New story idea
Oct. 17th, 2009 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lomonaaerenI cannot believe that I have another new story that won’t leave me alone. Another story that would have to be novel-length, no less.
Plus, it’s similar to a story I already wrote, Universal Chaos, making me more reluctant to write it. I explained this to the new idea. It did not appear to be impressed.
It doesn’t even have the courtesy to have a title yet (though I am considering ‘Sleepless’.)
Anyway. Here it is.
This would be Harry POV alone, for reasons to become obvious in a moment. After the end of the war, he finds that although people still hero-worship him and won’t leave him alone, no one appears to really need him any longer. The things they want from him are small and petty, like autographs. The lack of a driving purpose leaves Harry restless and scattered.
Harry enters the Auror program hoping to find that purpose, but washes out when it becomes obvious that a) he couldn’t do anything really important for three years, b) by then they’ll have captured most of the really dangerous Dark wizards left over from the war, and c) the Ministry values the Chosen One’s precious hide too much to let him go on field missions anyway. Desperate, he turns to studying law with Hermione. The Death Eater trials have mostly finished, but at least looking at what went wrong and right with them gives Harry the purpose he needs—don’t let innocent people be condemned; don’t let guilty ones escape—and he thinks he can endure the training.
Then two things happen at once. First, Draco, who was acquitted in his trial, approaches him. He’s trying to become a professional Quidditch player, but most of the teams won’t hire him because of his name. He wants to become so good that they’ll be forced to hire him, and he thinks that training against the only Seeker he’s ever found who can beat him is the way to do it. Plus, the political benefits of having Harry accept him sure wouldn’t hurt.
Secondly, Harry begins to visit an alternate universe every time he goes to sleep. In this universe, he was never born; his parents died without having a child. Neville is the Boy-Who-Lived, Hermione is a sharply intelligent woman with few friends who was Sorted into Ravenclaw, and Ron has become a chess grandmaster in a desperate attempt to distinguish himself from his brothers. Voldemort was defeated in that world, too, but the timeline is slightly “behind” Harry’s, and the Malfoys’ trial is still going forwards. And being horribly botched, because their lawyer refuses to defend them properly Everyone involved knows this is a joke, a mere formality that the law demands before the Malfoys can be Kissed.
Outraged, Harry steps in—he can affect things in these dreams—and announces that his name is Harry Evans, he’s a trained lawyer, and he’s going to defend the Malfoys, thank you very much. Even though he hasn’t completed his training and doesn’t have much idea what he’s doing. But the Malfoys need him, and other people might need him too, and Harry needs to be needed.
Needless to say, this turns into an H/D story—or maybe an H/D H/D story. In his dreams, Harry is becoming closest to Draco, who is the most desperate for life instead of pride and willing to snatch at the chance “Evans” represents while his parents are still being coldly dignified. And he is trying to connect Hermione to other people and show Ron that he is still a worthwhile person even if he doesn’t stand out as much as his brothers do. It’s a busy world, one that would be tempting to live in.
In the waking world, he’s getting closer to Draco as they practice Quidditch together, admiring his spirit and courage—which Dream!Draco largely lacks—and wanting him. Draco is also interested in Harry; he wants him instead of needs him. And Harry’s work as a lawyer is fascinating, and seems to offer him more of a future than the alternate universe would, since he’s gaining hatred by defending the Malfoys.
This is the part where I get nervous, because Universal Chaos also involves a Harry falling in love with a Draco in an alternate universe and knowing that he’ll have to make a choice between the two worlds. I hope the differences are great enough that I could still write this story and not have it be in the shadow of the other one.
Although this story is such a goddamned mess of complications that I don’t know if I should hope I can write it or not.
Honestly. I kept waking up last night because the story had new plot details that it wanted to plant in my head, and now here are 800 words of babbling about it. Sometimes I think my imagination should be muzzled.
Plus, it’s similar to a story I already wrote, Universal Chaos, making me more reluctant to write it. I explained this to the new idea. It did not appear to be impressed.
It doesn’t even have the courtesy to have a title yet (though I am considering ‘Sleepless’.)
Anyway. Here it is.
This would be Harry POV alone, for reasons to become obvious in a moment. After the end of the war, he finds that although people still hero-worship him and won’t leave him alone, no one appears to really need him any longer. The things they want from him are small and petty, like autographs. The lack of a driving purpose leaves Harry restless and scattered.
Harry enters the Auror program hoping to find that purpose, but washes out when it becomes obvious that a) he couldn’t do anything really important for three years, b) by then they’ll have captured most of the really dangerous Dark wizards left over from the war, and c) the Ministry values the Chosen One’s precious hide too much to let him go on field missions anyway. Desperate, he turns to studying law with Hermione. The Death Eater trials have mostly finished, but at least looking at what went wrong and right with them gives Harry the purpose he needs—don’t let innocent people be condemned; don’t let guilty ones escape—and he thinks he can endure the training.
Then two things happen at once. First, Draco, who was acquitted in his trial, approaches him. He’s trying to become a professional Quidditch player, but most of the teams won’t hire him because of his name. He wants to become so good that they’ll be forced to hire him, and he thinks that training against the only Seeker he’s ever found who can beat him is the way to do it. Plus, the political benefits of having Harry accept him sure wouldn’t hurt.
