Featured Submission Q&A: Friend Number Three by riptey
I'm greatly honored to be featured again, especially for my pet story, Friend Number Three, and also especially for my pet side character, Pansy Parkinson. As everyone who's read my overemotional endnotes will know, it was the first story I wrote and also the most personal so far. All my stories are personal, but this one stands out in my mind. Thanks for reading, and please feel free to ask anything in the comments.
How did you come up with the plot for this story?
I've always been this weird combination of social anxious and extroverted, and it became this cycle that I had no idea how to break. When I got my first job at a coffee shop in high school, it transformed my whole world. So, when I wanted to write a story where Draco learns how to make friends, all I could think of was "make him work at a coffee shop." I was worried everyone would think it was way too silly, but instead many people seem to understand that it's a true story on some level. That feels really good.
What is your favorite thing about this story?
The narrator's voice. While I've read some really good stories where the narrator speaks as an objective outsider, I like to conceive of my narrators as unseen characters who are emotionally invested in the story they're telling, sort of like really nosy ghosts who follow their favorite people around. Most of Neil Gaiman's novels feature this type of narrator, and so does Arrested Development, which I think has a lot to do with the show's cult success--it has the most effective, clean, inhabitable narrator I can think of off the top of my head.
Suspension of disbelief is less of an issue, too, because the narrator becomes the place where the reader can insert themselves into the story; when that happens, it's like the difference between hearing a shocking and bizarre story from a close friend instead of a stranger on the street. No matter how strange the story gets, you want to believe that your friend is telling the truth. This comes in especially handy for me because my favorite kind of stories are the sort where the plot only works when you experience the work on its own terms. Like, if someone were to write out a complete, no-frills, chronological list of events that occur in Blue Velvet, a person who read that list probably wouldn't think it was a very good premise for a story. I have an enthusiastic fondness for bad stories that are told extremely well.
Is there something about it that surprised you?
How well people responded to the OCs. I knew I had to be careful about how I worked them into the story, but I needed to bring in people who didn't have a history with Draco in order for the plot to work. I was really relieved when readers said they fit in well, especially because some of them are a bit special to me as well--Bianca is named for and modeled after my best friend, and Maggie is based on my mom.
Was there a part that was difficult to write? If so, why?
Lucius, especially because I know I've written him in a controversial way. I believe there is a wide range of potentially valid interpretations of his character, since his active role in the books is so relatively minor when compared with his importance to many fans, and my version here is a far cry from "redeemed": it's easily the darkest Lucius I've ever written. So, I wasn't surprised when that was the most common criticism of the story. I've put a lot of thought into those criticisms over the years and even considered a re-write a few times, but I eventually came to the conclusion that, in my opinion, my Lucius might be extreme but is not OOC. By my read, in the context of my personal experiences, he's a textbook emotional abuser, and the defense that he loves Draco and Narcissa is missing the point. I'm sure he does love them, but people like him exclusively abuse the people they love. Other people have interpreted his character differently, and I think their versions of Lucius are just as potentially IC.
Do you have a favorite line of dialogue from the story?
Adhering to theme, I really like anything to do with Narcissa's weird vicarious crush on her pretend daughter Pansy, even though the story takes place ten years after Draco and Pansy's brief relationship. Here's one exchange:
Narcissa: "I wonder, what does Pansy think about all this? I do love her so dearly."
Draco: "Really, you're still on that?" Draco was sure there was a large stack of parchments somewhere with 'Mrs. Pansy Malfoy' written in loopy cursive all over the edges, except they did not belong to Pansy. "Mother, do me a favour and say this out loud: my son will never marry Pansy Parkinson."
Narcissa: "It isn't productive to rule out possibilities for your future. 'Never' is so… permanent."
Also this:
Potter was taking this pointless little conversation more seriously than Pansy had taken her fiancé, that one month when she'd been engaged.
What is one thing you want people to take away from this story?
It's cheesy, but don't give up on yourself. :)
Friend Number Three
How did you come up with the plot for this story?
I've always been this weird combination of social anxious and extroverted, and it became this cycle that I had no idea how to break. When I got my first job at a coffee shop in high school, it transformed my whole world. So, when I wanted to write a story where Draco learns how to make friends, all I could think of was "make him work at a coffee shop." I was worried everyone would think it was way too silly, but instead many people seem to understand that it's a true story on some level. That feels really good.
What is your favorite thing about this story?
The narrator's voice. While I've read some really good stories where the narrator speaks as an objective outsider, I like to conceive of my narrators as unseen characters who are emotionally invested in the story they're telling, sort of like really nosy ghosts who follow their favorite people around. Most of Neil Gaiman's novels feature this type of narrator, and so does Arrested Development, which I think has a lot to do with the show's cult success--it has the most effective, clean, inhabitable narrator I can think of off the top of my head.
Suspension of disbelief is less of an issue, too, because the narrator becomes the place where the reader can insert themselves into the story; when that happens, it's like the difference between hearing a shocking and bizarre story from a close friend instead of a stranger on the street. No matter how strange the story gets, you want to believe that your friend is telling the truth. This comes in especially handy for me because my favorite kind of stories are the sort where the plot only works when you experience the work on its own terms. Like, if someone were to write out a complete, no-frills, chronological list of events that occur in Blue Velvet, a person who read that list probably wouldn't think it was a very good premise for a story. I have an enthusiastic fondness for bad stories that are told extremely well.
Is there something about it that surprised you?
How well people responded to the OCs. I knew I had to be careful about how I worked them into the story, but I needed to bring in people who didn't have a history with Draco in order for the plot to work. I was really relieved when readers said they fit in well, especially because some of them are a bit special to me as well--Bianca is named for and modeled after my best friend, and Maggie is based on my mom.
Was there a part that was difficult to write? If so, why?
Lucius, especially because I know I've written him in a controversial way. I believe there is a wide range of potentially valid interpretations of his character, since his active role in the books is so relatively minor when compared with his importance to many fans, and my version here is a far cry from "redeemed": it's easily the darkest Lucius I've ever written. So, I wasn't surprised when that was the most common criticism of the story. I've put a lot of thought into those criticisms over the years and even considered a re-write a few times, but I eventually came to the conclusion that, in my opinion, my Lucius might be extreme but is not OOC. By my read, in the context of my personal experiences, he's a textbook emotional abuser, and the defense that he loves Draco and Narcissa is missing the point. I'm sure he does love them, but people like him exclusively abuse the people they love. Other people have interpreted his character differently, and I think their versions of Lucius are just as potentially IC.
Do you have a favorite line of dialogue from the story?
Adhering to theme, I really like anything to do with Narcissa's weird vicarious crush on her pretend daughter Pansy, even though the story takes place ten years after Draco and Pansy's brief relationship. Here's one exchange:
Narcissa: "I wonder, what does Pansy think about all this? I do love her so dearly."
Draco: "Really, you're still on that?" Draco was sure there was a large stack of parchments somewhere with 'Mrs. Pansy Malfoy' written in loopy cursive all over the edges, except they did not belong to Pansy. "Mother, do me a favour and say this out loud: my son will never marry Pansy Parkinson."
Narcissa: "It isn't productive to rule out possibilities for your future. 'Never' is so… permanent."
Also this:
Potter was taking this pointless little conversation more seriously than Pansy had taken her fiancé, that one month when she'd been engaged.
What is one thing you want people to take away from this story?
It's cheesy, but don't give up on yourself. :)
Friend Number Three