tatapb

[tatapb]

So apparently I have a Writer's Journal now...?

My name is Maria and I'm a twenty-seven year old UI/UX Designer from Portugal. Even though I'm a grown-ass woman, I'm still struggling to write this intro because I'm oh so scared that people I've met on the internet might not like me - the joys of being me. I'm the proud momma of two idiot cats and a silly doggo who all think my lap is their personal property and I'm married to the chillest man that has ever been born on the face of this earth, which is good because I'm an anxious mess.

_{Exihibit A - the two idiot cats and the silly doggo and also a cameo of the chill husband's feett}

The first book I read in English was actually Harry Potter in 2003 (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) because my grandma bought it in England the day it hit the shelves (not for me, for herself) and I wasn't about to waste two months waiting for it to get translated and published in Portuguese. So I basically spent my summer holidays lugging the book and a dictionary around and working very, very hard to break the language barrier.

I think it took me a week to actually finish it...? And I'm not talking about a week on and off, I'm talking about a whole week dusk to dawn, hard at work trying to actually understand what was being said. With time, as my english improved, I remember going back to the book and every single time I'd realise I'd previously misread something or that there was something I hadn't understood at all in previous readings.

But yeah, that started my love affair with both the English language and Harry Potter. They're pretty much intrinsically connected in my mind.

I started writing seriously a year ago. Witch Slap was my first attempt at writing a story and is now at 16 chapters and 70.000 words. I can feel tangible progress if I read my first few chapters and compare them to the last few, which is something that thrills me to no end. I also have a couple of original stories that I'd like to work on at some point in time, but I'm still getting my writing legs so I'm trying to keep to one, maybe two WIPs so I don't end up burning out and giving up.

Writing Goals for 2020:

- Getting over my irrational fear of writing one-shots

- Finishing Witch Slap (haha, no, it probably won't happen this year)

- Rewriting the first few chapters of Witch Slap

- Starting my Founders fic

Feel free to jump into this or just message me any time - I'm thrilled to have found HPFT (technically I didn't 'find' it at all, @RonsGirlFriday told me about it) and super excited to get to know y'all  

[Oregonian]

Hi, Maria.  I'm so glad that you  have started a writer's journal, and I look forward to your telling us how you write and structure your stories.

I hope that you will create and post a couple of one-shots because they are fun to write, just brief, even one-day glimpses into significant moments of the characters' lives, a good way to discuss at greater length the little moments in the canon books that particularly made an impression on you.  And a nice relief from the long slog of novel-writing!  What are your original-fiction ideas about?

That's impressive, how you spent an entire week, dawn to dusk, reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with the help of your dictionary.  There's true love for Harry Potter.

Your recent note on my own writer's journal shows that you already know a lot about story structure, so I'm sure that whatever you write will be good, and getting better steadily.  Isn't it gratifying when you look back at something you wrote, and you say to yourself, "Dang! That's not half bad."

Welcome to HPFT and to Slytherin House, the House that's always in last place in the House Cup competition, but now that you're here, our chances just got better!

Vicki

[Darling_take_off_the_mask]

Hi Maria! Thank you for sharing that story about reading OotP, and the photo of your kitties (doggo, too, but I notice the kitties are front and center, which is...typical). I'm here to adorn your WJ with questions!

1. How did you get into fanfiction in the first place? What makes Scorose your ship?

2. Tell us more about your feelings about writing one-shots?? 

3. How would Rose, Scorpius, and Albus each describe their perfect/ideal date (as in, the activity, not the person)?

[Lost_Robin]

Welcome to HPFT!

I just want to start off by saying I absolutely love your cats and dog. Please tell them I love them very much.

I absolutely get you on the whole one-shot thing. I tend to ramble (both in writing and otherwise), so one-shots are not really my jam. I've always found it a bit difficult to not go overboard with descriptions and such when I'm writing.

So, onto the point of this. I have a couple of questions for you.

1. I'm intrigued by your mention of a Founders fic. Is there anything you want to share about that?

2. What gave you the idea for Witch Slap?

3. Who is your favorite HP character?

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

Maria, I'm so excited about your new Writer's Journal--and that we're in the same House together 

I'm also super impressed that you write creatively in your non-native language!! Here are a few little questions for you:

1. You mention loving both Harry Potter and the English language; can you tell us a little about why you love them?

2. What makes you a Slytherin?

3. How are your pets so adorable?? 

 

[tatapb]

@Oregonian The more I write the more I realise I can read about structure all I want but that I have a LOT of writing ahead of me before I can consciously implement any structure whatsoever. Witch Slap has been a school for me and I'm dying to pick what I learned writing it and try to actually plan out a story before writing it - which is something that's definitely not happening with WS. I mostly just go where the characters take me and, while it's fun, any story that's happening so far is purely accidental. 

