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I hope this can be counted for IBARW: Teyla is played by a person of colour and so is subject to the perceptions and presumptions of raciality made by fans and PTB.
--
For the last two years of my time in SGA fandom, people have been telling me that they'd like to write Teyla, but they don't know how or where to start.
I suspect it's a little late for this: most of the people have since left SGA fandom. Still, better late than never, and maybe this will help or encourage others to try writing for Teyla as a character.
Rereading this essay through before posting, I guess this has turned into something of a character profile - my perceptions of Teyla and how it affects my writing of her as a character in vignettes, pairings, and team stories.
So be it.
Disclaimer: this list isn't the be-all and end-all of writing Teyla, just my suggestions for the character.
1. Quiet, thoughtful, and formal
Teyla's not a drama queen, snapping out witty responses every time she opens her mouth. She doesn't have testosterone poisoning, or something to prove. She doesn't engage in power plays, or the social politics of one-upmanship.
What she is, is quiet, thoughtful, formal, and competent.
She keeps her head in most situations, while betraying annoyance or agitation, she doesn't let it control her.
This affects her tone of voice - there's a stateliness to writing her. Her lack of contractions emphasises this, and although her speech patterns are growing easier, there's still a formality to her words - the sense that she chooses her words with care.
Possibly this is one of the major reasons people don't write Teyla: they can't just shoot her mouth off without thinking, the way one can with Rodney or Sheppard, or even Elizabeth and Carson.
My take on Teyla is that she's reserved, but not emotionless. She keeps her temper and holds her tongue until it's necessary to step in. Her people are pretty much the same - it took the possibility of the expedition blowing Atlantis up to bring Halling to Elizabeth's office to protest the occupation of Atlantis by the expedition. And when he spoke, it was passionate.
In The Long Goodbye, Teyla hunts down Phoebus when Ronon goes after Thalen, and she's composed when dealing with both Phoebus and Thalen at the crisis-point, even if she's revolted by Phoebus' lust for revenge and disturbed by what is required of her. Even her words to Phoebus, protesting the continual revenge, are measured beneath their passion, and her handing over of the gun to John-Thalen speaks of some pretty cool reason in the middle of a stressful situation.
This is probably the primary reason I find it so easy to write Teyla: her tone of voice is distinctly different to everyone else's in Atlantis. While the other characters blur more easily and I find myself asking, "Would Ronon really say this or is it more of a John thing? Doesn't this sound more like Rodney than Carson? Would Elizabeth really think in these terms?" I always know when I'm writing Teyla.
She's different.
And, me? I like different.
--
2. People who understand people…
Teyla's good with people.
More than any other in the show, Teyla seeks to understand others and where they're coming from. Classic example is her perception of Michael: she knew what he was when she originally befriended him and did it all the same. By the end of Season Three, she's aware that he would have killed her for his bizarro experiments, but she still understands why he's bitter.
That doesn't mean she doesn't clash with people - although, until now, her clashes with people have been minor, kept person-to-person and never for very long.
On the show, her greatest antagonist has been Sergeant Bates, who insulted her by suggesting she was allied to the Wraith. In a rare display of temper, she clocked him one.
Other than that, some aggro at John for categorising her as 'weak' in The Gift, and her warning to Ronon in Trinity against using her for his own ends, Teyla doesn't generally clash face-to-face with people. Which means that she either represses-represses-represses, or she gets it out in a more civilised discourse.
Personally, I opt for the latter. To my eye, Teyla doesn't show any of the behavioural cues that come of repressing one's own right to feeling in the face of others' disapproval. She's calm and centered, on the ball, and out there, none of which are characteristics of someone who represses.
Sure, she's self-controlled, but self-control only takes you so far. Which means she deals with her anger, irritation, and the natural grating of elbows that happens between people who live cheek-by-jowl and can't help annoying each other from time to time. And since we haven't yet been shown all the people who have a vendetta against her in the city, it seems that she's pretty good at dealing with people in a way that doesn't leave them feeling similarly angry.
For examples of her managing her team-mates, see Aurora, where she neatly persuades John to go into the virtual reality machine and Rodney to stay out of it. Instead of phrasing it as, 'You should do this,' she makes it a suggestion, 'Would it not be better if...?' And then backs it up with reasoning.
Teyla knows people. She should. She's been leader of her people - a community that lives cheek-by-jowl day in and day out.
