I know that a lot of people wanting to write fanfic (specifically dark!Harry and independent!Harry) have a lot of trouble steering away from cliches and such other things.

I was wondering, what do you all have in mind when you think of a good independent!Harry or dark!Harry fanfic? Aside from originality (both of plot and writing style), canoness, and good spelling/grammar, what do you look for?

Sorry if this is just wasting space, but I was interested.

[*has an idea in mind, but can't seem to make it not cliched or unoriginal*]

[[If this seems like a repeat of a post, don't hesitate to tell me where to go, and then delete this one.]]

 

Hmm...things I look for...

- No ranting. Sure, Harry is independent, but throwing a tizzy fit like a 5 year old every time he sees Dumbledore doesn't make him look very mature, or worthy of independence. See: Scorpion Sorcerer for an example of excess ranting.

- The ability of Harry to work with others, even if he doesn't like them. Even if Dumbledore has manipulated Harry or something like that in your story, working with the leader of the Light is going to be necessary. Working with a person doesn't break a person's independence, only working for someone.

- If Harry is going to have a girl, he must not be reliant on them in anyway, nor should they be able to tell him what to do. This infringes on his independence. Harry's girl understands that he is the way he is and doesn't try to change him - if she does, then she is not worthy of him. N.B. This rule automatically excludes both Hermione and Ginny from pairing with Harry.

- No cliches...all the trunk-heir-of-Griphook rubbish...this all goes without saying.

i'll think of more later.

 

- Character evolution, Harry is not just going to wake up one morning after OotP and decide to rule the world/split from his friends. He needs reasons to do so and good ones.

- Decent use of magic. By that I mean something beyond ‘if I overcharge this spell, it’s brighter than the others.’ But something that reveals the author has some imagination.

- A Good way to make Harry powerful that doesn’t involve learning to fight out of a book or suddenly breaking 50 magical blocks to learn amazing skills.

- No super-amazing Harry, I’m not interested in reading about someone who can wipe the floor with anyone, where is the challenge in that?

- Continuing that point – a decent Voldemort is essential, ‘Insert random death eater’s name here, Crucio’ does not lead itself to a Dark Lord that almost brought the country to its knees.

- Finally, cliché is not good. That said I don’t mind it if there is some thought or the authors own twist to it and not the impression it was taken from ‘Stock ways to make Harry the superawesomest ever!!!11’

 

To be honest, I don't "look for" anything in particular. I see what a fic has and decide if it sounds interesting enough.

I don't mind clichés if they're reasonable and make sense. It's the repetition in place of creativity that bugs me. Swords, trunks, heirs, kung phooey, are tired concepts. But if you can make it interesting, or justify it as an integral part of the plot, that's fine by me. If instead of a magical trunk for the heir of Gryffindor, he's got a magical bureau and he's the heir of Hufflepuff, that's not original. It's the same cliché with different words. Ditto for the Harry/Ginny romance except you call Ginny "Susan Bones" or "Hannah Abbott" or whoever else. Still packaged with the same eye-gouging painful attempts at teenage fluff romance.

Supering your Harry up beyond measure I don't mind if the story still has conflict or at least some logic behind it. Or something more to it than simply Harry versus Voldie with super-god-power!Harry stomping over every Death Eater in his path.

In reference to your first thought, "canon-ness" has zero to do with my interest. But there are many characters I have preconceived notions about. Most of those opinions come from fanfic more than canon though. Things like pro-Draco, pro-Snape, pro-Lucius are a lot harder for me to have any interest in reading. Although pro-Wormtail and pro-Bella usually garner a glance. Pro-Cho falls onto that first list of unstomachables too. These aren't dealbreakers, but for me personally to have an interest in reading it, these affect whether I actually read or just skim the ends of chapters.

Mainly, it's my mood at reading time. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a story I've not read before and the typical Indy!Harry plotline makes me close the window. Other times, I just want more of the same, but perhaps done a little bit better than the last other two dozen Indy!Harry WIP fics.

This is why you should just write what you want to. Trying to appeal to everyone all the time is impossible. Hell, even appealing to just me all the time isn't very easy.

 

First off, just know that you aren't going to please everyone. That's something that I found out really early, and I consider it a valuable lesson. There will be people out there who won't like your story, and there will be people out there who do. It's just up to you to decide what kind of audience your story will cater to.

Having a mature Harry is a big thing for me. If he's sixteen years old and is training as hard as he can to kill the most powerful Dark Lord in centuries, then I think it's a reasonable enough request to, as Taure said, not let Harry rant and allow him to realize that he needs to work with others.

Keep from making Harry god-like, because that just isn't fun to read about. Ip said it best here. To keep Harry from becoming like a god, have opposition who are as powerful, if not more powerful, than him. You can make Harry the most powerful student in Hogwarts, but, the second he gets into the real world fighting Death Eaters, there had better be some who absolutely curbstomp him.

But, honestly, just write whatever you feel like. If a group of people don't like it for whatever reason, then they must not be your target audience. There is no reason to quit writing just because a few people didn't like it. (Note: If somebody writes like Tara, then there is a reason...everybody hates them.)

