#hollowedwrites

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For anyone who missed it, I'm publishing an original novel under a pen name:

(Edit: The book is out now on Amazon)

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I'm writing my first fic, so are there any tips to write Harry so I don't Butcher his character, lol

Like, I can try and give advice, but writing is such a personal journey, and it can work very differently for every writer. Like, what works for me and helps me to stick to his character might not work for you.

What I can tell you is that the first HP fic I ever wrote had a Harry I will now consider OOC.

It's not the worst I've seen, but I know I'm better at it now than 4 years ago when I wrote that story because I know him better, and I became a better writer. But that first story has an OOC Harry, an OOC Voldemort, and, well, a lot of other characters are OOC there, too. I'm pretty sure Sirius is the only one I consider somewhat in-character in that story, lol.

I can explain what I do, which again might not work for you. The only way you'd know what does work for you is if you try different methods, experiment, and learn. Becouse if you know what you're doing and you're a good enough writer, there aren't a lot of rules you can't break or characterization you can't pull off. And to become a good writer there is no way other than writing. And reading. A lot.

You just gotta start writing and figure out what methods work for you to get the characters the way you envision them.

Also, please remember fanfic is supposed to be fun. I might be super picky about Harry's characterization, but I promise you there are a lot of readers who aren't and would be happy to read a good story even if Harry isn't characterized perfectly. As I said, I wrote some bad OOC fic in my life (40+ bad wips that would never see the light of day). These bad fics were necessary so I could get good. Becouse to get good, you need to start somewhere. So, as I said, write, don't be scared of making mistakes, figure out what works for you, and trial and error your way to victory.

That being said, this is my list of what I do to write any character consistently and in character, not just Harry, (and some writing advice in general, really):

1. Get the mannerism right

What I mean by that is that characters, like human beings, are capable of a lot under the right circumstances. When writing a fic a character isn't going to stay the same as in canon if their situation changes, so I find it more useful to think of how characters do/say things rather than what they do. Basically, any character can do anything and it would feel in character if the circumstances and how they go about it make sense.

For me, I know dialogue is one of my strengths as a writer, and I put effort into learning characters' dialects and speech patterns. Harry would use the word "bloke" and not "guy". He never uses "Bloody hell" or "Blimey". Harry's swears are often censored from the books, so I take it Harry says "fuck" or "sodding hell". When he thinks mid-sentence he says "er..." often. Harry, in general, doesn't speak as often as Ron or Hermione.

Ron, on the other hand, says "bloody hell" and "Blimey" often. He also says "mate" a lot. Hermione rarely shortens words. Often in the books, she would say "we are" rather than "we're" and is generally more formal in her speech. She also uses more words than both boys to get the same point across.

All these little patterns of speech add a lot to the characters feeling like themselves. The choice of words matters more than what they're actually saying, a lot of times. The what can be heavily influenced by the circumstances but the how should be familiar.

Let's take a reaction of surprise to the same good thing happening:

"Blimey, I can't believe it," said Ron, grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh, that's wonderful," Hermione said, smiling and turning to Ron and Harry, "You can see this too, right?"

"That's brilliant," said Harry, grinning at the sight of [thing].

So, these sorts of details just add a lot to characterization and I find that if you can pull the voice and mannerisms off, you can pull off almost any actions, and the character would feel in character as long as it's not outrageous.

2. "Character Bible"

I usually have a little "character bible" which is like 6-10 commandments of how the character needs to behave (key personality traits and behavior), and when I'm editing, I go back to it. What you choose to put in your "character bible" can change depending on what matters to you more as a writer. For Harry, my character bible is something like this:

Says more in his head than outside his head.

Snarks back when threatened, hot-headed when in emotional distress, doesn't say anything if it's a possibility (unless he likes who he's talking to).

Wit. Wit. Wit. (add witty remarks in narration or dialogue if the opportunity arises. Sarcastic humor is good for Harry's narration).

Very talented and smart, very low self-worth

Awkward, but no one but him knows this

"I won't!" (He does not do well with authority or direct orders. The quote is from GoF when he resists the imperious curse)

Trust issues galore (he doesn't really trust anybody besides Sirius. Only in HBP does he start to tell Ron and Hermione everything).

