Terminus Day Four
Aug. 9th, 2008 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenna_c_tanTerminus Day Four
All four roomies got up and had breakfast today! We are SOOOO tired and sleepy. But not regretting anything at all. (Grin madly here.)
Busy busy day...
First session of the day was CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES IN THE WIZARDING WORLD led by Fiona Fawkes (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fiona_fawkes). Quite an interesting discussion that included various points about the use of potions and things in the canon. What the hell is that Mundugus smokes anyway? Are the Daydream Chews that the Weasley Twins make and sell something that would be considered a "drug" in the Muggle world? (You bet.) Winky the house elf abuses butterbeer, but would a wizard or witch get that effect from it? The Mirror of Erised is described as more addictive than most potions are and Hermione gets addicted/reliant on the time turner. And finally.... are Hufflepuffs the stoners of the wizarding world? ("Go ahead, you guys take first place. We're good.")
It was an interesting discussion even if some people in the room had rather misinformed ideas about how the human brain and drug physiology work.
Then I went on to:
SaberShadow Kitten then presented DRACO MALFOY: BEGINNING TO END
Some fans are attracted to his attitude from the early books, but by Goblet of Fire his vulnerability started to show through. Early fanfic focused on Harry and Draco very innocently, hair pulling and such, but by the time he's 14 or so, by the time book 4 came along, the romances and the rescue fics started to really rise.
He is, in so many ways, a failure in the early books. Every time he tries to do something bad or evil, he gets slapped down and Harry wins. It isn't until book 6 that he has any "success" and the result of course is that by book 7, he is basically a slave in his own house. His fail is epic. He is rejected by Harry on his overture of friendship. In book 2 we learn that Lucius even wanted him to court Harry as a friend. And it goes from there. Draco has never had to make a friend yet in his life.
Did he succeed at anything? Versus Harry: He did get Harry removed from Quidditch by goading him into attacking him. He is also the one who uses the tripping Curse that lets Umbridge get him. Where Moody/Crouch turns him into a ferret in the book, the scene is fairly scary and tragic in the book. Was this a way that Crouch got back at Lucius through Draco? We know that he is the #2 gradewise in the school (second only to Hermione), and that he is very nearly as good a flyer as Harry. He does fix the cabinet, too. And he succeeds in finding out Harry in the cloak on the train and waits until his Slytherin friends are gone to expose him and break his nose.
McGonagall has stuck up for Draco twice. Not only does she save Draco from Crouch/Moody, she also docks point from Harry and the gang when after disciplining Draco she finds out that Harry and them had tricked Draco into being outside.
Does Snape, who sees Harry as James 2.0, see Draco as himself at that age?
Was one of the book 7 disappointments that the sacrifice Dumbledore made "for Draco" actually that in the end it was made just for the Elder Wand and Draco was an afterthought. He did not have to "live up to" having been saved?
There was general debate about the lovingness of Narcissa versus the demanding-ness of Lucius—typical Victorian upper crust family. Narcissa is the one who really shows love and who Draco demonstrates love in return to. Note also that Narcissa is the one who nixed the idea of Draco going to Durmstrang and wanted to keep him closer to home.
Draco is one of the few who actually stays a child throughout the books, he doesn't just become a mini-adult, even in book 6. Sometimes readers try to give him an adult sensibility but they forget that he hasn't developed those yet. He has not yet learned to question the things he has been spoon fed all his life. Most of us did not know how to choose our political party when we were 14, 15, 16 years old.
There is inadvertent helping of Harry throughout the series before book 6. He drops mentions about Sirius, he helps Hermione, etc. Is any of it intentional?
Draco's squeamishness. He warns Hermione at the Worldcup possibly because of his own squeamishness. His actual attempts to kill Dumbledore are all distant, like he didn't want to see what would happen.
It seems like Draco acts like he doesn't care what Harry thinks and yet he actually does seem to crave Harry's respect. He doesn't want to ever look weak in front of Harry.
DACRO'S "Fine Art of Wizard Conversation" – Writing Character Voice
Dacro is a professional sign language interpreter and she is processing language in her head constantly. This has led her to analysing language in writing/reading for fan fic.
How do you get your uniqueness into your story and still have a recognisable Harry?
Register of voice: the words "I love you" can sound totally insincere. How do you make that discernable on the page? What about the words you would choose to greet the queen versus your buddy at a bar? Different language would be used in different settings.
Frozen Register: written in stone, unchangeable, things like the Bible, laws, Pledge of Allegiance, ritualized or ceremonial language. In HP, some spells, the school song, latin school motto.