I have a couple of scenarios I wanted to take for a spin, mostly from d&d settings I created for fun but never used. World building was always my jam, figuring out the stories I want to tell inside them...? Not so much.

One of them (that I call The Purge in my mind) is the concept of a fantasy country that was overtaken about 100 years ago by an evil empire (yes, basic) and magic and the old religions of the country have been banned in exchange for the new pantheon of this empire (think any gods pre christianity vs post christianity). In a country where magic runs through people's veins it's difficult to stay hidden and to survive, especially because when magic becomes contained and isn't used, its host will basically explode, causing all sorts of damage - which plays into the Empire's claims that magic needs to be 'controlled'. The old country is still somewhat fresh in people's minds and there's a simmering anger going about. I'm not sure where I want to go with it, story wise, but my idea would be for a band of merry adventurers to infiltrate the ranks of the enemy army by means of magic and guile and just climb the ladder all the way up until they can stab the emperor on the back - or not, who knows?

I have another called The Queen's Men that's mostly espionage/stealthy shenanigans based. The gist of it is a group of skilled people get hired by the Queen to help her thwart her husband, who's supposedly an evil git who's making deals with demonic entities. As the story progresses they realise that their employer isn't everything she seems and that they may be playing for the wrong team. I wanted it to have a morally grey sort of feel, when everyone's evil does it even matter who we're playing for? 

Ah, yes, that lowkey correction of dawn to dusk XD Thanks, it'd be a little irresponsible of my parents to let me read from dusk til dawn. I'm also very excited to be in Slytherin and hopefully I can contribute to our House's arrivism.

 

@RonsGirlFriday Look atchoo, coming to my page bearing the gift of questions 

1. How did you get into fanfiction in the first place? What makes Scorose your ship?

I actually discovered fanfiction existed because of scorose. I'd written fanfiction before on two occasions but I wasn't aware that it was a thing or that there was an entire world dedicated to it online until Deathly Hallows. I think the first time I wrote fanfiction was when I was a kid and I read Little Women. I was furious that Jo would end up with that old man rather than Laurie so I decided to write an alternate ending (all this in Portuguese, still). It wasn't conscious, it was just something I did because I wanted to. Years later, the Deathly Hallows came out and I was maybe 15, and when I read that epilogue I thought 'wait, that's it? are you sure this is the last book? you're super setting these two up and this is all I get?!' and so I googled the names and voila, fanfiction. I don't even remember the first fanfiction I read, but I do remember that most of what I read wasn't even Scorose, it was everything else. Deathly Hallows had literally just come out, so it took a while until there was enough Scorose for me to actually focus.

Scorose is my ship because back when I was in roleplaying forums when I was maybe 17 (?), the first really good writing partner I had was also super into it and she wrote a brilliant Rose Weasley. I in turn wrote a brilliant Scorpius (he was a complete and utter arsehole) and I think that was an important turning point for me. Up 'til then I'd been pretty much writing for fun, but with her I just became so much better at it. I wanted to become better so I could at least match her, you know? She introduced me to a million really good fanfictions that she liked and I was just hooked for life. Scorose was never Dramione for me, it was just... I don't know, that epilogue was just a silent promise that good things would happen to the next generation.

2. Tell us more about your feelings about writing one-shots?? 

There's this concept in writing - planners vs pantsers. Planners are people who plan. Pantsers are people who write by the seat of their pants.

Most writers fall in a healthy in-between but so far I've been a pantser thorough and through, which means I don't have the skill to actually plan for a story to go the way I want it to - yet. Most of the time I start writing a scene with a specific goal in mind and all of a sudden my characters are doing all sorts of weird things that have nothing to do with what I wanted them to do. The concept for the scene is solid, it wouldn't be out of character for them... they just get distracted. The conversation naturally flows some other way and I'm so fascinated by what's happening that I feel like it's almost treason to force them to do anything else. 

Which is why one-shots are terrifying. In a multi-chapter they have the space to just muck around and do whatever the hell they want and the end result is still pretty solid. I realise this all sounds a bit ditzy of me to say, so I'll just add that I'm not the most concise person in the world (see the million words I wrote above to answer simple questions) and having a fixed word count gives me anxiety.

3. How would Rose, Scorpius, and Albus each describe their perfect/ideal date (as in, the activity, not the person)?

Al is obvious: portkeying to Paris for a candlelit dinner, string quartet, fireworks, asking her to marry him... you know, just no chill whatsoever. Scorp's idea of the ideal date is staying at home reading and cuddling under snuggly blankets. He'd cook obviously, but the concept of going out into the world and sharing whoever she is *cough* with other people annoys him. Rose same, except she's not reading she's studying. I think they'd like to occasionally go out but it's not the idea of their ideal date - introverted, indoors-y shits. In my headcanon eventually Scorp teaches Rose to fly, but that's just a date for him, not for her.

