I can hear it already. What the hell does Buffy the Vampire Slayer have to do with writing of any sort?
Well! It’s inspiration again.
I mean, if you’ve never seen it then I feel like you might not understand. But to me, Buffy is a fantastic story, with characters I grew genuinely attached to. It made me WANT more, need more. Like any good book does (or at least until the end of season five or so… I can’t quite remember).
And even then, because I was attached to the characters, I still wanted more, even though I felt they pushed it a bit.
And, although I loved Buffy, Willow was by far my favourite. By. Far.
You may recognize from such things as How I met Your Mother, and American Pie. I adored Willow. This character grew so much over the entire series, became powerful and not so much of a doormat.
And this is the sort of world I want to create. No, not a vampire slayer world, but a world people will still want to go back fifteen years later and immerse themselves in.
A world where you fall in love with the characters and they remain with you years later.
This is what Buffy inspires me to do. Create with more distinction, make my characters people I’d want to care about, people I’d want to revisit.
How amazing would it be to create a world people want to re-visit? Hopefully one day I’ll get there, and in the mean time, I’ll work my  butt off at it.
Do you like Buffy? Is there any series – book or tv – that has made you feel this way?
Hey, I blogged about Buffy today too. Buffy, Angel, Firefly…pretty much anything Joss Whedon has touched. Joss Whedon knows how to create a world and characters that you have to keep revisiting.
Inspiration abounds.
I love Joss’s work. Really looking forward to the Avengers movie. But Buffy for me was pivotal. What a fantastic story teller.
Love the inspiration 😀
I am not a Buffy fan (I was 3 when it started), but it’s good to have inspiration. Joss Whedon is a unique and talented individual. Firefly is a favorite of mine and my kids even enjoy watching it.
Wow! It started in 1997 so this comment took me aback a bit. But I do love Firefly. And now I feel very old hehe. I’m glad your kids love Firefly too!
I loved Buffy! I have all 7 seasons. We take the DVDs on long plane rides. It’s wonderful to catch up again. My favorite character is Spike! Him and Druscilla were fantastic.
I rewatch it rather often. Just loved the characters and the story. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it hehe. Spike and Druscilla WERE amazing!
I just started watching Buffy thanks to Netflix. I love it so far. But count me in the group that is addicted to Firefly. I loved all the characters so much. Especially Mal. Stong and smart, yet flawed. Perfect!
Thanks for sharing, and I look forward to more A to Z goodness!
Oh, I’m so happy you like it! Yeah I loved Firefly too. How could they not continue that series? Morons!
Thank you for dropping by.
I never got into Buffy, but have heard it was awesome.
Firefly was amazing. I’m so sad it didn’t last .
Firefly was awesome. You should totally watch Buffy. It’s on Netflix at the moment – instant streaming.
I always identified with Willow. I was also a geek who wore uncool clothes in high school. I like to think I too have blossomed into a beautiful strong woman just as she did. Oh, and I also have red hair. 😉
Yay! A willow fan 😀 I loved her. I thought she was simply amazing. Red hair? Lucky! And I’m sure you’ve blossomed into a strong and beautiful woman 😀
I enjoyed Buffy back in the day. So cool to have a kick ass female for the show who was also a cutie pie. She balanced vampire slaying with being a girl as best as any could…given the special circumstances of her life.
I still have hurt feelings behind Firefly only having one season. I loved that show.
Yeah I used to love the way she balanced things, which was often mixing them and not really balancing them at all hehe.
I agree with Firefly. I still feel cheated it only got 14 episodes.
And then Buffy staked Edward. The End.
OK sorry, I couldn’t help it. I have never seen Buffy. 🙂
Konstanz Silverbow
nothoughts2small.blogspot.com
thewriterace.blogspot.com
A to Z c-host
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com
LOL. You may not have seen it, but you get the gist 😉
You should totally see it though 😉
I never got into Buffy but I do like the gal who plays Willow. She’s so cute and funny!
Jessica
A to Z Blogger & SF/Fantasy Writer
Visions of Other Worlds
I adore her 😀 She’s pretty awesome.
