On Sequels & Plot bunnies.

[lightofdaye]

Sequels are tricky everyone knows that. Mostly people think of them in terms of films I guess and 'a sequel better than the original' is a rare and highly sort of accolade. And everyone can think of goddawful film sequels that rather they couldn't' Spider-Man 3/X-Men 3/Highlander 2 etc.

Why do I bring this up? Well I kinda, sorta, talked about a sequel to my veela fic with tamlane, who being entirely to blame for that fic the first place was of course very enthusiastic about the idea.Especially when I mentioned the idea I had of making it m/f/f. Then I tried to sit down to do some writing yesterday and... got nowhere. Though this isn't new for me, lol, especially for threesome fics. I have at least a couple of threesome fics I attempted for asoiafkinkmemeon my harddrive that got like a paragraph in before grinding to a halt

. So anyway, as anyone attempted sequels to their fics? How did that go? How did you keep it both fresh and consistent with previous fics? And the other thing, how many plot bunnies do you get that never go anywhere?

edit: Some HP plot bunnies i have that yet to make it out of my head.

• James/Roxy/Al Love triangle fic.  Wherein Al is shy and James is an arsehole bad boy.


• Ron/Hermione. Their first time in Ron’s room at the Burrow. (probably 100s of versions of this though)


• Harry/Hannah.  My brain seem to like Harry needing rebound sex. After being dumped Harry mopes at the leaky cauldron constantly until the landlady offers him a nightcap.

Comments

[luna-plath.livejournal.com]

I try to stay away from sequels, because I know that I'm less likely to finish them and I hate leaving stories unresolved.

I've had four chapters of this gen Harry mystery sitting in my work-in-progress folder for 2 years. I have an outline for this story and everything, but I lost steam on it because no one reads gen. Then I got the idea to turn it into a Harry/Draco story (I know the world is shocked) but I'm working on hprarefest right now.

You could always write more Louis fic in the same universe without making it a strict sequel. I've read some great sequels in the HP verse so it can definitely be done.

[lightofdaye]

You're right of course. I do actually have one sequel on AFF, a seventh year Harry/Pansy sequel to a sixth year one and guess what, it's stalled and pretty dead when i got past Malfoy Manor.

Ha ha. Yeah, turning it to Harry/Draco is sure to get more readers. Or you could just have Draco appear in a couple of times, Exchange snark with Harry, and label it 'pre-slash'.

[luna-plath.livejournal.com]

I know that feeling. If I don't figure out what I'm doing with a story long term I run out of steam, especially with multi-chapter stories, which is why I have so few of them. I feel like I have to write the entire multi-chapter fic before sharing any of it, and that gets hard because here you are working away with no way to bounce ideas around with other people.

I had Draco as a prominent character in the story anyway, and since I've been in this gender class I've been thinking, why wouldn't it be just as normal for Harry to be attracted to men over women? And since I've never written Harry's character in that way I kind of wanted to explore it.

It does bother me when I work hard on a story and, because its gen or has an odd pairing, people don't read it. Inside I'm thinking: just give it a chance!

[lightofdaye]

Definitely know the feeling there. See Harry/Lavender and my Smutty-claus piece.

I guess beyond the canonical attraction to women. (which you can handwave away for fanfic) There's no reason Harry can't or shouldn't be gay. If its a story you want to write you should go for it. (though as I only read het, I again nudge you towards Harry/Pansy)

Hope your hprarefest fic is going well. Looking forward to it.

Added some plot bunnies to the post above. Wondering what you think of them. Or any ideas what I should write next? My stuff is getting skewed in tam's direction at the moment and I'd like to write something for you.

[luna-plath.livejournal.com]

You seem to like the idea of Harry getting dumped lol. I like the idea of James and Al competing for the same girl. I've seen Al with Scorpius in so many stories that I just think of him that way, but it'd be really interesting to see Al in a different light.

Plus I know you've been thinking over that idea for ages.

I definitely need to finish Harry/Pansy....school takes all my time away

[lightofdaye]

I think the dumped thing is just an easy plot convenience, to explain why Harry needs a new girl and is very willing to jump in to bed to facilitate porn. I should probably be thinking about the characters more deeply than that though.

Yeah been thinking of the triangle for ages but three persons fics are complicated. Which is why I've got no where with it. lo..

[luna-plath.livejournal.com]

You could always go the route of Harry being afraid of getting too close to people because he doesn't understand intimacy, and have him in a series of plateaued relationships. That would make sense to me as a reader.

Love triangles are a classic. I think you could make it work with Al and James, but it would be difficult to get the right characterization for Roxanne, since we know the least about her.

[lightofdaye]

Yeah. I can see Harry being pants at emotions and thus being no good at relationships. Of course I never did like Harry/Ginny so i also have no problem with mild weasley bashing and having ginny dump him cos she's not nice/focused on her careers/whatever.

Of course in those cases its also easy to go 'harry and ginny never got back together after the way because of stuff.' move on to unattached Harry floundering on the dating scene.