(no subject)
It was probably my comment on the 12am_nosh, which caused themostepotente's latest fit. Although I bit myself hard to not type my answer in similar tone I felt, that I was not done.:) Therefore my first essay ever, which is destined for all those people, who think, that the phenomenon called Snack, could be aproached in a full different way, as well. :)
Stating openly the fondness for a romantic Snape/Black love story is similar to coming out for a male to female transsexual. The shocked crowd, which already started to accept at least the idea of men liking men, is suddenly forced to deal with a man, who is stating to be actually a woman and atop of it all is looking forward to get his genitalia cut off and piss while sitting for the rest of his life.
Be sure, someone on your f-list will faint sooner or later.
Yet since human minds and muses have been always working in the strangest way and the idea in your head insists to be written, then congratulation, you are facing the greatest challenge, the HP fandom has to offer, which is as tricky as landing on the moon.
The Vision
The first step toward your goal depends always on the idea in your head. Is it strong enough? Is it vivid enough? Can you see everything displayed clearly in front of your eyes? Is this idea for a story still alive in your mind even after several months? And most importantly, does it feel right? If yes, then you have no choice but to sit down and write it, because in this case an idea for a romantic Snape/Black love story is no different from the others. It will haunt you until you give in and get it out of your head.
The Technique
It might sound shocking, but over the years of writing slash I came to the conclusion, that a an idea makes only 49% percent of a story. The rest 51% belong to writing skills and to the rules of writing. If you decide to write something such outrageous as a romantic Snack, then it has to be good written and nothing less.
See, you want to convince a bunch of people of your vision of Snape and Black stopping hating each other and in the end happily living together until the death will part them, which in its context sounds absurd, runs outside of everybody’s imagination, and differs marginally from the usual and all-obvious concept of snark-fuck-I hate you-I hate you too.
The clue is, that it is not so important, what you write, but how do you write it. There are plenty of stories written and posted, where the idea got utterly destroyed by bad writing and plenty of good written stories, which make a good read, but by the closer look the idea to it has been an yet another well-known scenario, used anew.
In the first place find a reason and some good arguments to, how it could come, that Snape and Black left or decided to leave the endless circle of mutual hate and tried something different instead. This reason will immediately deliver you the most important definition, what your story should be about. Mostly a single sentence in the place of the summary is enough for it. Then plot out the chapters and - if you didn’t already do it previously - give the story a name. Please make sure, that this title you never heard in the nearby area of your fandom. The best title reflects a bit of the story itself.
Then set to this story an end, which is the ultimate goal for your writing. Write even a short description of the last scene. It might make you wonder, why to make an ending already before the beginning ever started? My personal experiences were that, fist, I always finished a story, which already had it's ending defined, and second, the plot itself got unfolded,l literally like an arc, and following it forwards and backwards in my mind, I successfully eliminated the most of the plot holes.
The Bent Laws of Physicks
I state it honestly and in open: romantic Snack is nothing for canon purists and in-character pickers.
Although HP characters have been deliberately altered and subtly changed all the time, nowhere has been this step so obvious, than by writing romantic Snack. Yes, JKR never intended to do anything for Sirius and Severus except to let them act like two hysterical teenagers. Despite the forced hand shake in GoF, which rose hopes by some readers, only to destroy them completely in OotP. Yet JKR didn’t intend to write any of her characters as gay either. In her books Sirius indeed embraced Remus like a brother and in her eyes Draco will never get redeemed. Still in the stories the people are writing about Harry and Draco working their issues out and Snape is finding his redemption in Harry’s loving arms. Are these characters, altered in this way, canon? I doubt it. Canon-like? Close to canon? Yes certainly. As long as this alteration serves the purpose of the story, I dare to say, that it is ok to make Snape and Black a bit nicer. Or less hateful. All it takes is lots of guts and some finesse during the work.
Some of you, who are still doubtful, please remember the story about Columbus, who hit his egg with his spoon and thus made it stand on its top. Even this slightly altered egg, could be still called an egg. :)
The Power of Gravitation
Writing is a solitary activity. It takes hour and hours of despair, when the muse takes holiday, the story gets stuck and yet again someone on lj posted an IMHO 101 about her OTP and why the particular author doesn’t care about Snack, and would never never NEVER read a pairing such as this. And there is always at least one comment, usually made by the person you find very nice and want to be her friend, which is stating, that yes, Snack would do, but only if it fulfils the person’s certain criteria's, where event a hint of fluff is and ABSOLUTE! no no.
Sometimes the secret list of people, who will probably never send you feedback, is very long.
There are two solutions for such a problem: either you shut lj off, which usually lasts for not too long, or you make a break and write something else. A short PWP for example with hot sex and a well accepted pairing, would do. It brings you lots of feedback, lets people know that you are a good writer and gets you motivated in writing your big story.
The Landing
And if you finally finished it, then send it to your beta, who will be nerving you so long until the story is finally ready to be posted.
Actually that’s all.
What! Do I see lifted eyebrows? And what did you expect? Writing romantic Snack is as much work, like writing Snarry or Snupin or Sirius/Remus. There is not much difference, except for the fear in your head, because you dared to leave the save haven of popular fiction, which is being written after all known and accepted scenarios and usually guarantees you lots of praises and responses. With writing Snack, especially the romantic one, you have to convince the crowd of sceptics, who might be proclaiming their opinions in a yet another IMHO of the week, but who in the end are waiting to be convinced. And even the person on you f-list, who fainted, survived the great shock in the end and woke up at least to the idea, that there might be some things, she has to get used to. As long as your beta is willing to correct it and as long as you find people, who will read it, then writing a romantic Snape/Black love story is fully OK.
