RonsGirlFriday

[RonsGirlFriday]

Welcome to my Writer's Journal! I'm Melanie, 30-something lawyer rapidly approaching burnout, and escapism aficionado. My husband and I belong to two fat, neurotic cats. My hobbies include existential crises and thinking about all the ways a situation could go horribly wrong (if you watch This Is Us - that game Randall and Beth play, "Worst Case Scenario"? - I invented that game). Despite that, I'm a sucker for a happy ending. I enjoy gallows humor but also rom coms. I listen to Christmas music in November and don't feel at all sorry about it. I am prone to the overuse of emojis.

I started writing fanfic in 2009 and kept it up through 2011, eventually fading out when my job got the better of me. I'm really happy to be back and to have found a thriving community. I liked HPFF because of the level of interaction amongst its members. When I started writing again recently I found myself really overwhelmed and intimidated by how huge FFN and AO3 are.

 

This month, I've picked up two WIP's I abandoned in 2011, which remained in the back of my mind over the years: Ignatius and Irrational. Both are Percy-centric. I love a good redemption story and was fascinated by him. I also see a lot of parallels between him and Ron, who has classically been my favorite HP character. Percy is a great, largely untapped source of both angst and humor, and I think I could probably write a thesis about why he's actually a great guy and deserves some damn respect, and even some levity. Ignatius explores Percy's experience during and immediately after the events of Deathly Hallows and, drawing inspiration from his middle name, involves religion/faith as a theme. Irrational is a fluffy Percy/Audrey romance wherein I aim to depict him through the eyes of the person who ultimately decides this guy is a-okay enough to marry.

I think I consider myself a humor writer at heart. I love satire, parody, farce, screwball comedy, humor verging on the inane. I like subverting expectations and fanon tropes (e.g. writing a Sirius love story where it turns out the object of his affection is his bike, or a one-shot where Dominique is actually male and is really annoyed everyone always assumes him to be female). Years ago I had a WIP, The Morning Waffle, starring Fred Weasley II as a radio host on the Wizarding Wireless Network. I've actually hidden the existing chapters on HPFF right now because when I went back and read it there were a few things I was really irritated with, but I'm looking forward to making some revisions and then posting it here/AO3/FFN and continuing the story! (Mainly I think I might have relied way too heavily on toxic masculinity for humor, and while some jokes along those lines are definitely amusing, I was really dissatisfied with myself in retrospect and feel I can do better and still be funny, and so can Fred.)

 

I have lots of new ideas percolating as well, which I look forward to posting about! But for now this has gone on way too long and I'm flattered if you're still reading.   Please say hi and talk to me about anything! As a reward for reading this long, allow me to give you some weird Percy Weasley headcanon of mine:

 

Audrey (whose mother is a Muggle) introduces him to Muggle films and music. As it turns out, Percy is a huge fan of Coldplay. And his favorite movie is It's a Wonderful Life. 

 

[RonsGirlFriday]

Musing for today: Do you try to make your stories all consistent with one another, even if they're not necessarily related or part of a series? For example, keeping your characterizations the same across multiple unrelated fics so they all fit into the same "universe"?

When I started writing, I would just get random ideas for fics. Each would stand alone and have nothing to do with the others. This is still true for most of my stuff. I write a lot about Percy, and the stories about him aren't all necessarily part of one fluid timeline. (For example, I've written about his relationship with Penelope a couple of times or alluded to it in some fics, and in each one I might have a different take on how they ended, when they ended, how old he was, etc.)

But sometimes, I would see a way to link works together so they are part of a consistent universe/ my own headcanon - even if the stories had nothing at all to do with each other. Or I see opportunities now to make little tweaks to existing fics to make that work. For example, when I wrote my Next Gen novel The Morning Waffle (which I hope to bring to this site soon), I had plotted out a timeline of Next Gen birth years so I could keep things straight. Fred Weasley II is my MC, and I made him a few years older than James II, and made James roughly the same age as Molly II. In writing Irrational (T), my Percy/Audrey romance, there's a chapter where George and Angelina make an appearance, and Angelina is pregnant with Fred, and the timing roughly coincides with my TMW timeline. And now when I write a one-shot about Percy's family, I seek to keep the characterizations and ages consistent with Irrational, because these characters have all taken on a life of their own, and it seems weird to write them differently.

In the grand scheme of things, of course, this really doesn't matter. But there's something about it that gives me a weird sense of satisfaction. 

I have a humor one-shot, I Am Man, Hear Me Roar (T), in which Dominique Weasley is a guy and is irritated that everyone always assumes he's a girl. When I was migrating that fic over here, it hit me that I should totally make TMW consistent with "I Am Man," especially since I'm revising TMW anyway. I referenced Dominique as a girl in TMW because I think I wrote it before "I Am Man," but now that Dominique is a guy in my own headcanon, I'm totally rewriting him that way in TMW. My Dominique writes for Witch Weekly, starts going by the name "Nick," and gets a crush on a girl named Georgiana (aka "George"), and all of that fits the tone of TMW perfectly. It's fun to have these little eureka! moments.

 

I'm preparing to publish a NEW fic (finally!)  about George and Ron that takes place about 15 years after DH, and in it I found an opportunity to reference some of Fred II's characterization from TMW, even though in my new fic Fred is only 10 and only appears "off-screen," and in TMW he's in his late 20's. In TMW he's a radio host, and he's terrible at Quidditch but he was the score announcer at Hogwarts matches (a la Lee Jordan), and in the new one-shot George makes a reference to Fred wanting to announce Quidditch matches.

