![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
General
1. How long have you been involved in HP fandom?
I posted my first story in October of 2002, but was reading for a couple of months before that, so I'd say about two years. (Wow!)
2. What drew you to HP fandom?
Ironically,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ropo was the one who did it, though she herself hasn't even read a single HP book. She had found Cassie Claire's LOTR Very Secret Diaries, and wanted to share the funniness with us. I was impressed w/ the VSDs, so I wanted to see if the author had written anything else. From there I found the Draco Trilogy, which was the fic that finally convinced me that there might actually be good stories written in the HP verse (prior to that, I'd given the fandom a shot, but it seemed littered with teeny boppers who couldn't tell a period from an asterisk).
3. How has Harry Potter fandom influenced your life?
Well, it's given me something to do when I'm bored or in need of a creative outlet. <g> But if it hadn't been HP, it would have been something else. I like having a fandom "home," though -- this one seems to suit me best (after XF).
4. What led you to start writing, if you do?
Writing in a general sense has always been in my blood, but I didn't start writing stories to be critiqued by strangers until I was writing for the XF fandom. Since it was a rewarding experience, I've continued to do so. Even if it'd been a bad experience, I'd probably continue to write -- I just wouldn't post publicly.
As for how I began writing in the HP fandom ... it was mostly due to a (perceived) lack of good D/G fic, which was the pairing I enjoyed reading about most. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right places, but I just could not find many good stories with that pairing (other than the DT, but that story can't really be labeled). Especially lacking was good *NC-17* fiction, which was never a problem in XF. That got me to write a story just for myself, which I didn't post. Then I gotjade_okelani to start writing and posting "Our Winter," and I made the decision to revise the story I'd written and post it. I figured, what the hell, maybe there are other people out there who want to read smutty D/G. <g>
Canon
5. Who is your favorite character? Why? Do you identify with him/her in some way? Do you admire him/her?
My favorite canon character is Snapey Poo! Do I identify with him or admire him? Sure, both, to a degree. He was an underdog and he made bad decisions -- don't we all do that? How many of us are able to come back from that? Probably not many, so I admire that he has. Yet he's still Snape, an unapologetic jerk. And I like that he can be both; I like that JKR recognizes that there's a difference between being evil and being unlikable.
Here's what I said about Snape after reading OotP, and I stand by it: Snape rocks my world. He is caustic and strange and unfair and inadvertently funny and unsympathetic and dislikable and respected and feared and bears grudges and is fallible and malicious and temperamental and intolerant and tries to do the right thing. There is nothing about Snape in OotP that I didn't like -- and not because he's likable and I'm trying to make him out to be something he's not. He's completely unfair to Harry, he was wrong to stop teaching him Occlumency, and he hits below the belt. But he wouldn't be Snape if he didn't do those things, and he also wouldn't be Snape if he weren't risking his neck for the Order. I accept him just as he is, and he is by far my favorite character in canon. I can't wait to learn more. I have entertained the possibility that Snape is a double (or is it triple?) agent and doesn't mean to help the Order at all ... but I just can't bring myself to believe it. Dumbledore trusts him, and despite learning that the former makes mistakes after all, I do not question his judge of character.
6. Same question, but for second favorite character.
Probably the Weasley twins (would be ridiculous to choose ONE since JKR writes them like a single entity -- okay, Fred), again because they make me laugh. They're more than just pranksters; they're true geniuses at what they do, and I admire that. <g>
7. Which house do you identify with most? Why?
Honestly? Ravenclaw. I think I'd be a cross between a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin, though, because ambition was always the reason behind any academic prowess. And I can be quite evil. Though I know you can't believe it.
8. Which relationship do you enjoy most in canon (not necessarily romantic)? Why?
I love the trio dynamic. I'm a big fan of true friendship, and I think Harry, Ron, and Hermione have that.
9. Why is your favorite book your favorite?
GoF was my favorite book before OotP, and remains my favorite after OotP.
The books, up til GoF, were, of course, awesome. I loved the HP universe from the very first time I picked up SS (which was a few weeks after the release of GoF, so I started way late), and it left a happy, satisfied smile on my face. CoS and PoA were similarly good, but I didn't feel that they were all that different from what had come before.
