Manipulation? Seduction? It doesn't work with me.

[icarus]

How to guarantee I will not write a particular story:

- Bug me about it.
- Encourage me to read the pairing to get me back into it.
- Bug me about it.
- Bring it up in conversation.
- Bug me about it.
- Put down another character I'm interested in writing.
- Bug me about it.
- Put down a second character I'm interested in writing.
- Bug me about it.
- Offer to help with canon issues.
- Bug me about it.

Why getting me to read the pairing doesn't encourage me to write it:
I tend to write pairings that no one else is interested in, because I write my own reading material. I don't write Harry/Draco because there's plenty of reading material out there for those two. Back when I wrote Harry/Snape there were only a handful of novel-length Harry/Snape stories. Showing me how much Harry/Snape there is out there now does not encourage me to write it, especially as so much of it is excellent. I feel no need. I'm inclined to recline, pour myself a nice cold lemonade and read to my heart's content. I am fundamentally lazy and won't lift a finger where someone else has done it for me.

Why bugging me is foolish:
Bugging me about it is unwise, because I'm stubborn. If I start to feel pushed or dragged, my heels shall inevitably dig in and you will have better luck getting stories out of a mule.

Why putting down other characters I'm writing doesn't redirect my efforts:
As far as putting down other characters I'm intereted in writing, well, that does effectively kill my enthusiasm for particular stories from time to time.

But this doesn't move my enthusiasm neatly to another story. It kills my inclination to write altogether. Because the stories that are there, that want to be written, are the ones that are there. I don't want to be writing Lucius
Gen, but the story is there. It is not like weeding, where if you get rid of the unwanted characters/stories/weeds, your favourite flower will flourish. It's more like pouring concrete on the entire garden. Nothing will grow at all.

As for offering to help with canon issues, that is doomed from the start. My problem with certain stories is not that I need to coordinate with canon. It is that they are no longer even remotely original because JKR and I were thinking along the same lines (i.e., she foreshadowed successfully, I anticipated successfully and -- surprise, surprise -- we arrived at the same place). This has happened twice now, and with the same WIP. It rather takes the fun out of it when my story becomes a dry retread of canon.

The next person to bug me about either Snape Manor or Reunion will be treated to Filch/Kreacher porn... or perhaps a very limp G-rated story about Colin Creevey collecting water lilies to photograph. Or perhaps nothing.

I'm really getting soured on those stories and pairings, and I'm beginning to understand why Dien Alcyone abandoned Season of Healing.

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The Long Shadow Of History -- part 3

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

It was lunchtime nearly week later when Professor Flitwick arrived in the Great Hall a little late. Beaming, he walked over and handed Colin the envelope with a set of freshly developed prints. "You are very lucky, so very lucky indeed," he said, almost bouncing. "Usually the professor cannot be photographed. Why, I tried just this last leaving feast, and all I got was a wash of magical color." He bobbed his head eagerly. "You should show these to Professor Dumbledore."

"Oh," Colin said. "Now?" He didn't look Flitwick in the face. He probably should have asked, especially if he had to show the professor.

"It is as good a time as any." Flitwick gestured to the great table where Dumbledore sat in his usual centre chair, spearing a chip on a fork.

Nervously, Colin approached, flinching at various curious glances cast in his direction.

"Ah." Dumbledore carefully wiped his hands on a cloth napkin and gestured for the envelop. "Are they ready so soon?" Colin simply blinked at him.

Dumbledore opened it and sifted through the pictures, nodding as he examined them. "Yes. Yes indeed, these shall do nicely. Thank you, Mr Creevey. It is especially fitting that these be taken by a Hogwarts student, I think. I particularly appreciate the farewell wave at the end."

Colin could only stare in confusion. Was Dumbledore taking away the pictures now? Even though they were of Dumbledore, Colin felt a sudden wave of possessiveness. He should never have showed them to him.

"Now you keep those, and keep them safe," Dumbledore told him as if reading his mind. His eyes suddenly locked with Colin's, the blue brilliant and intense. "But show no one until the proper time."

"Proper time?" Colin's mouth was open a little.

But Dumbledore continued as if he hadn't heard. "It is a sad vanity, perhaps, yet no one wishes to be remembered how they were in death, but rather as they were in life. And our images of the past seem to shape the future, strangly enough. The past is illusory and therefore vulnerable, as the truth about it is so easily distorted. Certainly the worst way to be remembered is as a hero. Don't you agree?"

Colin lied and nodded, hesitantly, his mouth still open. Actually, Dumbeledore made no sense at all, but Colin didn't expect himself to understand such a great wizard.

"Ah, good then," Dumbledore said. "We'll keep those as 'our little secret'--" his eyes twinkled at Colin, "--until the proper time comes. I trust you will know when that is. I ask that you show as much patience in displaying your pictures as you had while taking them," he said in a quiet serious voice. "I am confident you are able, though I do realise that it is a great deal to ask. Will you do this?" His kind eyes were on Colin again, and Colin nodded.

"Thank you," Dumbledore said, quite sincerely.

It was a very thoughtful Colin who returned to his seat.


Icarus