MetaFic

my problem with fanfiction is only really interested in a story where the main focus is the interaction between Harry and Ginny. I will scroll down past pages of Ron and Hermione, or Remus and Tonks, or whoever, not caring what bits of the plot I will miss because I just don't want to read about them.

That said the relationship has to have some doubts Ginny has to be an equal to Harry in the relationship and Harry has to have some backbone.

At least the ball is now rolling *smiles*

I like to see time passing in a realistic fashion. It's one thing to have a couple of months where nothing much happens whisk past in a paragraph or so: it gives you the sense that time is passing, but doesn't go into excessive detail.

What I don't like is where an entire year is paraphrased in a single short chapter. This usually means that the author has had an idea about what they want to change but no idea how to execute it. If your alternate universe is that close to the original, maybe you didn't change enough. (I might not be expressing myself perfectly here, feel free to ask for elucidation.)

On the other claw, if nothing much happens, then don't tell us in excruciating detail how little is happening, unless such a thing is vital to the story…which I find very hard to believe.

I like to see realistic dialogue. Reported speech is not appropriate except in particular circumstances, which do not usually include speech by the POV character. It's one thing to vaguely hear another character mutter something indistinctly, it's quite another to fail to hear what you yourself said. Obvious non-British English, or anachronistic references, in the mouths of canon characters is another sin: a wonderful exception is "Phantom Limb" in which "Deasil" has the most perfect excuse (I won't spoil it in case someone reads this who hasn't read that one, it's quite wonderful ;-).

I like to know who's talking. Some writers manage this very well. One who immediately springs to mind is Jay Jones (aka Selector) who writes some very dialogue-heavy scenes and includes sufficient clues in the dialogue to distinguish who is talking to whom. On the other claw, endlessly repeating someone's name while talking to them is not naturalistic. Neither is info-dumping (even if you are Hermione) or speaking with unrealistic formality (even if you are Percy). On the gripping hand, a parent telling a child something which they could not be expected to know already is a perfectly good way of giving us vital clues, and formal speech in a formal setting is great…if you can write the proper idiom properly!

I like to be able to understand what people are saying. Writing Hagrid as a semi-literate barbarian with more apostrophes than a grocer on acid might look funny the first time, but it's almost unreadable. It also completely misses the point that other people have accents also. (In fact, I am of the firm opinion that the entire Weasley family should be speaking with quite strong Devonian accents, and that Ginny should sound like the Cadbury's Caramel Bunny…but that might just be in my head—oh, and points if you can get the obscure HP connection there ;-) Not to mention that Hagrid is in his sixties during Harry's school years and, despite not having completed his formal education, is by no means stupid: he wasn't an infrequent visitor to the Library because he couldn't read, he was perfectly capable of finding and using those books after all.

I like finding out what happens next. I like sagas which tell the entire sweep of consequences of a change to canon. Telling me what changed and then leaving me dangling is cruel and unusual. (Am I the only one wants "Saving Harry" to carry on into second year and beyond?)

No i have a scene with Ginny going "Now Mister Potter, why are you pottering around. Haven't you heard of Honeydukes Caramel" in her Devonian accent

I wrote a chapter 2 days ago featuring Arthur and James (pre that Halloween night) talking and distinctly mentioned that they both had Devonian accents

accents are something that bothers me at times, especially Hagrid. Not many can write the poor bloke well

What does a Devonian accent sound like, out of curiosity? Can you think of any public figures who speak that way and who I might recognize? I'm a big fan of Stephen Fry's readings of the seven HP novels, but I don't know if he uses that accent for any of the characters. He certainly doesn't seem to for the Weasleys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC0h4U5__6Y

that's a great example of a real west country accent. Even 18 years after leaving Exeter University i still miss hearing the girls from the area, they don't sound that good here in Cambridgeshire. I guess it's oone reason i keep a house in Birmingham, Al. I love the accents there almost as much

'Ginny should sound like the Cadbury's Caramel Bunny'

If that were the case, then Harry would have paid attention to her a lot earlier.

'where are you goin', Mister Potter, rushing around after them there dark lords....' Those eyelashes....

Amazing how some adverts, especially the bunny stick in the mind

now who's writing Ginny like that for a one shot

Yup, you definitely volunteered.

i'll work on it Sunday evening, that's the next free writing time i have for myself

...although I shouldn't be surprised, it's on the geeky end of obscure, I guess ;-)

.......Miriam Margolyes aka

......Professor Sprout

I have heard that in the movie Hot Fuzz all the townsfolk speak with a Devonshire accent. I have also been told that in the HP movies, Hagrid is using a Devonshire accent, although that one sounds fishy.

- A good novel is an indivisible sum; every scene, sequence and passage of a good novel has to involve, contribute to and advance all three of its major attributes: theme, plot, characterization.
Ayn Rand - The Romantic Manifesto p. 74 (pb 93)

If Ginny sounded like that bunny, Harry must have had a hearing problem. = )

Am I allowed to say that I have a bunny I'd like to work on?

No sniggering at the back.

it was everyone!

This is a bit of a necropost, but I replied to one of the other similar topics and then saw this one, so I figured I would add to it.

What I like is quite simple: I like strong, well developed characters. I like it when stories, especially those told from a first person or limited third person perspective share an internal monologue with regards to the main character that spells out the reason and thought behind the action.

I like it when cliches are explored in this manner. As an example, lots of fanfiction pigeonholes the character Ron into a couple simple categories: jealous, dense, chess-player, human food vacuum, sidekick, and carries a torch for Hermione. That's it, and those few properties permeate through the story and are reinforced often, yet never truly explored. Some require little explanation - I'm thinking about the human food vacuum here - but others actually have the potential for interesting development.

Hermione is just as much a victim of this. To lots of stories, she is one thing - a walking talking quick-reference to the Hogwarts library. In good fanfiction, Hermione is a person, and she has hopes, fears, confidence, insecurity, likes and dislikes.

I like when these other, more internal sides of characters are exposed. Viridian's Nightmares of Future's Past does this through interludes that provide extra information on events in the story by retelling them from the perspective of another character, complete with their internal musings. Some stories simply have a more omniscient narrator, or attempt to wrangle the beast that is perspective hopping on a consistent basis. Others provide those bits of detail without spelling them out explicitly, simply through detail of writing explaining a character's actions along with facial expressions and enough clues for the reader to figure it out.

However it's done, especially in fanfiction the characters are what does it for me. A truly original story, once you've hung around HP fanfiction for a while, is fairly rare. Any newer story, even ones hailed as being original, typically contain themes, motifs, cliches, or what have you, that were explored in lots of other fanfictions that came before. And for the fanfic that I read, generally Voldemort always dies in the end, so it's not so much the action itself, or the conflict itself I'm interested in, because I've read all that before. How we got there can make it extraordinary.

Nightmares of Future Past was a good example there. I loved the interludes you referred to and I'm still hoping to see one from Luna's perspective for more than one reason. I'd love to have seen Luna's conversation with the sorting hat for one, and in NoFP especially she is portrayed in such an interesting way that I would love to see a more in depth exploration of her point of view.

- SC