Dec 13, 2021
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Writing Tag!
Tagged by @bounding-heart ❤️❤️❤️. Sorry for taking forever to reply! I also just realised there’s a “Statistics” page on AO3 to answer the questions. Yes, I’m hopeless 😅.
AO3 name: potteresque_ire
Fandoms: Harry Potter (Drarry), have also dipped my toes in Yuri!On Ice (Victuuri), Good Omens (Ineffable Hubbies).
Tropes: Hmm. I don’t think of fics by tropes -- I don’t search for fics by tropes or start writing with a trope in mind, but I do enjoy many of them and they do pop up in my stories every now and then. Enemies-to-lovers is always good. Yes to pining, hurt/comfort...
Number of fics: Leaving out drabbles and ficlets ... around 25 (I know it’s a small number * bows head in shame *)
Fic I spent the most time on: The fic that felt like I spent the longest on was Twelve Days of Christmas. Its premise, with Draco as someone who might or might not have lost his mind and Harry, who might or might not have got there before Draco, was kinda beyond my skills to execute at the time but I tried anyway 😊. It’s also the only fic I’ve written that I found truly depressing, because it’s got the worst fate I’ve given Harry by far (and I’ve assigned MCD to him several times)(sorry).
Fic I spent the least time on: For time-spent-per-word, The Kitchen Thieves (and the Kitchen Herself).
Longest Fic: Also The Kitchen Thieves (and the Kitchen Herself) (67k).
Shortest Fic: Among those I’ve given fic-level attention -- written with recipient in mind, edited and beta’ed — probably Owlcards and Letters from Beyond the Storm (~3.6k). Its time-per-word ratio was high though, because it was in a mixed media format and much time was spent on the images and fitting the text to them.
Most hits: Evolution, which has never ceased to surprise me. I assumed, at the time of posting, that this fic would be too event-less (opposite of eventful) to attract readership.
Most kudos: Evolution
Most comment threads: Owlcards and Letters from Beyond the Storm (published on LiveJournal; the fic is celebrating its 10th birthday this year.)
Most bookmarks: Evolution
Total word count: 362,612 according to AO3. It counts all the shorts and metas as well.
Favourite fic I wrote: Oh, this is difficult! My feelings towards my work tend to stem from the memories I have of the writing period, from who I was at the time, rather than from how the story turned out or how well it’s been received. Owlcards, for example, is highly significant for personal reasons but given the special circumstances of its birth, I doubt I can create something similar again even if I dearly wish I could.
From a more fannish perspective, I think my answer would be The Kitchen Thieves (and the Kitchen Herself), because I felt it best captured the Harry/Draco dynamics I was aiming for.
Why it was so, I think, is the same reason why this fic hasn’t been attractive to potential readers: its narration came from neither character of the main ship (it’s only after this fic that I learned it’s quite an unpopular thing to do). I’m not good at thinking like a person in love (deep-end aro-ace reporting here 😊) and while I’m getting better at “faking it”, I suspect there’s still a whole plethora of emotions I’m missing. But I’ve trained myself to read the signs of romance for years, taught myself how to approach people, real or fictional, caught in that whirlwind of emotions that leave me confused more often than I’d like to admit. Tumblr fandom is so much about pointing at a pair of characters and saying “they’re in love” (or, ”that’s gay”)... and I don’t really possess that drive, or insight, inherently. (For those who know Good Omens the series, I totally missed Aziraphale’s look after Crowley handed him back the books. That’s how bad I can be at picking up the signs of romance.) I’m therefore used to being a … somewhat removed observer of ships, sympathetic (hopefully) but not necessarily empathetic, and it’s easier for me to write about them that way. TL;DR: Kate the kitchen spirit in The Kitchen Thieves has a bit of me sometimes, staring at Harry’s and Draco’s crazy way of loving and going Whoa???
(Apologies for the TMI! I’ve got a super lovely string reviews on AO3 this week (thank you so much ❤️, V, I treasure all of them) and it got me thinking, it got me to notice that aside from the “you make me cry” comments, I also get a lot of reviews that mention the complexity, the ... heavy-handedness of my writing. I wonder if some of it is compensation. Because I don’t feel the romance of the story as much as many readers probably do, I layer on more emotions because I fear they don’t feel present, that they read inadequate. True? Not true? Something for me to think about. Regardless, I’ll probably keep layering because the emotions are there for myself, as well.)
Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: The only fic I’ve ever had a sequel for in my mind is Memoria in Aeterna (yes, @bounding-heart, the bee fic!). The third Wizarding War would’ve broken out, and Draco, who’d long sequestered himself in the Water Quadrant, would’ve found the courage to re-enter society and join Harry for the fight. No happy endings for anyone. I don’t think I’ll write it up though; the climate of fandom has changed so much.