GoF was the book that really made me sit up and pay attention. I was completely blown away by the darkness, the dynamics between the characters, and the introduction of what I considered to be the new mythology -- the true direction of the series. GoF was JKR "changing the status quo." Which was unbelievably awesome, on so many levels.
Before GoF, I would still have said that HP was a children's series. A very entertaining, smart, mature children's series, but a children's series nonetheless. GoF changed that perception.
The one word I can attribute to GoF that explains why I love it so much is: consequence. In books 1-3, questions are brought up but are pretty much resolved by the end of the novel; she doesn't keep us hanging (which in itself is fairly impressive, given the deep and complicated things that are going on in this universe). GoF does the complete opposite. There are nothing but questions at the end of the book (whereas OotP felt like treading water), but we know there will be consequences for everything we learned and everything that happened. For the first time in the HP series, there were serious, plot-related questions that immediately came to mind, which had no immediate answers.
I liked being spun into that web.
Pairings
10. Why did you choose your OTP?
I didn't choose it; it chose me. <g> It wasn't like I was going out there, interviewing for ships to see which I liked best. Mostly, I just read the DT (the only HP fic I read for a long time), and my ship preferences grew out of that experience.
11. Do you only read your favorite, or will you read others? Why?
I will very rarely read other pairings, simply because I've tried, and I just do not get the same satisfaction from reading those stories as I do my OTP. Thus, I won't waste my time or energy. If I'm going to force myself to read something that I'm not absolutely into, I'd rather it be literature, not fanfic. Mostly when I read non-OTP fanfic, it's because someone I know/like/trust has written it.
12. Do you only write your favorite, or will you write others? Why?
Naturally I prefer to write my OTP -- my interest probably makes me write better stories (that goes for any OTP from any fandom). I like making the effort. I'll write others, but I'm usually not super interested in it nor do I take much pleasure from it, and it probably shows in my writing. I'd like to think I'm a writer before I'm a shipper, but when it comes to fandom, the lines get a little blurry. After all, if I weren't a shipper, I probably wouldn't be in fandom at all.
13. Do you have any pairings (or categories of pairings) you refuse to read? Why?
For the most part, I'm not into adult/child or incest stories, but I'll read them occasionally. I also find it difficult to read Draco with anyone other than Ginny. (That wasn't true of the DT and its Harry/Draco until it got overtly slashy -- but that's a whole other can of worms.) The two pairings I avoid like the plague are Draco/Hermione (ironic given that I had a very brief period of being a D/Hr shipper, after reading "Draco Dormiens," my first foray into HP fic) and Draco/Weasley other than Ginny (which is many pairings, I know, but I'm lazy).
Fan Fiction
14. Who do you think is the most common mischaracterization? Why does it bug you?
Seriously? Most common? This is too easy. The answer is, of course, Draco. But it doesn't bug me. :D I revel in it! Come on, fanon!Draco is really quite different from canon!Draco. The latter informs the former a bit, but usually we make Draco a lot more likable in fanfic -- he's smarter, better looking, more talented, wittier, stronger (physically, emotionally, and intellectually). And while we really don't know enough about him from canon to know that those things absolutely cannot be true, what we do see would seem to indicate otherwise. I'm not deluding myself about that.
But who cares? Fanfic is just for kicks. I enjoy what I enjoy, and I feel very little need to justify it. Many people, I know, don't feel the same. I could probably poke holes in just about every ship that exists in fandom, but why bother? Live and let live.
15. What is your biggest pet peeve about fan fiction?
Specifically in the HP fandom, the teeming masses of WIPs. Very few people seem to appreciate the art of crafting a story anymore, which imho should include an outline, many rewrites, and beta readers. (This, of course, does not include one shots and the like.) Writing a chaptered story and posting it chapter by chapter either speaks to an incredibly organized individual, or it speaks to a need for instant feedback gratification. Sadly, I think most of the writers in this fandom fall into the latter category -- and because the way things are is the way things are, we can't break out of the cycle.
