Reading that fanon page makes me feel sick.

 

I have a question.

In a scene that Ron is investigating, there's something about it that tips him off that it wasn't just an open and shut suicide case.

The 'what' is escaping me. It's something small, and something on the surface, unless you were specifically looking for something unusual, it wouldn't even be noticed.

Any ideas?

 

Victim had just bought groceries.

 

That makes perfect sense.

 

Or maybe a fresh batch of potion ingredients.

 

This is probably a stupid question, but please bear with me. When writing in limited third-person perspective, is it okay to write that another (non-PoV) character decided something?

I'm tempted to put "apparently decided" or "seemed to decide" in there. This specific example aside, I do this a lot when writing - it's all "he looked angry" or "she seemed indignant" instead of putting it more directly. I mean, how would the PoV character know what the others are thinking for sure?

I feel like overusing "appeared" and "seemed" is a bad habit though. Please show me the way.

 

Who's pov is it, Harry's? I think the age-old "Show, don't tell" would work here.

 

Yep, it's Harry's. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

In my AU 4th year fic I'm coming up on Hermione's birthday. I've got gifts figured out for Harry and Ron to give her, but so far in this fic, Neville, Luna, and Ginny are also closer friends, so they ought to get her some small gifts. I'm not sure what, though. Any suggestions?

 

It's Hermione. Just throw books at her, maybe a Flourish & Blotts gift certificate.

EDIT: Luna could give her a Quibbler subscription, I guess.

 

It rather depends on how these folks see her, whether aquaintance, friend, close friend, potential fancy. It also depends on which version of the characters you're using.

Canon Neville is a clueless boy like the rest of them, so would probably just get her a book. A Neville who likes her might get her warm knitted hat, gloves, muffler and even knee-high socks, in Gryffindor colours, so they don't seem too intimate a gift...

Canon Luna would get her a Quibbler sub. Closer Luna might buy her 'The Little Prince' by Antoine de St. Exupery (it makes sense if you've read it). Seer Luna might buy her enchanted knitting needles.

Canon Ginny would get her Sugar Quills- low cost, high likelihood of enjoyment. Besties Ginny might get her a framed Weasely family portrait or get Colin to snap some good friends-together pictures.

 

Wow, these are all very good. Thank you!

 

I really enjoy just watching numbers go up, but I haven't found a Gamer story that isn't stupid yet.

 

The Games We Play by Ryuugi is pretty good if you don't mind RWBY.

 

The Gamer is REALLY easy to crossover with, because the 'cool' part of it is a single person's ability.

If you do a crossover with [placeholder] and Harry Potter (for comparison), you have to either
- make Harry/[Placeholder character] cross dimensional boundaries/vast distances of space. Usually done by feat of ROB
- explain how they've been hidden behind a masquerade the entire time (limited on what you can cross with, because once you get two going on at the same time it can get confusing)
- completely alter backstories so that everything's always been okay.

But to crossover with The Gamer, you just have them gain the power. In a fantasy world, it can be a blessing from gods/Gods/spirits. In an SI it can be a present from Jumpchan/ROB/Zaimokuza. In Worm (because that's popular) that's what they trigger with. In that summoning thing SB liked, they can summon the MC and then join his party. In video game crossovers, then the world actually has things like the pause screen, and so everyone has the power by default but they're all idiots who couldn't uplift a society if someone would only show them how to make a printing press.



Also, The Gamer is easy to get into. It's available online, for free, in English, without too much digging. The first result on Google, even.

And then, it's not complicated -
You don't have to remember all the different characters (because it's a smallish cast, and they're all manga characters so they have defining traits).
You don't have to hold onto the plot (because the MC narrates things, and explains things that happened only a few chapters ago).
You don't really have to hide your screen either - whilst there's some scenes and characters you wouldn't want your nan to see, it's not (for the most part) explicit or too weird. Certainly, it's not mainstream, but it's better to have fullscreened than MLP or Monster Musume.



Thirdly, different sites have different mentalities.

One of the things I've noticed about two sites in particular is their "I want to join in"ness. Omakes abound once you get past two or three pages, and some of these spawn their own stories in full. Some skip the omake step, and just proceed to writing their own story, inspired by another use.

It spawns almost a lek (I don't know the shop term, but there is one), where new readers get drawn in by these three or five stories all happening at once, and even if they haven't heard of [fandom] before, they'll give it a shot because there's loads of words written about it.

Given that quests (also popular there) often give rewards for piling in and writing extra omakes, and some writers canonize their favourite additions, it also offers a low risk way of starting out. Planning a whole story is hard, but writing a single scene for something you like (of something the author liked, but didn't have the budget to make a whole real thing out of (we need to go deeper)) is much easier, requires much less thought, and will receive much less ridicule.


Also, anime tiddies.

You've got the old woman who looks like a young girl, the sporty girl next door, the angry redhead surrounded by mystery (at least, initially), the youthful mother with (surprise!) a mysterious past, and all the other characters I've forgotten because there're boring and only appear infrequently.