Posting it will be a big step for you and many little steps for the fandom, which will appear into you mail box in the form of feedback. Those of the sort "I actually don't care about Snack, but your story convinced me" are the best. Believe me, you will get them.
Stating openly the fondness for a romantic Snape/Black love story is similar to coming out for a male to female transsexual. The shocked crowd, which already started to accept at least the idea of men liking men, is suddenly forced to deal with a man, who is stating to be actually a woman and atop of it all is looking forward to get his genitalia cut off and piss while sitting for the rest of his life.
Be sure, someone on your f-list will faint sooner or later.
Yet since human minds and muses have been always working in the strangest way and the idea in your head insists to be written, then congratulation, you are facing the greatest challenge, the HP fandom has to offer, which is as tricky as landing on the moon.
The Vision
The first step toward your goal depends always on the idea in your head. Is it strong enough? Is it vivid enough? Can you see everything displayed clearly in front of your eyes? Is this idea for a story still alive in your mind even after several months? And most importantly, does it feel right? If yes, then you have no choice but to sit down and write it, because in this case an idea for a romantic Snape/Black love story is no different from the others. It will haunt you until you give in and get it out of your head.
The Technique
It might sound shocking, but over the years of writing slash I came to the conclusion, that a an idea makes only 49% percent of a story. The rest 51% belong to writing skills and to the rules of writing. If you decide to write something such outrageous as a romantic Snack, then it has to be good written and nothing less.
See, you want to convince a bunch of people of your vision of Snape and Black stopping hating each other and in the end happily living together until the death will part them, which in its context sounds absurd, runs outside of everybody’s imagination, and differs marginally from the usual and all-obvious concept of snark-fuck-I hate you-I hate you too.
The clue is, that it is not so important, what you write, but how do you write it. There are plenty of stories written and posted, where the idea got utterly destroyed by bad writing and plenty of good written stories, which make a good read, but by the closer look the idea to it has been an yet another well-known scenario, used anew.
In the first place find a reason and some good arguments to, how it could come, that Snape and Black left or decided to leave the endless circle of mutual hate and tried something different instead. This reason will immediately deliver you the most important definition, what your story should be about. Mostly a single sentence in the place of the summary is enough for it. Then plot out the chapters and - if you didn’t already do it previously - give the story a name. Please make sure, that this title you never heard in the nearby area of your fandom. The best title reflects a bit of the story itself.
Then set to this story an end, which is the ultimate goal for your writing. Write even a short description of the last scene. It might make you wonder, why to make an ending already before the beginning ever started? My personal experiences were that, fist, I always finished a story, which already had it's ending defined, and second, the plot itself got unfolded,l literally like an arc, and following it forwards and backwards in my mind, I successfully eliminated the most of the plot holes.
The Bent Laws of Physicks
I state it honestly and in open: romantic Snack is nothing for canon purists and in-character pickers.
Although HP characters have been deliberately altered and subtly changed all the time, nowhere has been this step so obvious, than by writing romantic Snack. Yes, JKR never intended to do anything for Sirius and Severus except to let them act like two hysterical teenagers. Despite the forced hand shake in GoF, which rose hopes by some readers, only to destroy them completely in OotP. Yet JKR didn’t intend to write any of her characters as gay either. In her books Sirius indeed embraced Remus like a brother and in her eyes Draco will never get redeemed. Still in the stories the people are writing about Harry and Draco working their issues out and Snape is finding his redemption in Harry’s loving arms. Are these characters, altered in this way, canon? I doubt it. Canon-like? Close to canon? Yes certainly. As long as this alteration serves the purpose of the story, I dare to say, that it is ok to make Snape and Black a bit nicer. Or less hateful. All it takes is lots of guts and some finesse during the work.
Some of you, who are still doubtful, please remember the story about Columbus, who hit his egg with his spoon and thus made it stand on its top. Even this slightly altered egg, could be still called an egg. :)
The Power of Gravitation
Writing is a solitary activity. It takes hour and hours of despair, when the muse takes holiday, the story gets stuck and yet again someone on lj posted an IMHO 101 about her OTP and why the particular author doesn’t care about Snack, and would never never NEVER read a pairing such as this. And there is always at least one comment, usually made by the person you find very nice and want to be her friend, which is stating, that yes, Snack would do, but only if it fulfils the person’s certain criteria's, where event a hint of fluff is and ABSOLUTE! no no.
Sometimes the secret list of people, who will probably never send you feedback, is very long.
There are two solutions for such a problem: either you shut lj off, which usually lasts for not too long, or you make a break and write something else. A short PWP for example with hot sex and a well accepted pairing, would do. It brings you lots of feedback, lets people know that you are a good writer and gets you motivated in writing your big story.
The Landing
And if you finally finished it, then send it to your beta, who will be nerving you so long until the story is finally ready to be posted.
Actually that’s all.
What! Do I see lifted eyebrows? And what did you expect? Writing romantic Snack is as much work, like writing Snarry or Snupin or Sirius/Remus. There is not much difference, except for the fear in your head, because you dared to leave the save haven of popular fiction, which is being written after all known and accepted scenarios and usually guarantees you lots of praises and responses. With writing Snack, especially the romantic one, you have to convince the crowd of sceptics, who might be proclaiming their opinions in a yet another IMHO of the week, but who in the end are waiting to be convinced. And even the person on you f-list, who fainted, survived the great shock in the end and woke up at least to the idea, that there might be some things, she has to get used to. As long as your beta is willing to correct it and as long as you find people, who will read it, then writing a romantic Snape/Black love story is fully OK.
Posting it will be a big step for you and many little steps for the fandom, which will appear into you mail box in the form of feedback. Those of the sort "I actually don't care about Snack, but your story convinced me" are the best. Believe me, you will get them.