Characterization

One of the tough things when it comes to writing about characters that aren't your own is making sure that you're writing them consistent with the way they've been portrayed in canon.

I'll read a fanfiction and quickly get bored or frustrated with it when the author has obviously not made much of an effort to portray the characters they're using like they are in the original media. Fanfiction authors often use characters as sock puppets; the characters they write may as well be OCs with the OOC dialogue and behavior.

I sympathize with the struggle though. I understand how difficult it is to adapt a character while remaining faithful to their original depiction. Adapting characters from kids' television programming is a uniquely difficult thing to do when you're trying to write them into a mature setting or situation. It's almost impossible to predict how these types of characters would behave in certain situations that are so foreign to their own environment.

In Slumber Party's case, I have the challenge of adapting Spike's character into a world and scenario that is pretty different than anything we've seen the character deal with in canon. For one, he's a human! And he's a human with a backstory I have to create from scratch. Those things alone alter the character in a very big way. But I am still trying to keep the spirit of the character alive in every line of dialogue or interaction he's in. I want to keep him recognizably Spike

I'm not sure how well I've done that, but it's super important to me to make all my characters and their interactions authentic. It's a fun but tough task!