Who am I?

I'm middle-aged, laid off and seeking work. I really don't have much time to write much, but I still do sometimes. Everyone needs a hobby. I got into writing through roleplay and people tell me I can write. I've tried several times and I've got the writing bug. I've submitted a few short stories, but have nothing published professionally. Currently my biggest flaw as writer is that I cannot shut off my self-criticism. I get half-way or three-quarters of a way through a story and I stop writing because I feel it isn't good enough and everything that I'm writing is crap.

As for my handle, I originally only planned to write one story here, and when looking for a handle I chose the name of my protagonist. While it should be obvious, my name isn't Harper Potts and the backstory given of Harper Potts in no way reflects my real life.

Harper Potts, the Girl Who Died - long term haitus

UPDATE: What happened to Harper Potts, the Girl Who Died? Sadly the same thing that happens to all my stories. I go strong for a while then hit a spot that I just can't write around. There were two particular stumbling blocks for this story. The first was that I needed to introduce a new defense instructor who was an auror and I stalled on the original character. The second is that my story is focused too much on the ships. There are already ships in motion and a whole Daphne-Harper-Hermione triangle forming. However, these kids are only eleven in body (even if Harper is older in experience) and that's more than a bit icky to me. I might return to this story at some point. I haven't totally given it up, before now it is on long term hold.

About Harper Potts, the Girl Who Died

I'm very much aware that Harper Potts, the Girl Who Died is a cliche. The concept is a sixteen year old reader of the Harry Potter books gets thrown into the story as Harry. After going through a short bit of denial she sets off to change the story for the better. It's a do-over story with a bit of self-insertion. No, the protagonist isn't myself. I'm not a sixteen year-old girl dying of cancer. However, when I'm writing the story I'll often ask myself 'what would I do?'

My goal was to help to develop the writing habits that will get me published. As I've already said, my biggest flaw is finishing a story. I'm hoping that this exercise will get me past that. However, I do have other flaws. I'm really bad about comma splicing. I tend to be repetitive in my wording. I often fail to paint the setting and focus too much on dialog to carry the story. Another flaw that I want to address is handling the passage of time. I get too focused in on 'what happens next' and follow characters day-by-day through a story. Personally, I feel that one of JKR's greatest strengths as a novelist is how smoothly she makes a story stretch over months. Forcing myself to write in her universe where the stories last a school year is another strech goal. Beyond that I need good writing habits in general. If my characerization is weak or unrealistic, say so. If my character is becomming a Mary Sue, say that as well. I'm not afraid of harsh criticism especially in regards to grammar. Every good writer needs at least one grammar nazi editor to keep them in line.

Shipping

I now some people live for the ships. I'll be honest with you. I haven't decided what ships if any Harper will have. I can tell you that book one at least will be about friendships. Harper has the mind of a sixteen year-old girl stuck in the body of an eleven year-old boy that hasn't gone through puberty yet. There will be no romantic relationships in year one. That said, there may well be friendships that set the groundwork for future relationships.

May Sueness

I love feedback from my readers and I'm not scared of negative feedback. If Harper is turning into too much of a Mary Sue, tell me so. I have taken deliberate steps to limit Harper's potential Mary Sueness. Her biggest asset, foreknowledge from reading the books, is of questionable value. There are significant changes between the world she inhabits and the wizarding world. In addition there seems to be an outside force (destiny? fate? a meddling old fart?) that keeps pushing certain events to happen in a same or similar manner regardless of the changes Harper makes.

The desire not to have Harper be a Mary Sue is also why Harper isn't a good flyer. The defining characteristic of a Mary Sue is power/talent/ability that is achieved without effort. Harry Potter's crowning moment of Marty Stueness was when he caught the snitch in his mouth during his first Quidditch match. He didn't earn his Quidditch and flying skills. They were given to him by the author on a golden platter. If Harper were to earn a place on a Quidditch team it would be through hard work and practice, not innate talent.

Realism

I'm also upping the realisim a bit in the books. Part of that is because I want to throw off Harper's foreknowledge. Thus I'm deliberately changing things such as introducing a card catalog to the library at Hogwarts to make her unsure of just how much she can trust her knowledge from the books. I also find it incomprehensible that wizards couldn't grasp the value of a card catalog.

