MetaFic

Like Jonathan_Avery, I've read a few of hgfan1111's stories and generally liked all of them. I seem to like her stories, however, the more AU they are. As such, I liked Brighter Than Sunshine, despite the cliched premise, as well as this story, and it is shaping up to be my favorite. So far, the story is very... character driven, with really truly little happening in the story regarding an overarching plot. But that's fine, because the author writes the characters very well, and provides interesting insights into the character's heads that make just spending time with them fun to do. As a side note, the author has written eight chapters of this so far, but only four have been posted on FF.net or SIYE. You can read through chapter 8 if you have a LJ account and get added to the author's friends list on LJ. Here is a link to the LJ, where the author also runs little mini contests in relation to the story.

http://cibjasfad.livejournal.com/

Grammar: 3
Prose: 4
Plot: 3
Characters: 4
Originality: 4 (Original? Probably not. Best in class of this genre? Sure.)
Cannon: N/A
Overall: 3.6

First of all, let me say that I really enjoy her stories. I only skimmed the new one as I've been too damn busy to do... well, anything.

So obviously, I'm not going to rate this story, at least not yet.

That being said, I don't really read her stories as HP fanfiction. Sure, the characterisations are okay in a general sense, but Harry and Ginny could easily be substituted with any two magical people. With a few more stretches, they wouldn't even need to be magical.

Because of that, I can't say I'm all that crazy about them. I like them, but I like stories that tickle my grey cells more. There's so much you can do in a world of magic. Sure, you can do an angst-conflict-romance stories, too, but you're not even near the full potential.

Also, I might be a bit dense about this, but the last three (I think) stories look too similar to me. I'm still going to read them, I'm going to like them and enjoy them, but I'll never think they're amazing and awesome.

And truthfully, those of you, who are familiar with my private life, probably know that I can't even get fully into some of her stories as I lack certain experiences most people go through (for which I'm more than thankful).

Oh, hell, it's not really a secret. I'm 22 (almost 23) years old. My fiancée and I have been together for almost 8 years and we've known each other since we were in nappies. The maths here is simple. In that regard, my life has been a fairy-tale, and even while I can understand that it usually doesn't work that way in real life, I simply have no tolerance or understanding for all the drama (and angst) that appears in such fics.

You may consider me small-minded or idealistic or whatever, but can you really understand a war if you've never been in one, either as a soldier fighting, or a civilian hiding in a basement?

If you haven't, you know wars are there, that they're ugly and that's about it. You might be empathic about the situation, but you don't really know what's it like (and be glad you don't).

Same works here.

Then again, I know Kristina likes hgfan1111's stories more than I do (and naturally, she has the same experience), so maybe, just maybe, I'm being a little bit 'Ron' about it. Who knows?

And Jonathan, I'm sorry if I managed to hijack your thread with this rant.

I felt I had to say a bit more...

I certainly appreciate the quality of her prose. I even like her style. It's just that I don't find her plots all that interesting.

Also, people enjoy fiction more if they can identify with the protagonists. Because of the aforementioned reasons, I have a hard time doing that, and that's probably a reason why I don't enjoy her work more.

I more than respect her work, I'm just not a big fan.

I really hope someone has some understanding for my rambles.

I'll shut up now.

I am a huge fan of hgfan1111 and became so when she first started posting Seeking the Silver on SIYE earlier this year. We have actually become good "internet friends," a friendship that began after I started leaving rather long, witty, and sarcastic reviews to Seeking. Eventually, several other SIYE women readers got on the bandwagon and I official dubbed them the Silver Minxes. There are some very talented authors in that group including deadwoodpecker (of Backward with Purpose fame, and another good "internet friend."), Kezzabear, and lilyevans_jan30.

