Character musings
A long while back, I found it helpful to set down in writing the way I viewed the character of Rupert Giles to see how I was or was not capturing his essence as I wrote:
Original "My Giles" Post (have to scroll down a bit) -- And a later addendum.
It strikes me now that, in addition to rereading this and doing a couple more for the Willow and Ethan of my Summer of Giles Story, I really need to do one for Snape. The Snape of "In Loco Parentis" is not the same Snape as the ghost in "Lost Boys." Neither are quite the Snape from canon, either.
That's perfectly okay. While fanfiction creates the expectation that your work is going to be highly derivative and based on a common framework, each writer brings his or her own "take" on the characters, puts them in situations quite unlike those we see in canon, and often has to choose among inconsistent clues from different places in that canon. And sometimes, while choosing, has to decide what kind of character he wants to spend time with.
So, that will be my project for the day, after helping out with the church Rummage Sale, getting Wee Hob a shiny new planner to write down his plans for completing merit badges this summer (and inexplicably, he wants me to teach him Latin, which, yeah, I'll do as long as he promises not to be a Dunderhead and actually does some homework) and cleaning up a bit.
But in the meantime, if anyone wants to weigh in on any of these characters, particularly how you see Snape (and Hermione) in "In Loco Parentis", I would love to see what has been coming across for you. I can already tell from a couple of reviews on this last part that I need to be doing a better job of making clear how this Snape is unlike the one in canon, and making the how and why of that plausible for the purposes of this story.
Happy Saturday, all.
Original "My Giles" Post (have to scroll down a bit) -- And a later addendum.
It strikes me now that, in addition to rereading this and doing a couple more for the Willow and Ethan of my Summer of Giles Story, I really need to do one for Snape. The Snape of "In Loco Parentis" is not the same Snape as the ghost in "Lost Boys." Neither are quite the Snape from canon, either.
That's perfectly okay. While fanfiction creates the expectation that your work is going to be highly derivative and based on a common framework, each writer brings his or her own "take" on the characters, puts them in situations quite unlike those we see in canon, and often has to choose among inconsistent clues from different places in that canon. And sometimes, while choosing, has to decide what kind of character he wants to spend time with.
So, that will be my project for the day, after helping out with the church Rummage Sale, getting Wee Hob a shiny new planner to write down his plans for completing merit badges this summer (and inexplicably, he wants me to teach him Latin, which, yeah, I'll do as long as he promises not to be a Dunderhead and actually does some homework) and cleaning up a bit.
But in the meantime, if anyone wants to weigh in on any of these characters, particularly how you see Snape (and Hermione) in "In Loco Parentis", I would love to see what has been coming across for you. I can already tell from a couple of reviews on this last part that I need to be doing a better job of making clear how this Snape is unlike the one in canon, and making the how and why of that plausible for the purposes of this story.
Happy Saturday, all.