Alternate Writing

[Harrison]

There are many alternate seasons or re-writes out their based off of books, movies, and shows. Reyn's Alternate Season 2 being the prime one on this site. My question is:

Why do you write or read Alternate seasons/ re-writes?

Was there a particular character you never wanted to see introduced? A storyline that you couldn't bear to witness or read? What causes or motivates you to read or write alternate seasons/ scenes?

[Dark Witch.]

Well, I have always debated to make an alternate season, well, there is always never a real plot in some Charmed seasons. In Season 2 there wasn't really, and in some parts of seasons you lose track of what the real plot is when there isn't episodes to say anything about the plot. And there are sometimes you just want to make a small decision changed, as we have seen the popular one being Prue's death. I don't know, it is just also fun to write something alternate and change what was, it is like rewriting history in a way .

[Deleted]

Actually there was a bunch of plots in S2, which I liked--much better than the latter seasons when it was all about Piper, Leo and their kids and not much else. That's what I call "The Perils of Piper" rather than Charmed. I like it best when all three sisters have their own plot and none is more important than the others, especially when those plots intersect.

I think that's the main reason why people do alternates...it's fun doing the show a different way, especially doing it the way you would've liked to have seen it done as compared to how it was done. And with all of Kern's many, many, MANY screwups, that makes it SOOO easy to do!

[Reyn]

I don't have much experience with reading alternate seasons (although I did read an alternate season 4 of xena once which was absolutely fantastic and perhaps the best thing I had read in the fanfiction xenaverse). Writing alternate seasons is a different matter.

I'll paraphrase this from the interview I gave over at rebirth: Regarding the reasons behind writing an alternate season - the main reason I attempted an alternate season 2 was to explore an alternate version of the sisters lives, using my own ideas and inspirations.

As much as I enjoyed the stand-alone aspect of many of the episodes in season 2, I felt that 'big bad of the week' format hindered plot and character development and as a result the season didn't live up to it's potential. I wanted to bring in a season long baddie - someone who was a worthy opponent to the sisters. I also wanted to explore the idea that evil is not always an easily defined concept - that it is loaded with value judgements and opinions and sometimes what can be seen as evil to one person is not evil to another. Situation and experience are important determinants in any individual's judgement of 'good' and 'evil.'

In addition, I believe there were a lot of missed opportunities in relation to character development in season 2. I believe the way the writers treated Darryl's exposure to magic was a complete copout and robbed his character of any development, and I also feel the characters of Phoebe and Prue weren't utilized as well as they could have been. I wanted to try my hand at writing a season in an effort to address these issues.

Also - trying an alternate season so early in a show's life means I have a lot more leeway in terms of introducing new concepts and ideas - instead of 3 or 4 or 5 seasons worth of content, there is only 1 season worth. So I can incorporate the ideas of that season into my own without being as heavily restricted as I would be if I were writing an alternate season further into the show's life. (Having said that, however - writing an alternate season after the completion of the show does mean I have to ask those reading my episodes to 'forget' about everything that happened after season 1 and pretend those events and issues never existed. Not an easy task to wipe 7 seasons worth of events away!)

I think the only thing as fun as writing an alternate season is writing an alternate reality. When written well, alternate realities are a joy to read.

[The Matriarch]

For me, it was my love of Prue that made me create Rewitched. I never liked Phoebe after Prue died but I fell in love with Paige so I decided to create a fic where Phoebe died in season 3. This is my way of fixing some things that annoyed me & to flesh out Prue more, because I felt she always got the short end of the stick, sacrificing everything for magic & her family & never caring about herself. So this gives me the chance to do my own thing & go in the direction that I would have loved to see in Charmed.

Even though I haven't written further on the series, it's still close to my heart & I hope to have the chance to finish it someday.

[Astral Martin]

Yeah, i had that exact same feel with Phoebe. It seems that she got way too easy after Phoebe and cole died. And she didn't really cry as much as piper at her funeral. And for me, the whole idea with prue and paige was really awesome to think about. thats what made me read this fic.

but overall, i think if you make an alternate season, then it has to be a pretty good plot because your just erasing one whole season. so yeah... ;D

[Harrison]

Yeah, one thing that annoys me though when I go to read an alternate season is when the person does not create a season-long arc but instead creates a simple episode storyline.

I personally think that if someone isn't going to explore an aspect/story arc/character development in their re-write, that they should just leave the season as it is and let people remember the original.

[Melissa]

Reyn, you are absolutely right!

Many of my ideas behind alternate seasons was to explore some of my own ideas. As I was writing the continuation of "Long Live the Queen", it was mainly out of the fact the situation the writers had put her in was truly fascinating. I wanted to see Phoebe do something rash. I wanted her to go as far into the darkness as one could, being Queen of the Underworld. Not only was it an interesting situation, but it was a Catch 22. Either way, Phoebe would lose something. Not only were the characters interesting, but it was something not done before and not experienced to its fullest on Charmed. That's mainly the reason why I decide to write alternate seasons.

[temporalcombustion]

I was always thinking about how Charmed would be if Prue didn't die, how would they start season 4, what would happen to the sisters and one day I started writing and then I started Charmed Witches.
I loved the episodes with Prue and I love writing more episodes with her.

[Lexi]

I like Alternate seasons that cover something that the writer believes "should have been done" or "could have been done better".

Reyn, you're right about changing a season to fix some of the mistakes that you saw. Like Darryl's attitude to magic being exposed to him. I agree with you that Darryl's character had a huge change in season 2 - with the way Darryl was so "anti-believing" in season 1 (andy was the one who believed in wicca etc), Darryl should have taken magic much harder than he did, espcially when it came to helping the sisters.

One thing that I hated was how the sisters took Darryl from granted in season 6 onwards and how Piper, Leo and the kids became the main focus, with Phoebe and Paige somewhere in the background picking up the slack. I've skimmed over plenty of season 6 rewrites but none of them I've seen seem to answer the problem of The Piper Show, costarring Phoebe and Paige. That's what I'm going to be trying to fix with my Season 6 rewrite. I also want to explore how they destroyed the idea of the Avatars and the abomination that was season 8 Super-Girl, Billie.

Potter, you're right. If someone isn't going to explore a aspect/story arc/character development then they just just leave the season alone.

The only problem is with rewrites, they can go the other way and you've got to watch yourself. While you're fixing something you saw as a problem, you can focus on that so much that that becomes the main focus for the rewrite and you end up with something that like Charmed (or the show you're doing a rewrite of), something that someone finds there's too much that they want to fix. I've seen it where people have wanted Piper and her "normal life" wants to become less of a focus but ended up with either Phoebe and her wants or Paige and her wants become the main focus - but you get around that by planning before writing and having a beta who is willing to tell you what you're doing horribly wrong. That's what I've had with my bits of writing (thank you Es!).