#ghostofbambi

@hprecfest Day 2: A Comfort Fic

Shelf Awareness by @ghostofbambifanfiction

Ship: James/Lily Rating: Mature Relevant Tags: Modern-Day AU, Muggle AU Warnings: N/A Word Count: 28,416

It's too far out of her way and she's wasting so much money, but Lily can't help but return to the bookstore every weekend, where her passion for good literature has, perhaps, been unexpectedly reignited by the messy-haired, pun-making, rather handsome bloke who works there.

oh my god sorry i literally never check my asks so i think this from a zillion year ago but i thought it was too funny and also important to answer

melonhood was the chat name me and a crew of friends were using to talk about TLAT back in the day (2011?) we used it as a tag to post things for each other and stay in contact.

thank you friends HAAAA! i thought long and hard about cheating and answering with four separate fics but i will hold to integrity honour etc... @mcgngll @crimson-snitch @sunshine-lover

i did a very serious scroll through my bookmarks and had a small meltdown about how do i choose one and here i think is my final answer

...theogony by internet wife @clare-with-no-i, because historical setting brilliant characterisation yearning tee em james "my wife" potter? there is nothing else i need. the caveat is that clare will beam me her thoughts so i receive the updates as theyre made. don't worry we have the technology.

Pretty sure this is the one!

ty sarah! 🥰

1. What is your favourite thing about writing?

i’m not really sure how to describe it, except that it’s a feeling similar to yearning or exploring or listening to a really good piece of music...and that makes no sense lol. i think it’s just creating something artful. creating worlds, imagining emotions. 

love in particular is such a wonderful emotion to write, because there’s a million different ways to get there but it’s still the same thing, and despite its intangibility there’s still a...common perception of what it is, so when you’re writing based on that assumption there’s room for so much nuance in how it's expressed. i love (ha) writing a moment where a character does something totally innocuous, but it’s obvious to the reader that that action is an expression of love. 

2. Do you have a favourite character, if so, who and why?

my favorite character of all time is my boy James and I've written about him a few times (this little essay was the only one i could find because tumblr likes to be impossible to search). there’s something about writing a character who is inherently good, and whose goodness informs his every action and makes him lovable or ‘hot’ or fun to write falling in love with someone else, because his character stands on its own. 

7. What themes and tropes do you like that are in your writing?

Without even meaning to i think i incorporate a lot about anxiety! Even in fun, silly fics, i always need there to be a reason for the relationship, for the love, and for why there’s some struggle for it to develop (aka plot), and it’s natural to be fearful of life-changing circumstances. I’m also very proud that in every fic that shows L or J with anxiety, the other supports them through it once they know of its existence. As an anxiety sufferer myself, there’s nothing shameful about it and tbh it’s a pretty common human experience, so it’s almost impossible to write real characters without running into it!

also, James Potter as kind-of-wannabe Indiana Jones. that was pretty neat of me, if i do say so myself. 

16. Have you ever had OCs create themselves as you write your WIP?