(Chapter 1?): Forward by Author
I know I'm not the only fan who was deeply disappointed with some of the choices made after Aaron Sorkin left, and the more I thought about it, the more I got the feeling that I wanted to give a whack at it myself, to try and recapture the a semblance of the sense of passion and optimism and camaraderie that Sorkin did so well. This is my attempt, which starts following the first episode of season 5.
Some storylines will be taken right from the show, others will be my own, although I'll try to stay true to the spirit and style of the show during the first four seasons. A lot of the first few chapters will be pulled right from the series, and a disclaimer is needed - these sections are not intended to be taken as my own, but rather to supplement and guide the story as it gradually deviates from the official show. Eventually my story will shift from canon almost entirely, although hopefully in an honest, authentic way. A lot of the official season 6 and 7 storylines will be cut, such as the shuttle leak, and dramatic changes will occur during the final campaign (one being that we'll hear less about the campaign in the first place, and focus more on the original main characters). There will also be very big changes to season 5.
Another key difference is that there will be four "seasons" to this story - it's been pointed out that the show effectively "skips" a year (Bartlet's second term begins halfway through season 4, thus season 5 begins June 2003, and season 7 ends January 2007, and the last half of the series is only a couple of months - meaning we see four years of time pass in only three seasons). Accordingly, my story will be four "seasons", with each season/story consisting of multiple chapters. Ideally, this will allow more exploration of the characters, as well as the political aspects of Bartlet's time in office.
Thus, my story will feature every main character of the show before Aaron left, and have some (hopefully) interesting political subplots, while remaining primarily a character-driven show. New issues will be raised, relationships will be explored in more depth, and so on.
Given the subject matter, the first few chapters are pretty dark, but afterwards the story lightens, and I plan on having a lot of heartfelt and funny stuff, with a healthy splash of drama. Just putting that in there, because I don't want to put potential readers off by the initial violence.
BTW, I'll go ahead and be upfront: my main ship is C.J./Danny, but I promise throughout the story, there will be scenes featuring Josh/Donna, Jed/Abbey, Toby/Andy, Charlie/Zoey, and possibly Sam/Ainsley (spoiler alert!). I guess one strong deviation off the bat is that I don't plan on writing too much Amy Gardner. She never really clicked with me, for whatever reason, so she just might pull a Mandy here and vanish completely.
I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to tell me what you think!
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters created by Aaron Sorkin, and all excerpts and borrowed storylines from The West Wing are the property of NBC. No copyright infringement is intended.