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  |  LAST UPDATED: 24 October 2000
VZSciFi Live Creator Event:
Author and Script Writer Fiona Avery
Ms. Melinda: which did you want to be a journalist or a sci fi writer?
Fiona: Oh, I definitely wanted to be a writer -- but I love journalism for what it affords, too. I wanted to be a journalist to have a nice steady income, because fiction writing is always spotty. Best to have many things to do for income. But of the two, I prefer writing fiction.
Ms. Melinda: But are they not totally opposites…
Fiona: Exactly.
Mr. Templeton: If you want to write, you write... nothing will stop you?
Fiona: Yup! Just put pen to paper and go.
Mr. Templeton: But finishing it is the trick.
Fiona: Yes, you must always write, finish, and sell.
Ms. Melinda: I always end up with blank paper…
Mr. Templeton: Question from the audience here: did J. Michael Straczynski have a strong idea of character remit for Crusade?
Fiona: Character Remit? What's that? <don't laugh at me!>
Mr. Templeton: A character bible?
Fiona: Ohhhh… Yes, he had a big ol' bible for Crusade with many pages on each character. There were strong limitations about Galen, so my Well of Forever script was a big challenge.
Mr. Templeton: Such as?
Fiona: You had to be careful not to make Galen the all-powerful knowing super osmosis dealin' awesome doodlin' on walls, kick yer butt I'm wicked mage. It was definitely something you'd go in and say 'I'd like Galen to hijack the Excalibur'. Joe'd look at you like you were insane ... then he'd ask you how he'd do it. And you told him your theory, and he'd modify it, to make Galen more mysterious and hide a lot of what you wanted to show.
The trick of the mage is in hiding his talents well. It's kind of a tease the audience thing. Slight of hand is the hardest thing to play.
Mr. Templeton: So there were some pretty big restrictions on the character's powers?
 | | Galen (Peter Woodward) inside his ship in the Crusade episode penned by Avery, The Well of Forever. Image © 2000 Warner Bros. |
Fiona: Yes, you have to save up those powers for a big wallup when necessary. For example, I wanted to show Galen in his ship but didn't want to give anything away. If you saw The Well ... then you know Galen's ship is a big black void inside. What he needs, he reaches out for, and it is given to him. It makes it more mysterious than showing full out oooooh techy stuff coolies gadgets ... This was definitely something that Joe helped me to design to its full potential.
Mr. Templeton: A bag of holding in reverse?
Fiona: Yup! Joe thinks inside out like that.
Linsue: How does writing a script for a series differ from writing a novel or short story?
Fiona: Oh, that's a great question. I just finished a first draft for Earth: Final Conflict, as a good example. I also just finished my 'first' novel… This is the novel real people will see and I won't shriek in horror ;)
When I wrote for EFC, I went in saying 'I am your gun for hire here'. What they wanted, they got. If they wanted me to go into a whole new section of story in act three, and see a whole new piece of evidence etc., that's what they got. Because it is their show.
As a writer, it is imperative that you have a team-spirit in LA, when working on collaborative projects. When I got notes on Thursday, I was not in the least defensive about them because the notes were the staff members and Exec Prods way of making sure I became more detail-oriented in their script. They would say 'This whole scene is flat'. I'd say, 'What can we do to make it more meaningful, give me pieces I need.'
They'd say 'Let's talk about Character X's real fears and background'. Instantly, I'd have those background elements and that scene would be more specific and tight. I could not have that without them -- Teamwork.
In a novel, I have all the specifics I choose, and all the work is from my mind and is my genesis. To do both forms keeps one sane heehee!
Linsue: Isn't it frustrating to have your ideas curtailed by what they want?
Fiona: You know, it isn't. You would think it is, but you have to remember that it's a group effort. When you work on your own projects it really helps because you can rationally say 'This is Mine, this is Theirs'. I feel good in an odd way when I turn in a script delivered specifically to order, because that is harder and I feel more proud of working to what someone envisions and getting it spot on. I know what I want. That’s easy! heehee
Mr. Templeton: And you had the same teamwork with Joe on Crusade?
Fiona: Joe was really an amazing person to work for. I've not met someone who values words like him. He has taught me the value of words, of dialogue, of showing exactly what you want on the page. With Joe's series, it was an exception to the rule. There is one voice telling you what he wants, not a table of four to five people breaking a story with ideas throwing around. And you are allowed to 'direct on the page'.
For those of you who aren't familiar with this term, directing on the page is like showing camera angles you want and telling an actress play this with anger. Joe is incredibly specific. He's detailed. He will take the long road to specificity. That is not the norm in TV, or film (gawd, especially film) And so, when working for Joe first ... I learned the abnormal way to do things!
Mr. Templeton: Would you say he was your 'Mentor', like he has said Harlan Ellison has been for him?
Fiona: Yes, I usually don't talk much about it, but he has taught me as he was instructed by, not just Mr. Ellison. But he also learned from Mr. Norman Corwin.
I have kind of had the 'literary ancestral schooling'. I keep a journal of everything I have been taught, a 'career journal'. I haven't missed a day since the first episode was shot. In that journal, there are many phrases from many different authors who have inspired a whole slew of authors he learned from.
Mr. Templeton: Do you have a single piece of advice for anyone who wants to take up a writing career?
Fiona: Probably my most important piece of advice is in persistence. A writer's life is if not the hardest life to undertake, it's at least up there with the worst of the lives in terms of feast/famine.
There will be times in a writer's life where they will not work for years. Decades. Times they can't even get arrested. But one piece of advice, I have learned from Joe: Keep at it. Keep writing. Your work will last the rough times
Cordielia: ouch…
Fiona: If you stop you will not work. If you keep going, you will build a foundation for when you can work again. Everything else is kind of a ... you know ... grammar this, succinct that, specificity lessons etc. That one is a life lesson. Valuable for all walks of life, really, too.
 | | Galen (Peter Woodward)tends to his dying love Isabelle (Sophie Ward) in The Path of Sorrows. Image © 2000 Warner Bros. |
Mr. Templeton: A question from the Nexus audience: what was your favourite Crusade story?
Fiona: You know, I was so tickled with Path of Sorrows. It started when Joe peeks in my office and says (and I can't believe this to this date) You mind if I use your storyline with Isabelle for my episode? heehee! What a compliment!
[Isabelle was mentioned in The Well of Forever as Galen’s lost love who was searching for The Well of Forever. She is also featured prominently in the new techno-mage novel by Jeanne Cavelos coming out soon.]
So then I'm reading the writer's draft and I'm just in awe of where he took that, and I immediately read the scene where she's dying (hope I didn't spoil anyone) and I know who should be in this role. I have long been a fan of Sophie Ward -- in fact, she's British, right? I just adore her work, she's an amazingly talented actress. And I knew -- I just knew -- that she'd be perfect. So I did something I've never done before. I went into the office and I was like 'Can we like try to get uh ... maybe ... uh ... <cringe> Sophie Ward?' And the casting director kinda laughed at me. Joe kinda chuckled. They're like, 'She's really big you know, we can try but don't hold your breath.'
So then they come to my office and tell me in a few days, 'Sophie Ward really loved Babylon 5! And she wants a Sci Fi credit on her roles! She's coming in!' You coulda knocked me over with a feather!
I got to meet her and I was all blushed and flustered and fangirl. That was probably one of the most wonderful moments of Crusade for me, right up there with watching my first episode produced. (More)
Fiona Avery Event Transcript Continued: Part One | Part Two | Part Three |
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