H/D Level Two: Author Interviews

[hd2-prod-team.livejournal.com]

H/D Level Two is a collaborative fannish project, in which H/D writers and artists come together to produce a novel-length, illustrated murder mystery, set on Level Two of the Ministry of Magic.

Hey everyone,

As it gets closer to show time, the production staff interviewed a few of our authors about working on the collaborative project. The hd_writers_mod was kind enough to let us share them here. I know everyone is having fun with the Back to Hogwarts challenge, but give yourself a break and read some interviews!

Thanks to the mods and good luck with your assignments,
hd2_prod_team


Have you ever participated in a collaborative fannish project before?

incandescent: No, which made this project very exciting and scary for me.

ashiiblack: I've co-written a fic before, but that's about as collaborative as I've gotten! We plotted together, and then split up the scenes.

writcraft: I have participated in a couple of co-writes, although I confess I don't find them easy. I suppose anything which involves modding with somebody else is also a collaborative project of sorts, and my co-mod and I are working on a collaborative meta piece for hp_darkarts, which incorporates responses received from community members to a series of interview questions. I do think it is much more challenging to collaborate on something creative, however. People have different writing styles and readings of different canon characters, not to mention diverse interests and ideas.

I generally think it is important to work with people who share the same interests when collaborating on a smaller scale. The exciting and challenging thing about hd_level_two is that it is very different to the sort of collaboration which tends to spring up between close friends or people who interact together regularly. It brings together a number of people whose only connection is a love of H/D. I didn't know a number of people involved in the project very well before hd_level_two and I am thrilled this opportunity gave me the opportunity to get to know my co-collaborators much better.



Why did you sign-up for H/D Level Two? What did you imagine H/D Level Two was when you signed up?

incandescent: I signed up because this fest seemed like a different way of creating fanfiction than what I'd experienced or seen before. I was exhausted by exchange/prompt fests, so when I saw the structure of this fest, I was excited. I wanted to give collaborative writing a try, and crafting something which was dependent upon others seemed like an interesting challenge. I have to admit that this was a thousand times more difficult than I'd expected.

ashiiblack: I signed up, because it seemed like a challenge. I've been in the H/D fandom for nearly ten years at this point, but only really active in the last two. How I imagined it has been pretty much what I expected. I was definitely curious about how plotting and that discussion would go. I thought it would be more up to the show runners, but there was a lot of discussion and participation from all members.

writcraft: I signed up because I knew one of the mods involved and because apparently I can't resist shiny things! I had no idea how it would work in practice and it has been an illuminating experience.



Did you gain any new insights into H/D from this project? Into brainstorming? Into plotting? Into writing?

incandescent: I certainly learned a lot about how others write and perceive canon. I have never before worked with writers who know canon quite so intimately and who fight for its inclusion within fanfiction so powerfully. It definitely showed me the many different ways that we can interpret the things that we experience, especially when we translate them into fanfiction.

ashiiblack: It surprised me at how much pre-writing was done for this project. By that, I mean the character sheets, location discussions, and more. I typically plot out scenes to the bare bones and let my creative juices flow from there. Being an American, this also gave me insight into how British people in the fandom work. It's helped me become a better author, because I've found myself considering things I had never thought about before.

writcraft: Absolutely! I have learned that brainstorming is fine to a point but it eventually somebody needs to take charge and establish a clear direction. That was the job on others in the team, to focus the collective thoughts and offer a welcome focus. The task of distilling lots of lengthy comments, ideas and threads of thought into a number of coherent options must have been a challenging one for those involved.

I also learned a lot about plotting. As well as writing our own individual episodes, we have all had to offer input into the broader "Big Plot" and storyline, and keeping the threads of the plot together has been a challenge at times. I have learned an enormous amount about good and lazy plotting through this process. With a murder mystery in particular, it is important to try not to fall into the classic tropes of the genre - while the idea of the community itself is fresh and interesting, the story must be too.

I did a lot of reading on plotting after a number of discussions which came out of hd_level_two, and it really helped me to think about this aspect of writing. Clearly I had considered plotting before, but I had just always focused on whether I had a plot which held together in a credible manner. I hadn't devolved too deeply into the specific techniques of plotting prior to this project, although I had been aware of techniques such as the narrative hook, foreshadowing and so on and used them in previous fanworks without really researching the techniques too deeply. It has been fascinating to think about the way plot devices are used - I had a tendency during the planning process to suggest things at times which might have been examples of "lazy" plotting, such as using a contrived plot device as an "easy fix" for a possible hole. It has been of real merit to consider plotting more generally, in relation to my other projects as well as hd_level_two.



