Completed Fics | Random | Help | Search | Log In | |
    |
How long have you been writing, and what made you decide to start writing fan fiction?
I've been writing all my life well, since I was old enough to string words together but never thought I'd read fan fiction let alone create it. I was sucked in by the long wait for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Looking for rumors and news, I stumbled upon a charming little tale about the Sorting Hat. Then I found Fiction Alley. From there it wasn't long before I'd discovered that many writers enjoy pairing together Potter characters who will never in a million years end up romantically linked in the series, and it was a short trip from "Hermione Granger with Professor Snape eurgh!" to "Hermione Granger with anyone but Professor Snape eurgh!"
I read for a year, not intending to write anything, until I began to wonder how Hermione would have managed her third year if she used her Time-Turner to produce a small army of homework helpers, and how Snape would react if he found out.
What is the writing process like for you? Do you find any part of writing difficult? (Coming up with ideas, narrative, dialog, etc.)
I find dialogue the easiest part of writing by far at least for fan fiction, because I feel I know these characters well. There's hundreds of pages of "canon" and loads of fan essays online about minute details you might have missed. The more fully you're acquainted with someone, the more likely you'll know what they would say in a certain situation.
What I can't do is post any part of a story before I'm finished. I do have a general sense of what I intend to accomplish with a tale when I begin writing, but I've found that it will often veer off midway and I'll need to go back and rewrite earlier parts to make the new vision work.
Where do you get your ideas or inspiration? Do other people ever suggest the ideas for your stories?
My two novel-length stories both grew from the seeds of other fan fiction.
"Arithmancy for Muggles" by Flyingegg follows Hermione after she is banished from the Wizarding world, and it's a very good tale, but it got me thinking: What if Snape were banished instead? That turned into "Wandless Magic" (and it has rather a lot more of the Weasley twins than I'd originally intended, but you can't keep Fred and George down).
Hermione turns down an offer of apprenticeship from Snape in that story, unwilling to give him a position of power over her because she's interested in pursuing a relationship instead, and several reviewers suggested she was being silly and should have had both things at once. I had an "oh really" sort of reaction and started wondering what would happen if she were put in a situation where she had to have both. That grew into "What E'er Therein Is Promised" also influenced by theatresm's "Chaos Is Come Again," which delves into similar questionable territory about consent.
What draws you to a particular fandom, character or couple? Is there anything in particular, or any common threads, that explain your interest?
I like the Harry Potter world because there's something so alluring about the idea of magic just around the corner, if only you know how to look. I like the idea of an adult Hermione Granger and Severus Snape working together, and falling for each other, partly because they're similar (clever, like to argue, have a common interest in potions, have a common background as swots) and partly because their differences are thematically interesting (Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, bossy vs. prickly, Muggle-born vs. well, we thought pureblood, but apparently they weren't quite so different here as everyone believed).
The fact that there's a bit of Gryffindor bravery to Snape and Slytherin cunning to Granger just makes it all the more plausible.
Do you have any favorite authors (original and/or fan fiction)?
Original: Many, but especially Jane Austen, whose characters stick with you. (J.K. Rowling too, but that rather goes without saying.)
Fan fiction: Too many to list, and I'd end up leaving people off by accident and feeling guilty. In general I prefer stories that make me think, make me want to cry and laugh in equal measure. I don't require happy endings but do like to read tales that are imbued with a hopeful sense of life rather than the alternative.
Are there any particular themes that you find recurring (intentionally or unintentionally) in your stories?
Power. I didn't do it purposely, but it's a bit inevitable writing Granger/Snape, I suppose. Even setting aside the power imbalance in the series, where she's the student and he's the teacher, Severus "Call me 'sir'" Snape is a character grasping for control. And Hermione Granger likes to be in charge herself.
Is it difficult to write dialogue that stays true to the characters?
No but that presupposes that I'm correct in thinking that my dialogue does stay true to the characters.
If you know characters well, it's easier to manipulate them on the page. I need to understand their diction to put the words together properly. I like to remind myself of key points of characterization as well (i.e. Snape has a biting sense of humor, gets quieter when angry, seems to cloak his true meaning in word play, dislikes dunderheadedness, wants recognition, is willing to endanger himself for the right cause, etc.). And I also find it helpful to keep in mind the essentials that is, Snape wants to be in control because everything flows from there.
Do you have any advice for people thinking about writing their first fan fiction?
A fair number of writers get inspiration from other stories, fan fiction or otherwise. It's perfectly acceptable as long as you can build an original vision as a result. Plenty of writers also start out by answering a challenge (i.e. "to save Wizarding society from death by inbreeding, the Ministry requires Muggle-borns to marry purebloods") though the real challenge there is to come up with a story that doesn't sound like all the other responses.