I'm definitely not absolving myself of having committed this sin. But I think that a lot of writers, even those who do appreciate what it means to craft a story as a whole, can't helped but get sucked into this mentality. A writer's ego is fragile, and needs to be fed! We might be working on a fabulous novel no one's ever seen ... but that motivation only gets us so far. Because in the meanwhile, it's fucking depressing to see these awful stories, with chapters that have clearly been written in maybe 20 minutes, get all this love from the community. And what happens when we finish our fabulous novel and start posting? If we post the whole thing in its entirety, it probably won't even get read -- people will see the story title for the first time and assume that we've still got a ways to go. And even if it does get read, we'll probably get one piece of feedback for the whole damn thing, rather than one for every chapter we wrote.
And even that might be okay, if reviews were of the thoughtful variety rather than two words and an emoticon. But I digress.
16. Who is your favorite character to write, and why?
I love writing Draco dialogue, because he's got a caustic, sarcastic humor that I really enjoy. However, writing from his POV is often difficult, as it's got to be done just right. It's quite a task to keep him from being either an unsympathetic jerk or a sappy mooncalf. POV wise, I prefer Ginny, who has more flexibility wrt characterization.
17. Who is your least favorite character to write, and why?
Dumbledore. True Dumbledore voice is hard. You have to strike the perfect balance between being wise, solemn, humorous, understanding, and vague. I have rarely, if ever, seen it done right in fanfic.
18. What is the best story you’ve ever read, and why?
Sigh. Even though I'm having issues with the third installment of the DT, I'd have to say "Draco Sinister." If it weren't for the DT I wouldn't be in the fandom at all, and that one has just the right amount of action, intrigue, t00by Harry/Draco friendship, and D/G interaction, on top of being funny and well written. As a standalone, it has all the elements of a great story for me ... though you'd have to cut out that scene at the party with Rhysenn, given it's a starting point for the intrigue in "Draco Veritas" that makes no sense in the context of DS.
A very close second would be Arabella and Jedi Boadicea's "Rising from Ashes," but that one is so damn depressing that I have to stop at a certain point and imagine the rest of the story my way. <g>
1. How long have you been involved in HP fandom?
I posted my first story in October of 2002, but was reading for a couple of months before that, so I'd say about two years. (Wow!)
2. What drew you to HP fandom?
Ironically,
ropo was the one who did it, though she herself hasn't even read a single HP book. She had found Cassie Claire's LOTR Very Secret Diaries, and wanted to share the funniness with us. I was impressed w/ the VSDs, so I wanted to see if the author had written anything else. From there I found the Draco Trilogy, which was the fic that finally convinced me that there might actually be good stories written in the HP verse (prior to that, I'd given the fandom a shot, but it seemed littered with teeny boppers who couldn't tell a period from an asterisk).3. How has Harry Potter fandom influenced your life?
Well, it's given me something to do when I'm bored or in need of a creative outlet. <g> But if it hadn't been HP, it would have been something else. I like having a fandom "home," though -- this one seems to suit me best (after XF).
4. What led you to start writing, if you do?
Writing in a general sense has always been in my blood, but I didn't start writing stories to be critiqued by strangers until I was writing for the XF fandom. Since it was a rewarding experience, I've continued to do so. Even if it'd been a bad experience, I'd probably continue to write -- I just wouldn't post publicly.
As for how I began writing in the HP fandom ... it was mostly due to a (perceived) lack of good D/G fic, which was the pairing I enjoyed reading about most. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right places, but I just could not find many good stories with that pairing (other than the DT, but that story can't really be labeled). Especially lacking was good *NC-17* fiction, which was never a problem in XF. That got me to write a story just for myself, which I didn't post. Then I got
jade_okelani to start writing and posting "Our Winter," and I made the decision to revise the story I'd written and post it. I figured, what the hell, maybe there are other people out there who want to read smutty D/G. <g>Canon
5. Who is your favorite character? Why? Do you identify with him/her in some way? Do you admire him/her?
My favorite canon character is Snapey Poo! Do I identify with him or admire him? Sure, both, to a degree. He was an underdog and he made bad decisions -- don't we all do that? How many of us are able to come back from that? Probably not many, so I admire that he has. Yet he's still Snape, an unapologetic jerk. And I like that he can be both; I like that JKR recognizes that there's a difference between being evil and being unlikable.