Love, Maria

EDIT: whoops I posted this when I wasn't done with it, I'll just roll with it and continue on a second post

[tatapb]

@Lost_Robin Hey there Robin! I told the pets (oh, wow, I misspelled pets as pests and I can't believe how accurate that was). The cats say 'eh' and the dog pretty much wants you to adopt him, the needy shit.

1. I'm intrigued by your mention of a Founders fic. Is there anything you want to share about that?

Honestly there’s a LOT I want to share about it - I’m overexcited like that. 

I’ve been doing a lot of research on tenth century England (though at the time it was pretty much just Wessex) and I’ve already decided I want it to be placed during the reign of Æthelstan (939-946), who for all intents in purposes was a really interesting man. Unlike his predecessors and successors, there are a series of very thorough records of his legislation and he’s considered the first English king by many historians as well as one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon kings in history.

It makes sense to me that in a time when the country was undergoing great reform and following a man of that power and charisma that it would create a sort of antsy unrest within the wizarding community as well.

My headcanon for this story is that Hogwarts was actually Salazar Slytherin’s pet project and that he was the one who united the four founders under one flag. There’s this idea that I’m entertaining that the reason he does this is to control all other three Houses that have enough power to oppose him later in life, hoping he’ll gain their allegiance. 

When the story starts, the four founders are maybe in their late twenties/early thirties and Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor all have their set of distinguishing flaws that would make them unlikely to work together toward a common goal, which is where Slytherin comes in. 

Rowena Ravenclaw starts as a brilliant witch, possibly the most brilliant of her time… but she considers teaching to be a waste of her valuable research time and also believes that not everyone deserves to be taught. She’s basically Slytherin, but without the blood bias thing, she just thinks most people are too stupid to deserve the gift of knowledge and that they wouldn’t understand or appreciate it anyway. Slytherin is the one who convinces her that she stands to learn a lot from the other founders and that yes, every child no matter how stupid can learn if properly nurtured (which is something that will come back to bite him on the ass later when he claims that Muggleborns are unworthy).

Godric Gryffindor is a warrior in service of the new king. He’s brave, he’s bold, he’s reckless and he’s the finest duelist in both sword and spell - which is why Salazar would have him under his thumb. He starts out as being egotistical and fickle, doing whatever the hell he wants with little to no regards to the consequences. He’s immature and stubborn and temperamental as well and he’s far too concerned with serving the king and chasing after skirts to take Hogwarts seriously.

Helga Hufflepuff is the youngest of the four starts out as this demure and meek little lady with little to no knowledge of the outside world, who was raised pretty much to be breeding stock. She’s been sheltered her entire life and starts out as childish, dependent and pretty damned spineless which means Slytherin plays her like a fiddle. Slowly but surely she starts to become stronger and steadier as more responsibility is given to her, to a point that anything that gets done gets done because she is there. She grows from child to mother in a matter of months out of necessity and I’m honestly excited to see it. 

I’d start writing this today but I’m still trying to figure out Salazar because the kicker of this story is the moment he creates the Chamber of Secrets and leaves a killing machine inside it. I didn’t want him to have inherited this bloody prejudice because it’s not the common opinion and it’s not like they have any reason to be scared of Muggles in the tenth century (for the most part, witches and wizards could run amok and the one true great danger was being accused of heresy for believing in witchcraft, not the other way around) and also I wanted him to be a villain in his own right, not a sad Draco spin-off "boo-boo I didn't know better". I wanted him to slowly become more and more unhinged as the idea grows in his mind and the Founders who he was supposed to have under his thumb all present a united front against him, including dear sweet Helga who he thought was a pushover but has become everything but, Godric who was supposed to not care but now cares deeply and Rowena whom he unwittingly had convinced that everyone is worthy.

2. What gave you the idea for Witch Slap?

My sister had started college a while ago and she was having a really hard time adjusting. She came to visit after Christmas and we were talking about how hard it is for someone to suddenly be expected to be an adult from one moment to the next and it occured to me that it is something particularly glaring in the wizarding world that they don't have colleges, people are just expected to suddenly… be adults. 

Witch Slap is my ode to that difficult transition and all the mundane problems witches and wizards have to go through even if they live in a world where magic exists: not knowing if they've made the right choice, having problems completely out of their control at work, having to deal with rent, independence, heartbreak… 

I write it in a light-hearted way because despite all that hardship, people are still young and vibrant and a good support system and friends can get you through a lot that you thought you'd never suspect you'd be able to pull through.

3. Who is your favorite HP character?

I had to think a lot about this but I guess from the books it would have to be Narcissa Malfoy. I love the idea that she would sell her damned soul for her family and that she may be into this whole Dark Lord thing but that nothing is worth her son's life. She was quiet and steady and not particularly likeable and I have absolutely no romantic notions that she's good, but she loves her own and that's something I can respect and that makes her believable and someone I empathise with. I wrote a bit of Narcissa on Witch Slap and she's the sort of character I just love and hate at the same time. 