--
3. Sense of humour, people - don't write Teyla without it!
Teyla's sense of humour can be summed up in three words: wry, dry, and sly. She's the kind of person to make a comment that no-one will realise was gently mocking until a few seconds later.
Rather than being in there with a sarcastic comment (Rodney), a witty retort (John), or good-natured teasing (Ronon), Teyla's more likely to make an ambiguous comment with a 'did she just mean that the way I thought she meant it?' component. Basically, load up the innuendo, and have at it.
Rodney makes an excellent foil for Teyla's dryness, although I imagine John would occasionally miss her meaning before realising she's teasing him and giving her the look of, "You mock my pain!" (Rodney would actually say this, John would just look it.)
Earth humour can work for Teyla as well. The second half of my fic 'Winners And Survivors' played on Teyla's knowledge of Earth movies - particularly after she's 'saved' John: "Me, Teyla; you, John."
In the recent 'Cake Or Death' challenge at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
sga_flashfic, I was planning to write a story where the team narrowly escape death due to some good flying by John. The final scene had John saying, "Thank you for flying Sheppard Air, please don't forget to take your hand luggage with you," to which Teyla responds wryly, "Next time, I believe I shall fly Church Of England. They offer you a choice between cake and death." And then she heads off to the showers, leaving Ronon to laugh at John and Rodney's expressions.
That's the kind of humour I see Teyla employing.
Judging from the reactions I get when I write Teyla with a sense of humour, it works pretty well for her.
--
4. Technical, physical, life-long learner.
Teyla's a can-do person; the kind of person who doesn't waste energy on bemoaning the fact that the problem exists, or complaining about how unfair it is that she has to do this when there are other things to do, she just does what she can for the problem.
She's not a control freak. There's no reason she needs to be front-and-centre in every action. If John's leading, or Rodney has the bit in his mouth, she doesn't seem to feel the need to override them or argue with them unless she sees them really going off-track. She's willing to follow as well as lead - particularly if someone else seems to have everything under control.
On the other hand, in the absence of other direction, with something she can do, she takes charge. In Aurora, she comes up with the fiction that John and Rodney are exploring parts of the station where their radios don't work. In Phantoms, she buys into John's delusion to persuade him to take her into the cave where the Wraith machine is screwing around with everyone's brain but hers.
Something frequently confessed by people who try to write Teyla but give up is that they 'don't know what to do with Teyla' - and so they don't use her, dismiss her, relegate her to Greek Chorus, or claim that she's of no use in anything.
I had a discussion with a fan who didn't understand why Teyla and Ronon were considered essential personnel in the evac of the city in First Strike. Frankly, I can't see why they wouldn't be considered essential personnel! Two people who can think on their feet, who are useful in a broad variety of situations and scenarios, and who you can trust to do or die aren't essential when in the middle of an attack by nanotech enemies who have a steep learning curve?
Granted, I'm a fan of Teyla and Ronon. I'm convinced that both Teyla and Ronon - as defined in canon - have a broad variety of skills, a combination of life-skills they learned in the Pegasus galaxy and with the added intellectualism of Earth knowledge as represented by the Atlantis expedition.
No-one else in the expedition will have even a fraction of the life-skills Teyla and Ronon do. No-one.
If you're willing to admit that Teyla and Ronon have knowledge of which the Atlantis expedition can only dream - knowledge of Pegasus, of the people in Pegasus, of the mentality of the cultures living in Pegasus, then those life-skills can be used and useful in your stories.
--
5. Just write her.
Just open a file and start.
Pick a scenario and write Teyla into it.
It doesn't matter if the scenario is more suited to John or Rodney or Elizabeth or Ronon or Carson. Create a scene that is manifestly unsuited to Teyla and plunk her into the middle it - the only way to get better at writing a character is to start actually writing her.
I don't know that any of the people who've ever said to me, "I want to write Teyla" has ever actually written her in the end. As I said to someone who said she didn't know where to fit Teyla into the story, if she doesn't fit Teyla into this story, she won't bother trying to find somewhere to fit her in the next one, or the one after that, or the one after that.
If you want to write Teyla, you have to make a start somewhere. Why not here and now?
--
And, with the end of encouraging people to start somewhere, I present this challenge.
From the following ten things, choose four and in one paragraph each, describe how Teyla would:
And, yes, try these scenarios for Teyla. Unusual situations and the development of her character, remember?
I did this about 8 months ago, here and here.
--
For the last two years of my time in SGA fandom, people have been telling me that they'd like to write Teyla, but they don't know how or where to start.
