thewritingheirsofslytherin

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

Forest in Albania

This fanwork was created by @yubingwang for our 2024 Gothic Fantasy Fest. 

Her chosen fest prompt was the song Slow by Amanati & Roniit. When asked to explain her creative process throughout her participation of the fest, she had this to say:

“When I was composing the art, I noticed the lyrics of the song, Slow by Amanati & Roniit, had lots of connections with spirits and souls, such as “I feel us fully fading”,“pour your spirit down my throat”,“as you breathe into my bones” and so on. This somehow reminds me of Tom Riddle making Horcruxes, concealing his fractured soul. In the painting I depicted Tom Riddle in a forest in Albania. I think the forest can be a great element to convey the gothic theme. To enhance the horror, I chose a dark green tone to emphasize the gloomy and mesmerizing ambience of Slytherin.”

-Yubing Wang

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

Your Patience Has Been Rewarded…

We know you've been patiently waiting for us to reveal the authors and artists behind all of our amazing submissions for Gothic Fantasy Fest!

Wait, no more! 🦇

See who was behind your favorite gothic tales here…

The Official 2024 Gothic Fantasy Fest Collection

🪄Please note: The fest collection will remain open for the next couple of weeks as we have three more submissions that we're waiting on. Outside of those submissions, though, any fanworks that are added to our Gothic Fantasy Fest collection after today will be rejected and removed. Thank you!

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

Slytherin trio 🐍💚

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

Hi, I'm really excited about the Gothic Fantasy Fest. I have a question. For the main pairing, do both parties have to be Slytherins? I'm asking because I saw the fest announcement post being tagged with Drarry, Dramione, Panville and so on, and I was a little confused. Thank you very much for running this fest. I look forward to it!

Hiiii! First off, thank you for everything you do in the community! Your consistent, hard work and support for everything HP is extremely inspiring to me. So, thank you! 🙏🏾

With that out the way, here’s the answer to your question, hehe:

There only needs to be one Slytherin in the pairing this time. I know with our last fest (Silver Trio Fest), we were much more strict and only allowed ships where both or more characters were Slytherin.

But not this time!

For Gothic Fantasy Fest, any ship or pairing with a Slytherin in it, is allowed.

- Admin Lu🦇

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

Introducing a Harry Potter fest to haunt you…

...as not all that goes bump in the night is meant to be feared…

Gothic Fantasy Fest is a Harry Potter fanworks fest dedicated to and centered around our love for the gothic horror genre!

This fest is hosted by The Writing Heirs of Slytherin Discord Server.

Fest Information

The inspiration to host this fest came out of our desire to see more fanworks in the fandom where the darkness within us all is celebrated, embraced, and reveled in.

The premise for this fest is simple: Create any fanwork (fic or fanart) you like, ensuring that your main protagonist of your work is a Slytherin!

But, and this is where the challenge comes in... your fanwork must incorporate one of the gothic horror prompts that we have provided and must be in the gothic horror genre!

We hope, through participating in this fest, that you’ll allow yourself to indulge in what haunts you most!

Fest Schedule

Sign-ups & Claiming Open: Aug. 5th at 12:00pm PDT

Sign-ups & Claiming Close: Aug. 13th at 11:59pm PDT

Fanworks Due: Oct. 17th at 11:59pm PDT

Fanworks Revealed: Oct. 29th at 12:00pm PDT

Authors & Artists Revealed: Oct. 31st at 12:00pm PDT

For the remainder of our fest rules, read on!

Fest Rules

All levels of writers and artists are welcome! Even if this is your first fest!

All pairings and ship types (platonic, couples, and polyships) are allowed in this fest. You may also choose to focus your fanwork on only one character.

Ensure that your main character of your fanwork is a Slytherin (no exceptions)!

Any Slytherin from any of the Wizarding World eras is welcome. You may also choose to headcanon a non-Slytherin character as a Slytherin.

Your fanwork must incorporate one of the 99 gothic horror prompts that we provide. There are 12 additional Author/Artist’s choice prompts, however, those are first come, first serve. So, they will go quick!

Ensure that your fanwork qualifies as gothic horror. Read our full rules at the link listed below for further clarification on this.

The darker your fic the better, as this fest is the perfect opportunity to create some dark, morally gray, and/or dead-dove works!

Authors: there is no maximum word count for your work. But there is a minimum word count of 1,000 words.

Artists: As long as you follow the guidelines above, you may submit any form of fanart you like, including moodboards! However, AI-generated work and commissioned work from other artists may NOT be submitted!

This fest is an Author/Artist Revealed event. Your fanwork will be revealed on the dates listed above. When the fest is over, we will highlight your fanwork across our social media from Oct. 31st - Nov. 9th.

