I haven't read much HP fanfic in a while. Maybe three or four stories I'm following that update more than once every few months. But the other day I decided to read some of the stories I favourited way back when I first made my FF.net account.

There's a lot garbage there that I can't bare to read, a few good stories, but there are also a few stories that aren't exactly great and by today's standards are incredibly cliché, but I still really want to read.

I've been scratching my head trying to figure out why I enjoy them (beyond nostalgia) despite the same tropes making me cringe in other stories, and I think I figured it out; the stories I enjoy still feel magical.

Take one of the earliest Fem!Harry fics I ever read, A Butterfly Effect by SlyGoddess. The story has a lot of issues and went off the rails before the author abandoned the fic, but everything in the story feels magical. Most crucially it feels magical in the scope of Harry Potter.

Take another: Lord of Caer Azkaban by Rorschach's Blot. Really cliché, but I still enjoy it because everything about it is magical and feels magical inside of Harry Potter.

Take Taure's fic Alexandra Potter. By exploring an expanded magical world with all its little details it constantly shows how magical the world of Harry Potter is to the read which keeps you hooked. (I wish you hadn't taken it down Taure, it's nowhere near as bad as you made it out to be. At least I can still find it in WbA).

Taking a fic that no-one doubts is exceptional despite its age: Nonjon's A Black Comedy. Nonjon kept pulling out new magical plot devices (not necessarily physical devices) to keep everything moving which he did with the whole thieving thing and that twist at the end.

Looking at the fic that are actually bad an unreadable, they're so because they make the Harry Potter world boring. Being a magical heir to someone itself isn't boring, but when you drag in a gazillion galleons and five headships it is boring. Magical world looking like a more racist muggle world? No longer magical and now boring. Harry with little effort becoming a super powerful wizard and streamrolling everyone? Being super-powerful takes no effort so boring. Mastermind evil Dumbledore yet also an idiot at the same time? Not particularly magical and very boring.

Any thoughts? I know what I've written is a mess.

 

I think it mostly comes down to the writing. Now, a good story certainly needs a magical element, but that doesn’t have to be magic. A Black Comedy is hilarious. The humor is the magical factor here, not magic itself.

Newcomb’s The Lesser Sadness takes the cliché of some agent of Fate sending Harry back to fix things and gives it a highly interesting twist. Yes, the magic is entertaining, but it’s the writing, characters, and battles that are magical. A cliché of Harry getting someone’s memories (usually Voldemort’s) has been done to death, but Taure’s The One He Feared offers an alternative and is done so well because it emulates canon’s tone.

Sure the story features magic and that alone makes it magical, but Dumbledore’s voice? Few authors can get it right and the fact that this one did, makes it a magical story to read. This was an interesting post and gave me a lot to think on, so thanks.

 

No.

/10char

 

My top 3 stories to read are Alexandra Potter, Lesser Sadness and Forging the Sword. All three meet the criteria.

And, of course, if I am to read a story about wizards and witches, it better be as magical as magic can be.

 

What a useful contribution to the discussion.

 

The magical thing about Harry Potter stories, or any good story is their ability to draw us into their world. It's the immersion, and immersion basically comes down to the author not breaking your suspension of disbelief while keeping you enthralled. I think most of us here are narrative junkies. We are on a fanfiction forum after all, this is some next level obsession.

 

It helps, sure, but I don't think you can categorically state that it's the secret to success. Plenty of good fics aren't 'magical' - I've just reread Number Games for the fifth or sixth time, and honestly you could take the magic out of that entirely, make it about a footballer, and it would still be a great story. It also depends on what you think of as being magical. Nonjon's stories have plenty of magic in them, for example, but they don't feel magical to me, because there's no real sense of wonder to it (which is fine, because it's not what he's aiming for, magic is just a route to a joke) whereas something like the Sacrifices Arc, which by your original post would be distinctly unmagical due to Harry being ridiculously OP with little (on page) training, I would say is the most magical fic I've read, because it feels weird and mysterious etc.

TL;DR: subjective question is subjective.

 

Not in my opinion.

Some of my favorites have that (POTDK, WYLB) and certainly, the setting of HP is why I read fanfic of it, but magical whimsy is one way to tackle the setting in your fic, not the only one. There are great fics where, while present, magic itself or how magical a story feels isn't the main draw, like CR, RC or ABC. Ultimately, it comes down to execution, because atmosphere alone does not a story make. The thing that draws me in the most is plot. That's the first thing I look at, not the magicalness.

 

Shinysavage has the right of it, in that there's no one defining feature to a story that makes it "good". It's a subjective question to begin with, because everybody likes different things in fanfic, and it's what arouses controversy when people start arguing over "greatest fic" and whatnot.

There's a myriad of things that make a good fic. Personally, I like to see immersive worldbuilding and realistic characterizations. I like to understand the characters that I'm reading about; why they act the way they do, what drives them towards their goals, etc. Stuff like A Long Journey Home almost fits the entire ideal there... which is why I'm so frustrated by Jasmine in that one. But whatever.

Others will probably like different things. To each their own.

 

Not necessarily true there. Frankly, your enjoyment of fanfiction depends on your specific set of preferences. All those tropes you mentioned that make a fic boring to you might make a fic immediately exciting to another person. In the end, it all depends on the reader.

Besides that, I don't think that there needs to be any real magical feel to fanfiction for it to be considered good. A "magical" feel to a fic will certainly help to make it more engrossing, but it's not a huge advantage.

Then again, it depends on your definition of magical. What makes a fic magical in your eyes? What factor(s) need to be there for a fic to fit the bill of being magical? What makes a fic magical to you might not be the same for me or anyone else. It's inherently subjective and depends on you as the individual.

For me, a truly magical fic is one that has world-building, characterization, plot and dialogue at impeccable levels. A good dose of mystery and fantasy (the fantasy characteristic of the Harry Potter books) is always a plus too. These preferences may not correlate with yours.

So, TL;DR: No. A good fic is defined by one's preferences. Remember the saying beauty is in the eyes of the beholder? The same holds true for fanfiction.

 

While good hp fanfiction is extremely subjective, I find that the ones that are the most commonly consensed upon in being good, are the ones that are Magical yet present Dark Fantasy. It's almost abundantly clear that these fics are written with the intention of becoming the writer's magnum opus, and the ones that aren't are just usually bland and boring.

 

This was the only reason why I ever bothered to read the Sacrifices Arc. Even though the rest of the series was rather crappy I still found the way the author portrayed magic in that story to be quite fascinating. The magic in it really felt, well, magical and otherworldly like magic should.

Of course all the pretty magic in the world isn't going to get me to keep on reading something once HP/DM slash and Manipulative! Dumbledore begin to feature predominantly and I thus dropped the fic rather quickly afterwards. And there were tons of other issues in it aside from the aforementioned two, I was just able to stomach them better for the sake of the magic in the story.