Explanation of 'Running to Paradise'
I’ve decided today that this is going to be my next novel-length project (well, “next” is relative; I’m not going to start it until at least two of my current WiPs are finished).
This idea started life as a single story about Harry and Draco’s training to become Auror partners, which is the background of a lot of fics but not the focus of most. It was going to be split into three parts, one for each year of training, with completely separate plots.
And then I realized that I had too many ideas for that structure to work. It’s now going to be a trilogy, with Running to Paradise as the overall series title.
Each story will be novel-length, probably somewhere between 18 and 23 chapters, or about 75,000 to 100,00 words. And it’ll be the most Hogwarts-like of any story I’ve done that isn’t actually set at Hogwarts. It will involve a lot of canon characters and a lot of learning and training, and it’ll follow the cycle of a year structured by classes. However, there’s also an overarching plot with double strands: a) Harry and Draco learning to get along as partners and, eventually, as lovers, and b) an enemy who would like nothing better than to consolidate his/her power so as to start another war. Preferably before the Aurors finish training new candidates who are as promising as Harry, Draco, and the others who are in their class.
The individual story titles (unless I come up with some that I like better) will be Soldier’s Welcome, Ceremonies of Strife, and Seasons of War.
One thing I like about this trilogy, despite the relatively simple and straightforward plot, is that it will give me the chance to add lots of little details, like:
*Different kinds of Auror training classes and lessons
*Different Auror instructors (some of whom will be involved with the enemy, whoever he/she is, and some of whom will be red herrings, and some of whom will be genuine friends to Harry and Draco, and some of whom will be good teachers but not inclined to indulge their students like the Hogwarts professors did)
*A debate about wizarding education (is Hogwarts teaching its students everything they need to know to become Aurors?)
*Snape’s second, hidden Pensieve
*The movement for freedom that starts among the house-elves
*What exactly the goblins are doing with all that blood-red gold that’s been observed going in and out of Gringotts
*If unicorns have ghosts or not
*Why you should never corner Fenrir Greyback on the night of the full moon
*Why Draco is embarrassed about his Animagus form
*The one Time-Turner that was not destroyed in the battle in the Department of Mysteries and which the Ministry keeps hidden
*Why it was a good thing Scrimgeour died when he did
*The disastrous favor Horace Slughorn asks for
*Hagrid, who has apparently not learned that making deals with strangers in pubs never turns out well
*Norberta’s eggs
*Ron’s secret talent
*Someone who is even worse at acronyms than Hermione is
The structure here will let me have all sorts of little minor adventures that tie in to different degrees with the big plot. I’m looking forward to it.
This idea started life as a single story about Harry and Draco’s training to become Auror partners, which is the background of a lot of fics but not the focus of most. It was going to be split into three parts, one for each year of training, with completely separate plots.
And then I realized that I had too many ideas for that structure to work. It’s now going to be a trilogy, with Running to Paradise as the overall series title.
Each story will be novel-length, probably somewhere between 18 and 23 chapters, or about 75,000 to 100,00 words. And it’ll be the most Hogwarts-like of any story I’ve done that isn’t actually set at Hogwarts. It will involve a lot of canon characters and a lot of learning and training, and it’ll follow the cycle of a year structured by classes. However, there’s also an overarching plot with double strands: a) Harry and Draco learning to get along as partners and, eventually, as lovers, and b) an enemy who would like nothing better than to consolidate his/her power so as to start another war. Preferably before the Aurors finish training new candidates who are as promising as Harry, Draco, and the others who are in their class.
The individual story titles (unless I come up with some that I like better) will be Soldier’s Welcome, Ceremonies of Strife, and Seasons of War.
One thing I like about this trilogy, despite the relatively simple and straightforward plot, is that it will give me the chance to add lots of little details, like:
*Different kinds of Auror training classes and lessons
*Different Auror instructors (some of whom will be involved with the enemy, whoever he/she is, and some of whom will be red herrings, and some of whom will be genuine friends to Harry and Draco, and some of whom will be good teachers but not inclined to indulge their students like the Hogwarts professors did)
*A debate about wizarding education (is Hogwarts teaching its students everything they need to know to become Aurors?)
*Snape’s second, hidden Pensieve
*The movement for freedom that starts among the house-elves
*What exactly the goblins are doing with all that blood-red gold that’s been observed going in and out of Gringotts
*If unicorns have ghosts or not
*Why you should never corner Fenrir Greyback on the night of the full moon
*Why Draco is embarrassed about his Animagus form
*The one Time-Turner that was not destroyed in the battle in the Department of Mysteries and which the Ministry keeps hidden
*Why it was a good thing Scrimgeour died when he did
*The disastrous favor Horace Slughorn asks for
*Hagrid, who has apparently not learned that making deals with strangers in pubs never turns out well
*Norberta’s eggs
*Ron’s secret talent
*Someone who is even worse at acronyms than Hermione is
The structure here will let me have all sorts of little minor adventures that tie in to different degrees with the big plot. I’m looking forward to it.