 

What would you think if I wrote a Harry who loses his magic, but then gains a different sort of magic/ability as well? One that limits his abilities in different ways, but provides him with great boons in return? It's on the edge of 'Dark' magic, but mostly it makes him more of an independent!Harry instead....

[I haven't really got a good, original idea down, but I'll be sure to think of one...soon.]

EDIT: I thought that this drastic change in mood and perspective might be brought on by something traumatic...

EDIT2: I know this has been done...alot. But I had hoped to try my hand at it...if nothing but for practice.

 

Does it sound sillier to say that it's much, much easier to list what sends me clicking the back button at warp speed?

1 - If Harry decides that he needs some new clothing and new/more books (not unreasonable, because - gah, Dudley's clothing? eeew), it is enough to say that he went and got new clothing that fit, muggle and magical, with the optional flirting with a shopgirl. But this being Harry, his flirting shouldn't be too smooth. If I can make a list of each item in Harry's new wardrobe, you've put in too much about the clothing. Instead, tell me about how Harry feels getting his own clothing, tell me about the sounds/smells/sights of the shop - what sort of displays, is it confusing? Are there magical manniquins that display the ability to move and flex in the clothing?

2 - if KnockTurn Alley had a stack of old books written by Salazar Slytherin, Voldie would already have bought them or had his minions get them for him. Some old books maybe. Some useful books, maybe. How to become stupor-powerful in three weeks? Not a chance.


3 - the goblins are not going to fall all over Harry just because he remembers Griphok's name. And how do we know that 'Griphook' isn't as common a name for goblins as 'John' or 'Harry' for humans?

4 - Harry doesn't need to inherit enough money to buy wizarding Britain. Boring. Enough to be comfortable, great.

5 - Becoming an animagus is supposed to be very difficult and advanced magic. Therefore, IF Harry can learn it, it should take a lot longer than the summer, with the help of an old book. Maybe the summer, with lots of help and practice from an animagus or Transfiguration Master(Mistress), but not on his own.


hmm, I sound awfully picky.

What do I want to see?

1 - Harry should have a brain. He might not be getting the best grades, but he had good instincts in the first four books, let's see them again. And he was fairly good at knowing when he needed help, even if his luck at getting that help sucked.

2 - Harry's growth and development as a character should take time, and not happen overnight in the first chapter. Maybe in the first chapter, he does decide that he needs to take things more seriously, learn occulomancy (but not from Snape), gain a better understanding of duelling strategy, ect. How's he going to do it? It should be hard for him to change his behavior habits.

3 - Magic isn't a series of incantations. Having spells, wands and different clothing isn't the only difference between old wizarding families and muggle families. Maybe it's nothing too powerful, but show me some differences!

4 - Relationships, especially ones with a lot of emotions, take time to develop. Harry shouldn't wake up one day/month and decide that _____ is gorgeous and wonderful and how could he live without her? Give the relationship time, have misunderstandings, wrong moves, imperfections... make it more realistic than a tweenie-romance story.

4a - Harry caring for the girl does not make her perfect looking or acting.

5 - Harry should have someone in his corner, and it had better not be Snape unless you have a damn good explanation. Especially after book 5.

 

Err... how is this different from Clishe Rant thread?

 

I just wanted to figure a few things out...and most of those things got answered. It was specifically for the Independent/Dark Harry stories...b/c I have to admit that alot of the ones I see on ff.net ...have a lot to be desired.

I wanted to make sure I had the right thing in mind. This isn't necesserily a listing of cliches...more like what one thinks of when one thinks of a decent Independent/Dark Harry fic.

....It's not that different, I admit. I just wanted it to focus on the above.

 

Ha, I can imagine that.

^^^

Harry looked around the main hall of Gringotts, once again feeling vulnerable in the vast open area. Wizards and witches bustled about in their own little worlds, oblivious to the important events happening in the wide world around them.

Harry sighed and stepped into one of the shorter queues. While it took some time, eventually he made it to the front of the queue.

"Ok, here goes, time to make a good impression," he muttered to himself.

"Yes?" snarled the surly goblin behind the desk.

"Hello," Harry replied politely. "Could I speak to Griphook please?"

The goblin looked at Harry as though he were something that should be scraped off his boot. "Who?"

Harry frowned. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. "Griphook," he repeated.

The goblin sighed as insultingly as possible. "Griphook who?" he sneered, his tone inticating his disgust with yet another pathetic wizard who had no idea goblins had surnames and thought that politeness was a valued trait in a species devoted to the cutthroat world of international commerce.

^^^

Could be a nice scene to put into fic.

Book 6, possibly?

Draco

 

God damnit, enough with the periods.

This is what I look for in a Dark/Indy fic.

A) No Dark Harry with a dark lady Girlfriend, no Dark Harry Light girl.

B) No Ranting Harry.

C) Harry can't have all that power and then go to Hogwarts and get bitched around.

D) You can give Harry a billion times Dumbledores and Voldemorts strength combined but he can NOT call either of them: Dumballs, Dumblefuck, Tommy Boy, Dark Tosser etc. You get my point.