So You Want to Write B/G
An essay written by: Gileswench
So you've been in fandom for a while, and you've decided that B/G is a ship you can sail in. Or maybe you've been writing other ships or genfic. Maybe you haven't written any fiction at all since that short story assignment in Freshman English. You may even be an actual published author who just feels like writing something for fun, in which case I can't imagine why you would want my advice. Whatever your reason for taking the step, there are a few things about the characters of Buffy and Giles to keep in mind when writing a story about them.
1) Giles is a middle aged Englishman with an Oxford education and a taste for research. Buffy is a young California girl who, although she has a good mind, has only a College Freshman education and prefers the physical to the intellectual. This means they don't speak the same way due to both age, nationality, education, and temperament. This also means they know different things. For instance, Giles can rattle off the names of obscure reference works in five different languages but in Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight, he failed to understand the significance when Marcy's yearbook was signed over and over with 'Have a nice summer'. Buffy may misprounounce demon names in amusing ways, but she can think on her feet and improvise in battle.
2) Giles deals in logic, while Buffy is more inclined to rely on instinct. They often come to the same conclusion, but they take very different routes to get there. In Welcome To The Hellmouth, the two stand on the balcony at The Bronze and Giles tells Buffy to see if she can find a vampire in the crowd. She spots one quickly and Giles asks her how. She has done so by looking at the hopelessly out of date outfit the vampire was wearing. Giles responds: 'Yes, but you didn't...hone.' In other words, you got it right but not the way you were supposed to. Buffy stumbles onto things or follows gut feelings. Giles researches and Buffy is grateful for the answers research provides, but if logic doesn't match her gut, she chooses instinct over logic every time.
3) Both Giles and Buffy have extremely sarcastic senses of humor. The references may differ and the language the jibes are couched in may be worlds apart, but the snark remains the same. As mentor and student, or friends or lovers this will not change. It may soften at times, but it's the way they talk and nothing will completely change that fact.
4) Both Buffy and Giles tend to retreat emotionally - and sometimes physically - when hurt. Avoidence is a way of life for both characters. Each turns to the other repeatedly when the really big issues come up (Buffy is the only one Giles confides in about his past in The Dark Age, she is the only one he really talks to about Jenny's death. Buffy turns to Giles for help when she discovers Dawn isn't really her sister, he's the one she talks to about the 'hypothetical' question of Angel's return from Hell) but they leave a great deal unsaid. This leaves us a lot of ground to cover in fic, since they've never come to terms formally with so many issues, but it can make it hard to get them to the proverbial starting gate. Of course, once we get them there, it also gives us an easy way to come up with plot complications.
5) Both have been badly burned by love. Giles' relationship with Jenny was often rocky up to the moment of her death. Olivia left when she found out how scary his life really was. Buffy 's first lover turned - quite literally - into an evil demon when she made love with him. She's been used by a hit and run artist of the bedroom. Riley betrayed her with vampire prostitutes and then left her while her mother was in the hospital. Spike tried to rape her. Both these people have lots of reasons to fear love. Don't be afraid to explore that.
6) These are two very flawed people. Use the flaws. I'm not saying make them weak or bad, because they aren't. What I'm saying is these are two sarcastic, insecure, emotionally constipated (thanks Gail Christison for coining that term!), deeply angry characters. Let them be who they are. The great thing about this is it gives you lots of room for all sorts of dramatic situations even if you're not strong on writing the supernatural aspects of the Buffyverse.
7) Despite their very human flaws, these are good, strong people. Allow them their strengths. Buffy may appear scatterbrained, but she really is very intelligent. Giles may seem morose, but he's also deeply optimistic. Their loyalty to one another and to their friends is exemplary. Each has shown a willingness to die for the other multiple times. Each has been willing to face mortal danger to save the other. Each has made difficult decisions in order to help the other. Each has been willing to test their friendship for the good of something or someone else. And yet, they keep coming back to each other. Both are brave and strong and oddly nurturing people for all their fear and emotional distance. The truest stories are those in which both are allowed both flaws and strengths. Keep them human.
8) These people know each other very, very well...but there's a lot we don't - and they may not - know. Joss has left an awful lot of blanks in these two people's lives. We know a few, scattered bits of information about Buffy's life pre-Slaying, but there's a lot we don't know. And as for Giles, he remains a man of utmost mystery. We know he learned of his destiny to be a Watcher when he was ten. Jump ahead eleven years, and at twenty-one he runs away from Oxford and joins up with Ethan and company to raise demons for fun, jump ahead an unspecified number of years, and he's left his job as a museum curator in England to become a High School librarian and Buffy's Watcher. That's not a lot to know about a man. This leaves us lots of room to play with questions. Are Giles' parents alive or dead? Has he ever been married? How exactly did he return to Oxford and The Council after the Eyghon incident? Did he or didn't he with Ethan? We don't know any of this information, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. As for Buffy, did she have any boyfriends pre-Angel? How far did her figure skating career go? Or was it just a hobby? What, if anything, does she think about her first Watcher? Did she have any goals she had to give up for Slaying aside from cheerleading? Why did her parents really break up? Again, lots of unanswered questions. I'll admit, there are less for Buffy, but she only had sixteen years to develop a past we don't know, whereas Giles had something in the range of forty. Still, we can play with these concepts all we like in fanfic. Use your imagination. But do try to base your guesses at least in part on what you see on the screen.
9) Even if you're writing sillyfic well outside the canon, keep the characters consistent with what we know about them. It's really much funnier if Giles, even faced with being dropped in the middle of an episode of Who's Line Is It Anyway continues to behave in a very Gilesy manner. And Buffy trying to have a serious conversation with Cookie Monster would be hilarious...but only if Buffy still acts like Buffy.
10) These people have a longstanding relationship and already love one another. Don't get me wrong, I don't meant they've been getting it on since the day Buffy showed up on the Hellmouth. What I mean is that they have known each other for several years and gone through pretty much every sort of disaster and betrayal known to man. And yet, despite danger, cruelty, lovers, misunderstandings, and every sort of grief, Buffy and Giles still care about each other. Even with their current distance - both emotional and physical - the love is there. The love they already share in their friendship and the trust they have shown in their working relationship are the building blocks of the love they so easily could discover. Everything they have been through together is a part of their relationship. We cannot deny either the good or the bad or even the merely inconvenient when we get them together. They don't have to talk the Angel issue to death, but it's there. Don't ignore it. As for Spike...I think they have a lot to talk about there.
Whatever angle you write from, be it angsty, romantic, supernatural, silly, dark, or aspects of multiple genres, B/G writing can be wonderfully rewarding and fun. Whatever your take on the relationship and where it's headed, there are lots of us ready to take the journey with you. Just pay attention to who these people are and how they relate to one another and you'll do fine. So give it a go, and have a good time.
You know you want to.