Oh, that's a fun one. Because I started with Faith/Xander friendship with off-camera Faith/Willow (Maps). Then that "minor aspect" of the plot demanded its own venue, so I switched POV's and fleshed out the backstory and context (Life During Wartime). By the time that was finished, I realized I had a whole series, but felt like I needed some in-between-Apocalypses rest and relaxation to properly establish it. But that prequel turned into a full-fledged fic of its own (Honey Moon Shine) and took so bloody long to write that before it was done, I did another prequel/sequel (Inner Piece) AND an even less planned or predicted far-future sequel set in the series itself (The Ends Of the Earth)...and retconned myself YET AGAIN, by taking an off-the-cuff seemingly unrelated piece and realizing it was actually a Life During Wartime flashback (Parting Gift / Hyacinth Girl). THEN I finally finished that "short, sweet honeymoon piece"...

...and NOW I finally feel ready to tackle the "real project", which is the five-season virtual series I'd started coming up with nearly nine months ago. Whew.

(Thankfully, it seems less complicated than it should be, since it all kinda grew organically just as much or more as it was planned.)