Selectively observant (Harry observes what he cares about. If he doesn't care, it might as well not have been there) and super judgmental in his narration.

Wants to be left alone and be content and safe.

3. Edit.

I'm sorry to say it, but reading through your own writing again and again and fixing it up every time helps so much. After I finish writing a chapter I take a break to go to bed and then come back the next day and reread the chapter with new eyes and correct everything that seems out of character, any phrasing that feels awkward, spelling and grammar errors if I notice them. But this first go-through immediately after is mostly for characterization, voice, and plot.

In general, during a first draft, your goal is to get it written, making it good is what editing is for. That's why my mantra during the process of writing the first draft is: "I'll fix it in post".

4. Let the character take the wheel

This is more specific to my own writing method, but, you know how there are method actors? So I'm a method writer. Sorta, I'm half-joking.

What I mean by this, is that I get to know a character by writing them (a lot) and then I don't really need to think about it. Like, I just write what feels right to the character. Like, whenever I'm unsure about a scene, I'd go: "Harry take the wheel" and just type what the character thinks, in my mind. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's sort of discovery writing in small limited doses, essentially. I sort of let the character take over for the scene. Like I'm not writing the story, just typing it. Kinda like demonic possession, just, not.

I know it's not really the characters and that I'm writing it, I just find this process hard to explain. When you write a character a lot and often, you can become capable of writing them naturally. Almost like breathing. Like writing your own narration, except, it isn't. But it takes effort to get to this point.

Again, this won't necessarily work for everyone, but it's what I found works for me.

5. Unsure? Open the books

The books exist and if you're unsure how Harry would react to something, just, check. I have an ebook version of GoF open when I'm writing my fic, which takes place in GoF. So, if I'm unsure how Harry would phrase something or react to something, I just check.

6. Get a Beta Reader

My best advice though, is to find a fandom friend to beta read for you, someone you trust to tell you if you're writing OOC and help you fix it (preferably they would also be a writer). Becouse sometimes you don't see it yourself after you just wrote it. My beta for my fic also helped me write my novel, and she knows me as a writer, I know her as a writer, and she knows what sort of things she needs to pay attention to in my writing and vice versa.

That first OOC fic I mentioned? I let her read it, and she told me that the pacing is crap and Harry is acting off (in nicer words, she was very polite about it, but that's what she meant). And that sort of feedback is invaluable for improving and I'm incredibly grateful to her.

Sometimes, you need to hear the truth, even when it's unpleasant, that's how growth happens.

(Now she practically never comments on characterization or pacing, improvement!)

7. Perfect is the enemy of good

I don't think my characterization of Harry is perfect. I don't think my writing is perfect. Whenever I go back to edit, I always find more stuff to fix. But there is a point where you gotta stop fixing it and just post it. Because you'll never know how it will go if you don't do it.

At some point, after all the editing, you just need to declare your work is "good enough" (having a beta really helps in telling when "good enough" is, especially at first, since most writers tend to be hyper-critical of their own work). You'll always reread your work and think "oh, I could've wrote this line better" or "oh, that sounds wrong" even after you post it (but so could the best authors to ever live, I'm sure. It's just how it is).

So, It won't be perfect, nothing ever will. But it can still be great and amazing and make someone's day, even if it isn't "perfect".

So, don't be scared to make mistakes or butch it up on your first attempt, you're human, you're learning, and you can improve. But that can only happen if you start writing because nothing teaches better than hands-on experience.

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Chapter 22 of my nottpott fic, A Matter of Chance, is out!

