[AlexG2490]

So, I thought it was time I made one of these. I hadn't done it when all I had was one crossover story that only a select few people would read, but now that I have a couple one-shots under my belt I thought I'd put this out there. Not that I expect to get any replies, of course. But if you do, in fact, have a question, here's the place.

I write a lot of different types of stories, but I love to make them funny. That's my passion - taking everyday events and writing about them in such a way that they make you smile, even if it's just the wording surrounding the dialogue.

I also try to do something that nobody else has done before. People write stories about the Final Battle or about Ron and Hermione getting married and having kids. I like to look for a unique angle and write that. So in my stories, characters go to speed dating places and run into their exes there (Like Cho Chang, for example) and traitors are judged by their former friends in the afterlife (which looks remarkably like a sitting room with wood paneling and a roaring fire). Right now I am planning a story involving a Muggle trying to take some kind of action against the Wizarding world.

That's enough summary for now. I'm open to questions!

Sincerely,
AlexG2490

[PreTeenWriter]

What real life author inspires you most? What HPFF author inspires you most, if any do at all?

[AlexG2490]

In real life, that's easy. Douglas Noel Adams, author of The Meaning of Liff, Last Chance to See, and of course the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Douglas taught me something about funny books. They're not like sitcoms or plays. In those, the humor must come from something the characters say or something they do. But in the written word, there's room for humor outside these two places. Descriptive text between the dialogue and action scenes is, in many books (especially the classics) devoid of life. The characters and the events are all that matters in these stories. In contrast, one of the reasons I believe that the Hitchhiker's series has never made a truly successful movie is because all that lovely descriptive text is missing. For example, take this line:

For a few seconds Ford seemed to ignore him, and stared fixedly into the sky like a rabbit trying to get run over by a car. Then suddenly he squatted down beside Arthur.

Now, who would think of that? If I, or most people, were writing a story, it might read, "Ford stared intently at the sky, as if he were searching for something." Which is fine, but it just lacks that certain something. Or, take this bit:

It hadn't properly registered with Arthur that the council wanted to knock down his house and build an bypass instead.

At eight o'clock on Thursday morning Arthur didn't feel very good. He woke up blearily, got up, wandered blearily round his room, opened a window, saw a bulldozer, found his slippers, and stomped off to the bathroom to wash.

Toothpaste on the brush - so. Scrub.

Shaving mirror - pointing at the ceiling. He adjusted it. For a moment it reflected a second bulldozer through the bathroom window. Properly adjusted, it reflected Arthur Dent's bristles. He shaved them off, washed, dried, and stomped off to the kitchen to find something pleasant to put in his mouth.

Kettle, plug, fridge, milk, coffee. Yawn.

The word bulldozer wandered through his mind for a moment in search of something to connect with.

The bulldozer outside the kitchen window was quite a big one.

He stared at it.

"Yellow," he thought and stomped off back to his bedroom to get dressed.

In some ways, this is kind of a bad thing, in that I now feel I've locked myself into this pattern. I've been attempting more serious works as of late because I don't want to only be able to write comedy. But there's something so familiar and universal about it, that it's easy to just slip back into it. You never know how people will react to drama or a depressing piece, but there's always laughter. And that's something that most people seem to get. I feel like if I can make someone smile, I can brighten their day. There are other authors and stories who will make them really think, who will enrich their lives or fortify their spirit. There are stories you walk away from thinking, Wow! You know you just witnessed something special. Hopefully, I can accomplish some of those same things in my stories too, but it's a very thin line between inspiring and campy. So all in all, I still think I have to thank Douglas for the outlook he's given me.

HPFF author... that's harder. There are 20,000 authors, and having to pick just one for the honorary title of Most Inspiring to Me (And it IS a title... comes with a certificate of authenticity and everything) is hard. The answer to this one changes, probably monthly. But my answer today, right now, is probably circinusphoenix. The story The Emerald Phoenix (Mature) is one of the best relaunch stories I've read. It's not about a wedding, or the birth of a new baby, or the Trio's kids on the Hogwarts Express. This story has taken a surprisingly untapped market, which is this: What Happens Next? Just like the books by JKR, it details events happening to these three that have little to do with major life milestones. And like I said, I appreciate a different kind of story from that which we've seen so much.

