Twisted Tuesdays, The Weekly Zym Options

[zymurgy]

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

The Importance of Being G.

J.K Rowling has long since abandoned the idea that her books are for kids. Ron Weasley has ceased merely saying things “he wouldn’t if his mother were there,” and gets his French into solid print. Draco is no longer content with a mere sneer, but gets some rather brutish action in this last book. And of course, Voldemort is no longer a vague and shadowy presence.

However, Project Ferret retains its policy of child-friendly stories and posts. We may not be by kids, but we are definitely proud of being for kids. Kids with a capital K.

Now, you might ask why this is so. “JK said that in her story! Why can’t I say it?”

Because, as much as Harry Potter may have spiraled into dark times and despair, we should hope that the kids who read it have not. The point of FanFiction, as I see it, is to expand, elaborate, and sometimes straight out change what was given to us by the author.

Canon, in other words, is seen as “raw material.” Even as it is worshiped, like a lump of gold, it simply isn’t pretty enough for a smith. We’ve got to play with it, twist it around, and make something new.

And boy does JK give us a wealth to work with! We have characters, a setting, a premise, and even a time period worked out for us in advance. Simply put, the only thing a Fanfic author has to do is mix and match, adding originals as he sees fit.

That being so, why choose to use what we have, which can be put to a million uses, to write a story inappropriate for children? JK has already done that; hundreds of Fanfic authors have already done that. Why not have a bit of fun in the other direction?

None of this, of course, is to say that we should present only the happiness of Harry’s world. Clean fic is not necessarily happy, simplistic, or easy. All of Half-Blood Prince, for instance, could have been rewritten, portraying the same events, but in a way more accessible to the young – it would still be HBP, just from a different angle.

There is a place for serious fic here, for sad fic, and even for certain situations that aren’t to be avoided as canon stands. However, I don’t think there’s a place for so-called “adult” fic.

Why, after all, do we write and read fanfiction? Simply because we don’t want the story to be over – we don’t accept ‘that’s all she wrote,’ for an answer. As much as we understand that Sirius flew backwards through a veil and died, we still want to know more, to see more, to have another view.

And why have that view be one where he swears like a sailor, drowns his sorrows in fire whiskey, or commits a bloody and brutal murder of Peter Pettigrew?

Of all the angles available, the least chosen seems to be that of the first floor window we started from. And it simply isn’t fair to those of us (loosely termed ‘kids,’) who are still there, to have all the fic over our heads and beyond our reach. The stories, dangled just out of our reach, with teasing summaries or teasers, make us understandably upset.

Why couldn’t that author write the really cool story, (where Ron gets kidnapped by Death Eaters and has to escape on his own, without magic, but turns out he’s really Remus in Pollyjuice, while Harry believes he’s actually Draco because he misunderstood something he overheard in a dark corridor while he was hiding from Filch, and there’s a Basilisk who wears sunglasses so that it won’t petrify people, and Neville turns out to be a member of Arborists Anonymous… ) so that we could read it? Honestly!

Finally, the importance of being K is a question of numbers. It is better to have something that everybody can read, rather than something a few, however few they may be, cannot.





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[zymurgy]

Tuesday, March 21st, 2006
Concerning Formulae

The Harry Potter books have a definite basic formula, no sense denying it. It goes like this:

1) Harry is at the Dursleys.
2) Harry is taken/driven/rescued from thence, and goes of to Hogwarts.
3) Harry is awesome at Quidditch, Magic is awesome, School is awesome, but -
4) Voldemort, or some Bad Guy (or Sirius) arrives to louse things up,
5) Harry wins, sometimes pyrrhic, but you can’t have everything,
6) He goes back to point A so we can start over next time.

The question, of course, is why this formula is hardly ever followed in fanfic.

Reason A is easy: Because we Fanficers like to be at least slightly original, and, well, not al of us are willing to write out a whole year. (Some of course, will take an entire year to write seventeen DAYS worth of action. ‘nuff said.) We’d much rather write either a slice or two of this formula, or go off on a complete tangent and have Harry Potter replace the Knight Rider, complete with a talking black techno-broom called Kitty. (Maybe not quite that far off.)

Reason B is more complicated and goes to the core of the question of why we write fanfic at all: because we aren’t satisfied with the books.

This doesn’t necessarily mean we aren’t satisfied with the quality of Rowling’s writing, (though not all of us are). Lack of satisfactions can arise from a number of factors, the most glaring being that we never want the story to be over. For fanficers, there is no such thing as an ending. What if she does kill Harry off in the end? We’ll still have dozens of people to write about, and even if we didn’t, there’s always AU.

Second cause for dissatisfaction would be the good old, “she didn’t write enough,” argument. I think, even if JK wrote an entire library full, there would still be some die hard fans out there begging for more detail on Gill Wimple, or a complex analysis of Wizarding shoe styles.

