INTERACTIVE: 30 DAY FAN FIC MEME || DAY FOUR

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

DAY ONE
DAY TWO
DAY THREE

04 – Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?

We welcome your participation! There is no minimum or maximum requirements for your answers -- they can be as long or as short as you'd like. I will include my answer as a comment.

Comments

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

My muse character -- no surprise here -- is Pansy Parkinson. She's loud and pushy and always there when it comes to writing HP fic. I think there is only one fic I've written where she didn't make an appearance

Why did Pansy become my muse? I mentioned in yesterday's question and answer how I had wanted to write a female Slytherin's POV and Pansy made the most sense from a logical standpoint. I picked Pansy because she had had the most "screen time" in the books as far as Slytherin girls went. It was based purely on logic and availability. It seemed logical to pick the most prominent Slytherin girl to write about, to tell the story I wanted to tell from that POV. Eventually, I wanted to write an alternate view of the Slytherins, one that might, while not excuse the Slytherins' bullying behavior, at least explain some of the motivations behind it in context of Hogwarts and being a Slytherin at Hogwarts. I have never written Pansy as stupid; despite JKR's descriptions of some of the Slytherins and the existence of Crabbe and Goyle, what she says about Slytherin house is that its members are clever and ambitious, which is demonstrated by Draco's characterization.

Writing characters like Pansy allows a writer to venture into kind of murky waters, where a character is both horrible and says things that normal, caring people would never say, but might want to say. It allows you to show your snark. It's fun to write a character who does and says outrageous things. We've all had those moments where we've had a confrontation or words with someone, and then spend the next few hours thinking of what the perfect comeback would have been, if only we had been on our toes and had thought of it quickly enough. Writing banter between a mean character and a nice character is kind of like that -- a verbal one-upmanship. Now this can get tedious for the reader, so it's important to execute it in moderation, or to intersperse it with moments of real, level dialogue, humor, or seriousness. But I really like writing verbal sparring, so this is another reason why Pansy is my muse. Pansy, like Draco, has the ability to hone in on what would be most hurtful to others and to use that accordingly. On more positive notes, though, I like to write Pansy as fiercely loyal to Slytherin and her friends in Slytherin. I like to write her as funny. I like to write her as totally smitten with Draco, but not willing to be treated poorly by him (I don't write Draco as treating Pansy poorly anyway). More often than not, I write her as being a decent student, but not on the level of Hermione (hello, Mary Sue.

Basically, Pansy became my muse in a practical fashion, and then I grew to absolutely love her. She made sense as the voice I wanted to write through, and then a characterization of her grew and gelled in my mind and it has stuck. For almost ten years!

I have a bit of a Draco muse, too, which usually manifests in taking canon situations or tidbits and explaining how disastrous things can occur from just one error in thinking or wrong decision.

[deirdre-aithne.livejournal.com]

Well, my muses are certainly characters, but not in the sense this meant. ;)

Reanna, the primary muse, is probably a strange cross between Luna and Bellatrix Lestrange... She's a little bit insane, stubbornly set in her ideas when one comes along, and has a tendency to fuck off when I need her around the most. I think that's where the Bellatrix side comes in, because she likes to dangle ideas just out of reach to torture me.

Haku, the secondary muse and 'whip Reanna into gear' extraordinaire, is a bit like if Snape and Voldemort had a child (try to sleep with that idea in your head)... He's my dark muse, more often than not, although he does like to poke his head out when I'm writing bdsm just so my Dominants don't get too soft on me (unless the story needs them to be, of course). He's obnoxiously assertive and does not let go until I've written whatever he's prompting me to write. And usually, if I can coax him into playing with a fic, it winds up dragging Reanna back around and making her work, because really, I need her to temper some of his shit, or I'd have a lot of really dark death!fic on my hands, and I just don't want to be that morbid all the time.

If I've gotten really engrossed in a fic, I might get that persistent nagging from one of the characters already in it, but I always think of those as not so polite suggestions from them. Although sometimes I'd love to fire Reanna and get myself a Neville!muse...

[germankitty]

Well ... there's a "muse character", and then there's a Muse character. *wry grin*

A few years ago, the Power Rangers fandom -- it's the only one where I've written enough at this point to apply any of this -- had a fad where writers blamed a "muse" for all their plotbunnies, weird ideas and deviations other detours from canon ... and wrote stories about how said "Muses" interacted with them. It all started with an imaginary little blue dragon named Mason, IIRC ... and saddled me with a pervy little critter (in reality, a toy-poodle-sized polar bear beanie baby) named, oh-so-imaginatively, Paul R. Bear -- Ted, for short. He immediately made friends with the Muses of my two closest friends in the fandom at the time, Murray the frog and Heyoka the Thunderbird chick. Naturally, the boys had adventures together. And delighted in torturing one of the show's characters.

