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Common Room Awards: Slytherin Edition | July 8th, 2018


Guest Rumpelstiltskin

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Common Room Awards: Slytherin Edition

 

 

As an exciting new edition to the Prefect Blog, we've decided to host a mini-series on the Common Room Awards for each House! This week, we're taking a look at the Slytherin House Awards [ or the 'My Father Will Hear About These Awards' / MFWHATAs]! In addition to being featured, each winner in each category had an opportunity to answer one question pertaining to their story. [Winners in other Houses: if you haven't received your questions yet, you will soon!]

 

 

“Most Hypnotizing Tale” [Most Addicting Story]

 

Nominees:

Saving Severus Snape [M] by @MegGonagall 
Like a House on Fire by @800 words of heaven
Not My Own by M C Crocker / @scooterbug8515
After Life [M] by @MegGonagall

Runner-Up:
After Life [M] by @MegGonagall

Winner:
Saving Severus Snape [M] by @MegGonagall

 

“Best Snake of a Different Scale” [Best Alternate Universe]

 

Nominees:

Scars from Tomorrow by @Nix
Child of the Hunt:
the Journey Begins [M] by @Alexis Black
Like a Multiverse on Fire [M] by @800 words of heaven

Runner-Up:
Scars from Tomorrow by @Nix

Winner:

Child of the Hunt:
the Journey Begins [M] by @Alexis Black


 

“Most Careful Handling of a Snake” [Best Depiction of a Canon Slytherin Character]

 

Nominees:
Draco Malfoy in Love, Not War [M] by @RoxiMalfoy
Bellatrix Lestrange in The Moonlight War [M] by @BoredOneNight

Runner-Up:
Bellatrix Lestrange in The Moonlight War [M] by @BoredOneNight

 

Winner:
Draco Malfoy in
Love, Not War [M] by @RoxiMalfoy


Question for Winner: From the moment Love, Not War starts to where it’s at now, Draco has experienced a lot of character growth. What was the most difficult challenge you faced while showcasing his personal growth?

Answer: To be honest, I am probably facing my most difficult challenge in writing one of Draco’s personal growth/development scenes right NOW, lol. ? Each moment of the story, every thought that Draco has had, every conversation he’s held with others; it has all been about how he hates his father for the decisions that he’s made, and how he wants nothing more to do with Lucius Malfoy. But now the story is gearing up for this pivotal moment of confrontation between father and son, and Draco is going to have to make a some pretty heavy decisions regarding his relationship with his father. He has been told that this is going to be the last time he will ever see/speak to his father again. Lucius has been sentenced to death at this point, and the Minister has offered Draco one hour to say goodbye. (But that’s all the details I’m going to give here, lol!! If you want to know more, you’ll just have to read the story!!)  ? But I will say that the conversation that ensues between the two Malfoys in Chapter 24 of LNW is... yeah, it gets pretty intense, to say the least. Lucius makes several confessions to his son, and Draco in turn ends up venting his frustrations to his father about everything that he’s been holding onto for most of his childhood. And by the end of it, I can honestly say that I am very proud of Draco Malfoy, and the decisions that he makes after being faced with everything that's thrown his way during this particular conversation.

I mean, it was one thing for him to declare his forgiveness to the angry mob of people at the Ministry in Chapter 19. But now he will actually be required to put those words into action when he sees Lucius face-to-face for the first time since everything that's happened to him at the beginning of the story. And honestly, writing that particular scene was always one of the MOST challenging parts for
me, because it's very personal. It was difficult back in 2009 when the first draft of this section of the story (which, at that time was only Chapter 13) was written. And even now while I am rewriting this section for my JulNo project, (and it is now Chapter 24 of the story, due to all of the new content and spacing out I've done during the rewrite/edit process) I’ve still had a very emotional time with writing it. But I'm making my way through it. Albeit a little slowly, lol! ?

