Hot (literally) recs

[geoviki]

Sometimes I think I've got fandom back-asswards. It seems to me, upon reflection, that an author gains most from writing WsIP and a reader from reading competed stories. I do it the other way round. I dump whole stories on the world that are too long and folks cringe at reading, and I get hooked on chaptered WsIP that I can't keep in my brain long enough. I was of a mood to write an entry declaiming my obligations as a writer to you, but I think perhaps I need more wine for that. It gets mushy and maudlin.

Lots of WsIP I read, though, have been recently finished. Is it the season's change? Is it synchronicity?

My favorite is hackthis's Trade. Everyone and her sister has talked about this fic, but I waited until it was all done, and then fell into it wholeheartedly. The quality of the writing is terrific, the characterizations fascinating, the dialogue sparking, the AU plot unique. So good.

Another one I've been following for a long time is novembersnow's Tomorrow and Tomorrow And Tomorrow. The last three paragraphs, especially, worked their magic on me.

Then there's an intriguing Draco/Snape fic by isolde - Twelve Days. This, too, has a cool ending, and that's all I'll say. But Isolde's characterizations are always so well done - this story has an interesting cameo by Hagrid, who's notoriously hard to write. Draco is 15 during most of the story, so note that if you don't enjoy that type of story.

CorvetteClaire's Adamant and Starlight is finished, too. This is a sequel to Thicker Than Blood, but I haven't seen many mentions of the fact that it's now complete. And Claire states there'll be a third story coming. It's a true H/D set in Hogwarts. It's the one where Draco has this nifty crystal hand.

I neglected to mention that jamoche's Draco/Neville WIP, The Language of Flowers has a new chapter. I love this pairing, and the story has a plot device that I like to use myself quite a bit, so of course it appeals to me!

abbycadabra has another wrenching H/D, poetic and unique as she always writes - Salvation & Sacrament . I don't know where she comes up with her ideas, but few other authors come close to being so innovative. I love her perspective and the way she tugs at my poor abused heart.

First really hot day - summer must be here. My computer room is on the top floor of our house and it's toasty. I'd put shorts on, but I'd have to shave first. TMI, I'm sure. But you know I was a hippy; you should expect these things.

Comments

[charlotteschaos.livejournal.com]

Ironically... after reading your story.. .I've started to rethinking releasing things in segments like I have been. Because I really do prefer to read things all at once. I didn't realize that until lately where I've gotten caught up in a couple of WiP's that I think I'd enjoy better if they weren't being parceled out in segments.

Plus, with yours, having warning about approximate time when you were going to post, I could read it along with a friend, which was a lot of fun. Granted, we could set up a time to read other completed fics, or each chapter... it really is more fun for the reader.

Most of these are already on my reading list ;) I think a lot of people feel compelled to finish up since new canon is coming very, very soon ;)

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

That's intriguing. Who was your reading partner? And I think you are absolutely right about folks wanting to beat JKR's fanfic.

If you release a whole story at once (which I encourage writers to do) be prepared for a huge drop-off in comments. I'm just sayin'. Still, I think the overall effect for the reader is much more powerful. WsIP can be avoided until they're finished, but it's really hard to postpone when one's friendslist is buzzing about how great a certain fic is. And I still read WsIPs - just not blindly the way I did when I was new to the fandom.

[charlotteschaos.livejournal.com]

He doesn't really maintain an LJ, but he commented right around the time I did on Skyehawke ;) Rather effusively, too ;) We don't always agree on fic, so when we do, it's got to be good.

I think I'm just coming to new conclusions. I am fairly new to fanfic writing and I sort of blundered in not at all knowing what I was doing. I wrote a one shot. "Change My World" I called it, and it was just a silly story about H/D meeting up in a hallway after curfew and kissing. Nothing special, and though I didn't know it at the time, terribly trite.

I'd written a handful of other stories, but nothing I'd really posted to a community or anything, so when I posted it to harrydraco and got many excited comments and calls to continue the story, I was pretty excited. Of course, now i realize that a lot of times, that's just the comment people make when they like something, or find it decently written. But at the time... I really didn't know this. I had other reasons for continuing the story (partially an earlier dare from a friend and to escape dealing with the holidays), but basically, I put out a "sequel." I think I ended up about 4 chapters in before I decided I needed a plot. *snorts*

I also got invited to post it to different communities, and people suggested posting in other communities, so then... it was plastered everywhere. This is all just October/November.

I finally finished the story in January and was relieved. And then depressed. It didn't feel finished. I wanted to continue, but I didn't want to keep the rigorous pace. So I told everyone I was finished and wrote the first three chapters of a sequel. But I got anxious and leaked out that I was working on it. Flist squeaked. I've learned nothing about peer pressure.

emmagrant01 announced her sequel and that she was going to post weekly. I was far enough ahead that it felt feasable and reasonable, so I chose Sunday and decided to do it that way.

I'm down to the last 2 chapters. It's written and most of the way edited... but I'm tired again. I was done. I was ahead of schedule, but it's still ended up feeling like I was backed against the wall to tell the story and I'm sure my editing has suffered.

