Sometimes a writer is asked "How Do You Get These Ideas?" and is stumped on how to explain things like that. I started writing down information about the stories as an aid to my memory. These are my notes.
(Note: I've not included the "Opposites Attract" stories in here, as they have afterwords.)
Pieces of Gold:
This bunch was written so that I could get a better feel for some of the PRZ characters for "To Absent Friends". Also, I wanted to cover some situations that weren't really covered in the show. One or two I just did for fun. The main character I've been trying to work on is Jason, who I really wasn't doing too well with before I started writing these. I guess you could say it worked: now I'm having a hard time getting out of Jason's viewpoint...
These two tiny pieces came out of the forty zillonth rerun of "Song Sung Yellow", and more specifically its music video. I wanted to work mostly on Tanya, but found that I had to do one for Adam as well. Funny, those two pair up well. :)
Two more cases of Selma's urge to explain things, this time out of the Power Rangers Turbo movie. Miles to Go evolved out of my desire to explain exactly how Justin ended up a Ranger. It ended up being Rocky's conversation with Justin before he sends him to Alpha and Zordon. This piece was slightly contradicted by the events of the episode "Shift into Turbo part 1", where Rocky indicates that he thinks Justin is a good bearer of the Power. I don't think so, but then I'm not in charge of writing at Saban. :( The New Kid (which, incidentally, shares its title with another PR fanfic by BAP) was written after seeing Tanya's very sensible reaction to Justin becoming a Ranger. I just had to write something about it.
Future Dreams:
Of all the "romances" on Power Rangers, I like Adam and Tanya's the best. I've read a lot of Tommy-Kim, some Tommy-Kat, Billy with anything that moves (okay, not quite), but there are very few that are Adam-Tanya. This piece is my way of getting one more of those out there. Plus, I wanted a typical 'day in the life'. To make it even weirder, I decided to put it in first person, too.
Graduations and Choices vignettes:
There was an awful lot going on offscreen in the "Passing The Torch" episodes. So much, in fact, that I was inspired to write a series of pieces about that episode, much like I did for the Gold Ranger Saga in "Pieces of Gold". I also wanted to touch upon the New Rangers, which I hadn't done in my fanfic yet (although they may show up in "Opposites Attract"). I'm finding that some of my characters are old friends, some of them look like we'll get along fine, and others I tend to bash my head against the computer trying to write. I'll probably enjoy writing T.J. more than I enjoy writing Thomas, for example, but I get along with Adam far more than I do with his replacement, Carlos (I expect Adam to tell me why he selected Carlos when it becomes his turn).