What is your favourite original idea from the show?

incandescent: That would be the original character that I created for my episode. And I'll leave it at that.

ashiiblack: There's some interesting thoughts on Legilimency in one of the episodes, which I LOVED!

writcraft: I rarely work with original characters and it has been interesting to see these characters develop and to try working with original characters for a change. It is also one of the biggest challenges, however, as there is no canon basis which can be used to inform characterisation - this makes it far more of a challenge when trying to reach agreement on the role an OC might play. We have developed character sheets for our original characters, so we don't just have to use them in one episode. That has also been necessary for the art team to be able to establish how certain characters might look, when we have no evidence in canon.



What's one thing you didn't know about Harry Potter canon before this project?

incandescent: Oh, a thousand small things, like the spelling of Apparition.

ashiiblack: I'm kind of a canon-obsessed author, so I'm not sure if I've learned anything about canon. There was a really long debate about the length of Draco's hair, which I've never given too much thought about.

writcraft: I don't think I learned anything new per se, but I have had to think about the Aurors job in much more detail (and the legal system in the Potterverse) than I have needed to for other fanworks. It has been a very useful and interesting area to research in more detail. I am sure I will utilise this knowledge again in another fic.



Has your personal headcanon changed since working on H/D Level Two?

incandescent: No. But then, I never really had a headcanon as such. I'm very flexible, and craft a new headcanon each time I begin to brainstorm for a new story.

ashiiblack: Just a slight one that I love. Draco likes darjeeling and scoffs at sugary caffeinated beverages!

writcraft: I don't believe it has, although one of the earliest decisions which the art team asked for our thoughts on was whether or not Draco should have long hair. I have always written him with short hair in an effort to distinguish him from the very classic style Lucius adopted - perhaps a wish to distance himself from the stigma associated with his father after the war. Having seen some of the fantastic art with Draco sporting a longer haircut and hearing some of the discussions around why he might have long hair, I could be convinced to go either way! It sounds like such a silly thing to spend time debating, but all of these minor details become increasingly important, to the art team and to the writers, to try to create a cohesive piece.



What has been the worst moment of collaboration so far?

incandescent: The exhaustion that comes from having to discuss your ideas many times over, with different people, and then having those ideas passed over in the end.

ashiiblack: I wasn't always the most informed on the plot and pre-writing work, because I didn't have time to sift through hundreds of large blocks of text, plus multiple email threads! I sometimes felt a bit lost and confused!

writcraft: Probably the sheer hard work involved. It has taken up more time than I could ever have imagined when I signed up. I have come to have an enormous amount of respect for those on the team who are writing/arting, producing and editing, all while continuing to be heavily involved in fandom commitments, with a very busy and demanding RL. The longevity of the project has been a challenge too, simply because there is not a moment where there won't be discussions on plotting, characters and so on, or episodes posted for review and comment. In terms of my own writing process, I am used to working in short, intense bursts, rather than working intensively on one project over a number of months so for me, it has required me to adopt a different style.



How about the best moment?

incandescent: Finishing my story.

ashiiblack: When the prologue rough draft got posted! It got me so excited!

writcraft: Working with all of the brilliant people involved in the project. I have had an opportunity to get to know some people in fandom I really didn't know before, and I have been thrilled to have that opportunity. I have become closer to others I knew but hadn't worked with closely prior to Level Two and I have very much enjoyed being part of such an exciting new challenge. Seeing it all come together in the way it has done over the last month has been amazing too - my emotions have swung from tearing my hair wondering how everything will get done, to a real sense of happiness, pride and excitement.



Most facepalm-worthy moment?

ashiiblack: There was a lot of confusion about how we were supposed to be writing our episodes at the beginning. Seeing as a collaborative project like this has never been done in this fandom (or at least not recently), we had nothing to go off of. Do we write each episode as an individual fic? Do we write it as though it's 10 chapters? The confusion was followed by frustration, and from my POV, we seemed to be arguing semantics. Everything got solved in the end, with everyone pretty happy with our decisions.

writcraft: Many, I'm sure. I can't think of a specific one...I constantly have a fear of posting to the community in an unlocked post about the ending and revealing everything to anyone watching the comm accidentally. Fortunately, that hasn't happened!



Personal light-bulb moment?

incandescent: That moment when all the plotting comes together and you realize that you had the answer to the mystery all along

ashiiblack: When I realized how I could tie my episode to the "main plot".

writcraft: Sitting down and thinking everything through and thinking how a particular nugget of information could be used in an interesting way to advance the story. I can't say much more than that, but it was a very satisfying "Eureka" kind of moment.



If you could sum up H/D Level Two in one word/phrase, what would it be?

incandescent: Determination.

ashiiblack: Marvelous!

writcraft: Hard work, but worth it!



Join us on September 6th for the first episode.