 

Am I a nerd? Likely. But who can I amuse if not myself?

 

 

Edited November 26, 2019 by RonsGirlFriday

[RonsGirlFriday]

Anyone else here ever torpedoed their favorite ship just for the helluvit? My OTP in HP is Ron/Hermione, and I love writing them in humor and fluff fics, but I have just finished and posted a one-shot completely destroying them: The Ice Storm (M). It was an interesting exercise in getting outside my comfort zone and exploring how that pairing could fall apart despite my personal opinions, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Of course, within about an hour of posting it on AO3 I got a snarky comment on it, so that's nice.

 

In going through a bunch of my old stuff, I found the bare beginnings of this fic that I had started years ago for a challenge. The challenge was to write a Dramione from Ron's POV, or where Ron is not a jerk, something like that. When I found it, I thought, this would be a cool thing to finish as a personal challenge (I also crafted it for @CheekyTorah-Lex's Wisdom Highlights challenge, making them about 40 years old).

The result is a ~5000-word exploration of the implosion of a marriage that was once good - or they once thought was good - or at least one of them once thought was good. I sought to create a conflict that is realistic, where neither party is perfect nor evil (even though what Hermione does in this fic is far from okay; good people can do bad things). And as much as I like to believe that in reality this pairing lives happily ever after, the truth of the matter, and what this story acknowledges, is that nobody gets married expecting it will go south - but it often does (I have personal experience with that).

Ultimately, the Dramione aspect turned out to be not all that important, and it could have been any other man involved, but I kept Draco as the other man (though he's never actually named) because he's a good foil for Ron and it frankly heightens the drama. It also serves as a sort of commentary on the Dramione pairing, especially as it's Ron's POV. 

I also got to write cynical, jaded Percy, so that was fun. 😜

 

[Guest pookha]

I have absolutely done this. Waning(M) is all about the destruction of Harry and Luna's relationship (and is the prequel of a sort to GULP). Harry/Luna has been my OTP from the start and I'd written quite a few stories exploring it, but I realized I'd never sunk the ship; so I did it. Luna has always refused to marry Harry, even though they've been in a relationship since OotP and HBP. She meets Rolf on an expedition and they immediately click and she marries him spur of the moment. A lot of GULP is about how that affects Harry and Lily (not so much Pandora). It is definitely mentioned in Three Weddings (M) where Lily and her girlfriend Justine are deciding to continue long distance or not after school (if you read this, be warned, it has M rated sex, and also it has a bit of 'male writing women' from me that shows where my writing was when I wrote it).

 

Destroying my OTP really added to my thoughts about the series and I'm glad I did, because it opened up so much for me to do AU-wise with Harry and Luna's daughters.

[RonsGirlFriday]

@pookha Thank you for sharing! You know, it's odd considering I actually really like the idea of Harry/Luna (and thought that's where the story line was headed after OotP and HBP), but I haven't really ever read any fics with that pairing. I will have to add these to my reading list.  

[crimson quill]

Here for some holiday gifting! 🎁

1. How does it feel coming back the fan fic writing? Do you feel you've improved as a writer?

2. Have you always like Percy? What was the moment that you fell in love his character?

3. It's great to see someone new around archives/forum. How are you settling into hpft?

4. You seem a big fan of the Weasleys family. Do you enjoy reading them as much as you like writing them?

5. What are writing project are you excited about now? What is it? Why are you excited?? Tell me all!

[LadyMarauder]

Hi! Tasha here to deliver some Christmas goodies! 

1. I remember The Morning Waffle from back on HPFF days and loved it! When do you think you'll get around to posting it again, I'd love to read it again?

2. Other than Percy, who is your favourite character to write?

3. What made you decide to get back into the HP community and write again? I did the same after years away and interested in other people's story!

4. What's your favourite fic you've written?

5. You say Percy's fav Christmas film is It's A Wonderful Life, but what's yours?!

[RonsGirlFriday]

What's this? Friends with questions?

 

10 hours ago, Crimson Quill said:

Here for some holiday gifting! 🎁

1. How does it feel coming back the fan fic writing? Do you feel you've improved as a writer? 

2. Have you always like Percy? What was the moment that you fell in love his character? 

3. It's great to see someone new around archives/forum. How are you settling into hpft?

4. You seem a big fan of the Weasleys family. Do you enjoy reading them as much as you like writing them? 

5. What are writing project are you excited about now? What is it? Why are you excited?? Tell me all! 

 

1. It's surreal, a little intimidating, and amazing to see how strong this fandom still is. While I feel a little rusty for not having exercised the writing muscles as much as I would have liked in the past few years, I do feel I've improved and grown in terms of my perspective on things. I look back at some of my old fics and love them, and some I look at and go, Eurrrrgh, whyyyyy did I do that?

2. I think I have always had a soft spot for him. I mean, he's clearly meant to be someone to poke a little fun at in the earliest books, but as a rule-following high achiever myself, I was sort of thinking to myself, "I FAIL TO SEE THE PROBLEM."  He acted like a jerk in OotP (arguably Arthur was no saint in the matter but I digress), but I think he had a great redemption arc. I think the most awful thing that could have happened to him (but necessary, probably) was witnessing the death of his brother firsthand, and that's when I really became intrigued by him, because that guy's head has to be an absolute tangle of emotions, and it led me to think more about why he is the person he is throughout the series. I suppose what really clinched my love of his character is when I started writing Irrational (in 2009, OMG) because I thought, this guy deserves fluffy romance, too!, and I purposefully chose to write that fic in 1st person so the reader is seeing him through the eyes of this person who doesn't judge him the way other people do. The more Audrey started to appreciate him, the more I did, too.

