atrata

I'm not buying it.

I know a lot of people talk about the WiP hate in the Harry Potter fandom. That there's some huge stigma, and all these people who won't read them, and on and on and on. And yeah, okay, I know some people who won't read them. Hell, I generally don't read them.

But I do write them, and okay. You know how the meta goes around in circles, and every few months the topic is How To Become A BNF Get More Readers Make More Friends? [Personally, I endorseviolet_quill's How to Become a BNF in 10 Easy Steps and starrysummer's post on belonging and making friends.]

No one ever puts on these lists, write a WiP, probably because everyone thinks everyone else hates them. And, I don't really think I'm a BNF -- I think this fandom's too big for BNFs anymore -- but the number of people reading this journal does tend to make me nervous if I think about it, and a few of my friends consistently paint me with that brush. Anyway. I was looking at my joule listings, and something is apparent: the biggest, most consistent increase in readership I had was in May and the beginning of June, when I was finishing and posting In Between Days. Lots of you friended me to keep up with that story.

And something like 48 hours after posting the first two parts of Strange Attraction, which I did not pimp at all, anywhere, there are nine more of you reading. Well, one's a troll. So, eight more of you. And yeah, maybe it's a drop in the bucket, but it adds up.

Now, I'm not sure just any WiP will automatically gain you readers. Regular updates help. Finishing it helps. Writing a story that doesn't completely suck helps.

So, yeah. That's the Atra Guide to Getting Readers. We all know I'm not the most social person in fandom, and I don't play in RPGs or go to meet-ups or comment much or even write much. I'm awful at pimping myself, and mostly I just write the one pairing, and it's rare for me to have anything metaish to say... and yet here you all are. ♥

And now that I have dispensed with the Myth Of WiP Hate, I'm going to bed. G'night, loves.

It's up. The Snape/Harry ship manifesto and expanded fandom guide.

Gah.

Update, 2008: I believe all of these links are working now. If I couldn't find a working link, I left the name of the story and just removed the link part.

This is an expanded version of the SS/HP guide I posted at ship_manifesto. It's very much a work in progress, and doesn't account for anything written after the release of HBP. I haven't included full warnings, but it should be pretty clear what you're getting into by the category the fics are in. But, as usual, please read the headers before you read the fic. I have not listed works-in-progress. Please feel free to suggest additions; I know there are many stories and authors not on the list who really, really should be. So let me know what I'm missing, and I'll add it when I get the chance.

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A GUIDE TO MORAL AMBIGUITY.
Starring Severus Snape and Harry Potter.

1. Never answer any questions, except with other questions or blatant sarcasm.
"Good to see you again, Professor. How are you?"
"How do you think?"
"Well... you look good. Where have you been?"
"EuroDisney."

2. Always have at least three alternate explanations available for whatever you've just been caught doing.
"Thanks for making me lunch, Professor."
"I did not make you lunch. I made lunch for the Dark Lord."
"Er. Okay. He's here, then?"
"... no. But he will be, soon, because I have betrayed you. And he's going to be very angry when he sees you've eaten his lunch."

3. If you're caught doing something nice and you DON'T have alternate explanations handy, counter immediately with something not-so-nice.
"Thanks for saving my life, Professor."
"I did not just save your life."
"... Um, yeah, you really did."
"Fine. You're welcome. Crucio!"
"Hey!"
"I told you I was evil."

4. Admit to everything, regardless of your guilt.
"So, Professor, I just read about a huge Death Eater attack near Hogsmeade last night."
"I told you I was evil. You never listen to me."
"... but you were here last night. All night. With me. In France."
"That's what you think! But I'm very sneaky. And evil."


... there are probably more. But this is a good start.

So, I'm the first to admit I'm obsessive. I obsess about all kinds of things, and more often than not, my obsessions consume me utterly. [Fortunately, I have yet to be obsessed with an actual person in this manner, because I'm pretty sure that's called stalking.] Right now, I'm obsessed with my WiP, even though I have a bunch of other stuff I really, REALLY need to be working on instead.

And when I'm obsessed with something, I want to talk about it. And it's absolutely killing me that I can't. But I really, really can't. I mean, there's the spoiler issue, but I feel like there's also a wank issue. I mean, do you ever see your story recced in someone's journal, and then some people start talking about it in the comments, and you sit there blinking and wondering what story they're talking about because it doesn't sound anything like the one you're writing?

It's weird. But I decided when I first got into fandom that I was going to stay out of those discussions. It seemed wise at the time, and seems wiser now. Because, really. I write fanfic. I rely exclusively on subtext and interpretation and extrapolation and all those other things fic writers use to wring new stories out of source material. Who am I to say someone else's interpretation of my story, itself an interpretation of a different story, is wrong? That's not something I can do.

... But I can still scratch my head sometimes, right?

And by 'Snape,' I mean, Snape/Harry. Because I have a ship manifesto to write, and I'm at a bit of a loss. I know why *I* love the pairing -- and there aren't a lot of things I love as much as this pairing. But why do YOU like the pairing? I wanna know.