When Harry’s wand gets stolen at the Quidditch World Cup, things go just a little different. A matter of chance. He loses sight of the Weasleys and Hermione and instead runs into Theodore Nott. This is what happens when two abused boys form an unlikely friendship that will, eventually, turn into more. A small chance encounter that would alter plans years in the making and disturb the course of wizarding history.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/58591141/chapters/164893273

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Hello ( ￣▽￣) , me again, but i was wondering if you use a writing program? and, if so, which one do you like/recommend? I've been using Google docs on my phone cuz I don't really have access to a computer/laptop, and it's a pian in the ass trying to organize that shit lol

Have a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious~🎵 day❤️❤️❤️

Hello again 👋

I have tried a lot of writing programs, but I always go back to Google Docs. I have a computer, it's not a laptop but one of the big computers that rest at your desk, so I can't really bring it with me everywhere. Google Docs is just the most comfortable to me to write on my phone while I'm on the go, and then open the same doc on my computer to edit it properly. (I wrote on my phone a lot while using public transportation to and from work, so I get it. Though Docs starts struggling when you pass the 30k words mark on a single doc in the phone version. It's why I tend to split up my writing docs).

Also, it's what my beta finds easiest to use when working on the same doc as me (their edit mood and how they save editing history is really good for collaborating and knowing what changed, by who, and when). I wish there was a better app for it since I'm not a huge fan of docs, but all the ones I tried lacked features I consider essential or weren't as friendly to use.

As for organization? Well, I'm a fan of making a lot of folders and sub-folders. I have this crazy folder tree split into original writing and fanfic, then fanfic is split into fandoms and within the HP fandom folder it's divided into ships or central theme (I have a few Gen ones there) and within each ship there are ganere sub-folders (like "time travel" or "soul mate au" or anything else) It really depends on the folder what I use as the sorting system. In my nottpott folder, for example, almost all the fics are light canon divergence so I divide them by the year the story starts in ("3rd year", "4th year", "5th year", "AU")

That's my organization method for the writing itself, but I don't do most of the planning/organizing on Google Docs. Like, I have a few placeholders in the doc I'm writing in to give me a general direction while writing, but outlining, character docs, and worldbuilding I write in Notion.

I don't know if you're familiar, but the basic plan is free (both the phone and computer versions, and all edits are synced up across platforms), and it's so useful for organizing. You can make pages really pretty there, and the databases are really useful for searching information you already wrote for yourself. I never really needed anything outside the free version, as the free plan allows you to make plenty of workspaces with as many pages as you want as long as you don't share them.

Here are some examples of what's going on in my HP notion intended to help my fic writing (and meta, a bit). It's mostly lists of stuff I like to be able to find quickly and easily filterable & searchable databases:

I do outlining and plot planning on Notion too. It's just not pictured because of spoilers.

I also have a notion like the above for worldbuilding, character planning, and outlining for my original writing (Iridescent). It's really useful to have one place to go to that has everything organized like a wiki of sorts.

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So, I'm really excited to reveal this, literally waited months, but...

I've written a book

A completely original work that has nothing to do with HP published under a pen name.

The book is titled Iridescent and is a detective fantasy set in Victorian England — think Sherlock Holmes meets H.P. Lovecraft. I'll post here and on my Twitter more information as we near the publication date.

Available February 8th

(Edit: Available now)

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After drawing this art of Sirius, it got me in the mood to keep with the old picture frames, so what's a better fit than drawing my own characters from the late 1870s? (also an excuse to draw Victorian suits)

These two are the main detective duo from my book Iridescent, and I love them and the bizarre Otherworld around them dearly.

(I plan on drawing more from my book and I have two almost ready pieces, so watch out for that 👀)

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Obviously it's a nottpot fic but my tomarrymort ears did perk up at brother wands usually being between "family, close friends, or even lovers" lol. Anyway loved the new chapter very excited for the series!!

Lol, yeah, I do have a soft spot for tomarrymort that made it in 😅 though, Voldemort in this fic is going to be a villain and remain as such, so don't expect anything in that regard from him.

And thank you so much! I hope to have part 1 of the next work up this weekend. I'm actually really excited about some of the stuff I have planned for the next part of this series!

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Hollow Family Portrait

Continuing to draw art for my novel, Iridescent, at the request of one of my close friends and beta, I drew Arty's family. This is pre-book events — before Arty learns what he sees is real, while everyone in this picture is pretending he isn't insane. In my head, it's a few months before the first page, when the whole family went to pose for a photo, as Victorians loved to do.

(I love drawing them so I have use for all the fashion magazines I read from the late 1870s)

Made a version with their names and a version with a more historical feel to it.