3. I am settling in great here, I think! It's a very welcoming and active community and so full of talent. I've been excited to see some familiar pen names and also discover many new (to me) ones.

4. I do enjoy reading the Weasleys! I identify with them a lot. I'm from a big family that also includes a set of twins. I'm a redhead, though none of my other siblings are. I like the cast of personalities in that household.

5. Aside from updating Irrational, and hoping to reboot The Morning Waffle, I have been working on a bunch of one-shots, and the one I've probably been having the most fun with is a farcical HP/Dogma (Kevin Smith) crossover in which Fred Weasley and Severus Snape find themselves in the lobby of heaven after they die, and they are shocked to see that Snape looks exactly like the Metatron/Voice of God (who was also portrayed by Alan Rickman in Dogma). It's an idea I've had for a while. Dogma is one of my all-time favorite movies and one of my favorite roles for Rickman, and once I got the idea into my head I couldn't stop giggling about it. I have picked up with writing a lot of dark/dramatic/angsty fanfic and very eager to get back to posting some humor.

Thank you for these questions! I'm very happy to meet you and hope to get to know you and your writing more!

 

9 hours ago, LadyMarauder said:

Hi! Tasha here to deliver some Christmas goodies! 

1. I remember The Morning Waffle from back on HPFF days and loved it! When do you think you'll get around to posting it again, I'd love to read it again?

2. Other than Percy, who is your favourite character to write?

3. What made you decide to get back into the HP community and write again? I did the same after years away and interested in other people's story!

4. What's your favourite fic you've written?

5. You say Percy's fav Christmas film is It's A Wonderful Life, but what's yours?! 

 

1. Thank you so much! I'm thinking maybe January? I need to go through and just revise one chapter at a time and try to make sure I still know where I'm going with it so I can try to avoid going months between updates. I really had a blast writing it, and I miss Fred's voice, James's angst, Hugo's ginger suavity, and Dex's Hufflepuffiness. Also, I've decided to make it consistent with my Dominique one-shot "I Am Man, Hear Me Roar," and make Dominique a male in TMW, so he'll probably become more prominent in the story, hanging out with Fred and his boys, so I need to figure out where and how to work that in.  

2. You know, it's funny, looking back at all my fics there's a pretty even distribution of characters, so it's hard to say, but I guess I'd have to go with Ron. I suppose that's no surprise, since my theory has always been that Ron and Percy are incredibly similar in a lot of ways - they've just channeled their insecurities differently. I like writing Ron because I like to do him justice. I loathe Ron-bashing and character assassination.

3. So, the longer I stayed away, the harder it was to get back into it, even though I wanted to for the longest time until I finally just gave up. My sister periodically texts me (seriously like 1-2 times a year, for 8 years!) to ask when I'm going to update Irrational and Ignatius, and a couple of months ago she poked me about Irrational. I said, "Well, the HPFF site was taken down, so... *shrug*." She said, "I don't know what you're talking about, because I'm looking at it right now," and sent me the link and I was floored. I took that as a sign to get back into it, and from there I sought out new places to post since the new HPFF is not super active. My sister has been my biggest cheerleader; I even named the character Madeleine in Irrational after her.  

4. I love asking people this question and hate answering it, because don't make me chooooose!

It's like asking Molly Weasley which of her children is her favorite (psst, it's totally Bill).

Ok, I'm gonna bite the bullet. Hardboiled. Ron/Hermione? Check. Parody and absurd humor? Check. Detective noir? Check. Made myself giggle a lot while writing it, which is not meant as a brag, I just had a ton of fun with it and am generally a dork.

5. I adore It's a Wonderful Life myself; it's just so timeless and Jimmy Stewart is everything (I'd watch him read the phone book). Neck-and-neck with it is Scrooged, which never stops being funny. And Bill Murray is never allowed to leave this earth. I have spoken.

I'm so very happy to see your familiar face, so to speak, and look forward to writing/reading/talking with you!  

 

Edited December 6, 2019 by RonsGirlFriday

[RonsGirlFriday]

Just dropping a note here to remind future me of an idea. I was watching a movie in which the MC has a friend who is a writer, who, as an exercise, writes obituaries about friends and relatives who are still alive. It gave me a little quarter-plot-bunny, maybe I could apply that concept to a new fic in the future. Or I could even do something with that in OF! But I can't pursue that right now - if I have too many WIP's I might lose my mind. And I've been writing a ton of angst...looking forward to getting back to humor. Initially my thought was that this idea might be on the angstier side, maybe post-war, but maybe I could also turn it into something quirky and humorous.

 

A few short things percolating or in the process of being written/completed, to hopefully be posted in the coming few months:

1. A Patient Wolf - my submission for the Gay Marauders challenge - an unrequited Remus/James, and while I've never headcanoned an intra-Marauders pairing, I've really thrown myself into this one and have practically convinced myself that Remus did have a tragic romantic love for James.  

2. My untitled HP/Dogma crossover - quirky, fourth-wall-breaking ode to Alan Rickman, HP, and Kevin Smith.

3. Ron's Hair - a bit of Ron/Hermione bittersweet fluff.

 

Edited December 7, 2019 by RonsGirlFriday

[CheekyTorah-Lex]

Oh I am so so excited for this story @RonsGirlFriday😍👌🏻

[RonsGirlFriday]

@CheekyTorah-Lex Thank you!

