The Sleeper's Den

Oh, my. Writing a long, chaptered fanfic is such a tough job. How do all you people manage it? And why don’t I?

For a year now I have been working on this story – or rather, something that started a year ago has evolved into the long thing I am working on now. I believe it must be half a year since the project took its present shape. I’ve been announcing it since forever. How many precedents are there? I have no idea. How many writers struggle with a fanfic for a long period, and after half a year still haven’t posted a word of it? Somehow this suggests to me that I am really treating this with too much sérieux, but that’s how I am. Or maybe I’m just hopeless when it comes to sustained efforts of a fictional nature.

So far I have estimated the story at 12 chapters, but I think it will turn out to be longer (I will need more time at the beginning). It will be patchy, dealing very quickly with some periods and very elaborately with others – it will span thirteen years and not all those years are equally interesting. There is an enormous cast, all of them needing pasts and manners and voices. It’s exasperating.

So far, I have written:
- part of chapter 3 (meaning: a few paragraphs)
- part of chapter 5 (a few pages)
- part of chapter 9 (one page)
- the entire chapter 10
- part of chapter 11 (about two pages).

Yes, that’s right: I have no beginning yet. I used to have one (it’s up at Occlumency under the title of Prelude), but it was shredded by HBP, and I didn’t want to go AU. Still, the chapter did contain a lot of things that I found essential in the conception of the overall story, so I would like to recover some of the material. It would go into chapter 2.

I have recently become convinced that much of my problem lies in the fact that this story is not a novel in book form, but a serialised fanfic. Because of the enormous cast, and because of the advent of HBP that tore up much of my existing backstory (Stephen and Septimia), I need a LOT of exposition. As I see it right now, there is going to be a few chapters of it. Now, if this were a book, I think a reader wouldn’t mind much – they’d read on because they’d know it is all preparation for what is coming, and, well, it’s not going to be boring, I should hope. But a reader of fanfic has to come back for the next bit. And are they going to come back just to make the acquaintance of the next batch of characters? I wonder. I don’t have much hope that they will.

My problem is that I don’t have major ‘bangs’ planned in my early chapters, and I don’t see how I could add them. I don’t have a very bang-productive mind. Also, I couldn’t write a cliff-hanger to save my life. I absolutely don’t know how I’m going to keep my readers’ attention and make them return for the next chapter.

I have even been desperate enough at times to think of turning the bits I have written into one-shots, but when I contemplated that, I was reminded of where on earth I got the idea of making it a long fic in the first place: I need too much backstory. Everything is rooted into something that came before, and if I don’t write that something, nobody knows what it is. But starting from the beginning means a lot of exposition, and a lot of exposition means no ‘bangs’, and no ‘bangs’ means no readers, and no readers means I spent a year struggling with this story for nothing.

And we’re back at the beginning :-).

In case anyone should be interested, I have recently posted a slightly trimmed and HBP-compatible version of Professor Snape's Address at the Online Wizarding Library (O.W.L.). I'm wondering if I should edit the story everywhere, or leave it as evidence of the fact that in essence the pre-HBP story still works :-)... I remember being very apprehensive about what new canon would do to it; it was the only instance of my writing something past present canon.

I had a story brewing since ... June, I think - my first funny tale (mind you, it's still a Sigune story so please don't expect to roll over the floor laughing), which to my mind was quite an event. For two months or more I struggled, would you believe it, with the ending alone :-). BUT now it's finally ready and posted at no less than three archives at once - a bit of an overreaction, I guess... However, the Sycophant Hex mods were the quickest to validate it, so if you don't want to wait for FA (where I made it into Riddikulus, *at last*!) or Mugglenet (where it is supposed to support poor ailing Gryffindor House), you can read it at Occlumency. Oh, and it's dedicated to Steph, who hopefully won't find that a cause for embarrassment... *grins*

Monkey Business
Some animals are just not meant to be pets. A tale of friendship, choices and many, many familiars.

Situated before HBP.
Rating: my usual PG
Genres: Humor, Friendship
Characters: Brynhild Bromley (sorry - she just keeps popping in), Albus Dumbledore, and Severus Snape of course.

This week has so far been rather marvellous: _grainne_ (with The Pleasure of Your Company), _vocalion_ (with The Futility of Reason), larilee (with Overnight Sensation), seaislewitch (with Wand Stories), perselus (with Confessions of a Death Eater) and yours sincerely have all done well at Sycophant Hex’s Spring Faire Festival. I don’t know about you ladies, but I am still enjoying the fact… :-P

The Spring Faire has gently reminded me that I am a writer, too, so I thought that for the occasion I’d post a snippet of fiction. I have plenty of unfinished or discarded fragments of stories floating around on my computer, and what follows is one of them. It is only fair to warn you that it has not been beta-read – I never intended it for any fanfic archive.

Then why post it here at all? Consider it a glimpse into my fanfic kitchen. Before I start writing a character ‘for real’, I need to know all about them: their favourite food, the shoes they wear, the books they read (or if they read any); but also how they were as small children, as teens, as young adults, and who their family are and what their relation to them is. My reflections about characters tend to lead to drawings, but also to snippets of text; more often than not, these remain unused – they are just a kind of exercise in getting the voices or the tone right, and they become an invisible part of the background to other stories.

As She Likes It, my Spring Faire story, is more or less the official introduction of my OFC Brynhild Bromley. (Strictly speaking she had already made an appearance in The Good-Morrow, but there she remained anonymous.) She was a long time in the making – she was the first original character I invented, but I struggled with her for a very, very long time. She would probably never have made it into (virtual) print without the encouragement of my friend Potioncat, who managed to convince me that OFCs are nothing to be ashamed of if properly written. (Yes, I did need convincing; at that time I had not yet discovered Occlumency and its enticing Original Females…)

One day I found I had Brynhild pinned. She had a large family with a history; a broomstick obsession; hobbies; a record; an evolving dress style; a career; a distinct personality; and several pets (with names, temperaments and all). She was Severus Snape’s friend from childhood. Instead of pouring the details into a list, I shaped them into a sketch – an exploration of several characters at a given moment that also features Severus as a seven-year-old, his mother Septimia, Gunhilda von Bork, and winks to my other great passions, the Wilde family and Arthurian legend. Here it is, imperfect and sketchy.

( How they met... )