So as the title suggests, I am curious about the opinion on a female Harry. Mainly because of an idea of a fic I've been having.

Now, I am not speaking of one of those fics where fem Harry is just a way to get Harry and Draco together. Imagine those never existed. I'm talking about a genuine AU story, which doesn't even have to have a pairing, where we have a GWL instead of a BWL.

Added to that though, the story in my head is not a rehash of all years 1-7, only seeing through the eyes of a female Harry. Rather it takes place after Hogwarts, and the reader is fed information on any changes during the Hogwarts days as the story progresses. Be it flashbacks or dialogue that cues you into the changes.

It could very well be a story with regular 'ol Harry set in a AU world. But the idea of a fem Harry struck me partly because I think its just something out of the beaten path when it comes to non-smut stories, partly because a good female lead has always been appealing to me (take Aliens for example), and partly because I feel like if I write a male Harry, I can't allow for much changes (that's just a personal issue I have with sticking to canon). A female lead could allow for change in characteristics/interactions (albeit not too much). Not to mention how Voldemort would have treated a female Harry.

If you think its a terrible idea, do explain why. Would you still give it a shot?

 

There's quite a few of them, although only a few done well. Equal and Opposite, of course, but there's also Wordhammer's Holly Evans and the Spiral Path. There's likely others, but none I can think of off the top of my head. I personally can't write conversation very well, but it's clearly an idea that can and has been done well, but also has enormous potential for terrible.

 

Jeram's Curse of the Girl who Lived is the pinnacle of the genre, imo. Meanwhile, I recommend Wordhammer's fic despite the hate that there is for it on DLP. It's certainly worth some time.

Amerision's Equal and Opposite is one of my favorite works ever. :3

 

The best Fem!Harry as a protagonist is unquestionably Lady Salazar's Steps Far From Paradise.

Spiral Path is worth reading, despite its flaws.

The Butterfly Effect is good, but YMMV even more than for Spiral.

The other fics mentioned don't actually have a Fem!Harry as the main character.

 

I can't quite get myself to read more that a couple chapters of Spiral Path. Not an insult to Wordhammer by any means, just that I can't seem to much like the journal thing.

As for Butterfly Effect, yeah, I've read a decent amount of it, but it seems to just drag on and on. I know its supposed to be long but it shouldn't feel it. Not to mention everything is overly emotional. Its sort of a guilty pleasure at times, a good enough read at others, and just a draggy drama sometimes. So it kinda turned me off a few times. Its not bad by any means though.

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Amazingly written, this one.

 

IMO, fem!Harry is a decent idea with a fair bit of potential, that just so happens to inspire great amounts of fail. I've read three or four decent ones, another couple great ones on top of those, followed by hundreds upon hundreds of fics ranging from pure WTF to :facepalm.

Biggest pitfalls to avoid would be having the wizarding world trying to keep women down, and an over reliance on rape.

 

Equal And Opposite, will always be my favorite in this limited genre.

Not exactly Fem!Harry, but kind-of. The best, in my opinion.

 

There's also Child of Grace, the first half of which is bad (at best) and the second half is better.

Dancing with Myself is passable, if you ignore the cliche dump.

The rest that I've read aren't really worth mentioning. Proxy Server (Gian Lorenzo Bernini, now) had a HP/Fem!HP written, but it seems he took it down literally just over a week ago. Never read far enough in it to get to the actual pairing, it was just way too confusing.

The idea has merit, but it tends to be blatant self-insert by female authors. Most males can't write female leads for shit (those that write fanfiction, anyways), so that's a wash too. A female author who can avoid the Mary Sue trap would be the best bet. Good luck.

 

Honestly, in my opinion at least, writing a female lead as a male author should not become too complex a task by any means. The characterization is still pretty damn similar. Its all about emulating the Harry-ness of the character.

If canon Harry was a girl, her personality would still be pretty damn similar. But people can mistakenly think that because its a girl now, everything needs to be changed!

 

It's not so much that as the fact that most fanfiction authors don't have either the emotional maturity nor life experience necessary to write anything resembling a realistic lead, let alone one of the opposite gender.

 

Most fem!Harry's suck because we have a male Harry ingrained into our minds. I don't want to read about Harry hot for Diggory, Malfoy, or Snape. Male or female, the concept of Harry Potter with a guy just irks me.

 

The only story worth a damn that involves fem!Harry is Amerison's story. Even mentioning Jeram's or Wordhammer's just shows what a sad state this particular genre is in.

 

I've just never felt interested in reading a story with Harry as a female. Which is strange, since I have no trouble reading books with female leads and protagonists. I guess I always felt like the change was slightly pointless. I don't see anything out there as a plot device that requires Harry to be female, unless you just want a more emotional character, or you want to pair him up with a male character without being slash. I don't really care either way, because no matter how many times an author says she and her, I still picture a male.

I do love the idea of a female version of Harry, as long as a male Harry remains in the lead.

 

What was that fic with Harry travelling to an alternate world where magic is used through ash and Jamie Potter is High Priestess? That counts as Fem!Harry and is awesome.

 

"The Zealot" by Amerision.

I couldn't find it with a cursory search at google, but I searched for the word "ashers," since it was relevant to the story, in the forum search and it was the only thread result. I remember enjoying that one too.

 

And hence I said imagine no pairing at all. Hell, imagine a fem/fem pairing then.

But I do agree to an extent on this one.

 

Our opinions on FemHarry?

See thread: Here

Opinion on your idea:

I'm not one to pass judgement seeing as I can't write creatively to save my life, but I have to say that a story made entirely of flashbacks probably won't make for exciting conflict. However, I do enjoy the premise when it's done well. If you (OP) ever get around to writing it, I'd like to see it.

'A Butterfly Effect' does this best, despite its unbearable H/G femslash fluff. Perhaps if you took the relationships from that story and reshaped them into a past-tense format, it would be more readable.

 

Oh I think you misunderstood. I didn't mean an entire story driven by flashbacks. More like a story placed post Hogwarts with Voldemort still alive. The flashbacks would be few and far between, and help explain certain things that are going on in the present. Think of Lost for example, except fewer flashbacks.

 

What's wrong with Jeram's story? -.-