I suspect it's a little late for this: most of the people have since left SGA fandom. Still, better late than never, and maybe this will help or encourage others to try writing for Teyla as a character.
Rereading this essay through before posting, I guess this has turned into something of a character profile - my perceptions of Teyla and how it affects my writing of her as a character in vignettes, pairings, and team stories.
So be it.
Disclaimer: this list isn't the be-all and end-all of writing Teyla, just my suggestions for the character.
1. Quiet, thoughtful, and formal
Teyla's not a drama queen, snapping out witty responses every time she opens her mouth. She doesn't have testosterone poisoning, or something to prove. She doesn't engage in power plays, or the social politics of one-upmanship.
What she is, is quiet, thoughtful, formal, and competent.
She keeps her head in most situations, while betraying annoyance or agitation, she doesn't let it control her.
This affects her tone of voice - there's a stateliness to writing her. Her lack of contractions emphasises this, and although her speech patterns are growing easier, there's still a formality to her words - the sense that she chooses her words with care.
Possibly this is one of the major reasons people don't write Teyla: they can't just shoot her mouth off without thinking, the way one can with Rodney or Sheppard, or even Elizabeth and Carson.
My take on Teyla is that she's reserved, but not emotionless. She keeps her temper and holds her tongue until it's necessary to step in. Her people are pretty much the same - it took the possibility of the expedition blowing Atlantis up to bring Halling to Elizabeth's office to protest the occupation of Atlantis by the expedition. And when he spoke, it was passionate.
In The Long Goodbye, Teyla hunts down Phoebus when Ronon goes after Thalen, and she's composed when dealing with both Phoebus and Thalen at the crisis-point, even if she's revolted by Phoebus' lust for revenge and disturbed by what is required of her. Even her words to Phoebus, protesting the continual revenge, are measured beneath their passion, and her handing over of the gun to John-Thalen speaks of some pretty cool reason in the middle of a stressful situation.
This is probably the primary reason I find it so easy to write Teyla: her tone of voice is distinctly different to everyone else's in Atlantis. While the other characters blur more easily and I find myself asking, "Would Ronon really say this or is it more of a John thing? Doesn't this sound more like Rodney than Carson? Would Elizabeth really think in these terms?" I always know when I'm writing Teyla.
She's different.
And, me? I like different.
--
2. People who understand people…
Teyla's good with people.
More than any other in the show, Teyla seeks to understand others and where they're coming from. Classic example is her perception of Michael: she knew what he was when she originally befriended him and did it all the same. By the end of Season Three, she's aware that he would have killed her for his bizarro experiments, but she still understands why he's bitter.
That doesn't mean she doesn't clash with people - although, until now, her clashes with people have been minor, kept person-to-person and never for very long.
On the show, her greatest antagonist has been Sergeant Bates, who insulted her by suggesting she was allied to the Wraith. In a rare display of temper, she clocked him one.
Other than that, some aggro at John for categorising her as 'weak' in The Gift, and her warning to Ronon in Trinity against using her for his own ends, Teyla doesn't generally clash face-to-face with people. Which means that she either represses-represses-represses, or she gets it out in a more civilised discourse.
Personally, I opt for the latter. To my eye, Teyla doesn't show any of the behavioural cues that come of repressing one's own right to feeling in the face of others' disapproval. She's calm and centered, on the ball, and out there, none of which are characteristics of someone who represses.
Sure, she's self-controlled, but self-control only takes you so far. Which means she deals with her anger, irritation, and the natural grating of elbows that happens between people who live cheek-by-jowl and can't help annoying each other from time to time. And since we haven't yet been shown all the people who have a vendetta against her in the city, it seems that she's pretty good at dealing with people in a way that doesn't leave them feeling similarly angry.
For examples of her managing her team-mates, see Aurora, where she neatly persuades John to go into the virtual reality machine and Rodney to stay out of it. Instead of phrasing it as, 'You should do this,' she makes it a suggestion, 'Would it not be better if...?' And then backs it up with reasoning.
Teyla knows people. She should. She's been leader of her people - a community that lives cheek-by-jowl day in and day out.
--
3. Sense of humour, people - don't write Teyla without it!
Teyla's sense of humour can be summed up in three words: wry, dry, and sly. She's the kind of person to make a comment that no-one will realise was gently mocking until a few seconds later.
