So I had a neat little concept that I didn't see used for the last few hundred HP fanfics I've read, and thought "Holy shizzles, I might actually have an Original Idea!"

After writing 16k words and outlining another 38 chapters, I read The Boy Who Lived, and realized even if my concept was interesting, the scope of my plot was puny. I had a standard, linear, Britain & Hogwarts-centric (with some minor twists) focus with the same tired cast of characters with significant canon plot overlap for the first year!

I qq'd for a bit, and ceased work while reading Taure's best HP fic list, then moved onto the his list's author's other works; I found nmb's Forests of Valbone even better than The Skitterleap, and jbern's Bungle in The Jungle series FINALLY portrayed goblin nations as their own primal, cunning, and alien entity rather than some happy-go-lucky 'honorable' plot device *cough* Harry Crow *cough* or magical space jews.

Motivated to begin writing anew, I scrapped the old story and managed 22k (Draft 0) words before I decided to read Lords of Magic.

What.

Yes, the pacing is a little off. Perhaps some of the characters are a little flat.

But the scope of the vision - the world building - the sheer audacity!

And the execution of it. All absolutely brilliant. I find myself plagued with more questions for every sentence read.

So the Magical British Empire does not cover Ireland, but has colonies in Northern Africa? Has it conquered part of/all of Magical Europe? How did Voldemort become a Human Dementor? Can he suck out souls too, or is he just really good with AKs? Does the House of Potter hold any of the Hallows, or is Lord Peverell the Master of Death?

How advanced is Magical Physics? What are the limits on Temporal and Chronological manipulation? If the Lords Britannia are as ruthless as they seem, why haven't they deployed magical superweapons on the Saharan Warlords? It doesn't seem like the Saharan (and Irish) resistance possess their own magical superweaponry, so are there other, rival magical hegemonic polities?

Also, Merlin originating around 1,000 years ago? That conflicts with Arthurian lore, and instead places Merlin around the time of the Norman conquest of England - which many fanfics postulate the Malfoy (French portmanteau of Bad Faith) line moving to England. Also, Merlin dying around 50 years ago? Is there a Grindelwald connection?

/grangermodeoff



So yeah. I've been totally blown away, and have absolutely no hopes of reconciling the pathetic scale of my work with what i've seen.

Thanks for being awesome, guys.

 

Love the attitude! Welcome to the site. Just don't swing all the way over to the side of "there's no way I can match that." Not every plot idea needs a gigantic scope, and even well-trodden ground can feel fresh with the right approach.

 

Did we just get a sensible new member?

WHAT IS THIS SORCERY?

Seriously, though... Welcome to DLP. Get on IRC sometime if you wanna throw ideas back and forth.

 

Just for this you have my thumbs up. And my axe. You can't have my bow, coz I like it.

 

Welcome to DLP!

(BTW, there's a story outline for Lords of Magic at the end of it's WBA, which Taure posted when he abandoned it.)

 

Thanks, that helped greatly!

How do I, er, give you a thumbs up?

 

You need a certain number of posts (IIRC 25) to do that.