there_n_back questions answered- fandom/ writing meme-like thing

[hobgoblinn]

If anyone's interested, juno_magic, whose great fic "The Apprentice and the Necromancer" I have been following lately, has opened a writing community up from LotR to the world at large: there_n_back. I started to respond to the questions, then realized my answer is probably too long to fit in a comment, so....

Go check out the community if you like. But Don't click below unless you want to know way too much about my fandoms, favorite stories (Hard to pick-- only 3?) and WIPs (which you already know way too much about, if you're on my f-list.)


* In which fandom are you currently active? Why?
Most active in Harry Potter now, but I started out and am still reading some new fic in the Buffyverse if someone on my friends list is the author or recs it, or if I’ve been assigned it as a judge (SOTHA, due Feb 20th.)

I’m in both my fandoms in large part because I’m learning a lot about being a writer from exploring these worlds. There are writers I’ve met through fandom-- mostly Buffy, but some now as well in HP, who are wonderfully generous and have taught me a great deal. The characters who interest me most are Giles and Ethan and Spike in the Buffyverse, and Snape in HP. Their complexity and moral ambiguity give a lot of scope for one to imagine their reactions, to put them in interesting situations to see what they’ll do, and to explore diverse points of view. The fact that all are snarky, good looking British men doesn’t hurt, either.

* If it's a shipping fandom, what are your pairings? Why? OTP?
I read ship fic-- Buffy/Giles mostly when not genfic in the Buffyverse, Snape/Hermione in the HP fandom. But I can’t write it. In both cases, I read it because, yeah, it’s hot, but it also gives tremendous scope to explore characters I find interesting. Love breaks open human beings in surprising and unpredictable ways, and I like seeing new aspects of character and ideas in others’ writings. And in both cases, the reason I can relate to the ship is not that it’s older guy/ young girl (blech) but that there really are no other good equal partners available for them. Giles and Jenny were close, but even then, you always knew Buffy as his Slayer would take first place for him. And you also knew that Buffy really wasn’t going to be able to find another guy who was so much her equal, linked to her by destiny and later choice, who would be able to understand exactly who and what she was. Spike comes close, but I didn’t discover Spuffy until much later, and his character got so twisted up in later seasons I have trouble buying him as well. Giles at least was absent for much of the mess. The less said about S7, the better, of course.

For Snape, unless you want to create a potential Mary Sue, an older Hermione is the closest he’s likely to find to an intellectual equal, and her innocence and his experience can lead to some interesting situations.

* What's your favourite archive in your fandom? Why? Links, please!
I kind of go where recs send me these days. For HP I like http://www.obscurusbooks.org for the good (unbroken) links to classic stories. I like http://www.fanfiction.net/ for its email updates of new chapters/ author alerts, and of course, notification of reviews. I’ve read quite a bit on http://ashwinder.sycophanthex.com/ as well.

For the Buffyverse, before I came to Live Journal, http://www.vampirecows.com/ODD/HOME.html was one resource, along with Yahoo Groups.

* What are your three favourite stories in your fandom? Why? Links, please!
HP:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2230284/1/Unfinished_Business
Ramos is brilliant. In this case, what can I say? I’m a sucker for ghosts (about half my fic output thus far revolves around them, in both fandoms.) I’m also fond of her “Once More with Feeling” and “Hinge of Fate.”

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3699543/1/Where_Your_Treasure_Is
This is from a new voice in a vibrant fandom. The glimpse of Snape as an adult with friends who love him in spite of his acerbic nature is wonderful, as is the wit and humor of his interactions with Poppy and Minerva. It reminds me a lot of another favorite abandoned classic, “Falling Further In” by Kaz2 (see Obscurus Books for the best link.) This one also shows a vulnerable and believable Severus, and it has the virtue of being Completed.

http://hobgoblinn.livejournal.com/35950.html
Mistful’s “Coda to an epilogue, or Twenty Years Later: The Kids are All Right.” This is a link to my rec at the time I discovered it, with links to all three parts in one easy to find place (until Sept 2008, when the author pulls down her fanfic to go “legit.”) Not only one of the funniest stories I have ever read, it also says so many things worth saying. Mistful “gets” this universe much better than JKR. My favorite line: Someone asks little Albus Severus if he wants to save the world and he says, [paraphrase] “Nah. My dad already did that. I want to change it.” He’s right. The world JKR envisions has the Slytherins missing out on a lot, but also the rest of that world missing out on their potential, what they had to share. This story takes a step toward rectifying that. I read this aloud to my Wee Hobgoblinn because the writing and message were so good, something I almost Never do with fanfic (even when age appropriate.)