You do not have to be a member of The Writing Heirs of Slytherin Discord to participate in this fest. However, we do recommend joining so that you can be in contact with other Gothic Fantasy Fest participants! It’s also the quickest way to get a hold of the admin team!

Note: Our server has a 30+ age requirement to join, but this fest is open to fic writers and artists of all ages!

For a complete list of our fest rules and submission guidelines, please click here!

Disclaimer:

Due to the darker subject material of the prompts, please be mindful that the process of creating a submission for this fest may be triggering. So, take care of yourself, honor your limits, and enter at your own risk.

Important Links

Prompts & AO3 Collection

Discord Server

Official Fest Spotify Playlist

Official Fest Mood Board

Fest Tumblr (Follow for all important GFF updates)

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

and those too weak to seek it. 

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

Ruth Awad, from “Let me be a lamb in a world that wants my lion”

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

I forgot how lonely it is to write original fiction.

Where are the kudos? The subscriptions? The comments? The people cheerleading me chapter to chapter? Where are the kind words and compliments and reassurances that what I'm writing isn't complete crap? Where are the unhinged emojis? The asks on Tumblr? Where are my mutuals in my dms apologizing for not reading the latest chapter right away (side note, you know you don't have to apologize at all, right??). Where is the fanart? Where are the recs?

Where is my motivation to keep going?

It's something I've been thinking about a lot, actually, lately. How the experience of writing fanfic is so unique. How you already have an audience, willing and waiting and captive. And that's really it, isn't it? You have an audience. It's almost performative, writing fanfic. It's being on a stage, a one-person show (or two, if you do it with a friend); it's getting live reactions to your performance, it's feeding off the energy of the crowd and informing it back in a feedback loop; it's improvised, sometimes, in almost-real-time. It's building something that you couldn't have built by yourself. A thing that takes on a life of its own.

It's an experience you can't get writing original fiction, and, honestly, not having it is making it hard to write something original at all.

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

While her brothers receive the new, glossy books of Gilderoy Lockhart, Ginny herself is thrown old, discarded books that symbolically embed a very dangerous diary. It is in this diary that Ginny pours her rage, her disembodied voice, that disrupts the school and conjures the immortal boy Tom Riddle, the boy who is really the dark lord himself.

Ginny’s writing communicates things the aboveground world silences. When we discover that Ginny’s writing has transgressed the boundaries of the diary, appearing in blood on the very walls of the school, we realize that the target of a victim’s rage grows. The diary is, like the chamber, a very old vehicle for unleashing repressed feelings, also for Tom Riddle, the abandoned boy haunting Hogwarts. 

Together, the parseltongue of Ginny and Tom runs riot in the school.

             -    Holly Blackford, The Myth of Persephone in Girls’ Fantasy Literature

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy (ft. Snape and Zabini Sr.) at Studio 54 in the 70s

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

With passion.

I think I need more Harry in turtleneck >:3

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

Alejandra Pizarnik, tr. by Yvette Siegert, from The Most Foreign Country; “…From my diary”

[Text ID: “and the shadows lingering / in the fragments of star.”]

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

there is something deeply broken in me, yes but that does not mean i need to be fixed

- regulus black

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

Guide: Inspiration, Motivation, and Passion

Anonymous asked: I have time to write and TONS of ideas in my notes. I want them to eventually be final drafts... but in this moment I just don't care about them. Does that make sense? I wish I did, but I'm disconnected. Is normal? Do all writers/authors struggle to connect with and feel passion for their stories/characters, but they write anyway and it comes eventually? Or do they not write unless those feelings are in place already? Forget making readers care about my protagonist. How do I care about them? Could my chance to write already be over? Also Audhd btw :) Thank you for all your advice ❤️

(Ask edited for length)

Inspiration, motivation, and passion are all things that can wax and wane for writers, but they do have to be there in some combination at some point if you want to write. If you consistently lack any of them, there's definitely something going on that's worth addressing. So, let's look at each component individually to get a better idea of what they are and how they ultimately work together to help you write.

Inspiration is the collection of sparks that ignite story. In other words: ideas. All those ideas you have in your notes--you wrote them down because they excited you when they popped into your head. Something about those ideas intrigued you enough to write them down and want to explore them later. And the thing that makes you want to explore them later is almost always a question... some sort of "what if" that you need to answer for yourself.

Motivation is the "why" that makes you want to take those ideas and turn them into stories. It's the answers to the following questions: why I write, why I want to answer this question for myself, why I want to tell this story, why I want to explore these themes, why I think this character's story is worth telling, why I want to say the thing I'm trying to say with this story.