“She didn’t write enough,” has a vindictive grip on creative brains. It has us constantly questioning canon asking, why? who? what else? how? and coming up with endless ideas for various magical people and objects.

The final cause for dissatisfaction is what causes fics to be glaringly AU. It arises when we just plain don’t agree with what she DID write. This is why Sirius is still alive in some places, Harry actually grew up as the adopted child of the Tonks family, and Hermione runs off with Draco Malfoy.

Of course, not all of us would say that our desire to write stems from dissatisfaction; rampant devil bunnies, creativity and curiosity are also suspected and are currently being held for questioning. They do have the right to remain silent, but we all know they won’t.

To get back to the point, the reason that hardly any fanfic follows JK’s formula, is because, as much as many would protest, we don’t want to be exactly like JK. We want to elaborate on her work, not reproduce it.

And even if the general populace doesn’t agree with this explanation, they’ll have to admit that if we all did follow the formula, things would get pretty boring.

As a sort of postscript, here are a few popular fanfic formulas. Now, I’m not disparaging them, (ok, maybe I am a little bit) nor am I offering them as surefire means to fanfiction success. I’ve seen them done beautifully, and I’ve seen them done in ways that would make Snape sit in a corner and weep. I’m simply giving them as I have observed them as common patterns. Here goes:

ROMANCE:

1) The Main Character (Hereafter to be known as TMC) is apparently proficient at any musical instrument.
2) TMC only plays in secret but:
3) The Love Interest (Hereafter to be known as TLI) overhears and
4) They either culminate a beautiful friendship OR
5) Overcome a lifelong hate and
6) Live Happily Ever After

1) TMC is amazingly proficient at an obscure branch of magic.
2) TLI is injured, taken sick, or beaten to bloody pulp so that:
3) Only TMC’s newfound skill can save them, but:
4) TLI won’t admit it and suffers in silence until:
5) Dumbledore spills the beans and offers everybody lemon drops at which point
6) TMC solves the problem
7) They either culminate a beautiful friendship OR
8) Overcome a lifelong hate and
9) Live Happily Ever After.

1) TMC hates TLI with a passion.
2) And visa versa, but:
3) Dumbledore or a Random Meddler thinks they’d be perfect together, so they:
4) Lock them together in a room, where:
5) They overcome a lifelong hate and
6) Live happily ever after.

1) MC has a secret relationship with TLI but nobody can know about it because of
2) Voldemort and the war,
3) They’re hiding it so well, but,
4) A former friend or current enemy overhears and
5) Spills the beans, (either directly to Voldy or via Rita Skeeter) at which point,
6) TLI is captured by the Death Eaters and
7) Killed to break TMC’s heart, or,
8) Rescued so that they can
9) Live happily ever after.

DRAMA or ANGST (although neither terms make much sense…)

1) TMC is in horrible danger!
2) So are all their friends!
3) And even their puppy dog!
4) So, they discover the need for the McGuffin
5) But its behind horrible magical and mental obstacles
6) So they spend all their time trying to get it while
7) Minor Characters die like flies, until either
8) They get it and use it to win, while,
9) Major Enemy Characters die like flies, or,
10) Fail miserably while,
11) Major Protagonists die in a flood of guilty failure.

1) TMC is in horrible danger!
2) But he doesn’t know it, so –
3) SideKick runs about trying to warn him,
4) And either succeeds but jumps in front of,
5) The Killing Curse and dies, leaving
6) TMC to move on, scarred by guilt, OR,
7) Succeeds in time for them to counter it and
8) Die together like heroes and save the world, OR
9) Conquer like heroes and save the world, and then
10) Live Happily Ever After.

1) There is Evil Afoot and it wants to
2) Kill TMC! BUT first it needs to
3) Get TMC’s best friend on it’s side, who either
4) Betrays TMC and watches his fall, laughing malevolently while
5) TMC dies in tears, OR
6) Is an unwitting dupe who watches
7) TMC die while
8) Shedding tears of remorse himself.

1) Battles happen.
2) Everybody dies.
3) Except the TMC who is having all the flashbacks about:
4) The death of their best friends, some of which
5) He himself killed, either
6) For the greater good, or
7) Accidentally.
8) TMC either spends all his time
9) Visiting graves, or
10) In St. Mungoes, or
11) Somewhere far away, where nobody will ever find him again, so he can
12) Live Woefully Ever After.

(Sometimes, at this point, we start with Romance Scenario Number Two, with TMC suddenly turning into TLI.)

HUMOR

1) War? What war?
2) Somebody doing something unforgivably silly, pretending to be Muggle.
3) A Muggly doing something unforgivably silly confronted with Wizardy,
4) Any person in authority being successfully pranked,
5) Extra points if it’s with pink hair,
6) Much British slang is bandied about until
7) The Happy Ending.

1) Every other formula described yet,
2) Except that it’s funny.