Harry Potter slash

[dr_porn]

Here's a question for Harry Potter slashers:

What do you think of JK R as a writer? I've noticed that quite a few of you don't think much of her as a prose stylist - does that make it easier to write fan fiction based on her stuff?

Comments

[wildfyre]

I'm really not a fan of JKR. I love her world and her characters, but her prose makes me cringe at times. And the execution of her stories, particularly in the last few books, is quite weak.

This definitely makes fanfiction more appealling, because it takes the elements of HP that I like, but the execution is often better and the characters more fleshed-out. That's not to say all fanfic is better, of course - the majority is probably worse - but the good fanfic is, in my opinion, preferable to the books.

And from a writer's point of view, I wouldn't say that it necessarily makes writing easier, but it certainly increases my desire to write. I write a lot of HP fic because I want to explore characters that are too 2-dimensional in canon. That isn't necessary in fandoms like LotR, which is why I write less LotR fic.

[hafren]

Not that I write HP, but I read half her first book and gave up because it was so two-dimensional. "In a flat book," as Sydney Smith once remarked, "we see our destination ahead of us half the road we are going." My daughter tells me the later books are better, though over-long and in need of editing, but that you need to read through 3 or 4 to get to a better prose style.

I don't know that that makes it easier or harder to write fan fiction. I have seen some great stuff (see f'rex here) based on P G Wodehouse, who is as good a stylist as they come. If someone's a good stylist, imitating them well will produce good fic. Conversely... I've read a lot of fic which imitates Tolkien's prose style very well, which is a pity because he really isn't all that good either, especially when it comes to dialogue. His forte, again, is keeping a massive plot going, but his actual written style can easily be improved on, which is why I think it's a pity that many Tolkien fic writers seem determined to stay close to it

[alexia75]

I think JKR is a great world creator, and up until HBP I thought she was a great plotter. The plot thing fell down with HBP because the plot in that book was so full of holes that it's made me think that all the way through she was merely giving the impression of having some great masterplan plot which doesn't really exist.

I think the thing about the HP fandom is that because there's this amazing world and all of these characters that aren't really developed at all in the books, there are endless possibilities to play around with. That's what makes the fandom so popular I think, rather than whether or not JKR writes well, and that's what makes it "easier," or more appealing and interesting, to write HP fanficton.

[kraken_wakes]

I actually had this conversation about a month ago with my supervisor. It can certainly be argued that the higher the quality of the text's writing (be it a tv series or novel) the more difficult it is for fanfiction writers to find a niche. However, cult texts like the X Files (which was of a consistently high standard of writing - at least for the earlier seasons) have more play spaces because they are horror/SF/fantasy texts. Anything which involves world building inevitably leaves play spaces for fan writers.

As far as slash goes, the relationship between slash and fantasy in part rests on the convention of strong male friendships as a core theme in fantasy texts. It's a very common feature and one which allows for exploitation by slash writers.

So, to actually answer your question, I don't think that the quality of a fantasy writer/world builder's writing allows for or facilitates slash/het fanfiction, I think the genre does. On the other hand, I think JK Rowling is a hack who has stolen merrily from Star Wars, Lotr and Diana

HP slash

[dr_porn]

Thanks for these comments - it makes a lot of sense that if JKR were a better stylist, this would cramp fanfic writers' style.