Another specific place of upgraded realism is with the Dursley's. Child abuse isn't a joke. I treated what happened to Harry as a realistic events and imposed realistic consequences. I understand what happened in JKR's stories. She started off writing a book for children. In children's literature there is a tradition of incredibly overabuse families. I honestly feel the start of HP and the SS was JKR giving a hat tip to British author Roald Dahl, author of James and the Giant Peach. The tradition is older than that going back to fairy tails such as Cinderella. Even children understand that abuse in such stories is over the top. That it is fiction. However, JKR went on from children to write for tweens and teens. As she did the stories became more realistic and the abuse by the Drusleys (and Snape and Umbridge) became less tolerable. As the tone changed from a modern fairy tale for children to a story for teens, the context of the abuse changed to become unacceptable. Long rant, but the point being in Harper Potts, the Girl Who Died, Harper inhabits a realistic world. So abusive behavior will not be treated in a Cinderella fashion in my writing.

A Bug in the Game (Hiatus)

This is one of my favorite unfinished stories. You can thank Faria Lyton for that. I volunteered to beta for Co-Op mode. Faria Lyton asked me to write the first interlude going over the same events from Taylor's PoV and I agreed. The I wrote a bit more from Taylor's PoV. Then FL asked me for suggestions for a different cape name for Taylor. Funny thing, I actually had one all written up.

It was a plot seed that I'd had some time ago for a story that I had tentatively titled "Let There be Butterflies." In canon Worm Taylor fails to pick a cape name. I wanted to look at what a large impact very small butterfly, choosing a name, could make on the story. The intention was that Taylor embraced the heroic version of herself that was rammed down her throat by the PRT in canon. How much different would Taylor have been if she'd embraced a Weaver-like character from the start instead of getting it pushed on her. So I dusted off that idea and FL loved it. So that became canon and my contributions grew from there. So FL and I talked it over and agreed that I would right a companion story to Co-Op mode from Taylor's point of view.

GoT Alternate Endings and Dovah Queen

I've been spending much of my time lately job hunting which hasn't left much energy or enthusiasm for writing. However, I'm a long time Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire fan. I read the books before HBO even announced they were doing the show, so I have been waiting many years for the conclusion and I thought it sucked! My biggest face is the heal-face turn of Daenerys. I know many defend HBO and point out that there were signs all along that Daenerys was overly ambitious and a little unstable. I'll admit it doesn't come completely out of the blue. If HBO had given me a story where Daenerys gradually descended into villain by taking being more and more callous in her quest for power, sacrificing lives, and not caring about the costs - I could have accepted that. Instead Daenerys falls in two short episodes and then snaps and burns King's Landing. Then the Starks get a happy ending. It didn't work for me. It felt too forced and arbitrary. Daenerys fell so the Starks could get their happily ever afters. In short I think either Daenerys deserved better and the Starks didn't deserve their ending. It left me bitter and sour. Which is good for my readers because it inspired me to write again. I found writing my Alternate Endings to be very cathartic and I've kept writing since. Dovah Queen was a surprise. It came about from the pun, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. For now my writing energies will be going to Alt Endings and Dovah Queen.

Harper Potts Challenges

I'm going to start posting a few challenges. These will be mostly story ideas that I just don't have time to write. If you do take up a challenge, please drop me a PM. I'd love to see what you do with it.

Rita Skeeters's Year Off (Rita PoV) - This was an idea that came to me recently, but I'm a yank and I think you would almost have to be a British to pull it off well. When Hermione Granger captures Rita Skeeter at the end of Goblet of Fire she still extends to extort Rita to stop writing. As she makes the deal, almost as an afterthought she adds. "Well, at least stop writing in the Wizarding World. If you want to get a job writing for a muggle paper, you just might learn something about real journalism." Naturally, Hermione is thinking of the free press as a bastion of democracy and having more integrity than the wizarding world. Rita after a short funk decides to at least check out the muggle papers. It's the summer of 1995 and scandals abound with the muggle papers in a feeding frenzy. Rita decides to take a job working for a major muggle paper (with a little help from a Confundus charm). She gets scolded for simply making things up and stating outrageous opinions as facts. Her boss and coworkers quickly show her the proper way to write a story - quote outlandish sources, get the most extreme viewpoints from both sides, and that special word 'alleged'. By the time Hermione Granger contacts her to write a story for the Quibbler, she may never want to go back.

Sincerely,

Harper Potts