Sidious is FINISHED!! (Again!)

I finished posting Sidious to the twin sites about three minutes ago.

Which gives me a happy.

The Ninth Floor

So - I think I may - FINALLY - have figured out how to write a political drama set in the world of Harry Potter.

My original plan was to base it on the aftermath of "Dark Lord Sidious", but since I killed almost all of the main characters during that story, there was no one left with whom the readers would be familiar enough to make a suitable story.

Instead, I am going to just write it set in a fictional universe (and at what point did I start referring to JK Rowling's world as "real"?) with almost everyone alive.

Because that way people might get more interested in the story, since they recognise more of the characters.

The question now becomes can I come up with enough to fill out a few stories without people getting bored?

Sidious is FINISHED!!

That's right - The main story line of "Harry Potter and The Dark Lord Sidious" is now complete. I finished the epilogue around twenty minutes ago, then edited it and finished it again about five minutes ago (it's better than it was - the ending lacked something originally!)

There are seven more "story arc" chapters to post (including the epilogue), and then three chapters after that - Snape's Letter, a complete list of members of The Conspiracy and how they were punished, and a complete disclaimer/notes chapter (mostly answering questions from reviews, and one or two other things that came up).

The three additional chapters will be posted at the same time as the last two, while the other five chapters (16, 17, 18, 19 and 20) will be posted once every two or three days over the coming fortnight, since they still need to be properly proof-read.

But it is done, and I am actually very happy with how it has turned out. The Battle Hymn scene went exactly as I wanted, and the two final chapters also turned out as I pictured them in my head. Which is nice.

I think after this there will be a short break (probably involving Blue Dragon) and then I am going to try to get back to "Enemies", since I should finish off "A New Dawn" before going on to anything else.

(On a related note, I have figured out how to restart 19 years Later, so hopefully that will follow "A New Dawn"'s completion).

But for now, I am just happy that my first proper time travel story is finished. Because the last two chapters were a complete bitch to get right.

More Sidious News

The next chapter of Sidious has been posted, but only to ForeverFandom, as HPFandom is still down (le sigh!).

In addition, I am pretty sure I am about to start the final chapter (of the main story arc), after which there'll be two epilogues (it will make sense when you read them) and a notes chapter (mostly answering questions asked in reviews).

I am pretty happy with the way it has gone, but I think the last chapter will prove the hardest to write - something else I am looking forward to!

HP Fandom Down (Ish)

So apparently HPFandom dot net is currently not accepting new stories, due to transferring to a new hosting plan (I'm guessing either a new ISP or the like?)

So new updates to Sidious are going to be unavoidably delayed until further notice. However, if you do want to keep reading it, I am going to continue updating ForeverFandon dot net, and then - once HPFandom comes back up I will post all the missing chapters to there to bring the stories back in to Sync.

(On an unrelated note, I am currently six chapters ahead, and I think I am two or three chapters way from the end of the story, with an epilogue, a second epilogue and probably a "Note&Queries" chapter after that).

So, pending holidays and work related crap, "Harry Potter And The Dark Lord Sidious" should be done by the end of October. Isn't that nice?

Double Sidious!

After spending most of last night playing Blue Dragon, I felt a little guilty about my lack of progress with Sidious.

So today you get two chapters for the price of one! (Well - for the price of none technically. Charging for fanfiction is baaaaad!)

The other reason is that the most recent chapter ("Letters To America", the title of which will be explained at some point) ended up being about twice as long as I originally thought, I have had to break it up in to two parts.

Which means that I ended up four chapters ahead, and thought I should possibly post at least one of them. (I also plan to post both parts of "Letters To America" at the same time, since it is one chapter!).

Hopefully regular service will be returned in due course, and I will get back to posting one chapter every three to five days.

Unless something stupid happens. But what are the odds of that?

Sometimes it just feels right

Generally when I plan to write stories, I write the plots out in Narrative form. That is I tell a summary of the story from start to finish, without regard to chapters.

Consequently, when I actually start writing, there is a lot of "filler" to write. Not random stuff that has no relevance, but expanding of the narrative plot.

For example the narrative plot might read "Hermione talks to Harry about the night before, then they go down to breakfast".

Now I could write "Hermione sat down to Harry and asked him about the night before. After a brief discussion, they went down to breakfast together", but that's DULL! Really, really boring.

So instead I start writing in the bits that are missing. So you get this...

Hermione sat down on the sofa, and looked across at Harry.

"How's it going?" She asked. He shrugged "Did you have a good time last night?"

"Well - I had an odd dream about two otters and a sea-lion, but aside from that it was mostly okay" He grinned as she frowned at him.

"You know what I mean Jim - how did it go with Flitwick?"

"Pretty much okay"......

And so on. Most of what I write (as filler) is made up on the spot, without giving it much thought before hand.

Which is where I come to the title of the post - I have just finished a scene in "Sidious" where Harry and Luna are discussing what's going to happen on Back To School day in Diagon Alley. It wasn't one I planned out before (very occasionally I will write complete plans of scenes, but that is usually reserved for fights and large scale battles, because you would not believe how easy it is to kill someone and then having them fighting two scenes later) and I just started writing.