 

Oh also, I forgot to drop a couple other of my plot bunnies here to remind myself. I would adore some input on these two in particular, from anybody:

1. A buddy-cop humor fic about Aurors. Which two Aurors would be most fun to read about as partners? I wouldn't do Harry/Ron, as I think it's a bit too obvious. I could do Ron/Neville as partners. Or do one of those with an OC. Or some other Hogwarts-era character as an Auror? Or should I set it earlier than Hogwarts era? A bit of dark humor in the era of the First Wizarding War?

2. Something to do with Eloise Midgen. This idea just popped into my mind when I was thinking of a challenge I might give soon. I never read anything about Eloise. But I don't have a specific plot bunny yet, I just know I'd like to write about her!

[grumpy cat]

51 minutes ago, RonsGirlFriday said:

@CheekyTorah-Lex Thank you!

 

Oh also, I forgot to drop a couple other of my plot bunnies here to remind myself. I would adore some input on these two in particular, from anybody:

1. A buddy-cop humor fic about Aurors. Which two Aurors would be most fun to read about as partners? I wouldn't do Harry/Ron, as I think it's a bit too obvious. I could do Ron/Neville as partners. Or do one of those with an OC. Or some other Hogwarts-era character as an Auror? Or should I set it earlier than Hogwarts era? A bit of dark humor in the era of the First Wizarding War?

2. Something to do with Eloise Midgen. This idea just popped into my mind when I was thinking of a challenge I might give soon. I never read anything about Eloise. But I don't have a specific plot bunny yet, I just know I'd like to write about her!

1) something with moody 👀 i would def read anything that stars him as a character

2) you should read logarithmic+ by @val it's an amazing story with eloise as the main character - one of my faves

[RonsGirlFriday]

1 minute ago, grumpy cat said:

1) something with moody 👀 i would def read anything that stars him as a character

2) you should read logarithmic+ by @val it's an amazing story with eloise as the main character - one of my faves

Ooh, I've never written Moody before - that would be fun. Maybe pair him with a younger, naive partner. Like Training Day for the wizarding world. (Interestingly enough, I watched a movie once where Brendan Gleeson plays a seasoned, jaded Irish police sergeant who has to work with a straight-laced American FBI agent (played to perfection by Don Cheadle) and the entire time I could not unsee him as Mad-Eye!)

Thank you for the Eloise rec!!

[CheekyTorah-Lex]

Could do Draco malfoy and Harry Potter as auror partners, Lots of dry humour and banter opportunities

[RonsGirlFriday]

I'm going to muse out loud here about title troubles, and if anyone out there is reading and would like to weigh in, please do!

(TW: General references to domestic abuse and a really gross Machiavelli quote involving the same.)

The best and worst thing about returning to fanfic has been the explosion of plot bunnies in my mind (see my previous couple of posts). But lately I was inspired with a more concrete idea for a fic that I am really excited to pursue. I probably never would have thought about writing about this pair if it were not for @Noelle Zingarella's fabulous and thoughtful exploration of their ship and confrontation of domestic violence dynamics in Todentanz (M) (for real, go read it).

I'm currently planning a novel-length fic wherein Eileen Snape kills Tobias to finally free herself of his abuse - or, more accurately, Tobias is killed, and both Eileen and Severus are suspects, but Eileen makes a confession, and she uses essentially the battered woman syndrome defense (being in the mid-70's, this would actually pre-date any Muggle precedent for this defense). The fic would concentrate mainly on the investigation and prosecution of the case against Eileen, but would spend a not-insignificant amount of time also following Severus along the way and looking at the effects of his home life on his psyche.

Working summary:

Quote

Tobias Snape is dead. His son's wand cast the curse. His wife has confessed to the murder.

Eileen Snape is claiming self-defense. The rub? Tobias was killed in his sleep.

 

So, title. I suppose I don't need one until I get a few chapters drafted and ready to post. But I don't know about you - having a title when starting out makes me feel like I have something concrete to build around. I have two divergent approaches to titling this:

First idea, title it something to do with victim-blaming questions:

But Did You Provoke Him?

Second idea, something drawn from a quote from Machiavelli's The Prince (because Eileen Prince):

As Necessity Requires*

or

Fortune Is a Woman**

or something like that.

I hate decisions like this. I like each approach for completely different reasons. Do any of these grab you more than the others?

 

The Prince quotes:

* "Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires."

** "For my part I consider that it is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman, and if you wish to keep her under it is necessary to beat and ill-use her; and it is seen that she allows herself to be mastered by the adventurous rather than by those who go to work more coldly. She is, therefore, always, woman-like, a lover of young men, because they are less cautious, more violent, and with more audacity command her." (The use of "fortune is a woman" as a fic title would obviously be ironic.)

Edited December 15, 2019 by RonsGirlFriday

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

@RonsGirlFriday I am soooo here for this story!! Your working summary is already so good--especially the twist about Tobias being killed in his sleep. At first I was leaning towards the victim-blaming question title--which is very good. But given the context of the Machiavelli quotes, I think I like As Necessity Requires. To me it says that Eileen has sort of gotten herself tangled up with Tobias because she was too good--but then she breaks herself free--or maybe Severus breaks them both free--by doing something immoral (murder) but potentially justifiable. 

Can I ask how old Sev will be during this story?

Without spoiling anything, have you decided who killed Tobias yet, or will that decision come later during the writing?

I can't wait to read this!

[RonsGirlFriday]

@Noelle Zingarella Thanks for weighing in! I think that title is my favorite of the two Machiavellian titles. Fortune Is a Woman maybe suggests something a little more vengeful than I want it to seem (even though payback is certainly a part of what's going on here).

