Err . . . that's supposed to be 'or' not 'of'. Wow, what a way to start this discussion. Sorry all

While I really hate it that fangirls have taken over every good fanfiction site besides this one, it aggravates me when I haven't seen a single new story plot out there in months. It's always ' Harry goes dark and starts using dark spells' or 'Harry gets twenty different titles and wipes out all opposition through politics' or even a 'Harry goes to some random school that trains gods which no one has ever heard of.' When does the new style come into play? Like a 'Harry goes to Durmstrang(and not one that just trains you into a dark god)' or a 'Harry goes to Beauxbatons(where he doesn't just bone the hell out of hot veela).'

People seem to restrain themselves in the independent bad ass category or the cross-over 'lets make Harry OOC' category. Without just making fun of stupid plot-bunnies, as seems the norm whenever a discussion like this goes on, what kind of interesting plot idea's do you have that could revolve around a 'canon' Harry's younger life leading in a completely different direction from Hogwarts or Star Wars?

 

Fanfiction is not an area meant for showing off your skills at "literature." It's meant to refine and develop it. Of course, for the most part, it fails miserably at that, but that's inconsequential.

People always tend to be follow the crowd, and yes that probably includes you and me too...why are you so surprised? A "blockbuster" in a particular genre will always spawn a thousand and one hacks... and since this particular plot line has seen a lot of good stories in the recent months/years, there general tend of fan fiction these days will tend toward it.

Besides, we are coming to the end of the series now. It's meant to grow darker and more melancholy. The movement toward darker fics is geared by Cannon too, to an extent.

 

I'm not sure what kind of story you're looking for. You seem to dislike the independent!Harry fics because of the cliches that dominate that genre. You also seem to dislike crossovers for the same reason. What genre are you looking for then? They all have their cliches. With the volume of fanfiction that has been written for Harry Potter the flow of original and totally unique plot ideas has certainly slowed.

So what do you want? You say you want canon!Harry, but one whose life went in a different direction from canon. Not only would a scenario like that be an AU fic...it wouldn't make a lot of sense. canon!Harry is the way he is because of the events of his life. Change those and you change Harry. Unless you keep most of the details the same (in which case we're just rereading the books with minor changes) then he's not going to be canon!Harry.

 

I'm not surprised, I just wish it could be different. 'Trendy' fanfiction seems to be the exact opposite of what it was created for. Is fanfiction not a way to 'increase your writing potential'? How do we do that if people only copy other fanfic writers works and never think of their own plot lines? I've seen so many ' I, Lord Harry James Potter Black Gryffindor Ravenclaw Bones Malfoy, do hereby challenge thee to a duel of honor' stories that I want to kill myself. I just want to get some minds moving without them being pushed along by another fanfic author's idea.

I don't mind cliches of something the author of the whole story created, but when you have a fanon cliche that everyone uses, like the easy-out love potion stint for Ginny Weasley, it gets a bit sad.

You're changing my wording around, or maybe I just messed it up. What I was trying to say was that I wanted Harry to have his life at the Dursley's under his belt, but to change the way he grows up after. Minor details are pointless, fanfiction is supposed to change some of the main plot -such as horcruxes- without destroying the theme of the story. That's just an idea of mine anyways, not a big part of this thread, I just wanted a bit of change from the bisexual vampires and hundred year time turners. Something new, orignal, with a good author behind the writing. Most of my author friends are good and writing the story, but have trouble with the beginning idea. I wanted to start this thread to give out some ideas that haven't been used before, but don't start with Harry and a kitchen full of utensils being used on the Dursley's.

 

Have you tried writing something yourself? If you're looking for original ideas, I suggest you start there.

And if you are a writer, try pulling a Stephen King out of the hat or maybe a Tom Clancy. Both are pretty unique authors with interesting materials just begging to have something done with them.

 

Problem with that is I'm not that great of a writer. I mean, I love fanfiction, but I don't think mine's up to par with lots out there. I didn't start the thread to say that independent or cross-over is a bad thing, just that those two and slash are just about the only things out there now. I wanted new material and maybe this would get some more unique plot bunnies forming. Mehh.

Pulling a Stephen King is exactly what I didn't want to suggest. Not only that it's cross-over(and an easy way to change Harry from his set path), but I wanted to keep Harry on the same track that he was on when the book's started. King is a psycho (in a good way, though his descriptions are taxing) and I'm not sure if that would turn Harry completely OOC or not. Can you really think of a Harry/The Stand cross-over and expect anything but a completely different Harry and insanely long descriptive detail?

If you don't think this is a worthwhile thread, that's fine. If anyone else can think of a better way to spread more unique ideas into the HP fanfic community, please do so. Everything's turning into the same dribble with a few plot twists and it's starting to get boring.

 

I wasn't suggesting it as a crossover - I was more thinking in terms of how to approach HP fanfiction from a different angle. Look at nonjon's stuff. Most of it reads like it was written by Joss Wheedon. A different way of looking at things, but still within the realm of Harry Potter.

The real reason why you're seeing more shitty fanfics lately is that many of the exceptional authors from "The Good Old Days" have moved on to other things. There is no doubt in my mind that most of them are still writing - but just not fanfiction. I have a hunch that Jim Butcher wrote fanfiction and he's become fairly well known author.

Nobody is/was/will be a brilliant writer when they first start out. I highly doubt that many of the greatest writers of today popped out of the womb with a pen in hand or a keyboard plugged in their arse. They had to get good somehow. Saying that you can't write shouldn't give you an excuse not to try again and again and again. Trust me, my stuff looked like shit when I began writing. The only reason I kept on is I wanted something good to read with the right genre, the right characterizations, the right settings, plot, etc.

Until you've worked your fingers to the bone trying to make something better, you don't have a right to complain about what's out now. You haven't tried that hard to change it.