Rather than being in there with a sarcastic comment (Rodney), a witty retort (John), or good-natured teasing (Ronon), Teyla's more likely to make an ambiguous comment with a 'did she just mean that the way I thought she meant it?' component. Basically, load up the innuendo, and have at it.
Rodney makes an excellent foil for Teyla's dryness, although I imagine John would occasionally miss her meaning before realising she's teasing him and giving her the look of, "You mock my pain!" (Rodney would actually say this, John would just look it.)
Earth humour can work for Teyla as well. The second half of my fic 'Winners And Survivors' played on Teyla's knowledge of Earth movies - particularly after she's 'saved' John: "Me, Teyla; you, John."
In the recent 'Cake Or Death' challenge at
sga_flashfic, I was planning to write a story where the team narrowly escape death due to some good flying by John. The final scene had John saying, "Thank you for flying Sheppard Air, please don't forget to take your hand luggage with you," to which Teyla responds wryly, "Next time, I believe I shall fly Church Of England. They offer you a choice between cake and death." And then she heads off to the showers, leaving Ronon to laugh at John and Rodney's expressions.That's the kind of humour I see Teyla employing.
Judging from the reactions I get when I write Teyla with a sense of humour, it works pretty well for her.
--
4. Technical, physical, life-long learner.
Teyla's a can-do person; the kind of person who doesn't waste energy on bemoaning the fact that the problem exists, or complaining about how unfair it is that she has to do this when there are other things to do, she just does what she can for the problem.
She's not a control freak. There's no reason she needs to be front-and-centre in every action. If John's leading, or Rodney has the bit in his mouth, she doesn't seem to feel the need to override them or argue with them unless she sees them really going off-track. She's willing to follow as well as lead - particularly if someone else seems to have everything under control.
On the other hand, in the absence of other direction, with something she can do, she takes charge. In Aurora, she comes up with the fiction that John and Rodney are exploring parts of the station where their radios don't work. In Phantoms, she buys into John's delusion to persuade him to take her into the cave where the Wraith machine is screwing around with everyone's brain but hers.
Something frequently confessed by people who try to write Teyla but give up is that they 'don't know what to do with Teyla' - and so they don't use her, dismiss her, relegate her to Greek Chorus, or claim that she's of no use in anything.
I had a discussion with a fan who didn't understand why Teyla and Ronon were considered essential personnel in the evac of the city in First Strike. Frankly, I can't see why they wouldn't be considered essential personnel! Two people who can think on their feet, who are useful in a broad variety of situations and scenarios, and who you can trust to do or die aren't essential when in the middle of an attack by nanotech enemies who have a steep learning curve?
Granted, I'm a fan of Teyla and Ronon. I'm convinced that both Teyla and Ronon - as defined in canon - have a broad variety of skills, a combination of life-skills they learned in the Pegasus galaxy and with the added intellectualism of Earth knowledge as represented by the Atlantis expedition.
No-one else in the expedition will have even a fraction of the life-skills Teyla and Ronon do. No-one.
If you're willing to admit that Teyla and Ronon have knowledge of which the Atlantis expedition can only dream - knowledge of Pegasus, of the people in Pegasus, of the mentality of the cultures living in Pegasus, then those life-skills can be used and useful in your stories.
--
5. Just write her.
Just open a file and start.
Pick a scenario and write Teyla into it.
It doesn't matter if the scenario is more suited to John or Rodney or Elizabeth or Ronon or Carson. Create a scene that is manifestly unsuited to Teyla and plunk her into the middle it - the only way to get better at writing a character is to start actually writing her.
I don't know that any of the people who've ever said to me, "I want to write Teyla" has ever actually written her in the end. As I said to someone who said she didn't know where to fit Teyla into the story, if she doesn't fit Teyla into this story, she won't bother trying to find somewhere to fit her in the next one, or the one after that, or the one after that.
If you want to write Teyla, you have to make a start somewhere. Why not here and now?
--
And, with the end of encouraging people to start somewhere, I present this challenge.
From the following ten things, choose four and in one paragraph each, describe how Teyla would:
--answer the telephone when a telemarketer calls
--tell a funny story
--dance alone at home
--cry (you pick why)
--argue with a truck driver
--vomit
--flirt with a waiter/waitress
--play with a small child
--eat a lobster
--wake up to have breakfast alone
--prepare to go out for an important dinner
And, yes, try these scenarios for Teyla. Unusual situations and the development of her character, remember?
I did this about 8 months ago, here and here.
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And: the only way to get better at writing a character is to start actually writing her.
Word and word.