I really appreciate you taking the time to stop by!! Also I'm sorry for the verborrhea but I'm guessing if you suffer from the same you won't hold me accountable for it.

 

@Noelle Zingarella Noelle my fellow snek!!!

1. You mention loving both Harry Potter and the English language; can you tell us a little about why you love them?

Harry Potter was the fantasy book that dictated my current love affair with fantasy. I don't love JRK’s writing style (I'm more of a Terry Prattchett, Douglas Adams, Wodehouse type of gal, you know, funnier more verbose types who like the sound of their own voice) but HP was the first book I read with truly brilliant world building. It blew my mind. 

From then on I devoured every single fantasy book I could get my hands on and, while some of them now rank higher than HP in my favourites list, I know nothing will ever make me feel the way I felt when I was reading HP. And while I enjoy these new books I’m reading, I’ve never felt the need to go read Scott Lynch’s Locke Lamora fanfiction or to write fanfiction for Glen Cook’s Black Company.

As for the English thing… you know how ‘friends are the family you choose’? English is the language I chose. I wasn’t even conscious of it until pretty recently but half of my conversations with my Portuguese friends are in English. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been painstakingly nurturing my English for fourteen years while my Portuguese has been left to fester, but there are just words in English to pinpoint specific concepts that I just can’t find in Portuguese. I’m generally considered very eloquent in my own language but even with a vast (and a bit pretentious) vocabulary in Portuguese, I will always default to English. 

Yes, I’m the language equivalent of a blood traitor. My husband is the most Portuguese dude ever and he lowkey thinks it’s a disgrace.

2. What makes you a Slytherin?

I’m extremely goal oriented, I will literally do nothing if I don’t have a clear end goal. I’ve tried to take my drivers’ licence about thrice in my life and I quit every single time because I didn’t see the point and just ‘but everyone needs a driver’s license’ doesn’t cut it for me. I’m getting it now because I lowkey attached another life goal to it and I can only achieve the latter if I can suffer through the former. I remember I refused to read books in English (despite repeated protests and coaxing from my family) until HP came out and it gave me a reason to go through all that trouble. 

My husband reads books and watches videos about maths and the cosmos and whatever because he’s inherently curious about the world (he’s pretty much your textbook Ravenclaw). I couldn’t care less, honestly, and I’ve realised that my brain simply doesn’t retain information it can find no concrete, practical use for. I studied Computer Science for five years and honestly, the moment I shifted careers was the moment I forgot everything I learned. Wiped clean. I actually had to review a few things for this job I’m doing and some of it came back, but it’s terrifying how selective my brain is. 

I’m not particularly hardworking and I will find shortcuts and cut corners wherever I can. I’m convinced I’ve never given 100% at any of my jobs because just the 20% seems to be enough for everyone to leave me the hell alone, which is why I’m currently at work writing this. Then again I’ve never worked anywhere where career advancement was an actual thing so I wonder what would happen if I actually got myself a manager who gave me concrete goals rather than leaving me to my own devices - I might explode. I’m pretty sure if someone told me ‘give us your all for the next year and you’ll get a raise or a bonus or a promotion or a damned candy bar’ I’d surpass everyone’s expectations, including my own. 

I also tend to be very careful making decisions, I don't just jump in. Sometimes I'll end up suffering from analysis paralysis because of it.

3. How are your pets so adorable??

Honestly, I’m not sure. BUT LOOK AT THAT SILLY DOGGO FACE!!!

[tatapb]

Quote

At Hogwarts my sister Daphne had been mad about Draco Malfoy. She was basic like that - if you told her something as an absolute truth, she would buy into it with the unfettered enthusiasm of the truly gullible. Back when the consensus had been that Malfoy was the embodiment of sexy, she’d pretty much followed the herd, blind to his bullying ways and the fact that he was, simply put, a git.  

For five years, Daphne had carried a torch, mooning about his blond hair, gray eyes and pasty skin. At some particularly hormonal point she had even enlisted my assistance to help her plant a series of rather complicated love spells and voodoos on him - which I might or might not have purposefully botched. 

When the war was over and the world had changed its tune, Daph had changed hers in tandem.

“I still can’t believe you’re working with Draco Malfoy,” she clamored in an indignant tone that was entirely too high pitched and energetic for this time of morning. “He’s a Death Eater for goodness’ sake!”

“Was,” I corrected, throwing a side glance at the mirror on my dresser to make sure she looked as self-righteous as I imagined she did.

I wasn’t disappointed.