Share a bit of a WIP or a story idea you’re planning on: Here’s a bit from the (very) long Good Omens fic I’m currently struggling with:
===
Dead too, by the end of that snow shower, was any prospect of a future together between an angel and a human. Please forgive me for prying, Robbie would say to Aziraphale one day, while standing in front of the photo in the gentlemen club in Pall Mall. But I can’t be in love with someone I don’t even know the name of. Aziraphale would hold on to the books he’d been gifted, a collection of the Writer’s first edition works, nod and say lightly, I forgive you, before swallowing the words he’d practised saying over and over again in the bookshop.
My name is Aziraphale.
I’m an angel.
He wept that night, and several nights after, but unlike the many times he’d watched Romeo and Juliet, nobody was watching over him in the shadows.
Aziraphale was alone.
Meanwhile, a few districts down from Mayfair, the demon who’d known this all along, that mortals and immortals could never be mates without deceit and heartbreak, was stirring on a beam. The floor of the living room had disappeared under the letters her colleagues had slipped under the door over the years—commendations addressed to A. J. Crowley, DR letters complaining about the humanity of her new name. They’d piled high, and in twenty-four more years, one of them would reach high enough to tickle the demon’s nose.
She’d wake with a sneeze.
===
Tagging everyone who wants to do it!! :)
Tag 9 game
Rules: tag 9 some people you want to know better or catch up with, then answer these questions!
Thank you so much @kikibluemay! Sorry for being so late ❤️.
3 ships: Draco Malfoy / Harry Potter (Harry Potter) Wei Wuxian / Lan Wangji (The Untamed) Aziraphale / Crowley (Good Omens)
Last song: 長相思, the theme song of the c-drama 長安十二時辰. It’s a GORGEOUS song, and I’ve been trying to memorise its lyrics given it’s by the ultra famous ancient Chinese poet Li Bai 李白 (701-762BCE):
Last film: Parasite (2019) Not that it’s part of the meme, but I’m also watching a Taiwanese mini-drama called 通靈少女 (The Teenage Psychic, 2017; also on Hulu). It’s a simple story, certainly not a grand production, but for those who likes The Untamed, you can see how some of the fantasy elements in the c-drama (for example, the talismans), which originate from a mix of ancient religions and myths (local and imported), remain part of real, modern lives.
Currently craving: Sugar in any form. I should go eat lunch now!
Currently reading: 1984, George Orwell.
Tagging: Everyone who sees this is tagged, as usual!
First Lines
rules: post the first line of one of your wips and tag as many people as there are words
Thank you for tagging me @magpiefngrl!!
1) All Things Bright and Beautiful (Good Omens, multi-chaptered Aziraphale/Crowley + unrequited Aziraphale/God + Crowley/Jesus. Canon Divergence.) (In which God, in Her loneliness and distraction, created Aziraphale as Her very first angel. Meanwhile, Crowley was the heartstring She pulled out of Aziraphale ... except God had soon forgotten about her and Crowley ended up imagining herself to become an angel, a somewhat wriggly one born a little angry at God and the universe in general. And so began the story of two angels who’d been created as one but lived very different lives -- one who had the very best of everything in God’s Chambers, worked as the editor of God’s scriptures, and was gilded with gold; one who was undocumented and homeless, worked at the outskirts of the universe on slashed pay, and *might* have unwittingly led to the creation of Hell by asking one question at the wrong time, being unfamiliar with Heaven’s social etiquette. God’s attempt to fix Her mistakes and give Her angels a chance to get back together would become the canon of the show... while chaos happily roamed on Earth, in Heaven and Hell as nothing quite followed the script of The Ineffable Plan...) (This fic has devoured my life for the last several months. I just wrote down the last sentence of my draft yesterday evening!! YAY!! I did it!!) (Now I shall procrastinate on editing) (It’s 215k so far.) (I have no idea how to handle something so long. HELP!!!???)
God missed teatime the day She created her first angel. 2) WISPR (HP, multi-chaptered Gen, unrequited Draco/Harry. Scifi.) (In which Draco, with a destabilized mind after solitary confinement, used wizarding “genetic” technology to steal Harry’s magical signature and incorporated into his own such that he could experience Harry’s popularity and love. It didn’t bode well 🙁) (I love the concept and what I have so far, but it is very depressing to write.)
Midnight. Darkness descends upon the lab, except for the torch illuminating Draco’s bench, the potions swirling gently within the confines of its glass dish, glowing brighter as precipitates form and scatter the meagre light bestowed upon it.