Thanks for your questions!

[Lizzy Leigh]

Do you take real things that have happened to you and write about them? Or is it purely your imagination? Do you base any of your characters on real people?

[AlexG2490]

Oh my gosh! It's been so long since anyone popped into my thread that I have forgotten about checking on it.

I do take events from my life and use them, yes. But they usually end up somehow inflated. This isn't always the case. Once, for example, I was writing a story (not Harry Potter) about a man trying to clean up the house he had been watching before its occupants arrived at home. He decided to bake a cake in order to have something nice for them when they came in and saw the damage to the place, but he screws it up pretty badly. That story was lifted directly from one told to me about my father (who iced the cake right out of the oven and came back to find the cake in a puddle of frosting on the table). By the time I was finished with this bit of inspired lunacy, however, the character had managed to break a window, put a substantial gash in his finger with a knife, and dropped the cake on the floor. The actual event with my father just ended with my mother saying, "Oh, you cleaned the oven for me! How nice!" never knowing there was going to be cake.

I do the same with people. Most of the folks I create are amalgams of people I know - the sense of humor from one person, the mannerisms of another, the appearanceof a third, some phrases that Uncle George says all the time, and sometimes a bit of a movie or TV character thrown in for good measure.

[InsanityRulz]

Hey Lex! A few questions for you!

1) Do you write fan fictions as a mere hobby or are you an aspiring writer who wishes to make writing their main field?
2) Which is the weirdest place you've gotten a plot bunny?
3) Who's the one character whom you find very difficult to write?
4) Again, is writing a cannon character easy for you or OC?

[AlexG2490]

Hey Lex! A few questions for you!

Woah! I'm not sure how I feel about that considering the only other Lex I know is Lex Luthor from Superman. Who is not only ruthless but is, in that new series with young Superman... bald.

1) Do you write fan fictions as a mere hobby or are you an aspiring writer who wishes to make writing their main field?

Fanfiction is mostly a hobby. Would I like to make a living writing? Well, sure. I mean, how can I say no to that? "Hey Alex, would you like to sit in front of your computer all day listening to music and coming up with creative and funny stuff without ever having to leave the house or deal with financial reports or bosses or other workplace pressures?" Saying no would be like saying no to, "Hey, I have this $1000000 in unmarked bills that I was going to thrown off of this bridge, but you can have it if you'd like." But the chances of either of those two things happening are (according to my own private research company) 87 Bajillion to One, so I don't think I will be doing that. It would be really nice but I would need a few things:

1. An idea that can be carried out to be longer than the back of a cereal box
2. The patience to write something longer than the back of a cereal box
3. The ability to create characters that aren't as flat as the back of a cereal box
4. To move past my fixation with cereal box backs

2) Which is the weirdest place you've gotten a plot bunny?

On these very boards, someone linked us to the flash game Boomshine. Boomshine has little colored dots floating about. When you click, one dot expands. If it hits another, THAT dot expands, etc. The idea is to clear enough dots by starting a chain reaction. And THAT gave me a bunny. Not a very good one, or a very complete one, but basically it featured a character (probably Hermione) doing something small that led to this totally out-of-control set of circumstances and then trying to contain it.

3) Who's the one character whom you find very difficult to write?

Ron. I like Ron a big huggy bunch, but I just can't do anything with him. He comes off as whiny, or wimpy, or cowardly. He never quite manages to be a good, complete character in my hands. I have this sense that he's going to look at me sometime and say, "Please, can't I just be dead for your story? Or maybe I could sit this chapter out with a broken leg? Honesty, you're making me look like an idiot."

4) Again, is writing a cannon character easy for you or OC?

To modify a phrase from Bill Clinton... "What is your definition of 'easy'? "Writing" an OC could be easy because the idea exists in my mind that once you're writing the character, you've already created them. I get stuck making an OC but once I do find a good one... well, that's okay. So far I only have one OC, Henry Fischer. He's been in only one story and I feel like he might make another appearance someplace. And for a year now I've had an idea for an OC who gets completely mixed up in the magical world despite having no real knowledge about it.