*facepalms* What can I say, at the time we thought it was cute ... *hides*

As for the other kind of muse character, I guess I'll have to go with Katherine Hillard -- a 3rd-season replacement for the show's most popular female character who never developed a real personality of her own, as far as the show's writers were concerned. However, she mostly embodied (at least physically) the type I wanted to see paired up with my main crush, and so I could flesh out her character pretty much any way I wanted to, away from the ostensible "damsel in distress" towards a quietly-strong, ladylike, outwardly demure yet privately fiery person who'd be a good match for the original show lead -- the archetypal Hero who leads from quiet, innate strength, rather than flashy stunts. (Of course, the fact that she was a tall, blue-eyed blonde and I just happen to be a tall, blue-eyed blonde, too, had absolutely NOTHING to do with that! *whistles innocently*)

Anyway, Kat often became my way into a story, the filter through which I saw my main crush, and thus tended to sneak into fics that weren't really about her at all.

[rebecca_selene]

I feel like I'm missing the writing boat or something, but I don't really have a muse. I just yell at an imaginary, unnamed muse for deserting me whenever I have writer's block. :-)

[amt149.livejournal.com]

I don't really have a "muse" character, I think. Maybe Draco, because his personality is near-identical to my own and he worms his way into my mind and controls my typing fingers like he's got me under imperio. Does that count?

Usually for inspiration, I just write about whatever's on my mind. I once wrote an original story about spies and spy training because I was inspired by raking leaves. (Don't ask xD It's a long and strange train of thought). I don't know what my muse is. Perhaps I should find one. *wanders off in a daze*

[meglw0228.livejournal.com]

Now I want to read a fic with Snape and Voldemort's love-child, thanks for that!

Those are so awesome muses though; I wish mine were as great!

[meglw0228.livejournal.com]

Well I don't typically think of the characters I write as 'muses' so to speak. Mostly, they're annoying, mean, insistent, and never listen to me! IMO, muses are supposed to be helpful, and my characters have never been helpful yet! When writing Star Wars fanfic a few years ago I had a RL friend who was a great muse. He and I both loved Star Wars and we were able to talk and debate it so much that we naturally worked off each other and helped each other with stories and characters.

As for characters that speak to me or try to push their way in... The most recent one would have to be Scorpius; most likely because I've been writing him so much recently. And the one time I tried not to write him he came barging right in and wouldn't leave! In SW, probably Kyp Durron. He was always a character I loved reading about and it seemed every time I wrote he happened to appear, even if it was just for a menial errand or to be berated by Luke.

[morgana-fire.livejournal.com]

I haven't have this happen...yet. But I have had characters decide they were going to do their own thing even though I had something else planned for them. I've had to change many an outline just for the fact, beacuse i realised that, yep, they were right to begin with. That's the way they would have done it, much to my anguish lol.

[crazyparakiss.livejournal.com]

Draco, and Teddy Lupin. If I start a fic and try to make it about anyone but them they cry and angst and bite my toes. Or at least that is how it feels because one of them, if not both, always wind up in the fic in some way shape of form.

Oh the joys of muses. >:)

[uniquepov.livejournal.com]

I think my Muse is the Patron of H/C, because nearly all my characters wind up broken in some fashion, whether I intended them to or not.

As far as characters go, Neville or Luna (or both) usually wind up at least making an appearance in my fics. There's something about each of them that speaks to me. Luna, out of step with everyone and with very few real friends, whom everyone thinks is odd and who sees/believes in things that don't always make sense to the people around her... and Neville, who was heavy, unpopular, clumsy, forgetful, weighed down by the burden of his parents and trying to live up to their memory and his family's expectations; finding strength he didn't know he possessed during their 7th year at Hogwarts, organising the safe escape of the students who needed it, and the knowledge, via JKR, that Neville might have been "the Chosen One", if Voldemort had made a different decision. As much as I love movie!Neville and Matt Lewis - I actually prefer book!Neville - still chubby, blond, not particularly "hot" - but a hero, nonetheless.

[hpfangirl71.livejournal.com]

I guess that character would be Draco Malfoy since he was in the very first pairing I wrote which was HET and he is now a part of my slash OTP and many of my other fave pairings. There is just something about him that I love to write, perhaps its the sarcastic wit or the sheer vulnerability of his character... it could also be the fact that he can be played as a good guy or as a bad guy... as a double agent or as a redeemed soul... as the best thing to every happen to any character he is paired with or also the worst. If I write him doing something truly bad its considered okay but if he does something truly good thats okay as well... also Draco is damn sexy and that too is so much fun to write!! :D