Notes about some things I've written.
Oct. 1st, 2004 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleAs you may know, I have serious issues about author's notes. I had another bad experience with them somewhat recently. An author put notes regarding the gimmick of the story at the end so you could have different reactions to the story before and after reading the notes. The gimmick ruined any enjoyment I may have taken from the story.
But just because I've abandoned the author's notes section of headers on my stories doesn't mean that I don't have more to say about the last couple of things I've written. So you can think of these as long author's notes or short commentaries, and you shouldn't feel obligated to read them. Unless you're Molly, in which case you should read at least the first part of the first one.
Be forewarned that the notes contain spoilers for the stories.
River of Life
Harry/Luna G 5K Het. Luna is going to Egypt. April 20, 2004.
Molly's Harry, Luna, and Colin Farrell in Morocco story was fermenting in my mind when Brad and I went to see a movie, The Punisher, I believe, in a Dolby-equipped theater. For this particular showing, we were graced with the Egyptian tomb themed Dolby Digital intro, and there, in my head, was Luna learning Arabic.
The thing about this fic is that while it's actually finished, and all I'm going to write, in my head it's part of a much bigger reality. Before this was the war. They won, but not without some loss. People died. Harry was injured, and that's why he's in Egypt. The dry heat is better for his leg. After this will be their life together. Drinking tea in Luna's wide open flat. Wandering the marketplace together. Having dinner with Bill in the downstairs flat. The wedding, in England so Luna's Muggle friends and Harry's wizarding ones can be there with them.
This is part of what's embodied in the title. This is just a drop in the river of their lives, and, yes, I realize how cheesy that sounds. I was also thinking of Heraclitus' river: "No man can cross the same river twice, because neither the man nor the river are the same." All of which makes it sound like I very carefully planned out the title, which I didn't. I cast about for a title and ended up on Wikipedia's page on Egyptian Mythology, which was much more sparse at the time but did include the section about the Nile, including the point that "the river Nile gave life to the entire Egyptian civilization."
That Love Thing
Harry/Draco R 68K Slash. There's an empty space in Harry's life. July 31, 2004.
The first thing I have to say about this story, formerly known as hphd3.txt, is that it took me a very long time to write it. I started it sometime between Christmas 2001 (hphd2.txt) and Epiphany 2002 (hphd4.txt). I finished principal writing (like principal photography for a movie) and sent it off to Melle for round 1 beta at the beginning of December 2003. It took me another eight months to complete the beta process and come up with a title. I've never spent so long on a story.
This story is a little unusual in other ways too. I didn't write the first scene then the second then the third, etc. I wrote them out of order, and for someone who's as much of an anal-retentive control freak as I am, that was a huge step. I'd written things before where I wrote a few intermittent scenes, but I'd never written a whole story with the pieces out of order.
Although it wasn't the first thing I wrote, the ending scene is what I was working towards. When I first started thinking about this story, I conceived of it as a romance where Draco doesn't say "I love you" back, even though he does love Harry. The first couple of pieces of feedback I got said they wished he would have. The point is that the love is there, even without the words, but of course readers will always bring their own meaning to the story.
By not being inside in my head, you miss the joke in Harry's train ride to Hogwarts. Originally, that scene was third person limited to Draco, which didn't fit with the rest of the story. Where Harry buys "three Chocolate Frogs and some pumpkin juice" from the cart, Draco thinks, "'Dear.' As if he were still some child on his way to Hogwarts for the very first time."
But there are similarities too. They both sit back with the Prophet and read the news about the attempted break-in at Gringotts. Harry: "There'd been another attempt on Gringotts; he'd have to see what he could find out about that." Draco: "There had been another attempt on Gringotts. Draco had a pretty good idea who'd been behind that one, and he made a mental note to check it out with his contacts." They both spend most of the journey watching the scenery. And, of course, the dialogue remains the same.
But just because I've abandoned the author's notes section of headers on my stories doesn't mean that I don't have more to say about the last couple of things I've written. So you can think of these as long author's notes or short commentaries, and you shouldn't feel obligated to read them. Unless you're Molly, in which case you should read at least the first part of the first one.
Be forewarned that the notes contain spoilers for the stories.
River of Life
Harry/Luna G 5K Het. Luna is going to Egypt. April 20, 2004.
Molly's Harry, Luna, and Colin Farrell in Morocco story was fermenting in my mind when Brad and I went to see a movie, The Punisher, I believe, in a Dolby-equipped theater. For this particular showing, we were graced with the Egyptian tomb themed Dolby Digital intro, and there, in my head, was Luna learning Arabic.
The thing about this fic is that while it's actually finished, and all I'm going to write, in my head it's part of a much bigger reality. Before this was the war. They won, but not without some loss. People died. Harry was injured, and that's why he's in Egypt. The dry heat is better for his leg. After this will be their life together. Drinking tea in Luna's wide open flat. Wandering the marketplace together. Having dinner with Bill in the downstairs flat. The wedding, in England so Luna's Muggle friends and Harry's wizarding ones can be there with them.
This is part of what's embodied in the title. This is just a drop in the river of their lives, and, yes, I realize how cheesy that sounds. I was also thinking of Heraclitus' river: "No man can cross the same river twice, because neither the man nor the river are the same." All of which makes it sound like I very carefully planned out the title, which I didn't. I cast about for a title and ended up on Wikipedia's page on Egyptian Mythology, which was much more sparse at the time but did include the section about the Nile, including the point that "the river Nile gave life to the entire Egyptian civilization."
That Love Thing
Harry/Draco R 68K Slash. There's an empty space in Harry's life. July 31, 2004.
The first thing I have to say about this story, formerly known as hphd3.txt, is that it took me a very long time to write it. I started it sometime between Christmas 2001 (hphd2.txt) and Epiphany 2002 (hphd4.txt). I finished principal writing (like principal photography for a movie) and sent it off to Melle for round 1 beta at the beginning of December 2003. It took me another eight months to complete the beta process and come up with a title. I've never spent so long on a story.
This story is a little unusual in other ways too. I didn't write the first scene then the second then the third, etc. I wrote them out of order, and for someone who's as much of an anal-retentive control freak as I am, that was a huge step. I'd written things before where I wrote a few intermittent scenes, but I'd never written a whole story with the pieces out of order.
Although it wasn't the first thing I wrote, the ending scene is what I was working towards. When I first started thinking about this story, I conceived of it as a romance where Draco doesn't say "I love you" back, even though he does love Harry. The first couple of pieces of feedback I got said they wished he would have. The point is that the love is there, even without the words, but of course readers will always bring their own meaning to the story.
By not being inside in my head, you miss the joke in Harry's train ride to Hogwarts. Originally, that scene was third person limited to Draco, which didn't fit with the rest of the story. Where Harry buys "three Chocolate Frogs and some pumpkin juice" from the cart, Draco thinks, "'Dear.' As if he were still some child on his way to Hogwarts for the very first time."
But there are similarities too. They both sit back with the Prophet and read the news about the attempted break-in at Gringotts. Harry: "There'd been another attempt on Gringotts; he'd have to see what he could find out about that." Draco: "There had been another attempt on Gringotts. Draco had a pretty good idea who'd been behind that one, and he made a mental note to check it out with his contacts." They both spend most of the journey watching the scenery. And, of course, the dialogue remains the same.