I’m not sure how much of a widely-known fact this is, but when I started writing Love, Not War back in the summer of 2008, I was dealing with a LOT of personal issues surrounding my own paternal father. Coming from a single parent home, he and I have never really had much of a relationship. ? But I had reached a point in my life where I had decided that I wanted to let go of all the anger and resentment that I had been holding onto from my childhood. Being in my early twenties at the time though, I wasn’t really sure what true forgiveness of that nature looked like, and I had quite a bit of
feelings and emotions surrounding my broken/damaged relationship with my own dad. So, naturally, I channeled a lot of that into this fanfiction. And I feel as though Draco and I both learned to forgive our fathers together, in a way. It was all quite therapeutic, writing through it for the very first time. ✍️

Fast-Forward 10 years (dear lord, have I really been working on this thing for an ENTIRE Decade now?!? ? )  and now I’m rewriting the entire fic all over again. And while I have since forgiven my father, and he and I are, in fact, on speaking terms now (he’s actually moving into the neighborhood over from us from us next month, so he’ll only be about a 20-30 minute drive away now, as opposed to an hour and a half away) but that still doesn’t make reliving this section of the story all over again any easier. The emotion Draco experiences is still very
real, and is still very much a reminder of everything that I, personally, was going through at that time in my life. His thoughts of betrayal and accusations of neglect were very much my own, so I know how hard it was for him to overcome that situation and then grow from it. But thankfully, we overcame our adversities, and I feel as though we have both come out stronger for it in the end.  ??


 

“Best ‘Love Bites’” [Best Romance]

 

Nominees:
Love in Three Acts [M] by @toomanycurls
Problems by @800 words of heaven
Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot by Dark Whisper
Lightning Love [M] by @toomanycurls

Runner-Up:
TIE!
Love in Three Acts [M] by @toomanycurls AND Problems by @800 words of heaven

Winner:
Lightning Love [M] by @toomanycurls


Question for Winner: What was it like working with such a large character cast in Lightning Love? How do you keep track of all the characters?

Answer: Writing a large cast is something I generally enjoy doing. I like giving a voice to a lot of people instead of just a few. I've been working up to large casts for a while (it started with scenes that had a lot of people or parts of entire stories that had a lot of people, and now an entire story with a lot of people). In each scene, I usually know what I want to happen and who needs to be there. I also have any key development that needs to happen mapped out so I'll always include people who need to go through some experience. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I haven't revisited someone's story arc in a few chapters and I make room for them in the narrative. I almost never include a character incidentally. For instance, in True Romance, the entire reason I showcase Albus' relationship with Molly/Arthur is so that Arthur's death will have a bigger impact on the characters (and readers :P ). I had fun mapping out the character arc for each main/secondary/tertiary character in Lightning Love. All of the main/secondary characters have rather intertwined story arcs so it's easy to keep them at pace with each other. I know that if I want to advance Joao's story arc, I need to move him along with Hugo. I'm not sure if I've answered the question or just talked a lot without saying much. :/ Oh! One thing that gets a little stressful is making sure the large cast of people don't sound unrealistic or repetitive. I try to make sure that everyone speaks in a scene without making them speak in the same order like they're taking deliberate turns.

In terms of keeping track... they're all very different people to me so it's easy to keep their voice distinct. Joao and Puja are both very playful but Puja is so much more reserved than Joao so her playfulness comes out in different ways. I have an outline for the rest of Lightning Love that reminds me what I need to include hints for and make happen at certain times. There are a few really big shocks coming up (one I forgot about until I revisited my story outline a few months ago). In particular
scenes
it's sometimes a scramble to make sure I haven't silenced someone or written that they're around but never describe what they're doing or give them a line in the dialogue. There are times I only catch a drifting character when I reread a scene. :D


 

“Most Deadly Fangs” [Best Dark/Horror]

 

Nominees:
Intemptesta Nox [M] by @Alexis Black
Dolor Lake [M] by @Rumpelstiltskin
kisses-blood-valentine [M] by @toomanycurls
Misconstrued [M] by @Diogenissa

Runner-Up:
Intemptesta Nox[M] by @Alexis Black

Winner:
Dolor Lake[M] by @Rumpelstiltskin

Question for Winner: What inspired Dolor Lake?

Answer: Dolor Lake is a cathartic piece. Experiencing the ups of mania and the downs of depression can be a crazy experience but what I really wanted to touch on were the lowest points of depressive episodes. I wanted to peel back the layers and explore what my feelings were and where they were coming from -- and what better way to do that than through analogy? When we can reveal our monsters for what they truly are, we can face them head-on and we'll know exacltly what they're capable of. 