3) Horns (HP, one-shot Ginny/Luna + Ginny/Harry) (Ginny remained heartbroken after her breakup with Luna, who was asexual in a world where such concept hadn’t existed and it’d led to Ginny’s misunderstanding of Luna’s feelings for her. Ginny married Harry and her broken heart led to a rocky marriage...) (This fic has been written for Pride month last year and only requires minor edits before the final beta check. It’s my first attempt to tackle queer themes directly in fic and I’m chickening to have it posted. I need a gentle kick on my arse. :) )
“Here, Gin. Have dinner first.”
I’m tagging @bounding-heart, @nerdherderette, @aibidil, @goldentruth813, @frnklymrshnkly, @tdcatsblog, @violetclarity and everyone who’s interested!
7-7-7
Go to your current WIP. Find the seventh line on the seventh page and copy and paste seven sentences below. Then tag seven other writers to do the same.
Tagged by @torestoreamends (thank you ❤️ )! This is something I’ve been working on slowly for the last few months; it was meant to be a fest fic but I had to drop out—hopefully I can find another home for it in the future.
If I manage to finish it, it’ll be my first gen fic—which is interesting, as I assumed I’d be a gen writer when I first started writing. The story is still Draco- and Harry-centric, but the focus is definitely elsewhere—which is a relief; my urge to give up usually begins when I have to write about them interacting (ugh, why do people talk? 😛). It’s also a ... wizarding sci-fi story. I’m usually a bit averse to writing about my RL experiences, not because I’ve got things to hide (I bore myself to sleep, unfortunately), but because fandom (and media, in general) has always been where I go experience what I’d never be able to, or want to experience otherwise. This story isn’t my experience (thank Merlin), but it does overlap more with the things I work with and think about in RL. Maybe that’s why I’m so hesitant to go on with it 🤔.
Anyway, enough of my babbling. Here it is~
This is meant to be yours, he says, holding the medal up with a stiff smile, as reflections of the magnesium fires from the cameras burst like fireworks on his glasses. Draco accepted his apology, and Potter took that as permission to keep confessing. Draco has every issue of the Prophet and Quibbler and the magazines with Potter in it, just so Potter can assuage his guilt.
Potter is a thief. His loot is everything Draco’s meant to have. The medal was only the first—didn’t Minister Fudge say that Draco would win a dozen of those one day? After the medal, there would be handshakes with the most powerful, the most famous; there would be guests of honour seats in state banquets, bespoke suits and robes from Savile Row and Twilfitt and Tatting’s; there would be VIP passes to Quidditch and even Quodpod games, box seats to Le nozze di Figaro and La Maledizione...
Tagging @norelationtoatticus , @kikibluemay, @bounding-heart, @disneyfanatic-kitty, @gingertodgers, @magpiefngrl, @aibidil. Anyone else who’d like to play is also tagged! ❤️
WIP Meme
I was tagged by @tdcatsblog for the WIP meme and for the following two weeks, I was wondering what to say. I have a folder-ful of incomplete fics, dating all the way back to >10 years ago, but are they still WIP? Or are they abandoned?
I starting reading through them, some of which I’d completely forgotten the storyline of. Some had me intrigued even—what was going to happen? WHY DID I STOP WHEN I’D HAD SO MANY WORDS ALREADY? I wish I can finish them, but...I don’t write the same way anymore, for better or for worse. So... the question as to whether they’re abandoned or WIP remains to be seen.
Here’s a taste of the weirdness sitting in my backup:
The Acolyte (Harry/Draco): Draco was a hairdresser serving the peasants of Hogsmeade. One day, Minister of Magic Potter visited and asked for a magical haircut that made his hair impenetrable to hair potions. As it turned out, Minister Potter had been caged by the Ministry to play a politician, a perpetual fundraiser for a bankrupt / corrupt government...while someone--their identity unknown (even to me at this point)--was moving to overthrow Harry Potter, and everything Harry Potter stood for, by means of a new found religious cult named the Herdsman of Xe, which had already caused a wave of religious fanaticism through the British countryside by mimicking the old Wizarding Patronus-based religions. It would be up to Draco to help Harry figure out what was going on... by making himself an acolyte in the cult...
(I tend to write stories with awful, awful governments...)
Other examples of Why-Can’t-I-Write-A-Happy-Story-Like-Everyone-Else:
1) Upon the Midnight Clear (Draco-centric): Draco, for his grey moral character, was sentenced to neither passing on nor walking in limbo after his death. Instead, his job was to be a sort of Dark Angel who collected the souls sucked up by the Dementors, now living far up north after the Ministry had Banished them. The Dementors became his family, and he was particularly close to a Baby Dementor who he’d named Corvus...
