I'm beginning to think I got rather spoiled over in SG, where there were so many fine gen writers. I'd put the gen SG up against the slash SG any day.
In any fandom that has more than a tiny handful of writers you get the spread of ability and imagination - sometimes that acts to spur writers on, sometimes they sit in their comfortable little niche with 'their' fans and never move from there in terms of how/what they write.
Also, the books are all Harry POV, which I suppose can be limiting. But I would think that the flip side of that is retelling stories from other characters' POV (for example, CoS from Lockhart POV has the potential to be incredibly amusing, while PS/SS or OotP from Snape's POV could be exciting).
But if you're a teen fangirl, then what commonalities do you have with a self-seeking attention whore like Lockhart or a twisty double agent like Snape? Do you have common ground with them or are you more likely to identify with the characters closer in age to you? I tend to see much better (or perhaps more realistic and *human*, I should say) characterisation in many of the slash stories I read, without (for example) the need to whitewash Snape and make him good and nice but just misunderstood really...
As you know, I adore AUs (esp if they are dark and tragic), so you wouldn't hear me complain, but yes, I would actually think HP would generate quite a few AUs (ie, Neville as TBWL, Harry's parents live).
Again we're back to motivation, imo. I would expect that the more experienced writers don't really care as much (gross generalisation but mine own!) about whether they get adulatory feedback over what they wrote, so they're going to be more willing to tread paths untrodden. If you're a first time writer, the temptation has to be there to re-tread familiar kinds of stories because you know (consciously or sub-consciously) what response you're going to get from the fandom as a whole.
Harry is the star character, naturally. Snape and Draco vie as chief anti-hero with Draco providing much more of a blank canvas for writers to use to their own desires. Sirius and Remus are there as 'nice' older characters - not quite hero but definitely not villain. Ron is the chief comic foil, while Hermione and Ginny vie to be the romantic lead. Hard to step out of those uses of those characters, I would have thought...
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In any fandom that has more than a tiny handful of writers you get the spread of ability and imagination - sometimes that acts to spur writers on, sometimes they sit in their comfortable little niche with 'their' fans and never move from there in terms of how/what they write.
Also, the books are all Harry POV, which I suppose can be limiting. But I would think that the flip side of that is retelling stories from other characters' POV (for example, CoS from Lockhart POV has the potential to be incredibly amusing, while PS/SS or OotP from Snape's POV could be exciting).
But if you're a teen fangirl, then what commonalities do you have with a self-seeking attention whore like Lockhart or a twisty double agent like Snape? Do you have common ground with them or are you more likely to identify with the characters closer in age to you? I tend to see much better (or perhaps more realistic and *human*, I should say) characterisation in many of the slash stories I read, without (for example) the need to whitewash Snape and make him good and nice but just misunderstood really...
As you know, I adore AUs (esp if they are dark and tragic), so you wouldn't hear me complain, but yes, I would actually think HP would generate quite a few AUs (ie, Neville as TBWL, Harry's parents live).
Again we're back to motivation, imo. I would expect that the more experienced writers don't really care as much (gross generalisation but mine own!) about whether they get adulatory feedback over what they wrote, so they're going to be more willing to tread paths untrodden. If you're a first time writer, the temptation has to be there to re-tread familiar kinds of stories because you know (consciously or sub-consciously) what response you're going to get from the fandom as a whole.
Harry is the star character, naturally. Snape and Draco vie as chief anti-hero with Draco providing much more of a blank canvas for writers to use to their own desires. Sirius and Remus are there as 'nice' older characters - not quite hero but definitely not villain. Ron is the chief comic foil, while Hermione and Ginny vie to be the romantic lead. Hard to step out of those uses of those characters, I would have thought...