Formal Register: Used mostly in one way conversations, speeches, introductions, lectures, opening remarks, Dumbledore's speeches. Snape, Lucius and Ministry people, Percy always has a higher register voice than the other Weasleys, Voldemort uses elevated language.
"Must" "Let us preserve" More absolute vocabulary. Snape and Voldemort both lose their formal register when they flip out.
Consultative Register: has a high and a low end, but it is a two-way conversation. High end is McGonagall, low end is Mr. Weasley. Lupin probably. Sir Nicholas. : Lupin, Sprout, Mr. Weasley, can bring themselves down to other people's level.
Informal register: most of the students, Hagrid, Madam Rosmerta. Friends talking to friends.
Intimate: practically don't need to open your mouth to communicate. Fred and George can just look at each other and start laughing. Lupin and Sirius have some intimate register moments.
There can be register of a description, too, not just dialogue, for effect.
Hurdles:
Minor characters – got to see a bit more finally in book 7, like Lee Jordan, Crabbe, Luna, the fleshing out of Neville. But are there other characters we don't know enough about to write?
People subconsciously take from other characters in fics if they see a depiction of a character that they like who isn't fleshed out in canon. Blaise could have been male or female, white or black—we had no idea. People started some descriptions of him as a blue-eyed Italian and that stuck.
Sometimes you end up having to treat them as original characters.
Accents:
Do you spell out the whole phonetic accent with Fleur, Hagrid, Krum? It can get really tiring to the reader. You may decide that we know how to hear them and don't need to spell it all out. Seamus is not presented as having an accent in the books, but because of the films people try to stick an Irish accent on Seamus.
Random notes:
Luna is hard to do sometimes. She is really perceptive in the books, but some people just write her as dippy and stupid.
Can you overdo Trelawney?
LUNCH was spent at the Snaco meetup which I organized. I was amazed so many people came! There were 20 RSVP'd, but more like 30 came, and some ended up breaking off into their own group on the patio. I handed out as my giveaway: a special Snaco minibook of an exclusive Snaco fic I wrote as a gift forclauclauclaudia, my stalwart beta and also the Snape to my Draco (in the Visible Infinity RPG – have I mentioned we're recruiting new players?). I say "exclusive" because this fic has not appeared on LJ yet. I suppose I'll post it eventually... (Feel free to beg in comments.)
I wrote it because the goody I contributed to the other two meetups (H/D and Snarry) were short, smutty fics made into little booklets, and I thought, damn, I don't have one of these for my #1 Ship! So I wrote one. *grins proudly*
We were a large enough group that we couldn't really all talk together, so I mostly talked withnimori, amanuensis1, lavillanueva, and dbassassin, who were the closest to me. We briefly tried to convert dracofiend to Snaco, but she escaped to another table just as we were getting up a good head of steam.
My Next Stop was the art room. There is very little art, not even 20 pieces total, in a large room, which makes it seem like artists weren't recruited very hard. I ran into some people there, though, who were waiting for a drabble challenge for house points to start, includingjin_fenghuang. We chatted for a while, and then eventually a volunteer from the convention came in to see what we were up to. We asked about the Drabble challenge, she went off to the info desk, then came back to say it was going on in Room 4C.
So we went up to room 4C and participated. The drabble topic was "Tonks's Last Words."
I got a point for my house for writing the following:
Tonks's Last Words
Bellatrix's curse had downed her, but not finished her yet. She could barely feel the floor under her hands, her entire body aching with the force of the magic that had sent her flying one direction, her wand in the other. They were alone in the deserted corridor of the castle; no one could come to her aid. There was still a chance, if only she could Summon her wand to her hand...
Accio! Accio!
But the wand lay as if dead, just a bit of wood, while Bellatrix's cackle echoed off the stone of the castle.
"Filthy thing!" the madwoman screamed, "Mudblood, only fit for the werewolf. I heard you had one of his pups..."
Tonks opened her mouth to try the spell aloud, maybe then the wand would come.
Bellatrix raised her own and Tonks screamed, "Teddy!"
Then it was off to Amanuensis' presentation on Slytherin. She was a proxy presenter for Aja/Bookshop, who was unable to make it, and she created an interactive presentation/discussion about what the meaning of Slytherin House is based on canon, JKR interviews, and the interpretations of readers.
I find I can't really sum up the discussion. Hm. You just have to come to conventions to get some of these experiences.
Then I took a spin through the dealer's room again, didn't buy anything but looked at some cool T-shirts, and now I'm back in my room trying to make dinner plans. So I'm posting. Tonight is Author & Artists Night so there will be much fanfiction reading, drabbling, and so on...