Buffy:

http://vampirecows.com/odd/authors/tweedempress/etinarcadiagjnny01.html
First fanfic I ever read. At the time (don’t laugh) I was shocked by the sexual content. But the story itself was so compelling, I skimmed past the naughty bits.

Yes, I read the naughty bits later. Can we move on, please?

http://www.echonyc.com/~stax/Buffy/nwhepcat/lilac1.html
Lilac City is so different from most buffyverse fic. Poetic in a minimalist way, with beautiful, evocative imagery and a narrative voice that manages to be laconic and eloquent at once. Here’s a Xander who for all his flaws has grown up into someone who makes us proud to know him, as he is in so many of nwhepcat’s stories. This one, though, is almost an OC, and you don’t need to know much about the buffyverse to get this story.

What blows me away is how nwhepcat wrote this, and almost everything on that page, as short, almost drabble-like scenes posted serially in her journal. I asked her about it and she said, “I’m just pulling it out of my *$$ every day.” I’ve met the lady, and she’s not lying. I’ve watched in awe as she continues to put out these little gems that somehow morph into a story over the course of several months, posting every work day before she makes the brutal 45 minute commute. Her talent and work ethic put this hobgoblinn to shame.

http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/88843.html
Actually, “Water Hold Me Down” http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/51747.html is my favorite story of liz’s, but that one has been stalled for almost 2 years now. This one is an earlier one in the same universe, and it’s complete. Liz is one of the two people I followed on LJ long before I got my own account and jumped into fandom. I still hope “Water” gets finished (what a fantastic title!) but what’s there is worth reading if you can be okay with the cliffhanger of a non ending. The exploration of how little things can change the whole course of a life, in the form of two Alternate Universes intersecting, and how Xanders in both worlds have to reevaluate those lives, is fascinating and wonderfully written. The earlier story, “Whisper” explores some Xander backstory that explains a lot about the present.


* Tell us something about your latest WIP! Links, please!
I’m posting an age regression fic, AU off HBP: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4035989/1/In_Loco_Parentis

It’s an experiment with episodic story creation, posting in progress to see what reviews and feedback jar loose. But it’s not quite as seat of the pants as some things I’ve seen-- I have a good chunk written and planned. One thing I’ve found already is how I seem to get very simple concepts of what the story is about (my summary for that is something I’m really proud of.) But I tend to get bogged down in the details and have to work very hard to keep things from becoming a documentary rather than a story. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4030109/1/Summer, my first fanfic in the Buffyverse, suffers from this malady. Partly from my experience archiving this older fic out on Fanfic.net, I came to the realization that I can tell the story I need to tell in a much more limited scope, and later I could always revisit this timeline to tell another story. I don’t have to get them through the whole summer, or Harry even back to his adult self. I certainly don’t have to chronicle every moment of it.

I’m also working on a sequel to http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3917349/1/Lost_Boys, but I’ve only posted a segment from what it looks like will be part 5-- the best bit I wrote for Nanowrimo. It’s changed some since this posting, but it’s a flashback to Snape’s time as headmaster that stands quite nicely on its own, almost: http://hobgoblinn.livejournal.com/59834.html

I intend “No Malicious Haunting” to take up themes of forgiveness and reconciliation, and to try to let me make some peace with the shameful way Albus Dumbledore uses everyone, but Snape in particular. Where “Lost Boys” was in Snape and Harry’s POV, this one will be Snape and David Dursley, my OC introduced in Lost Boys. I’m not sure what his journey is, but I think it has something to do with his grandmother Petunia and her need to let go of some things.

And finally, my 06 Nano novel needs to get edited and posted this year. A Giles, Willow, Ethan genfic, post-Chosen that needs beta comments applied, appalling London geography corrected, and story pared down from rambling documentary. And a final 2 pages of ending would be good, while I'm at it.

Comments

[clavally.livejournal.com]

What a coincidence! I just finished reading the latest chapter of "The Apprentice and the Necromancer" this morning before I went to work. What were the chances we'd be reading the same story at the same time without discussing it with each other first?

Yay us!