I'ma be honest here and say I'm going a little nutty with this Drastoria "one-shot". For the first time ever, I'm trying to stick to a specific word count and a pre-defined story structure and there's just so much that won't fit. Instead of writing the way I normally do and just... writing (?), every time I type a sentence, I end up second-guessing it. I feel like I'm making no progress at all even though I've probably written thousands of words. It's been good to figure out what kind of voice I want to give my characters and what details are actually relevant, but ngl, part of me wants to trash it and give up. Unfortunately I'm also very invested in this now, and I want to see it come to fruition...? 

Do me a favor and if you see my muse, tie her up and throw her my way. 

[Darling_take_off_the_mask]

1 hour ago, tatapb said:

For the first time ever, I'm trying to stick to a specific word count and a pre-defined story structure and there's just so much that won't fit.

Coming up with stuff that feels great but just doesn't fit (either due to length limitations or issues with theme or mood) is infuriating. Makes me sometimes want to post a "fic" that's just a series of "outtakes" that didn't fit into my actual stories.

But I believe in you!

[just.a.willow.tree]

Hi hi, Maria!  So you know that I binged Witch Slap relatively recently, and I want to come over here and ask you questions! I am genuinely amazed that you forced yourself to improve your English to read Harry Potter -- that's the most epic thing ever!

1. Witch Slap being your first serious attempt at a story is incredible, because it is incredible. I love the characters, their personalities, and everything! You mentioned that you're a bit of a pantser -- does that mean that you don't have a clear set of plans for the following chapters? Or do you have a vague-ish idea, but one that's subject to change based on the whims of your characters?

2. What has been some of your most favorite scenes/moments/conversations to write from Witch Slap?

3. When you listed Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, and Wodehouse, I almost gasped because I LOVE THEM. (More familiar with Pratchett and Wodehouse than Adams, though.) Their writing is so quirky, funny, and sharp, and yours is too! Would you say that they had a really strong influence on your writing? Who are some other authors that you think have been impactful on your style?

I AM VERY EXCITED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER.

[tatapb]

@just.a.willow.tree EVAAAAA, omg, you're everywhere just showering love! How do you have the time for it?!

On 7/3/2020 at 5:20 PM, just.a.willow.tree said:

1. Witch Slap being your first serious attempt at a story is incredible, because it is incredible. I love the characters, their personalities, and everything! You mentioned that you're a bit of a pantser -- does that mean that you don't have a clear set of plans for the following chapters? Or do you have a vague-ish idea, but one that's subject to change based on the whims of your characters?

I mean, I usually have a very clear idea of what I want to happen... and then it all gets torn to shreds because the characters just won't comply? Or they will but not exactly the way I expected them to, if that makes sense? Like there's a million situations where I'm writing and Scorp and Rose just keep picking stupid fights and I'm just like "come on guys, focus for a bit, we're almost 100k words in and you haven't even smooched once". 

That huge fight way back when kind of came as a complete shock to me, I was just writing it and sort of watching with horror as it unfolded and going "oh, no, stop, don't say that, ah he said itttt, whyyy scorp, whyyyy". NGL, the Shivers thing was also unplanned. I think I was writing it and it sort of... happened. 

What I do have is a sort of roadmap of situations to throw at them that don't really depend on their personality. That at least I can trust, kind of an "okay, so they get trapped in the Knight Bus" and then see how they roll with it. These last few chapters have been really back-to-back and what I really wanted was for it to be kind of a series of snapshots as the story progressed on like a monthly basis and then somehow that just got screwed and I'm suddenly writing... daily episodes. Hopefully after Chapter 20 they'll get their shit together and I can go back to writing what I'd planned.

Quote

2. What has been some of your most favorite scenes/moments/conversations to write from Witch Slap?

Oh, god, I have so many. Sometimes I go back and read WS to check on something and I'm just like "wow, did I write this? omg, this is gorgeous. what was I on and where can I get it again?". 

My favourite thing in the world is still that chapter with Yardley, Al and Scorp drinking beer and being idiots. I don't know what happened that day, but I remember writing it and just laughing like a maniac and showing it to my husband who just went "are you sure you want to publish this?!" 

I do love my one time side characters, like Lily and Penny and the absurd conversations that kind of pop up every once in a while? I think I was roaring with laughter when I was writing Penny on chapter 18. Also the beginning with Jesse and the coffee, that one was... idk, it just went so smoothly, I think it got done in one go. I remember that the chapter at the Malfoy Manor, especially that intro with Pesto was also smooth as butter to write.

I think the bits I like are all stuff that kind of got done on impulse rather than grinding. Every time I try to run against them I just fail and struggle for months trying to fix it and then I just re-write it and it's okay. Some chapters are better than others, but the best ones and the ones I really enjoyed writing are the ones that got written from start to finish and barely changed because they were birthed naturally.

I think the bits I liked the most were scenes where I had no plans and the characters were all just living and going about their regular business and all kind of did their own mundane little thing and there was no drama - or at least no drama that they thought was unsurmountable and worthy of a laugh.