Ultimately, the trick to writing fan fiction is to retain the essence of the characters you're using even as you're putting them in situations they've never experienced in the source material.
Do you find any particular genre (angst, romance, humor, etc.) more difficult to write? Do you prefer to write any particular genre?
I find it difficult to stick to one genre, actually. My humor has angst, my angst has humor and I can't write straight romance without delving into the other categories.
What do you find most and least enjoyable about writing fan fiction?
Most: It's a way to participate in an activity that's usually passive (in this case, enjoying a popular series of books), not to mention an opportunity to practice writing using a well-defined world and fully formed characters. Least: It's altogether too addicting, and I really ought to be writing something that doesn't require the "it's not mine" disclaimer.
Do you set a specific goal with each chapter of a multi-chapter story?
No. I have goals for the story overall, but I never know how many chapters it will be when I begin. Inevitably it turns out longer than I'd intended because the story gets more complicated the longer I work on it. This is one of the upsides to writing everything first and posting afterward.
I've learned not to worry about my inability to carefully map out a story ahead of time because I know I'll come up with better ideas once I'm knee-deep in it.
Was it harder to read fan fiction after you started writing it?
I'm probably less tolerant of so-so writing, but that's also the result of two years of reading it. Fan fiction was such a novelty at first that nearly everything seemed worth the time, but now I have an itchy back-button finger.
Do you find love scenes more difficult to write than other types of scenes?
Yes and no. I refuse to write them unless they're crucial to the plot, so I often don't. It's not prudishness so much as a dislike for extraneous scenes.
Do you work on more than one story at a time? If so, how do you keep them straight in your mind?
Nope, one at a time. Just as I can't post chapters before I'm finished with the story in its entirety, I can't work on half-a-dozen fics at once.
Was there ever an instance where you had solid ideas for a story but the characters refused to cooperate? If so, what did you do?
I'd intended "What E'er Therein Is Promised" to be quite short maybe half a dozen chapters and largely a simple comeuppance tale. But the characters really did refuse to cooperate; they just wouldn't be simple, and the complexity was interesting and so I shrugged my shoulders and kept writing until I had 28 chapters.
Authors should listen when the characters don't want to fit in roles we've plotted for them.
How did you go about creating an original character? What are your thoughts on original characters in fan fiction?
I always try to find a canon character to use if I can because J.K. Rowling has introduced such an unusually large number of people in her series, so there are a lot of potential choices. But I'm not against writing an original character or reading about one, if it's well done.
The few I've invented have played relatively small roles that were nonetheless critical for the story; I couldn't do without them. I spent some time imagining a bit of back story for them so I could write them consistently if the canon characters have a past, the original characters better have one too.
Which story was the most fun to write and why?
I've enjoyed them all, but in some ways it was most fun to write "On the Clear Understanding That This Kind of Thing Can Happen," which is a series of scenes set at events with dances, spread out over several years. Vignettes are a great way to show incremental change quickly.
How much research do you do before writing a story? How do you decide what to use and what to make up?
Because we know when the Harry Potter books are set, thanks to valiant fan detective work, I first decide when my story is set if Hermione's 24, then it must be either 2003 or 2004, depending on the time of year. Calendars help me keep track of which date falls on what day, so I don't suggest that Halloween in '03 falls on a Thursday when it was actually a Friday. (Don't laugh; some readers notice day-date inconsistencies, as Rowling discovered.)
I'm at a disadvantage writing about Britain because I've never been to that part of Europe, so I also research references to places, food, slang and other sorts of things that a native would simply know.
To keep track of time, character's ages, etc., I keep a separate file with these sorts of facts. It's invaluable.
As for making things up: There are pretty clear patterns in the Harry Potter books, so some things are easier to invent than others. Spells are Latin-based. Characters are often named after British places (Snape, for instance).
How long does it usually take you to write a story? How many revisions do you go through?
I spend a lot more time revising than I do putting together the first draft, though that's partly because I revise as I go and partly because the process of being beta-read by several people can take a while.
More time is good, I think. It gives you time to consider the story a bit more rationally "you know, this part really doesn't work," or "I haven't explained this well enough; I ought to add another scene."
I spent about half a year on my most recent novel-length story about two months writing it, two months in the editing/beta-ing process and two months posting it (at which point I was still making last-minute changes).
What do you think are your writing strengthsplot, characterization, dialogue, action, etc.?
When I began I figured I'd be best on plot because that's a major part of what I admire about the Harry Potter books every scene furthers the storyline, though so many of them are inserted with a certain sleight of hand that makes it easy to forget that they're important for reasons beyond humor or character development.
I do all right on plot, I think, but in the end I've turned out better on dialogue and characterization though that's just an opinion, and a biased one at that. I've become much more interested in what the characters will think and do and say.
That's probably the effect of fan fiction: It's all about the characters. Otherwise, why else would we be doing it?