Buffy! Yes!
I completely missed it when it was on (weird, because I was pretty much the ideal age group) and caught up with it on Netflix when they got the rights to stream all of Joss Whedon’s shows a couple of years ago. The roommates and I absolutely loved it.
Spike was easily my favorite character, especially earlier on. He was such a fun bad guy. Also, LOVE Giles.
The dialogue, the story arcs, the way the characters grew and matured over the course of the series…sure, it wasn’t perfect, but it was so absorbing, and the virtues easily outshone the flaws.
Man, this makes me want to go back and watch the show again.
I watched a lot of it while it was on, but missed the last season and a half because I moved to Germany.
And I LOVE Giles. (And you CAN watch it again! It’s on Netflix insta streaming bwah hah hah)
Learned a lot from Buffy. I even used the dubbed versions of the episodes to learn French!
That’s really kind of cool 😀 Way to learn French!
I love Buffy. One of the reasons I became a librarian was to be like Giles. (Although I’ve turned out more like Jenny Calendar. Er, sort of.) I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan.
LOVE BUFFY! I just went through the whole seven seasons in two months, yikes! The transition of character is what makes this show lovable to me. The stars are really put through the wringer and lose themselves in darkness for a little while. It’s my dream to create this too.
I just adore the series and am re-watching it myself for the 4th or 5th time? Haha. It’s a nice faithful go to when I need some inspiration 😀
I think the better question is, what DOESN’T Buffy have to do with writing?
Any aspiring writer (especially one who wants to write fantasy, paranormal, suspense, or young adult) would be well-advised to watch that show. It taught me so much — about plot, believable character development (Whedon & co. take their characters to places you wouldn’t think possible, and make you believe it), dialogue (!!!), pacing, and much, much more. It was only after watching Buffy that I felt I was a good enough writer to start self-publishing my own work. I think I learned more about the craft of fiction from that than I did from any book.
Glad to see someone else recognizes that. 🙂
Very good point. The whole series (in fact most of his series) is an amazing demonstration of what you can do with good character and plot structure, not to mention solid worldbuilding. I love that someone else GETS this 😀
Nice post. I love Buffy. One of the best things about it, I think, is that someone can watch a single episode and know what is happening, but there are always references back to other episodes that become inside jokes for people who know the entire series. Great show. Putting it on now.
Yes! Definitely. Very well interwoven to such a point that anyone can appreciate one episode, but if you’ve seen the whole thing it’s almost like you get rewarded.
I absolutely LOVE Buffy! I own all the seasons. Spike . . . he was somethin’ *blushing*
Me too! I adore the show. Yeah Spike was gorgeous!
Anything with such strong characters is inspiration for writing! (And after all, the show was written, wasn’t it?) I recently came across a wonderful Buffy-inspired dialogue that completely cracked me up: “An Imagined Girls Night With Katniss Everdeen, Hermione Granger, Buffy Summers and Bella Swan.” There really is a whole world there.
Oddly enough, although I like to think of myself as a literary snob, one of my favorite inspirations when it comes to writers who have really created a coherent, believable alternate reality is Terry Prachett — his Discworld books may not be great literature, but they’re consistently funny and clever, and he really gives you a FEEL for the world, even if it’s slightly cartoonish. I love that.
Oh I love Terry Prachett too 😀 Strong characters are a huge inspiration.
I’m really glad you like it too 😀
THIS. BtVS was hands-down the most formative storytelling of my teenage years and what I still come back to time and time again.
I still adore it. I could marathon it to death – over and over and still never get tired of it. This is my Buffy love. Hehe
I was a Buffy fan, but like you I was more of a Willow fan. A Willow and Tara fan to be honest.
Though after Tara was killed I stopped watching and never it again.
I did get to write a book with Amber Benson though and that was really cool.
I am trying to read all the A to Z blogs, but coming back to the ones I really like.
Looking forward to seeing what you do all month!
Tim
The Other Side
The Freedom of Nonbelief