I got the best feedback ever. Another Buffista has started watching H:LOTS. My plan is working...there might be a Bayliss in every home one day...but he's still mine. (Although, in the interest of inclusion, I would work out a timeshare with a similarly inclined male Buffista. Just so Timmy doesn't miss anything.)

That SV vid is brilliant. Thanks for reccing it here. I went and saw Whatever when it was recced previously, hilariously funny. I love the vids.

OK, LA-istas, where's your closest outlet mall? Cause it's about to be a site of demon activity.

So...hi everyone! Delurking in this thread to hopefully start a discussion that I can use in a paper...if all participants are cool with that.

My first essay for my honors seminar is one on imitation. I'm thinking about writing it on fan fiction as a form of imitation. So, I guess, first of all, are you guys willing to help me out on this? If you are, am I even in the right thread? Do you guys all write fan fiction too? Or do you mostly just discuss it?

Many people in this thread write fanfiction; everyone in Buffista fic does. What, exactly, do you mean by imitation?

This is probably the best thread to ask in, by the way, and many of us in here are writers.

(Noting that many writers here don't post in bfic at all.)

I'd be up/in/whatever.

You know what might be good, vw?

There are many challenges (and at least one site) that are "If _______ wrote Star Trek/X-Files/etc".. And people will write fanfic in the style of, say, Raymond Chandler or Jane Austen. It's really quite remarkable.

There's a whole section of Buffista literary filk, too.

Imitating another author's style. Here's the blurb from the class description:

"Almost anything written or performed involves some imitation. Sometimes the imitation is enforced (do it by the rules!) while sometimes it is voluntary (I'm choosing to work in the genre of...). The university is no exception: students find themselves being asked to imitate or conform to styles, vocabulary, methods, and folkways prevalent among their professors and academic departments. In this seminar we'll look at acts of imitation and required behaviors both outside and inside the university, and ask what their causes, functions, advantages and disadvantages are. We'll ask what room is left for creativity, and when it is more useful to imitate or conform, vs. when it is more useful to strike out on one's own."

Does that make more sense? To me, fan fiction is a form of imitation...of the show it is written about. I guess I'm wondering how closely you guys, as fan fiction writers, feel like you stick to imitating the show and characters you're writing about, and how much you feel like you're just doing your own thing, borrowing characters from the show.

There are many challenges (and at least one site) that are "If _______ wrote Star Trek/X-Files/etc".. And people will write fanfic in the style of, say, Raymond Chandler or Jane Austen. It's really quite remarkable.

Wow. That's really interesting and kinda cool!