"For the second time that morning, Rose found herself swallowing a stiff cup of depresso." I've been using this IRL and I love it so much. 

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3. When you listed Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, and Wodehouse, I almost gasped because I LOVE THEM. (More familiar with Pratchett and Wodehouse than Adams, though.) Their writing is so quirky, funny, and sharp, and yours is too! Would you say that they had a really strong influence on your writing? Who are some other authors that you think have been impactful on your style?

I mean, a girl can dream can't she XD Pratchett, Adams and Wodehouse are basically #writinggoals to me. There's this mid 1900s Spanish writer called Luisa-Maria Linares who wrote the most whimsical romances I've ever read in my entire life. I think those kind of influenced the content but not the style of my writing? They're all situationally absurd, she had the absolute best meet-cutes I've ever seen. There's also Maeve Binchy, who writes beautiful novels with a roster of super interesting characters and it's just... gorgeous.

I do know that every once in a while I'll start bingeing a writer and that it'll seep into my writing with a vengeance. I think a recent, weird one was Georgette Heyer on chapter 19 (pre-rewrite) - there was a lot of regency cant happening there. My editor was proofing it and kept stumbling on things like "above his touch" or "fit of the sullens" and shaking her head going "what is wrong with you?!".

CHAPTER 19 IS IN THE QUEUE! I kind of posted it late here because I'm an asshole, but it's finally there. I'm already working on Chapter 20 and I daresay it's all thanks to your reviews, they really did bring my will to write back to life. It was like seeing Witch Slap with fresh eyes again and remembering why I was writing it in the first place. 

[just.a.willow.tree]

I AM SO GLAD. AND EXCITED TO READ.  And now I want to check out all those authors you listed because they sound amazing.  Thank you for such thoughtful answers!

20 minutes ago, tatapb said:

"For the second time that morning, Rose found herself swallowing a stiff cup of depresso." I've been using this IRL and I love it so much.

This is my favorite line ever and I too would want to use this in real life, except I am the furthest from a coffee person ever and it would sound weird coming out of my mouth.  ANYWAY ILY, you come up with the best one-liners ever!

[shadowycorner]

HELLO! Here is a growing fangirl of Witch Slap, sprouting at an alarmingly fast rate! I wanted to say I started reading it for the broom racing event and plan to devour it as soon as I get the chance, because it's brilliant, super funny and just an overall utter JOY to read. I am also fascinated by the idea that you pants your way through this, though it makes sense, the story has this super dynamic and spontaneous feel! 

I also have some gift questions!  

1. If you could switch places with any HP character, who would it be and why?

2. What is your writing process? Meaning...do you just sit down and write out a chapter, do you scribble on paper and type later, do you down three coffees before or during, write at night, in the morning? You get me  

3. If you could be in the same universe as your lovely trio, would you like to live with them in the same house, or would you feel safer being a neighbour?  

4. Maybe you've already mentioned this somewhere, but which character is mostly like you? And which character in Witch Slap would you have most difficulty getting along with in RL?

Also, you're a star for learning English by just going and translating OotP. English is also not my first language, and reading HP really helped me ti improve and love the language, so I can relate. And also yay for the Terry Pratchett love! I see @just.a.willow.tree is already excited we got another person to join our Terry  club! 

 

[Jazzeh Turnip]

I've really enjoyed reading through your answers to questions people have asked you! It's so interesting and I love how you got the idea for Witch Slap - I've read a few fics recently (yours included!) that have tried to reconcile this idea of wizards leaving school at 18 and then BAM real world, with no transition period, and I've really liked how you've introduced elements of further education beyond hogwarts (healer training, internships, etc.). I'm certain wizards MUST have additional education to get into professions, right?!

 

What did you use to base Rose's additional education to be a healer off of? For instance, is that what the doctor training in your country is like, or is it from films or research into what training for medical professionals is like in another country?

 

I only really have one other question for you, and based on my reviews you might already be able to guess what it's about... basically what I'm keen to know is:

 

Your side characters are absolutely wonderful - literally fantastic - and bring so much life to the world you write rather than leaving it this two dimensional world with just Rose and Scorp. Is it always the plan to write these side characters as these well fleshed out and complex individuals, or do they just kind of fall out of your brain as you write? I know someone has already asked about your writing process, so I guess to an extent this falls under that too. Yardley in particular is such a complex and wonderful guy (honestly reminds me a bit of Fred from Big Hero 6, but that might just be the surprise mansion), was he insipired by anyone? Were ANY of your side characters inspired by anyone?

 

Big love for WS

[tatapb]

@shadowycorner HELLO! Here is a growing fangirl of Witch Slap, sprouting at an alarmingly fast rate! I wanted to say I started reading it for the broom racing event and plan to devour it as soon as I get the chance, because it's brilliant, super funny and just an overall utter JOY to read. I am also fascinated by the idea that you pants your way through this, though it makes sense, the story has this super dynamic and spontaneous feel! 