Andi (Hgfan1111) is an excellent writer and has a great grasp of the characters of Harry and Ginny. She is definately an angsty writer. I am personally not a huge fan of Harry/Ginny angst, especially angst for the sake of angst. Despite this, I have throughly enjoyed all of Andi's stories. Andi is in my opinion a great angst writer for several reasons. One reason is the fact that her angst has a definate purpose in her stories and typically functions to move her stories' plots along. She almost always successfully (IMHO) balances out the angst of her stories with happy outcomes and positive experiences for our favorite couple. She is also excellent about updating her stories, owing to the fact that she never begins posting a story until she has completely finished writing and revising it.

I am having a lot of fun with her new story Easier to Be. I highly recommend her stories to everyone, especially lovers of Harry/Ginny. Easier definately is the least angsty of her stories (at least up until this point) and I eagerly await to see how it continues to unfold!

Chris (Pooky)

I can't say I really understand what an "angst writer" is, considering that angst is hardly a genre.

Although, I have to say I disagree. She doesn't use angst to move the plot. She uses it to create the plot. Resolving the "angsty" situation with a romance is a common theme throughout her stories. That "angsty" situation is usually caused by something the characters have no control over, basically what I started calling a "torture plot device."

Btw, I skimmed this story (Easier to Be) on her LJ, and I'm having second thoughts about actually reading it. Someone who actually read the chapters can correct me, but this story is looking like an excuse for PWP.

It's definitely not PWP, if only because the first P in that acronym hasn't happened after over ten chapters. Yes, the plot is very simple and to the point. Boy meets girl, girl meets boy. Boy has secret, girl discovers. Etc. It's not like it hasn't been written before. However, is it well written? Yes. Are the characters interesting enough? I find them so. Is it actually Harry Potter? That's a bit tougher. It is, insomuch as that Voldemort is the cause of both past pain for the main characters, as well as the underlying cause of the angst in the plot. Things are different though, as the AU flag indicates. Ginny was 14 and not 11 when she wrote in the diary. Someone died, and Harry did not rescue her. Large portions of the mechanics of Harry's life have yet to be explained, but it's obviously nothing like canon. I'd say the characters act like... extrapolated versions of their canon selves, only tainted by the extra details of the past added in the AU.

Really?

I'm asking because the simplicity of the plot makes it look like it's only there to create an excuse for the racy parts.

Honestly, I think this story is considerably 'weaker' than her other work.

Perhaps it will 'devolve' into that in the future, but as of its current progress descriptions of the physical side of any relationship have been basically nonexistent. I do think it's a weaker plot than some of her other stories, if only because there is (so far) much less of a central tragedy that defines the lives of the characters.

Oh, I don't know. Recall the reason that Ginny starts the story under so much supervision from her family? (I'll avoid spoilers in case anybody wants to read it fresh, it's revealed in the second chapter.) That's pretty damn tragic. And we haven't seen much of Harry's past but what we have seen was quite brutal enough.

I was just thinking in comparison to some of her previous works. Possible spoiler examples below, so stop reading if you haven't read her stuff.

Seeking the Silver - forced marriage contract; goes badly.
Learning to Fly - betrayal and attempted suicide for Harry.
Brighter than Sunshine - years spend under the impression H & G are dead.

Ginny's past, and Harry's, is tragic. But compared to those, the Chamber event seems fairly tame, regardless of whether it was more difficult than the Chamber event of canon.

With all that said, I do like the story a lot. And, the porn officially starts on chapter twelve, for those keeping track. :)

If the PWP element starts to dominate then it would be similar to Prodigal Daughter where large chunks of chapter were spent with H&G rutting to the detriment of the story.

My own view is that the story is ok, but its not one where I get excited when I see there's a new chapter. Mind you, anyone that talks about having tea with cream has to work harder to get me to like the rest of the story :p

Not in the version which will be posted on SIYE and fanfiction.net, as I understand it. The racier versions (for want of a better term...they make my heart speed up a bit, I must admit ;-) are posted on LJ, and I believe they are to become friend-locked if they aren't already.

Oh, and for some bizarre reason, the "locally preferred" term seems to be "puff" not "porn" which confuses me mightily: my quest for understanding continues...