Here's what I said about Snape after reading OotP, and I stand by it: Snape rocks my world. He is caustic and strange and unfair and inadvertently funny and unsympathetic and dislikable and respected and feared and bears grudges and is fallible and malicious and temperamental and intolerant and tries to do the right thing. There is nothing about Snape in OotP that I didn't like -- and not because he's likable and I'm trying to make him out to be something he's not. He's completely unfair to Harry, he was wrong to stop teaching him Occlumency, and he hits below the belt. But he wouldn't be Snape if he didn't do those things, and he also wouldn't be Snape if he weren't risking his neck for the Order. I accept him just as he is, and he is by far my favorite character in canon. I can't wait to learn more. I have entertained the possibility that Snape is a double (or is it triple?) agent and doesn't mean to help the Order at all ... but I just can't bring myself to believe it. Dumbledore trusts him, and despite learning that the former makes mistakes after all, I do not question his judge of character.
6. Same question, but for second favorite character.
Probably the Weasley twins (would be ridiculous to choose ONE since JKR writes them like a single entity -- okay, Fred), again because they make me laugh. They're more than just pranksters; they're true geniuses at what they do, and I admire that. <g>
7. Which house do you identify with most? Why?
Honestly? Ravenclaw. I think I'd be a cross between a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin, though, because ambition was always the reason behind any academic prowess. And I can be quite evil. Though I know you can't believe it.
8. Which relationship do you enjoy most in canon (not necessarily romantic)? Why?
I love the trio dynamic. I'm a big fan of true friendship, and I think Harry, Ron, and Hermione have that.
9. Why is your favorite book your favorite?
GoF was my favorite book before OotP, and remains my favorite after OotP.
The books, up til GoF, were, of course, awesome. I loved the HP universe from the very first time I picked up SS (which was a few weeks after the release of GoF, so I started way late), and it left a happy, satisfied smile on my face. CoS and PoA were similarly good, but I didn't feel that they were all that different from what had come before.
GoF was the book that really made me sit up and pay attention. I was completely blown away by the darkness, the dynamics between the characters, and the introduction of what I considered to be the new mythology -- the true direction of the series. GoF was JKR "changing the status quo." Which was unbelievably awesome, on so many levels.
Before GoF, I would still have said that HP was a children's series. A very entertaining, smart, mature children's series, but a children's series nonetheless. GoF changed that perception.
The one word I can attribute to GoF that explains why I love it so much is: consequence. In books 1-3, questions are brought up but are pretty much resolved by the end of the novel; she doesn't keep us hanging (which in itself is fairly impressive, given the deep and complicated things that are going on in this universe). GoF does the complete opposite. There are nothing but questions at the end of the book (whereas OotP felt like treading water), but we know there will be consequences for everything we learned and everything that happened. For the first time in the HP series, there were serious, plot-related questions that immediately came to mind, which had no immediate answers.
I liked being spun into that web.
Pairings
10. Why did you choose your OTP?
I didn't choose it; it chose me. <g> It wasn't like I was going out there, interviewing for ships to see which I liked best. Mostly, I just read the DT (the only HP fic I read for a long time), and my ship preferences grew out of that experience.
11. Do you only read your favorite, or will you read others? Why?
I will very rarely read other pairings, simply because I've tried, and I just do not get the same satisfaction from reading those stories as I do my OTP. Thus, I won't waste my time or energy. If I'm going to force myself to read something that I'm not absolutely into, I'd rather it be literature, not fanfic. Mostly when I read non-OTP fanfic, it's because someone I know/like/trust has written it.
12. Do you only write your favorite, or will you write others? Why?
Naturally I prefer to write my OTP -- my interest probably makes me write better stories (that goes for any OTP from any fandom). I like making the effort. I'll write others, but I'm usually not super interested in it nor do I take much pleasure from it, and it probably shows in my writing. I'd like to think I'm a writer before I'm a shipper, but when it comes to fandom, the lines get a little blurry. After all, if I weren't a shipper, I probably wouldn't be in fandom at all.
13. Do you have any pairings (or categories of pairings) you refuse to read? Why?
For the most part, I'm not into adult/child or incest stories, but I'll read them occasionally. I also find it difficult to read Draco with anyone other than Ginny. (That wasn't true of the DT and its Harry/Draco until it got overtly slashy -- but that's a whole other can of worms.) The two pairings I avoid like the plague are Draco/Hermione (ironic given that I had a very brief period of being a D/Hr shipper, after reading "Draco Dormiens," my first foray into HP fic) and Draco/Weasley other than Ginny (which is many pairings, I know, but I'm lazy).