I'm really glad you're enjoying it! I've been slowly (sloooooowly) making my way through reviews and replying to them and I'm SO, SO happy, I just keep squealing so high that only my dog can hear me. 

 

1. If you could switch places with any HP character, who would it be and why?

This is a good question. So good in fact, that I had to go make myself a latte because I'm a hella lot of sleep deprived and need brain power for this.

I'm assuming this means me, as myself, with the skills I have in my current like, stepping into the shoes of someone in the narrative but still with the knowledge of what happens in the books...? Because if so, I'd just pick any random schmo (conveniently located nearby) and push. Fred. Out. Of. The. Way. 

 

2. What is your writing process? Meaning...do you just sit down and write out a chapter, do you scribble on paper and type later, do you down three coffees before or during, write at night, in the morning? You get me  

I almost choked when I read this. "Process", that's hilarious.   The short answer is "I panic a lot". Hell, I'm panicking right now, just trying to figure out how I write and realising I don't know. I started writing this reply yesterday then halfway through I kind of got reacquainted with my Imposter Syndrome and dropped it like a hot potato. 

That's how I write, I sit down, look at gdocs or a blank page or whatever and it either flows and I write for hours... or I panic, close the tab and come back later. It's a rollercoaster of "look at what I wrote, wow, that's beautiful, I'm super talented" and "damn, I'm a fraud, have I completely lost the ability to write?". This happens whether it's morning or night and regardless of the amounts of coffee involved. I have entire 10k drafts that I wrote in an afternoon and then whole days (weeks? months?) where I'm terrified of typing a single word.

That's the process.

 

3. If you could be in the same universe as your lovely trio, would you like to live with them in the same house, or would you feel safer being a neighbour?  

Neighbour for SURE. Those three are messed up. 

 

4. Maybe you've already mentioned this somewhere, but which character is mostly like you? And which character in Witch Slap would you have most difficulty getting along with in RL?

Definitely haven't mentioned it anywhere - I had to think about it and it's not an easy answer. Probably Scorpius? But also not at all...? We're similar in that we're both Slytherin Primaries (I don't even need to sort him, I just KNOW, it's so glaringly obvious) and we have people we consider 'ours'. I thrive in routine, but unlike him I can't voluntarily keep one to save my life. We both depend on our jobs for personal validation - somehow, but not quite, because in his case it's about job satisfaction and never about validating his skills and in my case it's the exact opposite... and that's about it. 

The character I'd have the most difficulty getting along with is Al, just because I'd find him f***ing exhausting.

 

Also, you're a star for learning English by just going and translating OotP. English is also not my first language, and reading HP really helped me ti improve and love the language, so I can relate. And also yay for the Terry Pratchett love! I see @just.a.willow.tree is already excited we got another person to join our Terry  club! 

High five for non-native speakers and HP for wrecking the language barrier into a thousand pieces. It really makes a difference to read something you desperately want to read, vs something you should / have to read. And yiiiiiss, Terry Pratchett is just... 

 

@Jazzeh Turnip Lorrennnnnnn, thanks so much for stopping by! Your reviews have been a wonder, I'm always so happy at how you always hit the nail on the head with your comments, they're so spot on!

 

I've really enjoyed reading through your answers to questions people have asked you! It's so interesting and I love how you got the idea for Witch Slap - I've read a few fics recently (yours included!) that have tried to reconcile this idea of wizards leaving school at 18 and then BAM real world, with no transition period, and I've really liked how you've introduced elements of further education beyond hogwarts (healer training, internships, etc.). I'm certain wizards MUST have additional education to get into professions, right?!

AHHHHH, yisssss. That's been a particular beef of mine for years now. Just... HOW?! 

 

What did you use to base Rose's additional education to be a healer off of? For instance, is that what the doctor training in your country is like, or is it from films or research into what training for medical professionals is like in another country?

In canon there are Healers-In-Training (I wasn't sure what that meant, but I pinched it anyway). I researched the curriculum of med schools and figured the first few years are always General and then they become specific, so I made that the norm (I asked a few of my doctor friends what they thought and they also gave me some insight into it, which was cool). Not to mention they should probably know about Muggle Ailments, even if it's just to properly diagnose what's wrong with people. If they can't tell whether someone has a common cold or the Shivers, they're not very good doctors (*cough* Healers). In my mind those areas kind of directly correlate to their counterpart Muggle study, aka, Choi would be the one teaching Microbiology even if his Specialty is Magical Bugs because it makes sense that he'd know about it.

They take everything from Bites to Pediatrics (wizards have babies too) and then they pick what they liked better and specialise. Rose's Research Project that she's so concerned about is the transition period, kind of a thesis that should relate to the field she wants to pursue. Clinic was something I created and it's basically practical Muggle Medicine, like, idk, less wands more slicing.

