#thanks to scumbag-vanguard for the fuel

[domirine]

jolyne i anasui ale jako doda i majdan

[windschildfanfictionwriter]

Hope you're having a great day! Quick question, which of the HP characters do you find easiest/hardest to write? Or the most interesting to explore?

Ron is the easiest but I feel like that’s a cop out since I’ve written so much from his perspective so I’m going to go with the second easiest for me to write. 

Neville Longbottom. 

For me, the kind hearted Gryffindor just sort of flows onto the page. I never have to work when I’m writing this character. As someone who also sort of floated outside of friend groups as belonging to all but not really being part of any, I really feel like I know this character. 

He has the ability to be involved with any group at Hogwarts and it doesn’t feel awkward or forced. It feels very natural and cannon for Neville to go from talking to the trio to teachers to Hagrid and Order members or random Hogwarts students. There’s never a question of ‘why is Neville in this scene’ because Neville is welcome anywhere no matter what is being talked about. 

On the other side of that, Neville is also almost always outside of the loop, so if he questions something or brings a new perspective to a situation, it doesn’t feel forced and the reader doesn’t question why Neville didn’t know that. 

He’s just... the perfect balance and easily fills the gaps when an additional person is needed for a scene or when a new viewpoint is needed to shed light on a situation or to introduce a new concept. 

In a story I’m working on called “It isn’t easy being tall” I planned for it to be a story featuring Ron with the Dorm mates (Dean, Seamus, Harry, Neville, Ron) as the main protagonists, but with how much Neville dominates the scene I feel like I need to either go back and redo a bit with more involvement for the others or just turn it into a Neville, Harry, Ron story with some Dean and Seamus. 

Seamus has been giving me a hard time in this story actually. Dean with his chill attitude is relatively easy to write and I super took advantage of the fact that he draws for plot reasons. Seamus though... meh... he’s fierce and opinionated and easily exasperated, but there are not too many scenes where I feel Seamus is needed or where he really adds a lot. He’s so blunt and straight forward that often he causes conflict that I really need to NOT happen yet, so I end up banging my head against the table. Rather than try to change his personality for plot purposes, I instead leave him out altogether. 

I will never change a character’s reactions because the plot requires something else. If the plot demands a change in character then its the plot that will change. I fucking hate that shit in books. Don’t have a character who has good common sense and a calm temperament suddenly lose his shit out of nowhere and make a super obvious mistake JUST because you need them to do it for plot reasons. That shit pissed me off in Eon. Like Eona was so level headed and the build up to her mistake was just... none existent. Like her reaction was so over the top for her personality and it was so obviously done for plot and I put down the book halfway through because of it and haven’ t picked it up again yet. It’s so cringe and I have the hardest time reading a book after that. 

I understand. Everyone makes mistakes and loses their temper, but if you have a calm and collected character then you have to break them a bit and build a foundation so that when they do lose their shit you are cheering for them or wincing on their behalf because oh man do they deserve to lose their shit here. 

-------------------

Hardest character to write?

Hermione Granger, actually. 

While I did grow up with people calling me ‘the smart one’ I was far more of a Luna Lovegood smart than a Hermione Granger smart. And like Luna, I simply don’t understand the way Hermione thinks. 

She has a personality where she expects and wants to be treated like she is strong and independent. With respect. Which I get. At the same time though she has a lot of those female flaws where she expects people (like Ron) to know what she’s thinking and to know what she wants even though she has never verbally explained those things. 

She is sort of odd where she expects people to follow a certain high standard and treats those who do not follow her line of thinking, her way of doing things, as if they are wrong. 

Yet she is very compassionate. Or at least wants to be compassionate? Her attempts often fall flat and often cause more harm than good. She is well-intentioned, but those intentions don’t often fall in line with what other people consider to be good (outside of the teachers). 

She is naturally very intelligent, but she also puts in so much effort, her whole heart, into learning. Her passion and meticulous nature is great and I can get behind that. 

But. 

Trying to combine all of these characteristics in a perfect balance that makes up who she is? 

That’s hard. 

I often find myself looking over scenes and going... is this too harsh? Is she being ‘too nice’ here? Is she a little too socially aware here? Should she be more passionate there? 

----------------------------

Interesting characters to explore... 

Trelawney is pretty fun. People treat her like a joke and I rarely see her treated seriously and I feel like she deserves better. Its fun to get into her dramatic headscape where she sort of takes herself a little too seriously. But ultimately, she knows what she’s talking about. 

I also had a great time exploring Dumbledore’s personality when I was writing Vanguard. Such a superb mix between excited five year old and a 150 year old man who is just exasperated by everyone. 

Jugson, the Death Eater... there’s not a lot of information on this guy so I took liberaties with his character when I was writing Spitfire. I have a HUGE file dedicated to his perspective for the Death Eater Trials coming up. He is a scumbag, for sure, but I really dived into making it so he didn’t see himself that way at all. He cares a lot more about magical creatures than he does humans, basically sees humans as nothing special and therefore their lives not having any value. He joined the Death Eaters not out of any sort of malicious intent, but because he saw it as a better option than the job he was working at. He literally has zero human compassion at all and his love of magical creatures is fueled by curiousity and fascination rather than any love for them. 

He happily gives his memories up for the Trial because he believes that he didn’t do anything wrong. It was great writing this guy because of this mindset I built for him. Almost chirpy as he walks through all the dead bodies. 

Some of my ocs too (I despise creating ocs when there is such a plethora of unexplored characters, but for Spitfire I really needed a lot of straners involved for the story to flow right). I really have loved creating the werewolf group and it takes a lot of self control not to involve them more than I already have. 

----------------------

Anyways, I adore asks and this was a lot of fun! Thank you!