my sue in hp fandom (who'd have thought it?)

[lobelia321]

I have truly been lured to the depths of Hades. Viz: am writing (writing! HP fic. It stole upon me quite innocently, in Ludlow Castle, in Shropshire, and it came in the form of a Karl/Dom bunny. What could be more innocuous, you might think? But within minutes it had permutated into Harry/Draco, argh, and then into Harry/someone else, and then it left Harry entirely because, guess what? I wrote several pages of this thing but couldn't find my writing feet. I thought, oh this is what it must be like to dive into a new fandom, it makes one feel untethered and nervous and slightly bored with the writing process.

But bored with the writing process? Oh no no, that must not be! So I had a major rethink, and I emailed Lazlet, and I speedread (omg, I speedread) actual canon (argh!!!!), and then I realised it was a Sue problem! Remember our discussions on the Sue? And on how important it is to know one's Sue? Well, as with my Karl/Dom epic of last year I had misidentified my Sue (only this time, thankfully, I realised within days instead of months -- therapy is evidently good for something).

So I went back to the fic, changed the pov (because I find it easier to write through my Sue than to see my Sue from the outside; Sues r focalisors!), and before I knew it, there I was: back in familiar rare-pairings territory, and I can tell you: Harry/Draco has been left long behind.

So now I'm doing research, oh yeah. I've read two books on children of high-up evil Nazi officials (to get some purchase on possible Draco-psychologies), and I've read some other stuff which I won't divulge because it'll give away the rare pairing too easily.

So has this happened to anyone else? Another fandom stealing up on you? And what did it feel like, writing that first fic on the thin ice of unfamiliarity? And I don't mean new fandom in the sense of Wainthropp-madness or Ned-Kelly-smallness. I mean new fandom as in thousands and thousands of fans and an established fanon and fps (fps!! That's a whole different canon ballgame!)

And, um, any suggestions on how to weather it?

Comments

[ukcalico.livejournal.com]

It's scary but lovely cos the people in the fandom already? they're glad you're coming. And they wanna help...

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

*bursts out laughing*

The people in the fandom are glad.? What, all seven thousand of them? It's the people that terrify me the most.

[lazulus]

You know, one positive thing about such a huge fandom is that rare pairings are not that unusual. In fact, people are often thrilled that someone writes something rare... makes such a pleasant change from all those Harry/Draco, Harry/Snape and Remus/Sirius fics that litter the fandom. [Not that I have any real problem with all those fics -- if well written enough...]

At this point can I just say how much I sometimes miss Wainthropp!! Ah! Those were the days, eh?

[blythely.livejournal.com]

*snort*

you don't read rare pairings, you snarry-pervert.

[lazulus]

Darling, I never said that I read them! Just that there is a solid basis for them.

*twirls*

And there's nowt wrong with a bit of Snarry -- when it's done right!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh, those *were* the days! And little did I know then that they were the days! Oh, that Demelza and her snobbish non-fandom ways...

I think the three otps of HP fandom are so funny: the boy/boy one, the man/man one, and the boy/man one. So predictable!

[lazulus]

Oh, Demelza!! Lotrips just isn't the same without your non-fandom fandoming.

I know, the main pairings in HP are very predictable, but there are so many others as well! You know, I even occasionally read [whispers it] het!

[blythely.livejournal.com]

RITE H/D PLZ MY OTP NEEDZ U LOBELIA KTHX <33333!!!one

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

What's kthx?

Look, I can't divulge my pairing(s), I'll get writer's block if I do. But it's more than one. *zips lips*

[blythely.livejournal.com]

o(K)ay (TH)an(X)

<3

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

*Look* at that tig! Just *look* at it!

What have we come to? Acronymaniacs.

[giglet.livejournal.com]

Get beta readers for canon, and full speed ahead!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Have already got the wondersome Lazlet to deal with all my canon needs. So, I guess it's just close your eyes and go.

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

Squee. HP fic. (And I'm all aquiver to know this pairing. Will it still have Draco? Oh please? I'd love to see you do a Draco.)

My first HP fic took me months and months and months. (Posted 4th September, started 16th March.) And not just because it was 10k-odd words long. But because I was having to figure out and refigure out and adjust and rework my perceptions of the characters as I went.

Ordinarily, I knock out a heap of smaller stories, playing with these two characters, then those two, then some others, until I have a feeling for a whole stable of characters who I can then bring together in more intricate ways. However, with Unfinished Business I was trying to bring them all together into the be-all and end-all story (for me) with my first go. It was hard. I had no practice with these characters. I didn't know how to work them around on the page to get what I wanted. I had to learn as I went. Very, very difficult.