My plan right now is that Severus will be 15 and this will happen before he begins Fifth Year. I think this could actually dovetail nicely with his falling in with creepy kids at school and his growing apart from Lily (I have some ideas bouncing around about how his observations of his parents' abusive relationship affects how he feels about his relationship with Lily, too). 15 is also in that sweet spot where someone knows right from wrong but is also still has poor impulse control, for whatever that's worth to the plot.

I have not yet decided which of them it is. Hmm, that would seem to be important, no? 😬

I have to figure out how the Ministry would be able to determine he was killed in his sleep. Soooo many questions about how wizarding forensics works...

Edited December 15, 2019 by RonsGirlFriday

[grumpy cat]

...i'm just sliding in here to quietly say i'm hella excited for that story, it sounds seriously awesome and intriguing and just *grabby hands*

Edited December 21, 2019 by grumpy cat

[starlitcastles]

Hello! I'm here to drop off some questions for your wishlist!  

1. Since you mentioned Percy Weasley and how he is one of your favorite characters, what are some of the similarities would you say that you have to Percy Weasley?

2.  There's a song called What's Your Color by Stella Jang and it's on Youtube and after hearing this song,  I recall thinking heavily on people and what colors they are and or would be so I thought I would ask you:, what do you think Percy's color would be and why? I hope that question makes sense? 

3. What is the one thing that you wished existed in the Wizarding World but it doesn't?

4.   As it's the holiday season, can I ask if you have any traditions of your own in your family and or with friends? If so, what are they? If not, what are some traditions that seemed interesting to you whether you seen it in the media or witnessed firsthand experience with others?

5. Going to try and ask something that I haven't asked most people and since I know you're getting back into writing and or have wrote fanfiction, I thought I would try and ask:  Is there a word that you write alot that you noticed? If so, what is it? Also do you have any special words you like to write?
 

[RonsGirlFriday]

@grumpy cat I'm so excited to write it! I think it's gonna take some time to plot it out in advance because I don't want to write myself into a corner, but I've become really attached to the idea so I hope to get it off the ground soon!

 

On 12/21/2019 at 2:07 PM, starlitcastles said:

Hello! I'm here to drop off some questions for your wishlist!  

1. Since you mentioned Percy Weasley and how he is one of your favorite characters, what are some of the similarities would you say that you have to Percy Weasley?

2.  There's a song called What's Your Color by Stella Jang and it's on Youtube and after hearing this song,  I recall thinking heavily on people and what colors they are and or would be so I thought I would ask you:, what do you think Percy's color would be and why? I hope that question makes sense? 

3. What is the one thing that you wished existed in the Wizarding World but it doesn't?

4.   As it's the holiday season, can I ask if you have any traditions of your own in your family and or with friends? If so, what are they? If not, what are some traditions that seemed interesting to you whether you seen it in the media or witnessed firsthand experience with others?

5. Going to try and ask something that I haven't asked most people and since I know you're getting back into writing and or have wrote fanfiction, I thought I would try and ask:  Is there a word that you write alot that you noticed? If so, what is it? Also do you have any special words you like to write?
 

Hi, and thank you!

1. I have classically been a rule-follower in the extreme, and very submissive to authority, though I have matured a little and gained some perspective on things like this. I have always been concerned with doing things the "right" way and put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed, as I suspect he did. I also suspect he has a lot of latent insecurities, and I identify with that. I'm also pretty awkward.  

2. I think it does make sense! I'm pretty sure he would be blue. Not a playful, light blue, but something fairly solid and conservative like midnight blue or Yale blue. Blue is classically a safe, secure, comfortable, predictable color. It evokes feelings of stability and integrity. But it's also a color we associate with being depressed ("feeling blue") and I headcanon Percy as being prone to depressive thoughts and feelings.

3. I'm gonna cheat and give you two things: First, some other way to immediately communicate with other people aside from using the Floo Network. Just popping your head into someone's fireplace unannounced to talk to them is a terrible idea in terms of privacy. Second, I really wish the Ministry had some concept of due process when it comes to punishment for criminal or regulatory violations.

4. One longstanding tradition is that my mom's side of the family goes to watch the Nutcracker Ballet every year. I've been every year since I was three years old, and have only missed maybe two years between then and now (I'm 35). Another is that at my dad's house for Christmas Eve dinner we make a cuisine from a different nation or culture each year (well, my stepmom makes it - she's an amazing cook). And classically we have always opened one gift on Christmas Eve, which is a set of pajamas and a book for each of us.

5. Ooh, this is a difficult one. I'm sure there are a ton of words I overuse. Something that comes to mind is that when writing dialogue I use a lot of intensifiers like really and rather. In my personal life, I tend to use intensifiers in my own speech, but they're usually profane.  

 

[RonsGirlFriday]

I'm feeling really excited about a lot of projects right now, so here's a little overview/info dump about that. (TLDR: Holy cow, so many WIP's.) 

 

Romance!

The fic I've sort of always considered my darling, because it has been so fun to write and is meant to be novel length, is Irrational (T), and what I'm currently excited about there is that I have finally finished revising and posting all chapters that were already in existence before I abandoned it at HPFF years ago (up to chapter 9). Which means that the very next chapter, which should go into the queue in the next couple of days, is entirely NEW and that makes me so happy! My WIP is once again actually in progress. 

I love the fact that much of this fic is awkward, adorkable romance, but in chapter 10 the seas finally start to get a little choppy as some of Percy's demons begin to rear their heads. Here is a little excerpt:

Spoiler

Percy’s living space was practically spartan. He’d told me once he had one set of dishes, and I believed it. A half-drunk cup of cold tea, I suspected from the morning before, sat on the coffee table next to the Prophet.