All four roomies got up and had breakfast today! We are SOOOO tired and sleepy. But not regretting anything at all. (Grin madly here.)
Busy busy day...
First session of the day was CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES IN THE WIZARDING WORLD led by Fiona Fawkes (
fiona_fawkes). Quite an interesting discussion that included various points about the use of potions and things in the canon. What the hell is that Mundugus smokes anyway? Are the Daydream Chews that the Weasley Twins make and sell something that would be considered a "drug" in the Muggle world? (You bet.) Winky the house elf abuses butterbeer, but would a wizard or witch get that effect from it? The Mirror of Erised is described as more addictive than most potions are and Hermione gets addicted/reliant on the time turner. And finally.... are Hufflepuffs the stoners of the wizarding world? ("Go ahead, you guys take first place. We're good.")It was an interesting discussion even if some people in the room had rather misinformed ideas about how the human brain and drug physiology work.
Then I went on to:
SaberShadow Kitten then presented DRACO MALFOY: BEGINNING TO END
Some fans are attracted to his attitude from the early books, but by Goblet of Fire his vulnerability started to show through. Early fanfic focused on Harry and Draco very innocently, hair pulling and such, but by the time he's 14 or so, by the time book 4 came along, the romances and the rescue fics started to really rise.
He is, in so many ways, a failure in the early books. Every time he tries to do something bad or evil, he gets slapped down and Harry wins. It isn't until book 6 that he has any "success" and the result of course is that by book 7, he is basically a slave in his own house. His fail is epic. He is rejected by Harry on his overture of friendship. In book 2 we learn that Lucius even wanted him to court Harry as a friend. And it goes from there. Draco has never had to make a friend yet in his life.
Did he succeed at anything? Versus Harry: He did get Harry removed from Quidditch by goading him into attacking him. He is also the one who uses the tripping Curse that lets Umbridge get him. Where Moody/Crouch turns him into a ferret in the book, the scene is fairly scary and tragic in the book. Was this a way that Crouch got back at Lucius through Draco? We know that he is the #2 gradewise in the school (second only to Hermione), and that he is very nearly as good a flyer as Harry. He does fix the cabinet, too. And he succeeds in finding out Harry in the cloak on the train and waits until his Slytherin friends are gone to expose him and break his nose.
McGonagall has stuck up for Draco twice. Not only does she save Draco from Crouch/Moody, she also docks point from Harry and the gang when after disciplining Draco she finds out that Harry and them had tricked Draco into being outside.
Does Snape, who sees Harry as James 2.0, see Draco as himself at that age?
Was one of the book 7 disappointments that the sacrifice Dumbledore made "for Draco" actually that in the end it was made just for the Elder Wand and Draco was an afterthought. He did not have to "live up to" having been saved?
There was general debate about the lovingness of Narcissa versus the demanding-ness of Lucius—typical Victorian upper crust family. Narcissa is the one who really shows love and who Draco demonstrates love in return to. Note also that Narcissa is the one who nixed the idea of Draco going to Durmstrang and wanted to keep him closer to home.
Draco is one of the few who actually stays a child throughout the books, he doesn't just become a mini-adult, even in book 6. Sometimes readers try to give him an adult sensibility but they forget that he hasn't developed those yet. He has not yet learned to question the things he has been spoon fed all his life. Most of us did not know how to choose our political party when we were 14, 15, 16 years old.
There is inadvertent helping of Harry throughout the series before book 6. He drops mentions about Sirius, he helps Hermione, etc. Is any of it intentional?
Draco's squeamishness. He warns Hermione at the Worldcup possibly because of his own squeamishness. His actual attempts to kill Dumbledore are all distant, like he didn't want to see what would happen.
It seems like Draco acts like he doesn't care what Harry thinks and yet he actually does seem to crave Harry's respect. He doesn't want to ever look weak in front of Harry.
DACRO'S "Fine Art of Wizard Conversation" – Writing Character Voice
Dacro is a professional sign language interpreter and she is processing language in her head constantly. This has led her to analysing language in writing/reading for fan fic.
How do you get your uniqueness into your story and still have a recognisable Harry?
Register of voice: the words "I love you" can sound totally insincere. How do you make that discernable on the page? What about the words you would choose to greet the queen versus your buddy at a bar? Different language would be used in different settings.
Frozen Register: written in stone, unchangeable, things like the Bible, laws, Pledge of Allegiance, ritualized or ceremonial language. In HP, some spells, the school song, latin school motto.