I think part of the trouble of getting into a new established fandom is the barrage of imagery, and the desire to write every story you can think of at once. (At least, I think that was my problem.) It can be overwhelming. Getting into HP was the first and only time it's happened to me. Getting into X-Men, I had a focus on a single rare-pairing, so that drew me in along a single line, and I was resisting Lotrips so much that only Viggorli made it under the wire (and anyway, I got in when it was pretty embryonic). And even though I was single-pairing oriented in HP - Harry/Draco - there was still such a huge wealth of exploration of that pairing already done.

I'm just rambling now. I don't think I've said anything of true interest for a paragraph of so. Probably a sign to finish.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh no, on the contrary, this is very, very interesting, and a lot of it echoes with me as well. The bit about getting in on a fandom act when the fandom is still in an embryonic stage: I think that makes a *huge* difference, and that's the only type of fandom I've ever written in. I entered Lotrips within a month of it taking off, and I invented Wainthropp double-handedly with Demelza, and I got into Ned Kelly before the movie had even hit England. The only long-established fandom I've ever written in is lotr-fps and that was all right because a) I was very familiar with the canon via lotrips anyway and b) I chose (as you did with X-Men) a completely rare orc pairing. So I sort of appropriated that rather scary fandom for *me*.

It's very interesting what you say about trying to stuff everything in at once. This is what I'm finding is happening. I started out with a pithy little focus-on-one-plotpoint bunnylet, and now it's mushrooming into this web of character interrelations and philosophical musings. I'm not sure whether to prune it back brutally and go for focus, or whether to go with the flow and see where it takes me. At the moment, I'm going with the flow, so maybe it will also take me months, as it did you! But it's good to know that others also take months to finish something.

I can't find your Unfinished Business. The manflesh site only has lotrips and I can never figure out the viscerate.com index page; half the time it makes my screen freeze up.

Interesting about your having to refigure the characters as you went along. Hm, I can see this happening to me. And the barrage of fanon in HP is overwhelming. I'm trying to stop myself from reading any but it's hard because, while I'm immersed in this HP fic, I feel uninterested in reading Lotrips and itching to read some HP -- but every fic I read just clouds my vision and makes it harder finding *my* Draco, *my* Harry and so forth.

And yes, I guess I can divulge that much without incurring writer's block: I still have Draco in there. In fact, turns out, that in HP, I'm a Draco!Sue -- scary revelation. Before I figured that out, I couldn't really write anything that satisfied me; I kept doing Harry-pov and wondering why I was bored with my own prose. It's so important to know one's Sue!! (Well, whom am I telling this to? *winks* Sue!wallower extraordinaire! )

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

http://www.viscerate.com/hp - I like to keep my fandoms in separate sandboxes, otherwise the muses mix and I start waking up from dreams where I've convinced myself a Draco/Orlando story is a good idea. *g*

Ma'am, in my opinion, Harry-POV is not worth writing. I mean, canon is Harry-POV. The whole point of fanfic is to get other perspectives, thus: let's talk about Draco (baby). Or Ginny, or Hermione, or Ron, or Snape, or... yes. Anyone but Harry. We know about Harry, already.

I've always found writing from a Draco view a fun and invigorating exercise. A variety of Draco-voices have amused me. I also cannot sing the praises of Ginny enough - she's my Mary-Sue, I guess, or closer to true: she's my Miranda. *g*

Just get it all down at this stage, I guess. You can decide what to do with it a bit later. Also - while I was writing my debut epic, I also sketched in various smaller vignettes (on the website - "Eden", "Trust", "Ambush") which helped me shape my story in progress and get out other aspects of the characters, even though I didn't post any of them until I was finished the epic.

Any which way, I thoroughly look forward to seeing what you come up with. But that's pretty much the usual state of affairs. *g*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I did end up finding your Unfinished Business (ingenuity will pay off! You told me you posted it on 4 Sept so I went to your calendar and found it via your LJ -- not for nothing was I in a detectival fandom!) but I don't want to read it until after I've written mine. Have downloaded it, though. (Heh, which is the online equivalent of 'Have you read that article?' 'No, but I photocopied it.')

How is your rl writing going? Are you finding that you're having much the same issues as you do when writing fanfic, or are the problems and the joys of a different sort?? What's better, what's worse, what's more and what's less of a challenge?
Very interesting about the Harry pov being canon; that hadn't occurred to me but is perfectly true, of course. Still, I have read some phenomenal Harry-povs: Resonant's Transfigurations, and Fearless Diva's Tissue of Silver -- which has multiple povs, how scrumptious! but mainly Harry. So I wouldn't diss a Harry pov out of hand. Still, I myself personally could somehow not manage it.

Also, writing from Draco's pov gets me off the hook as regards having to describe his appearance and that's one of the greatest side effects of pov, I find: you can just skirt that whole looks issue entirely. (Although I do have to laugh at bad!fic writers who have their Sues walking past mirrors a lot or musing about their own silken hair...)