Fan Fiction
14. Who do you think is the most common mischaracterization? Why does it bug you?
Seriously? Most common? This is too easy. The answer is, of course, Draco. But it doesn't bug me. :D I revel in it! Come on, fanon!Draco is really quite different from canon!Draco. The latter informs the former a bit, but usually we make Draco a lot more likable in fanfic -- he's smarter, better looking, more talented, wittier, stronger (physically, emotionally, and intellectually). And while we really don't know enough about him from canon to know that those things absolutely cannot be true, what we do see would seem to indicate otherwise. I'm not deluding myself about that.
But who cares? Fanfic is just for kicks. I enjoy what I enjoy, and I feel very little need to justify it. Many people, I know, don't feel the same. I could probably poke holes in just about every ship that exists in fandom, but why bother? Live and let live.
15. What is your biggest pet peeve about fan fiction?
Specifically in the HP fandom, the teeming masses of WIPs. Very few people seem to appreciate the art of crafting a story anymore, which imho should include an outline, many rewrites, and beta readers. (This, of course, does not include one shots and the like.) Writing a chaptered story and posting it chapter by chapter either speaks to an incredibly organized individual, or it speaks to a need for instant feedback gratification. Sadly, I think most of the writers in this fandom fall into the latter category -- and because the way things are is the way things are, we can't break out of the cycle.
I'm definitely not absolving myself of having committed this sin. But I think that a lot of writers, even those who do appreciate what it means to craft a story as a whole, can't helped but get sucked into this mentality. A writer's ego is fragile, and needs to be fed! We might be working on a fabulous novel no one's ever seen ... but that motivation only gets us so far. Because in the meanwhile, it's fucking depressing to see these awful stories, with chapters that have clearly been written in maybe 20 minutes, get all this love from the community. And what happens when we finish our fabulous novel and start posting? If we post the whole thing in its entirety, it probably won't even get read -- people will see the story title for the first time and assume that we've still got a ways to go. And even if it does get read, we'll probably get one piece of feedback for the whole damn thing, rather than one for every chapter we wrote.
And even that might be okay, if reviews were of the thoughtful variety rather than two words and an emoticon. But I digress.
16. Who is your favorite character to write, and why?
I love writing Draco dialogue, because he's got a caustic, sarcastic humor that I really enjoy. However, writing from his POV is often difficult, as it's got to be done just right. It's quite a task to keep him from being either an unsympathetic jerk or a sappy mooncalf. POV wise, I prefer Ginny, who has more flexibility wrt characterization.
17. Who is your least favorite character to write, and why?
Dumbledore. True Dumbledore voice is hard. You have to strike the perfect balance between being wise, solemn, humorous, understanding, and vague. I have rarely, if ever, seen it done right in fanfic.
18. What is the best story you’ve ever read, and why?
Sigh. Even though I'm having issues with the third installment of the DT, I'd have to say "Draco Sinister." If it weren't for the DT I wouldn't be in the fandom at all, and that one has just the right amount of action, intrigue, t00by Harry/Draco friendship, and D/G interaction, on top of being funny and well written. As a standalone, it has all the elements of a great story for me ... though you'd have to cut out that scene at the party with Rhysenn, given it's a starting point for the intrigue in "Draco Veritas" that makes no sense in the context of DS.
A very close second would be Arabella and Jedi Boadicea's "Rising from Ashes," but that one is so damn depressing that I have to stop at a certain point and imagine the rest of the story my way. <g>
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-07-27 07:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-27 05:15 pm (UTC)And I totally gacked it from several people on my friends list -- not sure where it originated. Most definitely not me.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-28 05:17 am (UTC)*prods her flist and makes vague threats regarding smut involving Draco and a very large, very potent cave troll*
no subject
Date: 2004-07-31 01:59 pm (UTC)If you can read Dr/Hr and not throw up I'm sure you can read MamaLaz 'I'm not in Denial' which is Ron/Draco. Featuring a Draco that makes Cassandra- freaking- Claire's Draco seem as dull as doing long divition or going to work on a Monday.
I'm just so dissapointed that a first rate author like yourself has succumbed to the evilness that is Cassandra Claire.