2) A Change of Allegiance (Harry/Scorpius): Draco pulled Scorpius out of Hogwarts when his Veela trait developed, but sent him back a few years later--so Scorpius could do his OWLs and NEWTs--while begging for Scorpius to be re-sorted Gryffindor so that Harry Potter, as Griffindor’s head of house and the Defence of Dark Arts teacher, could watch over his son. It turned out that Scorpius’ destined mate was a terrible human Scorpius’ humanity refused to / could never be together with, and it would be up to Harry, divorced and an asexual himself, to figure out what to do with Scorpius’ mating urges that could never be quelled...and the heartbreak they brought for the young Malfoy....
3) Lila (Harry/Draco): Lila was the teenage daughter of Harry and Draco and the narrator of the story. Harry and Draco’s marriage was on the rocks when the story began... then, Harry murdered for his Auror job, and he got pregnant with the tiny piece of his soul that had turned loose but didn’t become a Horcrux (the murder, while intentional, was done for a non-evil cause). It was then Lila learned that she was born of the same circumstance, out of a killing...
4) Fallen (Harry/Draco): Frayach’s Powerful Men, written in Draco’s POV. It was a mess, but I’m including this since @tdcatsblog has a Frayach-related writing project too. This may be the exercise I will redo <3.
Tagging...er, I dunno. Everyone who wants to play?
Tag Meme
Rules — tag 9 people you want to get to know better and answer the questions
Tagged by: @dewitty1 Thank you for the tagging! Sorry for the late response... I always chicken a little (um, a lot) before making Tumblr posts. Trying to defeat that tendency. 😊
Relationship status: Single
Favorite color: Red / Blue / Grey / White / Black
Top three ships: Drarry remains my true OTP! Far behind is Victuuri, different Potter-Malfoy combinations, Snarry...
Lipstick or chapstick: Chapstick
Last song: Disturbed — The Sound of Silence (still can’t decide whether I like this version or the Simon & Garfunkel version better)
Last movie: PK (Indian Film 2014) on Netflix. I still haven’t caught Crimes of Grindelwald yet 😢, although I’ve read the script twice already.
Currently reading: Chaos by James Gleick on Kindle. Snuff by Terry Pratchett in audio format. It’s the first time I’m trying to listen rather than read Terry Pratchett and it’s been a smidge difficult to catch all the words so far...
Tagging... I don’t know, I’m so late into this! Anyone who’d like to play, I guess?
Fic Tropes Game!
Thank you for tagging me @magpiefngrl !! ❤️
Rules: Copy/paste and bold your fic preferences because why not, gotta choose one (near impossible, but go with your first gut instinct), and tag someone because, again, why not.
slow burn or love at first sight
fake dating or secret dating
enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers
oh no there’s only one bed or long-distance with correspondence (I like clandestine ... forbidden ... before the smut :P )
hurt/comfort or amnesia
fantasy au or modern au (Not quite sure what modern au means, but for the fandom I’ve written -- HP and GO -- I prefer fics that do not rely too much on mobiles / cell phones. While the devices in RL greatly expand our world, I tend to find them restricting in fiction because they diminish the role of the character’s physicality and the setting in pushing the story forward.)
mutual pining or domestic bliss (Yes! Give me enough pine to shame Ikea!!)
smut or fluff (I like my fluff in short doses, preferably as scenes in longer stories with less fluffy elements).
canon compliant (missing scenes) or fix-it fic (I don’t quite understand how fix-it fic is different from fics in general -- all fics modify some elements of canon to something else we’d like to see -- other than the name “fix-it” carries a whiff of contempt / spite that I prefer not to include in my fandom experience. 😊)
alternate universe or future fic
one-shot or multi-chapter (Depends on length? Funny question -- not answering :P)
kid fic or roadtrip fic
reincarnation or character death
arranged marriage or accidental marriage (Um... not a fan of marriage being the centre of the plot in general.)
high school romance or middle-aged romance (I love reading about how experiences shape one’s perspective on love and everything else.)
time travel or isolated together (Time travel is ... difficult to get right. I’m picky about it.)
neighbours or roommates
sci-fi au or magic au (I’m not a big fan of AU in general, largely because so much of my love for HP has to do with its universe. But when an author is skilled enough to make it work, I’m extra impressed.)
bodyswap or genderbend
angst or crack (I absolutely ADORE good crack stories, but those are incredibly difficult to come by.)
apocalyptic or mundane (I found myself thinking for a long time about this one. My first thought was I prefer apocalyptic, but then, the more I think about it, I think... I want to read strong, multi-faceted emotions, but I also want to read about them stemming from relatable events. Being able to evoke emotions from the mundane is a far greater test of a writer’s skill -- and far more satisfying to read when the writer manages to pull it through -- than when the same emotions were achieved by simply referencing a very sad historical / apocalyptic event.)
Let me tag... @llap115-reblogs !!