In the midst of this, I'm comparing how I'm enjoying reading a WiP vs a completed fic, and as a reader... it's so much better to have it all at once.

But yes, there is a huge drop off in comments, I'm sure. I know that when I release a chapter the same people comment, and it multiplies the number of comments and visits. However, learning to write better and telling a good story is, in theory, more important than feeding my ego ;) In theory. We'll see how well that goes in practice. I seem less interested in writing sex of late anyway, so perhaps my flist will defect soon enough.

Maybe I'll finally get back to writing original stories. :D

Whew, evidently I needed to vent ;) Sorry about the spammy ramble!

[tipgardner.livejournal.com]

Holy Cockles! That's some rec post. You are such a wonderful person.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Holy cockles. I like that phrase. I'll have to work that into my conversation....

And thank you.

[hearts-n-roses.livejournal.com]

I was a little sad that Trade, 3T, and Amdamant and Starlight are all done. That's three of my main WIP's all finished. *sighs*

I tend to get caught up in WIP's because I adore long chaptered stories I can sink my teeth into. They also make H/D more believable, because to make the boys relationship realistic takes a lot more than 2-3000 words. Unfortunately, they all seem to get mixed up in my mind and I end up having to re-read the last chapter every time they're updated.

I was actually thrilled that you posted DSoT all in one chunk. I wanted to go back and re-read ATBT first (which I did) and then I sat myself down to read a H/D which I knew would be long and wonderful, in a universe I love, that I knew was COMPLETE!

Also, I agree about Salvation and Sacrament. Brilliant!

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, they all seem to get mixed up in my mind and I end up having to re-read the last chapter every time they're updated.

That is the god's truth, isn't it? When I first fell into fandom, I think I read every WIP out there, and I made myself an anal little spreadsheet of plots and characters. And, lo, nearly 2 years later, most of those fics are still WIPs, having a few or even no updates. So now I'm ultra-picky about starting one. And it's hard - god, I wanted to read Trade when everyone else was all excited about it. Even though she updated very regularly. But the impact of reading it all at once was worth it.

I can be all "oh, I only post completed stuff" because of the random way I write. One of the last parts of DSOT written was Draco's letter in the prologue - and that's hard to go back and fix in a WIP.

[luci0logy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting the link to Adamant and Starlight. The last thing I remember reading was the trial scene (I love a good trial scene like A&S and H.F's The Metamorphoses of Narcissus) and that seems like aeons ago.

I've had the week from hell at work but I'm looking forward to tonight, when I shall be settling down with a box of very good chocolate, my favourite wine and Delicate Sound of Thunder. All good things come to those who wait.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Wine and chocolate, huh? I tend to like salty things with wine, like almonds or cashews or...making myself hungry.

Soorry you had a bad week. Hope the fic helps cheer you.

[luci0logy.livejournal.com]

*Wails loudly* I have my chocolate, I have my wine, do I have DSoT? No because all I get is this message:

skyehawke :: statistics - DATABASE ERROR:

Couldn't connect to MySQL server
Reason: Unknown

I assume this means Skyhawke is down? Oh, woe, woe and thrice woe!

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Skyehawke's been having sporadic problems in the past couple weeks, but it's fixed now.

[luci0logy.livejournal.com]

I'm all set for tonight though some of the chocs were eaten for comfort on Saturday, so fingers crossed...

[lagreyeyes.livejournal.com]

I've really enjoyed CorvetteClaire's work and think she's quite underrated (or, rather, not as well known as she should be).

Love those two fics.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

I read the first one all at once, and the second chapter by chapter. Sadly, I forgot a lot of the plot when A&S took a bit of a hiatus, so to get the full effect, I'll have to go back and reread it. But I do think it's overlooked. Like pandarus's Invisible to See, another great H/D fic that more people should be aware of.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

No no no! Not literally!

:-) Well, I was making a joke with the double meaning of 'hot' - because as I was typing the entry, I myself was literally hot (as I mentioned at the end). Yeah, I know what you mean about the misuse of the word 'literally', but I was playing around. I do know better, really I do!

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

I love wet men. Maybe I should write more wet men slash. I do have shower scenes in both ATBT and DSOT, so maybe I already do.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Ah.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

No, I couldn't chop it up into small enough pieces; it's over 60,000 words and I'd be spamming everyone with a lot of entries.

I was wondering if the Skyehawke issue would result in fewer readers for those who still post there. I noted the discussion at the time and respect your opinion and subsequent decision, although I came to a different decision.

[mereol.livejournal.com]

thanks! i went to finish adamant and starlight! i really enjoyed the first two stories though both characters are a little ooc for my usual taste but i like what she's doing with the plot too much to be put off by it. appreciate the update.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

I think I read so much H/D that I accept a lot of character variation. I think the Harry and DRaco in these fics are almost old-school - characterizations that were more common pre-OOTP in a way.

[mereol.livejournal.com]

before draco became an insufferable bastard in ootp? :o) s'ok, i want to do filthy things to him anyway.

