we are the king-makers, the singers of songs, the dreamers of dreams

[bluelovesorange]

What is it about the night hours that make my brain synapses suddenly wake up? I hate having insomnia, but I hate this waking inspiration because logically, my body knows it needs to sleep, that I need to have at least six hours of sleep or I'm functionally useless the next day. I can't be 25 forever, eventually, logic will have to face physical reality, and it's saying, "GO TO SLEEP."

But I can't, so I'm writing instead.



I have been thinking very intensely about fanfiction, writing in general, and how the two are connected. Specifically, I've been thinking about why I am so emotionally invested in Cho and Cedric in spite of majority opinion and lack of fandom support. Perhaps this will be the bare bones outline for the essay I'm going to write for the shipper's manifesto community, or more meandering, but either way, it's a start. (I like the word bones and the symbolism connected with them, I can see that now)

I think that all writers are schizophrenic in some fashion.

I think of characters as voices in my head, separate from my own, but there's still a universal skein stretching out from my subconscious to the bone of a character. When I've written a character well enough, I can tell the way they walk, the way they sit, what they're going to eat for breakfast. I've always been a details oriented person, so those little things, the mundane domestic stuff - it all matters to me. But then there will be the character voices I don't quite catch, as if they're muffled behind a curtain, or shouting down from a very great height, and it's like finding shadows in the dark. They're still characters, just more enigmatic, slivers of something that catches my attention, a suggestion of a life. To write a character is to find a balance between the exhaustive inventory of 'stuff' and that great mystery of a person's ...I suppose 'soul' is a word for it. Because the great thing about characters, and people as well, is that they evolve and change. The ones I believe in and care about, anyway.

So when I write fanfiction, I am also trying to write beyond wish-fulfillment, and trying to respect the bones of what I've been given - because I usually write fanfiction for questions I have, scenarios that I think that need to be answered in a way - I rarely write fanfiction for things I am completely satisified with, or unless I am just too unsure of my footing in the universe. But canon is a guideline, something I respect and usually follow (unless we're talking about the fantastic crackiness of Alternate Universe. Which is also fun and satisfying in a different way, and usually categorized under "Guilty Pleasure" for me) because without canon, I wouldn't have the laws I need...and can break later, if necessary.

I think of Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory as great clothes hangers that JKR brought out of the plot closet, and then quickly discarded after the cloth of Device wore out too quickly. They were too 'perfect' and therefore boring, and unnecessary for the grand scheme of Harry's life. However, if you took them out of that world view, and the tapestry of Wizarding life outside of Harry Potter, they would (well, Cho would be. Canonically, Cedric would be worm food.) still be living, breathing, and existing. But in terms of Harry's story, they are finished.

Which is why fanfiction is so necessary and so wonderful, because I can take that bent hanger, straighten it out and fill out the corners. There's all this untapped possibility, a chance for growth and change. I suppose it's similar to why the marauders and the older generation is so fascinating to fanfic readers, because they are only seen in snippets in current time, and there's so many unanswered questions. Seven books worth, if you're cheeky.

They were born, and three of them (I count Lily as a Marauder) died. In between - they lived. And so it goes for Cedric and Cho - in a way, she's a living testament to Cedric as we don't see his parents after Goblet of Fire, and she's a reminder of what was, for the school and for Harry. She's not just Cho Chang, Ravenclaw seeker, pretty girl Harry Potter had a crush on. No, for the remainder of the school term, she's going to be The Girl Whose Boyfriend Died That One Time, remember?

Grief is a hard thing to pin down and harder to go through - but if I was to ignore my initial reaction to Cho post GoF, which was that she was incredibly emotional and wobbly and manic depressive which considering the year (and the summer in between) is understandable and necessary, I just think it wasn't written very well. But that is a personal annoyance of mine regarding other characters and plot points in Rowling's work, so I'm not going to go off on a tangent now.

The trick is to make Cho compelling, more than. More than the first crush girl, empathizing with her, seeing something worth salvaging, to see the spark of personality - she has all the initial qualities of being a perfectly decent person, but somehow managed to deteriorate into a lesser fandom enemy. I suppose this is how Draco sympathizers must feel, but I think there is a marked difference from being thought of as a manipulative tart (and truth) than actually being a bratty, bigoted child of privilege.

And then there is how do you move Cho on, away from the stigma of being Harry's aborted object of affection, past rumors "of oh she's moved on too quick" of letting Cho just be.

I like to imagine her in charge of a research department somewhere, or doing something with Charms, maybe an internship with Flickwit during the war. Perhaps Roger Davies is in her future somewhere.

Comments

[traceria.livejournal.com]

You ain't a Ravenclaw for nothin'. (I really don't talk like this!) ;)

I never did read that C/C story of yours...the 50 ways one...so much to do, so little time...

[jadeites-lady.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. what can I say that you and erstwhile_jab haven't already said? (I enjoy reading both your essays :).) When I write for characters that I have become emotionally-invested in, the story becomes an extension of my own thoughts and feelings. In other words, the story is a part of me. I believe, or at least this holds true for me, that writers pour themselves into their stories in different degrees (depending on whether the story is for fun/fluff or has a deeper meaning). That is why we start to 'care' for fictional beings. For Cedric and Cho, as you've said, they are in essence blank slates that can be turned into whatever the writer deems possible. With blank slates, writers can delve more into their personalities and backgrounds than with existing three-dimensional characters. I suppose that's one of the reasons I write CC fic rather than Veronica Mars or other fandoms.