What is your fic about
I knew when I started thinking about my fic that I would have some familial tension between Harry and his father. But initially, I was setting out to write a unique Hinny fic. Their relationship was the main point of the story, or so I thought. But at some point, I naturally gravitated to the question every writer should consider before outlining their story: what is my fic (story) about? And I don't mean what's the basic premise for the summary.
We learn about things like themes in English class, but I as much as anyone don't really consciously think about the depth of what I'm writing, whether its something for work or even a comment in a reddit thread. But we all have a point we are trying to get across. A deeper meaning than just words on a page.
I decided that I wanted to write a story about a father and son in conflict. It wasn't about just that. I think I perhaps clung a bit too much to the Hinny of it all for most of the fic, and if I could write it again, I think I'd include more Harry/James stuff. But ultimately, I felt that since canon Harry was faced with the expectations of the world upon him and no real control of his future (or even a future at all), it would be interesting to see what Harry in my world would do when he had more freedom to rebel against expectations from his father.
That was the underlying theme of my story, which is about how children coming into adulthood and plotting a path of their own, and how parents often struggle with that.
But the real point of this post is to bemoan how little fanfic writers ask themselves the question what is this story really about? Because that inevitable leads to additional questions: What am I trying to say with this story? What does this mean for these characters we all know? Why does this story need to be told, or does it?
I think the last question is really important, specifically with certain ships (Dramione, I'm looking directly at you). I'm not some experienced genius writer. But if I could offer any potential fic writers some advice, it would be to ask themselves those questions at least after they figured out the basic premise. I think it would drastically improve the quality of the story.


