In most cases like this, I get about three or four paragraphs in, and it just clicks - I know how to end it, and then I just steer the story in that direction. And when I reach the end, I know I have because it feels right - it feels like that should be the end.

The thing is - I can't explain WHY it feels right. It just does. The closest analogy I can think of is Colin Mathews talking about when to sell and when not to in Press Gang - you just get this feeling that this is the moment, and everything has fallen in to place.

Does anyone else get like this? Or is it just me?

The Dark Lord Sidious : Posted

Woohoo! I have posted the Prologue and First Chapter of Sidious on the two main sites. I even contemplated breaking my near 17 month boycott of Fanfiction.net, but in the end I decided that after the events of M22-08 are still annoying, and even though I use "xoxox" rather than "-----", there is still the chance they'll remove that variation as well, and my scenes will start to merge again.

Anyway - setting aside my opinions of FFN, the first chapter is posted, which is good. Whether people like it or not, we'll see soon enough. And whether I've broken any site-rules will also become apparent.

There should be another chapter before the end of the week - I am doing two chapters ahead rather than one, because it's proving somewhat harder to write than I originally thought.

As for the other stories - A New Dawn : Enemies is having problems - the start of the third part is already tending towards being a lot like the last two, and quite a lot like The Silent Trio (in certain ways), so I'm going to take a slight pause and continue with Sidious, which will hopefully give me an idea of how to write it better.

And I spent my lunch re-reading the start of The Western Sky, and once I am done with that, I might be able to get back to it, and write "Shadows Of The Past" can start again.

And now, it is time for bed.

Dark Lord Sidious

I have finally started HP and The Dark Lord Sidious, and the first chapter was a bit of a bugger. But now I've got in to the main plot, it is going slightly easier.



I suspect - when I get to posting it (see later) it might confuse people at the start. But to be honest, that is kind of the idea.



My plan for posting is to do the first two chapters, then post the prologue and chapter one, so I'll always be one chapter ahead while writing.



On a side note - this is my first post from my shiny new phone, so I might be lacking tags (until I can figure out how to do them!)

A new Dawn : Allies - Complete!

The second part of the "A New Dawn Trilogy" is now complete. Although I guess since there is a prequel ("A Summer's Story"), at least one sequel ("The Holiday From Hell") and another one planned ("Return To Willamette") I suspect that calling it a trilogy is probably a bit of a misnomer. (Though there were two Star Wars trilogies, so if I can write the third part of The Hands of Blue story line, maybe I can go back to calling it a normal trilogy. But I digress).

"A New Dawn : Allies" is finished, pending proof-reading and posting to the two main sites, and I am quite happy with it.

Quite what I'm going to do next, I'm not sure. I think "Enemies" will have to wait, at least for a little while. Not least because I am going on holiday in two weeks, and there will be no writing during that week or so.

Plus I kind of want to write "Dark Lord Sidious", or at least get it started. For example.....

Sirius Black was dead!

As Harry listened to Dumbledore explain The Prophecy, and how he was destined to be the saviour of wizard kind, only one thought went through his mind.

Sirius Black was dead!

As he turned and stalked out of the office, the same thought kept running through his head.

Sirius Black was dead!

And as he came face to face with Luna Lovegood, the thought continued to echo.

Sirius Black was dead! And he could not be happier about the situation.

(Yet again, I am reacting to whiny Post-OOTP stories about Harry being all depressed and turning in to a little, whiny bitch).

So - either "Dark Lord Sidious", "Return To Willamette" or another Harry/Jane story. I think "Enemies" is going to have to wait for the middle of August, or possibly September. But hey - that's only really six weeks away.

Starlight - The Movie - posted

I have started posting Starlight - The Movie. And since it only has three chapters, it shouldn't take me that long (however the next chapter requires formatting, and it took me about an hour or so to do one tonight, so don't expect the next one before the weekend).

However it is only up at one site, because the other one does not permit stories like "Starlight", so I can't post it there.

(ForeverFandom.net has no problem with it, but HP Fandom doesn't permit "original fiction" on the site - which is what Starlight apparently is).

Meanwhile, A New Dawn (Allies) continues a pace, and my notes for Dark Lord Sidious also continue to be written. Which is nice.

Distraction. It's never good.

So instead of continuing The New Dawn trilogy, or typing up "Holiday From Hell" and "Starlight", spent the last week writing a cross-over between Harry Potter and Jane and The Dragon, and am now plotting out a "do-over story" (Harry comes back to rewrite the past).

I really need to get more organized with this. Or just stop coming up with ideas.

(The Jane and the Dragon crossover was just something that popped in to my head, and took 12 days to write, so I don't feel so bad about that one, and the "do-over" story is a reaction to all of the bloody annoying "whiny Harry" stories that people seem to think should follow "OOTP". Get over it people - JK Rowling went the other way!).