 

Your side characters are absolutely wonderful - literally fantastic - and bring so much life to the world you write rather than leaving it this two dimensional world with just Rose and Scorp. Is it always the plan to write these side characters as these well fleshed out and complex individuals, or do they just kind of fall out of your brain as you write? I know someone has already asked about your writing process, so I guess to an extent this falls under that too.

Y'all are asking super difficult questions today (yesterday?)   Like I said, I'm not a planner, I'm a pantser. That means that most of the things that happen between my chair and my keyboard are a complete mystery to me and this is making me do a lot of introspection 

I've done a lot of things for character building in my life. I RPed for years, so making characters was always my bread and butter and I always hated it when characters existed in a vacuum so that meant populating the world with side characters - a lot of them. Then I started DMing for DnD and I had to learn to improv NPCs on the fly to populate the world I was giving my players - ngl, I sucked at it for a while until I didn't anymore.

Most of the time I get an idea for a character and I run with it and write them out and they're just what I imagined and it's easy. Sometimes I have notes about the characters like "Ted - 21 - Gryffindor - selfish", others it's a small logline, other times (like recently) I go through the insane trouble of fleshing them out into oblivion (usually because I'm procrastinating doing something else).

From experience, extensive character building makes little difference when it comes to actually writing characters. It doesn't matter if I know what Rose's favourite food is or not, what matters is what Rose says and how she says it. It matters what she does and how she reacts to situations and, honestly, people aren't cookie cutter versions of themselves and no matter how much I plan them, I always end up having to adapt when I'm writing them so why even bother in the first place...? 

Ted's selfish, sure, but that's just at home with his family. What about with his friends? What about with that one specific dude, Jack? What about with his girlfriend? What about complete strangers? Maybe his first instinct is to be selfish, but what if he wants to impress someone? Maybe he doesn't shy away from doing housework but he's selfish in bed. Is he selfish consciously or unconsciously? If he is aware of it, does he try not to be? What if people point it out, does he get defensive or not? Was he always selfish or does this stem from him refusing to be a pushover? Do his friends think he's selfish but he's not? Or is Ted just insanely tired and therefore his selfishness just runs amok because he's running on fumes? 

Makes it impossible to plan.

What I do is I sit down, think about the feel of the character and I write them. If I'm writing dialogue, sometimes I'll look at a sentence and go "no, that's not right, they'd never say/think this" and then change it because it doesn't fit or the character wouldn't use those specific words or whatever. I make snap decisions about any missing information and then stick to it and add it to the character in my mind.

Illustrative side note into the drama that is pantsing characters:

I'm currently actually planning another Scorose (completely different) that was born from a spontaneous idea for Rose's character and it's being incredibly resistant. The characters are already alive in my mind and I have a bunch of fascinating drabbles of them interacting and whatnot... but when I got to plotting the actual story (yes, plotting, I bought a Beat Sheet book and everything and I'm AWFUL at it) I suddenly realised it wasn't going to have a happy ending. And I don't know how to fix it because I don't particularly fancy hacking away at the characters who are already alive in my brain and I refuse to make them do anything they don't want to do... so that's a thing that happens XD

Yardley in particular is such a complex and wonderful guy (honestly reminds me a bit of Fred from Big Hero 6, but that might just be the surprise mansion), was he insipired by anyone? Were ANY of your side characters inspired by anyone?

Some of my characters are inspired by real people, yes. It's not a direct correlation more like... traits and and emotions and ways of dealing with emotions that I nick from real people. TBH, it's a bit hard to figure what came from where at this point, they're just their own people in my mind. 

NGL, I have no idea who Yardley's stemmed from - he's just someone I'm infinitely pleased because I love the floppy haired idiot. If I had to guess maybe one or more of my college friends?

[Darling_take_off_the_mask]

Maria, I’m here with picspams for you! But they come with Explanations (™).

I’ve been making picspams on Canva and it’s been driving me nuts that they’re coming out all blurry and grainy once I download them, even though their resolution is better on the Canva site itself -- apparently this is a thing that happens a lot with graphics downloaded from there, so I finally found a work-around for this, BUT it doesn’t work for picspams that include a gif. I've tried playing around on a couple of other sites to try making picspams but have yet to find one that makes any sense to me.

So here are Rose and Scorpius picspams that, sadly, don’t include the gifs I wanted to use, but they’re slightly better quality (mind you, they’re still Very Bad Picspams (™) because I made them).

 

          

 

 

 

And because I am stubbornly attached to my original plans, here are the original, shitty-quality picspams with the gifs. Four picspams for the price of two!

 

          

 

 

    

 

[tatapb]

AGRESSIVELY MAKES TEA !!!!!!

!!!!!!

[tatapb]

Because apparently now I do picspams. 

[Darling_take_off_the_mask]

Your podfics sound way better than mine, but anyway here's this stupid thing+