Canon characters are easier in that you don't have to make anything up for them. It's all there and usable. But since there is so much there, it can be hard to make it consistent with what we already know. With your own character, you have to think, "What would I want the character to say or do to move the story along?" Using a canon character you have to think, "What would this character say or do that would also move the plot along, and can I make it fit with where I want the story to go?" Using a canon character closes some doors that would be open to you if you had made an OC. So it really depends on what you feel is easier. If you have no trouble moving a story along even contrained to a few paths (sometimes as few as one), then canon is easier. If you can make really believable characters, on the other hand, then maybe the OC route is for you.

Thanks for your questions!

[InsanityRulz]

Lol. Sorry for the Lex trouble. I have a sister who is Alex and I call her Lex and it just happened by habit. Your answer to the first question really cracked me up! Anyways, I know about the + and - of OC and cannon, was just wondering which YOU write. So yeah ^_^

Ron as big huggy bunch! Wow. I like you already. Anyone who's FOR Ron is directly my favourite person! Thank you so much for answering these questions. Happy New Year ^_^

[Dhar]

Hey, Alex! How do you balance controversy and humor? Do you ever border on the side of "racey" remarks? By racey I mean something that can be as small as people who "whine" about migraines (that one really gets me--I've had severe migraines since high school). --Dhar

[AlexG2490]

Dhar: I haven't forgotten about your question, but it's taking some serious thought on my part. I'll have something for you soon.

[nightmaresandmoonlight]

What got you into the HP world (not just the books, but fanfic, too)?
Is writing something you're passionate about or is it simply a hobby?
Sorry for the random questions but I'm a random person so...yeah.

[alexa_babes]

Hi there! I feel slightly like a fangirl right now thanks to the podcats.

Also I should warn you this is more of a 'meet the speaker' post than a 'meet the author'.

I just wanted to ask you a couple of things:
1. Do you prefer to create the podcasts or stories for this site?

2. Do you spend a lot of time researching things for the podcast?

3. What are your opinions on AU?

Thanks in advance!

[AlexG2490]

@nightmaresandmoonlight:

I read the first HP book when I was still in middle school. I think we read the second one as well, and then forgot about the series. Then right about the time the third or fourth movie had taken the world by storm, I started to think that perhaps this series might be fun to get into. So I bought a box set of the first 6 books and started reading. I almost quit during the 4th book because the series was looking like it was just about people being unhappy all the time, but I stuck through and by the end of book 5 I was glad I had.

I got into HP fan fiction when I decided that I would cross it over with another favorite series of mine, bringing a character into the HP world. I still haven't finished that story but I hope to one day. Hopefully before 2012 since apparently the world explodes that year.

I would like to be passionate about writing someday but so far I've been unable to do so. As it is, it's just a hobby that I never get the time to really work on.


@alexa_babes:

1. This goes back and forth. Some days I just want to write, but I don't have the time and I think, "is anyone even reading it anyway?" I am reasonably certain that the reason I don't get a lot of readers is because I don't update frequently enough and the stories fall off of peoples' radar screens, but I never get time to fix that.

Then I'll get on a kick where I can't stand writing, and I just want to read some more lovely stories for everyone else to enjoy, because at least I know that I'm doing something that a relatively wide audience is getting enjoyment from. So, it really depends on the day.

2. My research process takes several days but it's not a really time consuming process. That is to say, I have to spread it over about four days but it only takes 10 minutes on each of those days. Here's how it usually goes:

I look at iTunes and realize it's been way too long since we did a staff chat, so I make a post in the Staff Podcast section asking when people can get together. I usually make a list of a few items I want to discuss at the time (like a new movie or trailer, queue closures, and site contests). Then I hit up Google News and search for "Harry Potter," dropping links to a few interesting stories in that thread. Then when people mention the times they can show up, they usually have suggestions for a few news items as well. Repeat that every day until the recording and we suddenly have a lot to talk about!

3. AU... can be interesting. The thing about AUs is, they're kind of like series reboots (ie Star Trek and James Bond) in that they kind of invalidate everything that came before. I sometimes enjoy a good visit to an AU, but I wouldn't want to live there forever.