“Hasn’t got as much personality as yours, I’m afraid.” He gave a tiny but naughty-looking smile and I knew he was recalling Vivi’s book collection.

“You’re terrible.”

A framed photo sat on a shelf, one of the few on display. In it, an older couple danced happily, dressed as if for a special occasion. The man looked familiar somehow. “Who are they?”

He glanced over his shoulder, in the act of filling two glasses with water. “My parents,” he said. “That was my brother’s wedding. Bill, I mean.”

“Ah!” I pointed to his dad. “You look just like him.”

Percy grimaced, ran his hand across his hairline, and made a sound like hrmm.

I gasped gleefully as my eye caught upon another photo, a black and white group picture. “Is this you? You’re so -- what’s that you’re wearing? Is that a fez?”

“I suppose I deserve this, don’t I?”

I squeezed his hand as I admired the picture. “Look at how young you are! You’re adorable.”

“Seventeen-year-old me is pleased to hear it.” He took the photograph and examined it. “This was in Egypt. Which explains the headwear. We all look ridiculous, but…” He shrugged. “It’s the last picture we took of everyone together.”

Nearly a decade ago. I took his meaning. “Oh. That’s a shame.”
 

 

Quidditch angst!

I have also resurrected another abandoned fic from the old days, The Stars Were Dim (T), which had 4 chapters posted previously and is meant to be 5-6 chapters long. In this, James Potter II is a professional Seeker who suffers what might be a career-ending injury. I originally concocted it in response to an HPFF challenge that was basically like a build-a-fic challenge, where I was given a title, MC, minor char, quote, and object. The silliness of all the contradicting elements aside, it grew into a fic and interpretation of James and his family that I really loved.

Around the same time I started it, I had also started a novel, The Morning Waffle, where Fred Weasley II is a radio host. TSWD became like a companion piece for TMW and origin story for James, since in TMW James is the Quidditch commentator on the show. I have a lot of work to do on TMW before I start posting it again, but one aspect I loved about it was that I made Fred and James into besties, and that's on display a bit in chapter 4 of TSWD, as Fred is really the only person who can get through to James sometimes. While the first half of the fic is a lot of James being angsty over his declining career, I think my favorite chapters are the later ones where I play him off against family members such as Fred, Albus, and Ginny, who take different approaches to trying to help him through his struggle and knock some sense into him.

Here's an excerpt from chapter 3, currently in the queue, of a conversation between James and his manager after James has been demoted to a reserve player:

Spoiler

Slattery sighed again.  “I understand how you feel, but don’t do this to yourself.”

James’s head snapped up and this time he didn’t concern himself with controlling his volume.  “You understand how this feels?  Mr. I-Led-Puddlemere-to-Nine-League-Championships?  When you were my age, people were just beginning to kiss your arse – you weren’t dealing with the death of your career!”

“Kid, sit down before I have to stuff you under a cold shower.”

James dropped into a chair across from Slattery, his mind reeling and his face burning.

“Now, I’m going to let that attitude slide because I feel for you, I really do.  And despite the fact that you’re an idiot sometimes, I guess I like you.  But snap out of it, because I am still your manager – or that’s what it says on my door, anyway.”  He smirked at his little joke.

James stared straight ahead, eyes unfocused, as he reeled in his temper.  “Why do you want me to stay on the team?”

“Oh, the idealist in me would say the answer is team spirit, hope, faith, resilience, perseverance, and every other thing I know you’re not feeling right now.  But considering the current state of things, I’ll tell you it’s because your contract runs the length of the season and we haven’t got any other reserve Seekers.”

“It’s not like you’re going to need me again.  It was only dumb luck that I was needed to fill in anyway.”

“What if we do need you again?”

“Play MacMillan.”

“MacMillan plays Chaser.”

“And she’s got two functioning arms, unlike me!”
 

 

Origin story! (Arthur? Cormac? Why not both?)

There are so many awesome challenges taking place right now, and I want to do all of them and have some fun ideas for each of them, but I'm trying to work on not biting off more than I can chew (counter-argument: see this entire post), and also focusing on the story ideas that really strike me meaningfully, things that I really want to write and not necessarily "just because" (the "just because" is very good for challenging yourself, but I'm not totally sure that means it's always something I want to post as a finished product!) So I'm juggling a few ideas, but right now I am truly so pumped about @Noelle Zingarella's Origin Story Challenge and I think I'm going to run with that one first and foremost. I have ideas percolating for both Arthur Weasley and Cormac McLaggen, and I might try to pull off both -- but just to drive myself even more crazy, Arthur's idea is trying to stretch itself into some kind of short story or one-shot collection, and I just...  My Arthur idea has to do with exploring how and why he came to work in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office; the rest of the chapters gnawing at me to be included in this have to do with the young, growing, slightly struggling Weasley family, and/or possibly Arthur's relationships with each of his kids (you see how this could grow slightly out of control...)

 

Snape, Snape, Severus Snape...

I'll end up doing a whole other journal entry on this once I get my head on straight about what I'm doing with it, but I'm steadily working on my fic where Eileen kills Tobias (allegedly). I hope to start posting it within a month. I'm excited because in terms of length + plot + genre + themes, it is going to be truly different to anything else I've ever done.

 

To add to all of this, I'm still working up some little one-shots that have been swimming around in my head forever and that I mentioned in some earlier posts. So, this is where I am right now, and maybe I go crazy and maybe I don't.  