And yes, I always find it fascinating that people would have trouble finding a reason to include Teyla. At the very worst she would be a great outsider perspective character as she looks in on the Earth humans.
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And because she's neither popular, nor prominent, no-one protests and it forms a vicious circle full of people who "can't".
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And the stupid thing is, its not great in-depth character stuff you've got there, its simple building blocks. And the paragraphs are a great idea for any character.
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I hope to see more Teyla-stories out of you!
Pimp moment: post them to
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In the spirit of a post about how to write Teyla, I just figured it was good practise.
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I'm just about to write two fics (one Teyla/Kate and another Daniel/Teyla). Since I've never really written Teyla before, I've been a bit nervous. This five suggestions list is really helpful. It really captures the essence of Teyla, and is an excellent list to look at when I'm doubting the characterization in my fics. Thanks again. :)
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Since you've said "another Daniel/Teyla", I'm guessing you've already written one? Do you have a link somewhere?
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If SGA hadn't lost me somewhere along the way, I'd like to be writing Teyla. (Which is not to say I won't, again, at some point.)
But one thing I like to point out to those folks who say, "But I just don't find [X character] interesting enough to write!" And that is, when you start to write someone, you find things about them that are interesting. If you don't like them, ask yourself why and figure out why they act that way. Even if you don't end up liking them, you'll find yourself understanding them a little more, and that makes them interesting. It's good exercise for when you absolutely have to write a pov you're not comfortable with, for the purposes of making a story work.
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I know that I've grown fonder of characters as I wrote them and discovered new things about them. The problem is getting one's prejudice out of the way and actually giving it a go.
Teyla's apparently going to get some reasonable copy this season. I don't know how into Teyla you were (although I remember you writing sga_flashfic challenges back a couple of years ago), but it looks to me like it's going to be an interesting season.
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And, yeah, I understand about Teyla. I've had grumbles about how the character isn't portrayed, but almost never about how she is portrayed. (Okay, with perhaps the exception of that Victim!String she had in the 2nd half of S3 - you could turn around with her getting injured and needing rescuing.)
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(I don't suppose you write Teyla much? I loved your 'Grab your CoC meme' about her, and could really do with finding some more fans who love, adore, and focus on Teyla and produce stuff about her...)
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I wish I could get people to write me Teyla for my birthday. Unfortunately, not many people off my f-list write, let alone write Teyla. :(
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I don't get hordes of people writing fic for me, sadly *g*. But
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I write fics but I never post them. Only a handful of people, in another message board, have read my stuff. Generally I get good feedback. My problem is that I'm hard-core canon when it comes to characters, as in: I can't read or write a fic where a character is OOC. Even if its a little bit. Which is odd because I love AU stories, as long as the characters remain in character.
I find most fanfic writers twist characters just a little to accomodate the situation the characters are set up in, which I don't mind... but it does get a bit too drastic when suddenly, for example, Teyla returns from a dangerous mission to hug and kiss John because she realized how much she loved him. Yes, Teyla can love John (the twist) but I doubt she would ever hug him and kiss him just like that.
I've dug into the whole Liz/Ronon fandom and have read only a few fics where they have remained in character; or at least partly. And because I'm generally a "plot" person (I like to read stories, from G-rated to NC17, that have at least some story), I've been disappointed by the lack of them, which is why I've begun writing some fics myself.
Okay, I was getting to your "how to write Teyla" bit... which ties into a Liz/Ronon drabble I was fooling around with. I don't write ANY character unless I feel I'm staying true to their canon-form. I waited and waited and waited to write Teyla because it was the easiest thing to do to move along. I got a feel for how she was, how she would act, what she would say, etc. (ex. I noticed, after the second I wrote it, Teyla would never abbreviate words). And because I'm fairly new to the SGA fandom, it was nice to read in your points above that it was exactly the way I perceived her as well.
I think I'm gonna save this because whenever I write Teyla I get sidetracked. Thanks.
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For me, the emotions of the characters are open to interpretation. One can claim whatever one wishes from their actions on-screen - there's certainly been enough to show the basics of care and concern between all the characters. To me, what should not change significantly from canon to fanfic is the way in which they react and display those emotions.
However that doesn't mean that it can't change from canon to fanfic.
I wrote an essay on OOC vs. Uncharacteristic earlier this year. It talks more about canon, but I think the mentality of OOC vs. Uncharacteristic applies to fanfic as well.
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I would be very interested in hearing Tielan's opinions about those stories.
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