For the Fanfic Writer Friday (FFWF) Ask, I'm curious how you came up with the idea to blend "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" with OuaT to come up with such an awesome supernatural CS story as "Some Legends are Best Keep as Legends"? Did the idea come to you fully formed? Did one scene just strike you out of the blue? Or did you come up with it bit by bit? I'm actually curious about the same sort of thing for "Varcolac" - both are brilliant ideas, but I woudn't have known how to start like you do
Oh, wow! Thank you for this!
Okay, for Some Legends, the idea came about from my love of the original short story, a rewatch of the FOX TV show, and seeing a piece of fanart that had Killian maniped in a Colonial uniform (unfortunately, it’s been so long, I can’t remember who did the manip, nor do I have a link to it.)
On the FOX TV show, Ichabod Crane wakes up in the twenty-first century after having died on the battle field. Right before his death, he decapitated a Hessian soldier (the Headless Horseman), and Ichabod’s wife (a witch) bound them together by magic. The SH show had some terrific moments of introducing Ichabod to the modern world, and although I don’t think Killian would have stayed clueless about the modern age for long, I DO love the Killian vs the modern world trope, so I could immediately see him in that role.
Because of my love for the short story, I knew I wanted to incorporate it too, but I couldn’t see Killian in the Ichabod role, so I cast him as Brom and channeled S2 Captain Jones during the time he tormented Rumple, and made their original feud it my flashback origin story.
The first scene that came to me was Killian digging himself out of his grave. Next, was Graham’s death with Emma as witness, which is borrowed from the TV show. Then came the flashback, and the rest just came bit by bit as I went through my process of asking myself a TON of questions.
For Varcolac, I had a vague werewolf story idea waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in high school, that involved a woman being chased down by a pack of werewolves and having to trust strangers (a man and his sister) to help her after her car breaks down, only to discover they are werewolves, too. Obviously, some of that changed by the time I started formulating the story for Halloweek back in 2017. The first scene I remember coming up with specifically for CS was the opening; Emma stranded on the side of the road, and a stranger (Killian) offering to help get her back on her way.
I shelved the fic for a few months in order to write The Legend of Captain Killian Jones, but when I picked it back up for the cssns in 2018, that original scene flowed into the confrontation with Walsh, but I struggled with how to get Emma to overpower Walsh, and thereby incurring his wrath and vengeance. Plus, I wanted a more dramatic reveal for when Emma learned about Killian’s nature, because I had held on to the idea of a dramatic reveal for so long, but I felt like I couldn’t have the reveal I wanted if Killian had to come out as a werewolf in the diner.
BUT THEN...
@allons-y-to-hogwarts-713 made a comment about Killian being a hybrid and it all just clicked into place after that. The reveal, the door conversation, the full backstory, etc. (Fun fact, I hadn’t completely decided between Neal or Walsh as the werewolf from the diner until after I’d fully fleshed out the backstories) Crafting the backstory is what first planted the seeds for parts 3-5. I knew I eventually wanted to bring Neal back around so I that story line in each of their pasts could have some closure. It was much more complicated at first, with Neal having an entire crew working with him, but I scaled back because it was too many moving parts in comparison to the intimacy of the first two parts.