 

Thank you for attending my TED talk on why WIP's are the devil.

 

 

Edited January 17, 2020 by RonsGirlFriday

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

I'm so excited for all of these!! 

[RonsGirlFriday]

In response to @Noelle Zingarella's Origin Story Challenge, I came up with the idea for a certain spin on how Arthur Weasley came to work in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. This was meant to be a one-shot, but once I had that idea in my head, I wanted to write several more scenes from Weasley family life with a focus on Arthur, occasionally drawing parallels between Arthur and his kids, particularly the older boys.

The result is a new one-shot/ short story collection called Must Be One of Arthur's Boys. Each chapter will be titled for the year in which it takes place; chapter 1 is set in 1978, when Arthur is 28 and the twins have just been born. This is the one about how Arthur gets moved to Misuse of Muggle Artifacts.

Something I've always been interested to write about is Arthur's fight with Percy and/or its aftermath, so this was the perfect time to take that on, and I intend that to be one of the chapters. While that's about 3-4 chapters down the road, I want to share an excerpt from that one because it sort of crystallizes an idea I have about Arthur and Percy being similar in some ways:

 

Spoiler

Arthur found himself sharing a lift one day in late September with Hit Wizards Cathal McLaggen and Benwick Bode, trying to ignore McLaggen’s insufferable, booming rant about his son -- something about having missed Quidditch tryouts because he was ill. McLaggen was really such a twat and somehow managed to sound boastful even whilst he was complaining. Bode was chiming in here and there with sympathetic comments about the escapades of one of his own sons.

The lift stopped at Level Six, and the opening of the doors and the accompanying chime prompted Arthur to lift his gaze from the floor. As he did so, another bespectacled redhead was doing the same. Their eyes met, and Arthur felt his own face grow warm as Percy’s cheeks flooded with pink. He saw Percy’s jaw clench even as he felt his own tighten.

Unlike the previous couple of occasions, Percy did not avert his eyes and retreat. Instead, Percy fixed his father with a hard, inscrutable stare. The air around them grew thin as McLaggen’s pontificating became a vague buzz in Arthur’s ears; time crawled like treacle, and the doors of the lift seemed to take ages to close.

Percy took a step back, halted, then took a step forward and halted again in an odd little indecisive dance. Arthur’s lips parted as if to begin to say something, but he recovered by acting like he’d only done this to draw a breath and sigh, raising one eyebrow as he did so. Distracted by the uncertain movements of his son’s feet, he dropped his gaze to the floor there and happened upon Percy’s shoes. Nice shoes. New shoes. Polished religiously, from the looks of them. He crossed his arms and stared at Percy once again.

A little crinkle formed between Percy’s eyebrows as he gave the slightest shake of his head, and in doing so the look on his face explained itself more plainly, something not unlike anger, hurt, and distrust all rolled into one. Percy backed away, not breaking eye contact, as the lift doors closed once again.

“I tell ya,” Bode was musing to McLaggen, the both of them oblivious to the silent conversation that had just taken place an arm’s length away, “it’s always the ones what are most like you, what give you the most grief.”
 

 

Arthur is an interesting character to take on. He's often passive and eccentric in canon, used frequently for comic relief -- but he has some layers. One thing that was prominent in my mind when taking on this project is that Arthur can be a hothead at times (usually after bottling things up for a while, it seems):

• He brawls with Lucius Malfoy in Flourish and Blotts in CoS after Malfoy's jibes about status and money. Prior to this, Arthur raised his voice to Molly when she told him not to go messing with the Malfoy family at work ("So you don't think I'm a match for Lucius Malfoy?")
• He gives as good as he gets in his argument with Percy; based on the way the twins tell the story about the fight, it's clear that the way Arthur yelled made an impression on them (you'd think they'd be used to yelling and chaos considering Molly is always losing her mind on her kids). Interestingly, a major part of this argument is also about Arthur's status and Percy's resentment of it, so I think it's fair to say that -- as easygoing and blithely content as Arthur seems to be most of the time -- he actually has some significant insecurities about his position in life and his ability to provide for his family. In my opinion, Percy wouldn't have struck a nerve so acutely if there hadn't been a nerve to hit. So this idea is going to factor heavily in my new fic.
• He has no issue getting in Harry-as-Runcorn's face during the trio's infiltration of the Ministry in DH. He physically blocks "Runcorn" from exiting the elevator in order to confront him about Dirk Cresswell.

So the idea of his temper and insecurities (which are not unlike Ron and Percy, my two favorite dudes) factored pretty heavily into my writing of him. But I also wanted to do something more interesting with him than just a bumbling weirdo who, at the age of 41, still can't pronounce the word "electricity" despite having worked in Muggle Artifacts for years. So I've made him a conscientious high achiever (at least in his earlier years) who still has a Muggle fixation that those around him endure with varying levels of tolerance -- because he earnestly believes that wizards are doing themselves a disservice by not understanding Muggle life.

I'm pretty excited about this. I hope it will turn out to be a nice balance of humor and drama. You'll see Arthur reflecting on exactly how he feels about Molly fawning over Gilderoy Lockhart while at the same time Arthur is loathing himself for barely being able to afford school supplies for his kids (including the stupid Lockhart books) -- but you'll also see Arthur hardly being able to mask his amusement when Charlie is caught with a girl in his room. And there should be some good family feels. In chapter 1, one thing I adored writing is a scene where Arthur plays with his three eldest boys and you just know how much he loves them.