Passion is the fire that drives us through the process of turning the ideas into a finished story. It's love for the characters, world, and plot. It's love for all the things motivating you to tell this story. It's love for words and imagery and process. It's love for the act of writing and for being a writer.

Again, all of the above need to be present in some form and combination at some point in order for you to actually complete a story, but these things can all wax and wane during not just one story's writing process, but during different periods in your life. They can also exist on a spectrum that's different for each writer, each project, or different periods of time. BUT... if you never have any inspiration, motivation, or passion for writing... or if you have inspiration initially, but lose interest and have no motivation or passion, writing is going to be really difficult.

Lack of Inspiration - Inspiration is the lifeblood of writing. If you don't have ideas, you can't write. Ideas come from experiencing the world around us. As we live life, observe our fellow humans, learn about history and the universe, and speculate about the unknown, ideas start to occur to us. Whereas a non-writer might think, "That documentary about the future of space travel was neat," a writer might think, "I'm intrigued by the idea of generation ships. I wonder what would happen if a generation ship landed on the wrong planet?" That question is what gets you to the next level... the "why" that motivates you to take this further than a mere moment of curiosity. So, if you're lacking that, there's a very good chance it's because you're not absorbing enough from the world around you. Perhaps your experiences aren't varied enough, you're not observing your fellow humans, and aren't learning about history or the universe, or speculating about the unknown. In which case, my post: Guide: Filling Your Creative Well can help you get into that mode.

Lack of Motivation - Motivation in particular can come and go as you work on a story, but it has to be there at the beginning or you never get started. The answer to "why I want to write" is especially important, because one thing that happens sometimes is people try to get into writing for the wrong reasons. They don't get into it because they have ideas for stories they want to tell, and themes they want to explore, and things they want to say. They get into it because it sounds like fun, because "everyone's doing it," or because it's unique, noteworthy, and--they think--a path to notoriety and/or wealth. But without the need to tell stories, those things aren't enough to make those ideas come or transform them into something more than an idea. But something else that can ruin motivation, and often does for those who do want to tell stories: physical and mental well being. If you don't feel good physically or mentally... if you're busy, tired, distracted, depressed, low on energy, in a bad mood, dealing with chronic pain, under the weather, etc., those things can definitely zap your motivation, even if you really want to tell stories. See these posts for help on that: Writing with Chronic Illness, Writing and Depression.

Lack of Passion - Our fiery love for the characters, setting, story, themes, tropes, questions, etc... that's the thing that most commonly wanes (and sometimes disappears) for writers during the writing process. If it's not there at the beginning, though... if you never feel a fiery love for your characters and their stories... you haven't hit upon the right ideas yet, and you need to keep looking until you find something that really sings to you. But if that passion is there at the beginning and disappears, there can be a number of reasons for that. Physical and mental well being, definitely. Exhaustion, boredom, and any of the things we refer to as "writer's block." These posts can help with finding the problem and reigniting the passion: 5 Reasons You Lost Interest in Your WIP, Plus Fixes, Guide: How to Rekindle Your Motivation to Write, Getting Excited About Your Story Again, Getting Unstuck: Motivation Beyond Mood Boards & Playlists

I hope something here will work for you and help you move forward. But just remember: It’s Never Too Late to Become a Writer. If you're just not feeling it right now, that doesn't mean you won't in a month, in a year, in five years. There are famous, well-celebrated authors who didn't start writing until they were beyond their 50s or 60s. So, don't stress about it if it seems like writing just isn't for you right now. Maybe you'll come back around to it eventually, or maybe you'll decide that you're more of a story consumer than a story creator, which is okay, too. ♥

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

Your First Draft Is Not A Draft

When writing a book, your first draft shouldn’t be treated as a draft, especially not when you’ve completed it. So what do you consider it?

A reference

The purpose of the first draft isn’t to be good, its purpose is to simply exist. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but what it means is that you’re wasting your time if you have to spend hours worrying over the perfect wording or the best imagery or anything else you’d find in a ‘writing tips’ video. Consider the first draft like in-depth plotting; you put your plot into actual words

So what do you do with your ‘first draft’ if it’s supposed to be a reference?

Rewrite it

Not from scratch! This is why you have the reference; you can see exactly where you’re going as opposed to asking yourself what happens next or how you can connect point A to point B. You know what happens, how it happens and why it happens, now you just word it better. This is where you add prose, vivid imagery, all the fun stuff that makes a book good

And by actively rewriting the whole thing, you’re actively engaging with the writing, not just skimming it, and it’s easier to make yourself reword large chunks of it rather than just saying “Meh, good enough” and moving on. You’ll more easily see redundancy, you’ll be able to adjust your word count more easily, etc etc

First drafts are references, second drafts are where the magic starts to happen!

[thewritingheirsofslytherin]

Only I can live forever.