Formal Register: Used mostly in one way conversations, speeches, introductions, lectures, opening remarks, Dumbledore's speeches. Snape, Lucius and Ministry people, Percy always has a higher register voice than the other Weasleys, Voldemort uses elevated language.
"Must" "Let us preserve" More absolute vocabulary. Snape and Voldemort both lose their formal register when they flip out.
Consultative Register: has a high and a low end, but it is a two-way conversation. High end is McGonagall, low end is Mr. Weasley. Lupin probably. Sir Nicholas. : Lupin, Sprout, Mr. Weasley, can bring themselves down to other people's level.
Informal register: most of the students, Hagrid, Madam Rosmerta. Friends talking to friends.
Intimate: practically don't need to open your mouth to communicate. Fred and George can just look at each other and start laughing. Lupin and Sirius have some intimate register moments.
There can be register of a description, too, not just dialogue, for effect.
Hurdles:
Minor characters – got to see a bit more finally in book 7, like Lee Jordan, Crabbe, Luna, the fleshing out of Neville. But are there other characters we don't know enough about to write?
People subconsciously take from other characters in fics if they see a depiction of a character that they like who isn't fleshed out in canon. Blaise could have been male or female, white or black—we had no idea. People started some descriptions of him as a blue-eyed Italian and that stuck.
Sometimes you end up having to treat them as original characters.
Accents:
Do you spell out the whole phonetic accent with Fleur, Hagrid, Krum? It can get really tiring to the reader. You may decide that we know how to hear them and don't need to spell it all out. Seamus is not presented as having an accent in the books, but because of the films people try to stick an Irish accent on Seamus.
Random notes:
Luna is hard to do sometimes. She is really perceptive in the books, but some people just write her as dippy and stupid.
Can you overdo Trelawney?
LUNCH was spent at the Snaco meetup which I organized. I was amazed so many people came! There were 20 RSVP'd, but more like 30 came, and some ended up breaking off into their own group on the patio. I handed out as my giveaway: a special Snaco minibook of an exclusive Snaco fic I wrote as a gift for
clauclauclaudia, my stalwart beta and also the Snape to my Draco (in the Visible Infinity RPG – have I mentioned we're recruiting new players?). I say "exclusive" because this fic has not appeared on LJ yet. I suppose I'll post it eventually... (Feel free to beg in comments.)I wrote it because the goody I contributed to the other two meetups (H/D and Snarry) were short, smutty fics made into little booklets, and I thought, damn, I don't have one of these for my #1 Ship! So I wrote one. *grins proudly*
We were a large enough group that we couldn't really all talk together, so I mostly talked with
nimori, amanuensis1, lavillanueva, and dbassassin, who were the closest to me. We briefly tried to convert dracofiend to Snaco, but she escaped to another table just as we were getting up a good head of steam.My Next Stop was the art room. There is very little art, not even 20 pieces total, in a large room, which makes it seem like artists weren't recruited very hard. I ran into some people there, though, who were waiting for a drabble challenge for house points to start, including
jin_fenghuang. We chatted for a while, and then eventually a volunteer from the convention came in to see what we were up to. We asked about the Drabble challenge, she went off to the info desk, then came back to say it was going on in Room 4C.So we went up to room 4C and participated. The drabble topic was "Tonks's Last Words."
I got a point for my house for writing the following:
Tonks's Last Words
Bellatrix's curse had downed her, but not finished her yet. She could barely feel the floor under her hands, her entire body aching with the force of the magic that had sent her flying one direction, her wand in the other. They were alone in the deserted corridor of the castle; no one could come to her aid. There was still a chance, if only she could Summon her wand to her hand...
Accio! Accio!
But the wand lay as if dead, just a bit of wood, while Bellatrix's cackle echoed off the stone of the castle.
"Filthy thing!" the madwoman screamed, "Mudblood, only fit for the werewolf. I heard you had one of his pups..."
Tonks opened her mouth to try the spell aloud, maybe then the wand would come.
Bellatrix raised her own and Tonks screamed, "Teddy!"
Then it was off to Amanuensis' presentation on Slytherin. She was a proxy presenter for Aja/Bookshop, who was unable to make it, and she created an interactive presentation/discussion about what the meaning of Slytherin House is based on canon, JKR interviews, and the interpretations of readers.
I find I can't really sum up the discussion. Hm. You just have to come to conventions to get some of these experiences.
Then I took a spin through the dealer's room again, didn't buy anything but looked at some cool T-shirts, and now I'm back in my room trying to make dinner plans. So I'm posting. Tonight is Author & Artists Night so there will be much fanfiction reading, drabbling, and so on...