 

“Best ‘Didn’t See That One Coming’” [Best Plot Twist]

 

Nominees:
Not My Own by M C Crocker/ @scooterbug8515
That’s All [M] by @beyond the rain
People Watching by @BlackPixie

Winner:

TIE!

Not by Own by M C Crocker/ @scooterbug8515 AND That’s All [M] by @beyond the rain

 

Question for scooterbug8515: What inspired you to write a body-swapping piece and what was the most difficult about writing it?

Answer: The original inspiration for Not My Own was an ages-old challenge back in my early days of writing fan fiction.  The challenge was not a judged thing thing more of a writing prompt issued as a challenge. "What if Remus Lupin was actually James Potter?"  

My brain started to buzz with ideas of what that meant emotionally for the characters, and from there I knew I had to write it and I opted to do a body swap because honestly Polyjuice Potion is weird and complex for something so
long term and meta-morph abilities had not come to light at the time (I was writing pre-OotP then).

The first version of the story exists on the internet by a different name and lacked a lot of detail Not My Own has, also the old story never got much further than the train ride.

As for the most difficult
bit
I can't decide if it is keeping James in line because he wants to break the book canon from time to time or if it is covering events not seen in the book some are easy to slip in others not so much it is the cause of the current delay in the next chapter. A couple of months pass in the books and not much happens I don't know how I want to cover or fill that and it is a struggle.

 

Question for beyond the rain: When planning Clara’s character, was she always as you’ve established her in the fic or did she change at all between the planning stage and the writing stage?

Answer: Clara was always going to be a pacifist and her reasons behind that were always going to be selfish (Those reasons mainly centering around her not wanting to see the ones she loves get hurt, it has nothing to do with the fact that war itself is terrible.) From day one she's been a slytherin...but I could never decide on her blood status; eventually I settled on muggleborn. She's always been a medi-witch/nurse too.

I think what's changed between planning and writing is that I've discovered her weaknesses and what makes her vulnerable? Before I started writing she seemed invincible, she was some sort of omniscient being just tutting and judging the entire HP world. Now I've discovered her flaws. She doesn't like to talk about her problems, she's extremely self-conscious, and it's never been about being 'too good' for the wizarding world, but rather that she was never good enough.


 

“Best ‘Laugh Out Loud’ Moment” [Funniest Scene]

 

Nominees:
@Nix's Bring a Muggle to School Day

@BlackPixie and WindingArrow’s In a Flash

@800 words of heaven ’s Chai, Dancing, and a Friend in the Wee Hours of the Morning:

 

Runner-Up:
In a Flash (Chapter Two) by @BlackPixie and Winding Arrow

 

Winner:
Bring a Muggle to School Day by @Nix


Question for Winner: Writing humor can be tricky! What was the most difficult part of planning out/writing Bring a Muggle to School Day (a moment, particular character, etc.)?

Answer: Oh, gosh. Humor is super tricky, which might be why that's the only humor fic I've ever written! And it was so long ago that I don't remember a lot of the details of planning. I think the most difficult part was keeping it funny, which was why I decided to make it a parody because I didn't want to get wrapped up in the details. If I had written it strictly canon, I don't think the story would have ever even happened considering Fred and George are the sons of Arthur Weasley, who works for the Ministry, and they know all the rules regarding the Statute of Secrecy, and they would know their father would be punished more than a random person would because of this.

I loved writing Fred and George, and I loved creating Melina and making her the instigator in this situation, and the muggles were super fun to write. But yeah, the main part was not getting too wrapped up in my head over the details and just being in a
good humored sort of mood. I was probably laughing at myself all the way through writing it as I went along, because I genuinely thought it was funny, and it still makes me laugh today, even though I didn't know at the time if anyone else would think the same or that it would win any awards.

 

 

Fantastic job to all of the Snakes who were nominated, the runner-ups, and the winners! Well done, everyone! Next week, Ravenclaw's House Awards will be featured.

 

❤️Header by Eva❤️

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facingthenorthwind

Posted

Congrats to all the Snakes who were nominated and who won!!! Excellent job. ❤️ 

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Felpata_Lupin

Posted

This was so nice to read through! Love the idea for the Prefect blog (and now I can't wait for Chalices :P)

Also, love the Slytherin awards' titles, they are so funny! :D

Congratulations to all nominees, runner ups and winners! I've read a few of these stories and they are all so great! :wub:

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