Edited February 2, 2020 by RonsGirlFriday

[RonsGirlFriday]

A little discussion related to my Arthur characterization (a.k.a., How incompetent should we really believe this man is? a.k.a. Abby @Chemical_Pixie may well regret asking me for more information on this)  

In the first chapter of Must Be One of Arthur's Boys, I depict Arthur as a conscientious sort with a passion for Muggle affairs, who is known to go on long rants about the wizarding world's sad lack of concern about its own ignorance of Muggles. He's fairly well informed (at least in 1978) about what's going on in the world, with wizards and Muggles alike. This is a little at odds with the Arthur we know in the books, who can't pronounce "electricity" and whose somewhat childlike obsession with collecting plugs is treated with a figurative pat on the head.

In my author's note in chapter 1, I said part of what inspired my depiction of him was an interesting fan theory I read about him. Abby was kind enough to leave me a really thoughtful review  and mentioned she'd be interested in hearing the fan theory. Abby, I've taken you at your word, so here I am, for whatever any of this is worth to anyone (and I figured it would be better to post here than in the review response).

 

The theory goes, in a nutshell, that it's unrealistic that someone whose entire job involves working with Muggle objects, would be so daft about basic things. It posits that Arthur knows more than he lets on, and he sometimes feigns ignorance in order to allow his children or their friends to demonstrate their own knowledge and competence, sometimes for the further purpose of distracting them from an unpleasant situation. This is a tactic frequently used by parents, teachers, etc: employing rhetorical questions to instill confidence in children. And we all know kids actually love to share what they know about things. I think this idea originated on tumblr somewhere, and it was posted on reddit, which is where I saw it. I currently don't have the books in front of me, but these are the examples that were brought up:

• When Harry first visits the Burrow in CoS, he is 12. Arthur asks him all about Muggle things in an attempt to make him feel comfortable and welcome (particularly considering everyone has put two and two together and realized Harry's home life isn't stellar).
• In GoF, he pretends to struggle lighting a fire the Muggle way so Hermione can help, and this also puts him in a position to keep up a commentary on all the Ministry officials passing by (I'd have to double check exactly how this went in the books, but it seems accurate).
• In OotP, on the Underground on the way to Harry's hearing, he feigns difficulty with Muggle money and the ticket machine. This allows Harry to perform an act that is simple for Harry and might perhaps take Harry's mind off of what's looming ahead. Harry's 15 at this point, and may not need to be condescended to in the way you might do with a 10-year-old when asking rhetorical questions, but I think Arthur might rightly assume that Harry would like to feel in control of something.

 

It's certainly not a perfect theory (more on this below), but I like it and I think that with this idea in mind, some other scenarios from the books can be explained in a way that does not involve Arthur just being a moron about Muggles:

• In GoF, Arthur acts like a dope in front of the Dursleys while making small talk when he picks up Harry from their house ("They run off eckeltricity, do they?" -- then talking about his collection of plugs and batteries). Frankly, at this point, he knows these are not great people, and he is getting quite a chilly reception from them. I personally like to think that Arthur is intentionally trolling them a little bit here. Why does Arthur need the Dursleys' good opinion? He doesn't, really. So he messes with them, and in a way that is above reproach because he is still being polite and friendly. Arthur is not always a perfect, docile sweetheart (see my post above), and I wouldn't put this past him (and frankly, I wouldn't fault him for it, either).
• In GoF, Arthur struggles to change Muggle money when paying for the campsite. Wizard money is not based on a base 10 (decimal) system, but Muggle money is. I don't expect the conversion to be easy or intuitive, especially for someone who rarely uses it.
• In HBP, we learn, in response to Molly asking Arthur his security question, that his greatest ambition is to learn how airplanes stay up. Well, okay. I'm a 35-year-old Muggle and I feel that's fair. I have a basic understanding of physics and the concept of lift, but I certainly couldn't speak with any authority on the subject.

 

All this being said, if you asked me to opine honestly on JKR's intention when writing Arthur, I really do think she just meant him to personify the wizarding world's extreme insularity, to the point that even someone with an interest in Muggle life doesn't have enough access to it to actually understand it. (This, in turn, seems to emphasize the wizarding world's complete ineptness at... anything... since they could easily put Muggleborns in charge of running Muggle affairs and educating their fellow wizards.) It's fairly clear that Arthur is meant to be a hilarious goof, not necessarily the guy I've described above -- and, by the way, I'm not entirely above embracing this characterization when it suits me, as illustrated by this little working excerpt from a forthcoming chapter of Irrational where Audrey will meet Percy's family:

Quote

[Percy] threw me a long, knowing sort of glance before raising his eyes skyward with an infinitesimal shake of his head, his lips pursed in a familiar way. I knew that look.

"I can tell you want to say something, so spit it out."

Sighing resignedly, he threw me a wry little smile. "He's gone and done it, hasn't he? Talked to you about plugs. I knew it."

 

But, for the purpose of writing him as a protagonist and delving into his personal life, I think it's nice to give him a little more credit and self-awareness. I think it makes him more three-dimensional.

 

Edited February 5, 2020 by RonsGirlFriday

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

9 minutes ago, RonsGirlFriday said:

The theory goes, in a nutshell, that it's unrealistic that someone whose entire job involves working with Muggle objects, would be so daft about basic things. It posits that Arthur knows more than he lets on, and he sometimes feigns ignorance in order to allow his children or their friends to demonstrate their own knowledge and competence, sometimes for the further purpose of distracting them from an unpleasant situation.

I love this theory--and would also say that sometimes people pretend to know less than the actually do for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is very useful to be smarter than certain people think you are.