gigglesandfreckles-hp

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

finished most recent omtnwf chapter and YOURE SO EVIL OH MY GOD I love ur writing so so so so much!!

(is this a bad time to point out that cat is currently being looked after by......vernon dursley?)

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oh yeah it for sure seems like something james (your james is james sO) wouldn't get into because he's primarly centered around lily and petunia is her sister so i don't think he'd hold a grudge that way and the only situations i imagine him getting mad at petunia is probably if she's being nasty to lily- but still in a version where they resemble more of a family than canon jily got to i think they would have a healthy snappy love hate relationship!

exactly! he just wants her to be happy. and he knows her enough to know that making up with her sister would lead to her being happier, because that's the thing with lily. as much as she is frustrated by her sister, she'll always love her and be willing to turn on a dime if petunia ever expressed an interest.

i was just talking to someone else about this, but i have this unwritten scene that exists in my head from some night while they're all in hiding at privet drive where james comes downstairs for a glass of water and finds petunia having a bit of insomnia (she's worried about dudley's safety) and they have a chat. james tries to play it casual but petunia is SO on edge and he finally sets his glass of water down and is like "alright, other evans, what do i have to do to make you not hate me" and she's like "it's dursley and i don't hate you." and they don't really make any tangible process there but petunia does try harder with him after that. (and she secretly finds him really really funny because i imagine lily and petunia have similar sense of humour. and she also can't really hate anyone who loves on her son, which james does almost immediately.)

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honestly v gratifying to see james snap at petunia even if in less than ideal unrelated circumstances with all she's put him through in this fic 😅

soooo are you gonna beat me up if i tell you i actually cut a whole argument between james and petunia while they were in hiding at the dursleys'? i wanted james to get snappy with her, but it ultimately didn't feel right. (my) james is pretty perceptive to the emotions of others and knew lily was struggling with petunia and vernon...so he didn't wanna pile on but hashing out his own beef with petunia. plus, from where james is standing, he still got the girl :)

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

it's the chicken egg situation both ways im sure a bit but the secret third (main) thing is you're literally SO good at characterizing jily it's a lowkey lifeline

thank you anon 🥹🥰 you lot are just SLATHERING on the kindness today and i am UNWORTHY

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

everything omtnwf JAMES* is objectively hot omg that must've been so confusing your fic is a lot of wonderful things besides,,,hot¿¿ 😭😭

hahahah i FIGURED only because while this fic has a few Moments, it is truly not that spicy of a fic in general (most of the things i wrote aren't). like if you think this fic is sexy, you're in for a woooorld of wonder elsewhere within the fandom 😆

but thank you, i worked hard to make my written-by-a-woman james potter just a notch above realistic because i'm self-indulgent!!!! i'm happy to know someone else is benefitting from it!

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

so you're telling me James went to help Remus and Sirius so that he could keep anyone from coming to lily's room. but now voldemort is here. where is James!!!!!!!! Sirius!!Remus!! please tell me they are alive.

there is a CHANCE that there is action in multiple places of the hospital at once...

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

I honestly opened a Tumblr just so I could read your ramblings (your blog is protected so if I'm not signed in it'll just stop showing posts at one point). Love your ramblings and everything u write !

this means so much to me! and also weirdly i'm glad to know my blog is protected? i guess? hahah i live in fear of my students and/or daughter finding my tumblr account and realising it's me 😆 but truly...thank you!!! xx

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

MA’AM the way you cliff hang us kills me 😭 this is my first Jily fic and seeing the relationship between them is fantastic and I absolutely adore Sirius. Do you have any recommendations for more slow burn romances? either Hinny/Jily

how i feel watching you all dangle on the cliff tbh

but i'm so honoured to be your first jily fic!!!!!! i'm glad you've taken a chance and enjoyed it. i'm especially glad you love my sirius, because he is my absolute favourite. and i'll link this post where i have some fic recs!!!

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

oh my god

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OH MY GOD DID THEY FIND THE DURSELY'S HOUSE??? ARE DUDLEY AND VERMIN OKAY??? DID THEY GIVE THEIR ADDRESS WHEN SIGNING LILY INTO THE HOSPITAL??

i can address the last question only!! voldy was surveilling sirius and remus, anticipating that one of them was the new secret keeper (or at least something similar) since he knows peter has been compromised. he didn't attack or use legilimency on either one to switch things up...but he did have them heavily watched :( so when both of them ended up at the same hospital on the last day of july......

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IS SIRIUS OKAY?? LUPIN?? IS PETUNIA EVEN ALIVE?? HOW DID VOLDY FIND THEM?? AKDSGSDLFJLDKJF THIS CHAPTER this chapter was beautifully written as always !!!!!

thank you!!!!! i can confirm that all three (well four including voldy lol) of those people are very much alive at the end of chapter 35!

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

ENDING THE CHAPTER LIKE THAT??? DO YOU HATE US???? (asked in the most grateful way for such amazing writing and amazing story but also I’m freaking out bc what!!!!!)

i love y'all so so much actually!!! but i needed to be evil just this once (and also the other times i've needed to be evil...)

