After the Party
Dear Mr Anonymous, a Draco/Harry story written by 
LaLionne and me for Game of Drarry's Owlery Exchange, is now available in its entirety on AO3. The final word count is 2,322 words, and it's rated T.
It's the first time I tried something like this, so I wrote about the writing process under the cut. This is mainly for my own record.
It was the first time I collaborated with someone on a story, though it's different from the usual form of collaboration. With the Owlery Exchange, there was no discussion from the POV of writers in regards to the plot. All we had to go on were the initial scenario we were assigned to as a starting point, and the letters we received from our partner. After that, it was a matter of picking which elements to focus and expand on, as well as giving the partner cues and different options to choose from. In a sense, it was a lot closer to a role-playing letter exchange.
If an ordinary fic is a one-way communication between the writer and the readers, Dear Mr Anonymous is a two-way communication between me and my writing partner. There are more things to consider. What to tell and what not to tell. How much to tell or not tell. How best to communicate what you want to say in a way that is easy to understand. How best to respond to your partner's cues. Which parts of your partener's writing to focus on and which parts to leave out. What to do with the flow and the general direction of the story, etc.
I signed up for the shorter version of the Owlery Exchange, where each partner was to write three letters each for a total of six letters. The scenario my partner and I were assigned to was not exactly conducive to relationship development. And with only three letters each to work with, there wasn't enough time to let a relationship blossom naturally. There was also the pacing to consider, though in our case it was relatively easy to figure out how much plot progression each letter would have once my writing partner sent the second letter to me.
(And it is a Draco/Harry letter exchange after all. It would be rather underwhelming if the story ends with Harry finding a job with Draco's help and they become pen pals-and that's it.)
My solution was to take a short cut-or to put it another way, I pulled a prank.
I didn't spell everything outright. Instead, I inserted clues in my letters, hinting at a back story and a riddle for my partner to solve. Since I would be the one to write the final letter in this exchange and set the ending of the story in stone, I had a sort-of end game in mind. It could be altered depending on my partner's response. In the event my partner decided not to play along with my scheme, I had other contingency plans. There was plenty of room to explain away the apparent discrepancies between Draco's POV and Harry's POV.
(This particular version of Harry ended up sounding more sneaky and calculating than how I would usually write him. He's probably quite good at mind games, but that's another story.)
I was happy when I received my partner's final letter. That said, my first instinct was that Draco's (my partner's) final letter would be the perfect way to end the story. I still had one final (Harry's) letter left to write at that point, however, so that was out of the question. As a writer, I already knew there was no topping the reveal in Harry's second letter or Draco's third and final letter. At this point, my job was to tie a ribbon around the whole package.
I had considered using a time skip, but in the end I decided against it. Harry's final letter became a sort of epilogue with a relatively open ending, and a few nagging questions were answered. I like to think that with each letter, Harry was opening up a little more to Draco, writing about things he didn't-couldn't-talk about when they were face to face.
What will happen to them afterwards is beyond the scope of this letter exchange. I'll leave the readers to decide what happens next.
(An aside: For the Owlery Exchange, I took a leaf from AD-LIVE, an improvisational theatre project featuring Japanese voice actors. More specifically, I took inspiration from the AD-LIVE 2016 matinée show featuring voice actors Nakamura Yuichi and Fukuyama Jun. The cast commentary from AD-LIVE 2018 also gave me some idea on how to approach this exchange.)
(Another aside: If I hadn't gotten really into AD-LIVE lately, I might not have even considered taking part in the Owlery Exchange in the first place.)
Crossposted from https://lee-bella.dreamwidth.org/788737.html.
LaLionne and me for Game of Drarry's Owlery Exchange, is now available in its entirety on AO3. The final word count is 2,322 words, and it's rated T.
It's the first time I tried something like this, so I wrote about the writing process under the cut. This is mainly for my own record.
It was the first time I collaborated with someone on a story, though it's different from the usual form of collaboration. With the Owlery Exchange, there was no discussion from the POV of writers in regards to the plot. All we had to go on were the initial scenario we were assigned to as a starting point, and the letters we received from our partner. After that, it was a matter of picking which elements to focus and expand on, as well as giving the partner cues and different options to choose from. In a sense, it was a lot closer to a role-playing letter exchange.
If an ordinary fic is a one-way communication between the writer and the readers, Dear Mr Anonymous is a two-way communication between me and my writing partner. There are more things to consider. What to tell and what not to tell. How much to tell or not tell. How best to communicate what you want to say in a way that is easy to understand. How best to respond to your partner's cues. Which parts of your partener's writing to focus on and which parts to leave out. What to do with the flow and the general direction of the story, etc.
I signed up for the shorter version of the Owlery Exchange, where each partner was to write three letters each for a total of six letters. The scenario my partner and I were assigned to was not exactly conducive to relationship development. And with only three letters each to work with, there wasn't enough time to let a relationship blossom naturally. There was also the pacing to consider, though in our case it was relatively easy to figure out how much plot progression each letter would have once my writing partner sent the second letter to me.
(And it is a Draco/Harry letter exchange after all. It would be rather underwhelming if the story ends with Harry finding a job with Draco's help and they become pen pals-and that's it.)
My solution was to take a short cut-or to put it another way, I pulled a prank.
I didn't spell everything outright. Instead, I inserted clues in my letters, hinting at a back story and a riddle for my partner to solve. Since I would be the one to write the final letter in this exchange and set the ending of the story in stone, I had a sort-of end game in mind. It could be altered depending on my partner's response. In the event my partner decided not to play along with my scheme, I had other contingency plans. There was plenty of room to explain away the apparent discrepancies between Draco's POV and Harry's POV.
(This particular version of Harry ended up sounding more sneaky and calculating than how I would usually write him. He's probably quite good at mind games, but that's another story.)
I was happy when I received my partner's final letter. That said, my first instinct was that Draco's (my partner's) final letter would be the perfect way to end the story. I still had one final (Harry's) letter left to write at that point, however, so that was out of the question. As a writer, I already knew there was no topping the reveal in Harry's second letter or Draco's third and final letter. At this point, my job was to tie a ribbon around the whole package.
I had considered using a time skip, but in the end I decided against it. Harry's final letter became a sort of epilogue with a relatively open ending, and a few nagging questions were answered. I like to think that with each letter, Harry was opening up a little more to Draco, writing about things he didn't-couldn't-talk about when they were face to face.
What will happen to them afterwards is beyond the scope of this letter exchange. I'll leave the readers to decide what happens next.
(An aside: For the Owlery Exchange, I took a leaf from AD-LIVE, an improvisational theatre project featuring Japanese voice actors. More specifically, I took inspiration from the AD-LIVE 2016 matinée show featuring voice actors Nakamura Yuichi and Fukuyama Jun. The cast commentary from AD-LIVE 2018 also gave me some idea on how to approach this exchange.)
(Another aside: If I hadn't gotten really into AD-LIVE lately, I might not have even considered taking part in the Owlery Exchange in the first place.)
Crossposted from https://lee-bella.dreamwidth.org/788737.html.