And what about a fandom guide? I'm supposed to do recs, and I'm thinking about dividing it up into cliches subgenres: warfic, Harry-comes-back-to-teach-DADA, Snape is a child molestor, whatever. That way people squicked by teacher/student can still read some stories they might like. I figure I can do 2-3 recs per genre, and that'll give people a good sampling of what's out there.

So. Here's what I've got, completely and utterly off the top of my head. Am I missing genres? Is there a TOTALLY OBVIOUS story I should be including and am not? Help me out, fellow 'shippers.

• The potions accident. The Familiar (Resonant). Something by Meri, maybe?
  
  
• The bond fic. They have to get married/form a soul bond/forge a life bond to save one or both of them from Voldemort. Sanguis Vinculum comes to mind (again, by Meri). A Convenient Marriage (Diana Williams). What else?
  
  
• The tutor. Harry goes to Snape for private tutoring in the Dark Arts/ Occlumency/hot sex. Crucius (Dolores Crane). A Choriambic Progression by those people whose names I can't spell without looking them up. There are a lot of these; what else? ETA: Scratch, by Aucta. Although I don't think I can very well rec EVERYTHING she's written. ... can i?
  
  
• The rescue. Snape shows up to rescue Harry from the Dursleys. Well, I can't very well rec my own fic, plus it's a WiP, but I'm not coming up with any of these off the top of my head. I know they're out there, though.
  
  
• The DADA teacher. Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts X years after defeating Voldemort to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'm not so into post-Hogwarts fics, so I'm not sure. Suggestions?
  
  
• The war fic. Snape and Harry must work as partners during the war. And Tell Me Who is Victor (Switchknife); Down, You Lie Down Too (Resonant); Within the Pale (Ellen Fremedon -- yes, it's new, but I love it.) Maybe Contemporary Magical Innovations by H. Granger (Kai)? ETA: So Lonely Without Me (Caligrypy)
  
  
• The favor. Harry's out killing Dark wizards/playing professional Quidditch/being bitter when he's attacked by a former Death Eater/rabid fangirl/something else. He's cursed and Snape is the only one who can save him. Aucta Sinistra's got Quid Pro Quo. Who else?
  
  
• The apocalypse. Voldemort wins. Snape gets Harry as a slave. Ummm... Corvus Fallere (Mouse) comes to mind, but it's a WiP, and I'm not reccing those. We could maybe put Through a Shattered Mirror here, by Rushlight, although I'm hesitant because of the Draco factor. Something by Amaneunsis? Switch? I'm not sure who writes these. Doesn't Lexin have one, or am I on crack? Juxian Tang?
  
  
• The mindfuck. What He Wants (Debchan). There have to be more.
  
  
• Straight-up chan/abuse of power. Idle Hands (Nimori). The Life Debt (Rushlight). What else? ETA: Dragon-Blind (Tharimis).
  
  
• Severitus. I figure I might as well include these, for people interested in the Snape-Harry dynamic but not necessarily the sex. Or for people who really like Snape/Harry AND incest! I haven't read a lot of these; only Blood Magic by ... by ... shit. Who wrote it? I know you know. Gatewaygirl.
  
  
• General post-war. I left this one off the original list. Harry's a Quidditch player/bitter guy wandering the land/a cursebreaker/whatever. Maybe reconstruction fics?

What am I missing? Lots, I know, including most of the classics. Tell me your thoughts. Point me to essays, recs lists, stories, whatever. Pimp this around. If it's Snape/Harry related, I wanna know about it.

As I am an obsessive person, and as one of my latest obsessions is this HP/Phantom crackstasm, I am currently reading a novel called "Night Music" by someone called Charlotte Vale Allen. It's a 'modern' mix of "Phantom of the Opera" and "Beauty and the Beast."

I have made several exciting discoveries. This book is fanfic. Furthermore, it's chan. And as I'm relatively new to fandom, and still going through the occasional fight about whether fanfic is a valid art form, I find it really interesting. I'm not sure I buy the argument that something like, say, "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern" ISN'T fanfic just because it's by Tom Stoppard. There are modern retellings of classic stories published all the time (not that R&G falls into that category), so I think there has to be a better distinction between fanfic and profic than just, "oh, profic's published."

But anyway. This book, first of all, is bad. (ETA: Note that I'm not trying to imply fanfic is bad. I wouldn't be here if I thought that. Obviously.) My favorite line so far is, "Her voice oozed over him like warm lotion." Um, ew.

On top of that, this book is pretty clearly chan. When the novel starts, the girl is 16, a junior in high school; our hero (Erik, obviously) is 31. I'm not personally of the opinion that a sexual story starring a 16-year-old is absolutely chan (regardless of the fact that she is under the age of consent). But much is made in this book of her age, and her physical and emotional immaturity. Erik refers to her, both mentally and vocally, as "my sweet little girl" and "dear child."

And I guess I'm a little surprised to see it in what is, by all appearances, a pretty mainstream novel. I suppose it brings home the double-standard, that there's no way this novel would have been published had both characters been male. But why is a grown man lusting after an underage girl perfectly fine, and a grown man lusting after an underage boy deviant? I mean, maybe it's my fluid gender perceptions talking, but who cares what's under the skirt? I just ... I don't know. I'm kind of out of steam here. I'm just annoyed and frustrated by this country. I need to move somewhere less puritanical.