[cutecoati.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to say hi!
Can't believe that I haven't read A Thousand Beautiful Things earlier *resists temptation to iron her ears*, and the sequel's even better (yes, I read them in one go...)
*adores you*
hope you don't mind that I friended you...

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

If you read them back to back, you must be brain-dead by now! But I'm glad you enjoyed them. Welcome to my LJ.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Hi there,

I just started the DSOT prologues and wow, I'm scared. I've been saving up reading this because I almost didn't want to have read it, if you know what I mean. I came across ATBT a few months ago, in the same period that I read Invisible to See, Lust over Pendle and Tissue of Silver (yep, just as I was about to give up fanfic as amusing rubbish, I found the mother lode).

And agree while WIPS are brilliant (if ultimately confusing), the fully-posted, all done at once, are usually so much better.

The beginning's great, it feels very confident and full of foreboding..

*creeps off to approach the rest, nervously*

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Don't be nervous. I'm not particularly known for angst.

And dropping whole fics on the world reminds me of Mark Twain's saying : “A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.” Except for "classic" I'm thinking "completed story." Because it's so much easier to spare just a little time each week to read a new chapter than to sit down with a 100K or 60K book all at once.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Oh phew. So we might not have one of the characters wiped out in a nasty yet ironic encounter with the Dark Lord's successor??..?

I hear you on the WIPs - though actually I quite like the incredibly long stories that make you sit up half the night - but though I like the fast-updated stuff I get killed by the chapter-every-three-months updaters - which includes some seriously good stories - because when you do get round to reading them, you have to go back at least three chapters to remember the unique plot device and the exact character of H/D/OMC's messy relationship.

Perhaps an Excel spreadsheet would help:

Harry - in denial, suffering from guilt at AK'ing Narcissa
Draco - in leather trousers
Current state of relationship - had sex in a cupboard at Hermione's wedding, before H slapped D's face
Sex - Physically plausible yet lacking hotness
Unexpected plot twist - Ginny repossessed by dormant spirit of Tom Riddle, stalking Harry with an enchanted knife

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

I like your spreadsheet better than the one I used to have (see comment above - yes, I did keep track that way once!) But I think it needs a Ron status code: seekrit betrayal in progress, in love with Hermione again, offed in the War...

Oh, and maybe a flipped bit for : mention of the shunned handshake in first year as a driving motivation.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Actually, I wondered whether a table with symbols might work for many of the stories.

You know, Draco as Redeemed/ Ambiguous /Love God/ Witty/ Evil;
Ron: Good egg/ Dead/ Stupid/ Evil/ Surprisingly gay

Entries for Harry would be a bit shorter: Clueless; Briefly Evil; Born gay; Woke up gay (always a shock)

And the love interest: G and R and N:17 (oh no that's a motorway in France isn't it? NC-17) are all rather uninformative, really, because you want to know about the pace and the quality of the writing. A cactus, perhaps, for long periods with no romantic interest whatsoever; a range of hills for those on/off H/D romances; a bunch of flowers for sappily romantic. Oh, and a big volcano, for stories like Trade and Invisible to See.

I completely forgot the main plot development of Adamant and Starlight during the last update gap, and kept wandering around going 'But why can't Draco remember anything? Where's his dad, anyway?'

*goes off to continue with DSOT*

[abbycadabra.livejournal.com]

Fandom is a strange thing, and the people even stranger. Maybe you're being too generous in not stringing them along, giving them what they want right from the start. We all want what we can't have, after all, always chasing after the man who doesn't know we exist, or worse, doesn't care. So is that the lesson? That great fandom acclaim is built on teasing and torturing the fans, to keep them wanting more?

Well, I'm dead tired a little drunk from dinner's fruity mixed drink, but maybe it's that we're just ungrateful for your immense talent (yours being, IMO, probably the most real and lovely of the bunch), as well as being a bunch of masochists. Yes, that must be it.

*hugs*

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm just being whiny, I think, because I want a million comments and am getting so few. Because no one's got the time to sit down and read my story immediately - like right now, dammit! Just because other people have lives. Sheesh.

I'm calmer now. Heh.

[arsenicjade.livejournal.com]

I do things the exact same way. And man, I love that you drop your fics whole. LOVE it.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I appreciate that you appreciate it. We shall have ourselves a love-fest!

[arsenicjade.livejournal.com]

That sounds awesome. Love's a little on short supply over in my corner of the world. *shakes head*

[waterbird.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to stop by and thank you for friending me. I'm still new enough to LJ that it's a big thrill when that happens. :)

Also wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed DSOT. I took some notes as I read and I plan to send you a real review soon. I'm a bit swamped at the moment, though, so it may be a while. Until then, thanks for another fabulous story.

And I *love* the fact that you publish completed works rather than WsIP. I think it does provide the reader a more powerful experience. I follow a handful of WsIP and find I'm always forgetting details between updates. I think one of the reasons ATBT has stayed with me so vividly is that I read it in its entirety over a couple of days.