why I keep watching it coz I like the characters. Besides it also gives you a benchmark of sorts to see how the story is going. Anyway Well done once more to Mad-Hamlet. OK well I was gonna wait and publish these all at once but I suppose I'll get this out there now. Until Next Time post comment

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