Good Omens Exchange
For the Good Omens Exchange 2011, I wrote a long Good Omens/Harry Potter crossover AU fic which the mods titled Slytherin Vaguely Downwards as I could not think of a title. It grew into an utter monster and I went way over the deadline, and at one point I think I even had a nightmare in which the mods were so angry they banned me. XD
God, the story was hard. Crowley was not easy to write for; I'd sit and stare blankly at the Word document for ages, cranking out maybe two words an hour, and then at 3AM when I was about to go to bed I'd suddenly find the words flowing out and type furiously for another few pages until I passed out. I researched the weirdest things, racking up a Google search history of 'food allergies', 'coconut allergies', 'English-Latin online translator', 'old-fashioned cuckoo clock', 'kola nut properties', 'sarsaparilla properties', 'guido reni st michael painting', 'magic marker' and so on, and discovered the lovely resource that is the Harry Potter Wiki along the way, where I looked for Ashwinders and Herbology textbooks and pureblood history and all sorts of other things; when I was writing a battle scene I drew on the spells in my memory at first, since I can recall quite a lot, but eventually had a tab with the Wiki's list of offensive spells open while writing. I also spent ages on Pottermore one afternoon studying and contemplating wand woods and cores, and went around with my nose buried in my copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them for a week. At one point I jumped up and ran to find my copy of Quidditch Through The Ages to doublecheck what sort of wood the handle of a vintage Silver Arrow broom would be made of.
The longest chapters/short stories I've ever written thus far have been maybe 9 pages in a Word document; this one was 28, if I recall correctly, and went up to 29 after I added some end notes. I went, "Hallelujah!" out loud when I finished it, though I did enjoy writing it. Mostly. Slipping in references to the Discworld series and other random references like William McGonagall was definitely fun, as were the footnotes.
steadfast and sunflower_mynah are my awesome beta-reading team who also provided lots of encouragement - the Dr Filius quip and footnote were entirely Jen's idea - and eidolon_bird and kleine_teekanne were also there to hold my hand and listen and cheer me on when I moaned about how big it was growing and how difficult Crowley was being. _silverfox and seablue_eyes were also encouraging. Thank you so much, all of you. ♥
There are actually a few scenes I had in my head that I had no time to write/didn't quite fit into the story arc. However, I may write and post them as Extras/Deleted Scenes if I can.
And it turned out that sidesinger, my recipient, was actually assigned my request as well! She wrote me an absolutely FABULOUS Good Omens/Harry Potter crossover called Hogwarts According To Adam and I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Hers had lots of awesome Discworld references too - clearly we both love the Librarian - and even had references to the Shoebox Project! She even had photos of actual handwritten notes from Crowley to Aziraphale that made me squee out loud. *flail* And there were tons of moments that made me laugh out loud, and it was amazing. And we basically exchanged GO/HP crossover fics, which is just awesome. 8D