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

we care about all the ramblings in your head and really enjoy you sharing them!!! I'm really excited and nervous for the last 2 chapters

thank you anon!!!! i'm enjoying sharing them! (and sorry i lied and made it three chapters instead of two!) xx

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

I was thinking about how you say you have been getting a lot of feedback and support throughout the writing of OMTNWF and I really feel like the key to a active, thriving community is consistency. Obviously your writing draws us in, it's incredible, but I think what helps build your community is trust! It is us being able to trust that you won't disappear suddenly and leave the story on hiatus for months at a time. You say when the next chapter will be and have really stuck by it, and when you haven't been able to make your own timeline, you are super open about it and active on Tumblr. Obviously people have lives outside of writing: jobs, families, hobbies, etc. But I think building a robust community takes time and work and effort as well. I just wanted to say that I appreciated the community you have built. I think it is impressive and speaks to your commitment and skill.

I feel like every other week I am seeing popular fanfiction writers get upset and disappointed with the lack of interaction between them and their readers in the form of comments, implying that kudos is not enough. But I think that there is some onus on them to keep the conversation alive , am I wrong? The message we keep hearing is that the readers should be grateful that we are getting this art for free, and on one hand I fully agree, I am forever grateful for some of the amazing stories I have gotten to read, something about it rubs me the wrong way and then makes me not want to engage at all. Or like it's performative if I do. I am not sure if this is making any sense lol.

Feel free to ignore these rambles if you don't feel like it adds anything to the conversation. I was just struck by this thought, because I have really enjoyed interacting with you through your tumblr and in your story comments after every chapter.

you sent this before my week went to shit and i had to push back the most recent chapter...which is ironic, all things considered 😆 but that being said!!

i appreciate this and do think it adds to the conversation! i think it's hard for me to have an opinion one way or the other on it though, just because i do see both sides...but it's all so sticky.

i LOVE interacting with people via tumblr and my comments section but something that's worth mentioning is how awkward it can be when you're first getting started within a fandom haha! i don't remember exactly what the first ask i ever got was, but i do remember thinking "oh no, i'm going to annoy people by responding to this on my blog because no one cares what i have to say" but that's totally just the imposter syndrome because, while i'm sure there are SO many people annoyed by me and who don't care what i have to say 😆 they can unfollow me! and by responding to that ask...and all the asks since, it (i think) encourages other people to engage that way and then poof! now i have a lovely little community here!!

(also...i just like to yap and i'm not afraid to do that on here. but some people feel uncomfortable with that!)

the same thing with posting fic in general. there will always be fics that just don't hit for others. and while i'd love to say i'm soooo above it all and don't care, that would be a lie and i could probably name several of my fics off the top of my head that didn't generate as much engagement because of course the little devil on my shoulder says "it's because your writing sucked. it's because your characters were flat. it's because no one was interested in that plot." which is dumb and i know it! who cares!!!! i liked it!!!!! but my point is that the...idk, growing pains? of generating engagement within fandom can be a little painful and disheartening. like...if no one is commenting on your fic or sending you asks, how do you engage?

i know authors who keep track of kudos, comments, subscriptions, etc. and while that sounds exhausting to me, i also don't feel like i can fault them for wanting people to like their work and express that like? but idk. i will say...and maybe this makes me a bad person...i don't care about kudos at all 😆😆 so maybe i'm the problem. the only engagement i really take note of are comments/asks. i finally turned off all other email notifications from ao3!

one of the fun parts of fandom versus published lit is the "in real time" aspect of it. i've been able to use polls to help me make decisions, hear theories, answer questions, clear up confusion, etc. those are luxuries only fic writers get!! but...if no one is engaging in those ways, authors miss out on that. and it's scary/disheartening for an author to pose a question/TRY to interact in that way and get no response...

so tldr; fic authors are doing it for free and not getting compensation in any way other than hearing from others how much they like it...but also no one is obligated to interact in a certain way. i don't feel like i have any right to police anyone's fandom experience! i feel super blessed to have a chatty, encouraging community here and i do think you're right that a lot of it comes down to me trying to be as consistent as i can. but that also is/was due to the way i carve out time for writing because it means so much to me and because i'm not currently in the growing pains of developing that community. it's sort of like the chicken and the egg...i engage so much because i have such an active community. but maybe i have such an active community because i engage so much? and honestly i'm not sure which came first for me, personally! but i do know there are authors out there who have tried to develop that and not found success and i don't blame them for being disheartened.

this became sooo rambly AS I AM WONT TO DO but i hope at least some of this made sense. you won't see me complaining about interaction though because i kind of just sit in awe when i get it...like if it's not clear...YOU PEOPLE ARE THE BEST!!! 🩷💛💜🩵

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

first of all everything omtnwf is infact objectively hot you're not objective 😭 anddd if you are sharing thoughts can you also say what sirius peter james final boss thingy was about? 🙆‍♀️

catching up on some asks from earlier in this week when my mental capacity was in the negatives hehe

THANK YOU! and yes of course! it was essentially a therapy session being led by james in which sirius's comments about peter's lack of intelligence were getting out of hand and james was trying to make them share their feelings and hug it out. it didn't work the way james wanted it to but some specific things peter said did guarantee sirius's trust. the main point of this was to show why on earth sirius would ever suggest peter (because this is something i need waaay more explanation on within canon because it. makes. no. sense.) but also shows how underhandedly sneaky peter can be and how his lack of the obvious, front-facing sort of intelligence that the other marauders have is exactly what locks him in as a trusted member of their friend group

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

i’m going to wait my usual 24 hours to respond to asks about this chapter but can i just say that some of you are thinking way harder than i did hahaha and i need you all to write a fic because your BRAINS!!! absolutely brilliant!

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

made with love