Secondly, Harry begins to visit an alternate universe every time he goes to sleep. In this universe, he was never born; his parents died without having a child. Neville is the Boy-Who-Lived, Hermione is a sharply intelligent woman with few friends who was Sorted into Ravenclaw, and Ron has become a chess grandmaster in a desperate attempt to distinguish himself from his brothers. Voldemort was defeated in that world, too, but the timeline is slightly “behind” Harry’s, and the Malfoys’ trial is still going forwards. And being horribly botched, because their lawyer refuses to defend them properly Everyone involved knows this is a joke, a mere formality that the law demands before the Malfoys can be Kissed.
Outraged, Harry steps in—he can affect things in these dreams—and announces that his name is Harry Evans, he’s a trained lawyer, and he’s going to defend the Malfoys, thank you very much. Even though he hasn’t completed his training and doesn’t have much idea what he’s doing. But the Malfoys need him, and other people might need him too, and Harry needs to be needed.
Needless to say, this turns into an H/D story—or maybe an H/D H/D story. In his dreams, Harry is becoming closest to Draco, who is the most desperate for life instead of pride and willing to snatch at the chance “Evans” represents while his parents are still being coldly dignified. And he is trying to connect Hermione to other people and show Ron that he is still a worthwhile person even if he doesn’t stand out as much as his brothers do. It’s a busy world, one that would be tempting to live in.
In the waking world, he’s getting closer to Draco as they practice Quidditch together, admiring his spirit and courage—which Dream!Draco largely lacks—and wanting him. Draco is also interested in Harry; he wants him instead of needs him. And Harry’s work as a lawyer is fascinating, and seems to offer him more of a future than the alternate universe would, since he’s gaining hatred by defending the Malfoys.
This is the part where I get nervous, because Universal Chaos also involves a Harry falling in love with a Draco in an alternate universe and knowing that he’ll have to make a choice between the two worlds. I hope the differences are great enough that I could still write this story and not have it be in the shadow of the other one.
Although this story is such a goddamned mess of complications that I don’t know if I should hope I can write it or not.
Honestly. I kept waking up last night because the story had new plot details that it wanted to plant in my head, and now here are 800 words of babbling about it. Sometimes I think my imagination should be muzzled.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 02:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 02:39 am (UTC)You know, just write and see what happens!
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:17 am (UTC)Perv idea I admit...
Date: 2009-10-18 03:27 am (UTC)The image is so hot I had to ask!
Re: Perv idea I admit...
Date: 2009-10-19 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 03:27 am (UTC)I would read this in a heart beat.
Your thought processes amaze me.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 04:41 am (UTC)That is all.
Oh, and this sounds like a fantastic story.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 07:47 am (UTC)Both lives wouldn't have to be real. A dream world where Harry works out some of this issues and therefore does better in the real world would distinguish it from UC. It would lessen the complications. Don't muzzle it! Your imagination got you this far - I say let it go even farther. It is a fertile field!
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:19 am (UTC)He might not need to resolve them, but the problem is that he's monogamous, and so being involved with two people like that would bother him immensely. That is probably the main force that would drive him to choose between the two.
And yes, probably the dream world wouldn't be as real as the waking one. Harry doesn't have any idea how to stop visiting it, though.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 03:04 pm (UTC)If you can pull this off, it would be amazing, and mostly likely, entirely worth it. Because if you could do this, you could do anything!
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:20 am (UTC)On the other hand, the way I find out if stories work or not is by writing them...
no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 08:08 pm (UTC)I think that this has the potential to be different from Universal Chaos in a couple of clear ways. The foremost reason it's different: Harry lacks the possibility of remaining in his alternate universe as a permanent thing. In the end, while an alternate universe, it's one he only travels to in his dreams, leaving a much clearer boundary of where-Harry-belongs. Additionally, the alternate Draco seems very clingy and needy and far more cowardly than real Draco, as your story outline already points out. Harry needs to be needed--but ultimately, he's also going to need to be wanted, and alternate Draco won't necessarily need or want him once the trial's over. Real Draco will. And, the real world offers a lot more possibilty for growth and a job and a future, involving the friends he loves and a new successful, determined Quidditch player boyfriend.
I dunno about this story...if you're already going to mental battle with it, it sounds like it would be less fun for you to write, and therefore less fun for the readers to read. I'm still hoping you won't forget about Ragnorak, or Bastardy/Opportunity, or all your other myriad story ideas I drool over but know won't probably get written.
Then again: Perhaps this is a story that needs to be written, whether it wants to be written or not. But, that begs the question: are you an author who needs to write stories--or wants to write stories?
Can't wait for the next update.
-Jolene
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:23 am (UTC)The ones you mentioned are two that are fairly likely to get written.
I think I'm an author who needs to write, because when I don't write I get first restless and then depressed. The depression got steadily worse at one point in the past where I didn't write anything for six months. So I think I need to write for my own mental health. I don't necessarily need to post everything, though.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:16 am (UTC)Forget the muzzle, that would be far too cruel to your poor imagination... it needs to run free!!! Although you'd probably get a lot more sleep.. ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:25 am (UTC)Let's hope I get some sleep tonight! I do need it...
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 01:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-20 03:10 am (UTC)In terms of the plot I think it is sufficiently separate from Universal Chaos because it's about Harry's experiences in both worlds concurrently. I also think that there is a lot more you can do with the alternate universes theme and this story may allow you to take it that much deeper, it may allow you to build on the foundations you set in Universal Chaos.
Universal Chaos has always been one of my favorite stories of yours because of the concept of alternate universes and I always find myself thinking back to it at odd moments. I was always a little saddened for the Draco from Harry's world because if he were to find out he would feel so conflicted and replaceable. So on that selfish note, I would like to suggest that it would be a great idea to write this story. =)
[Also, I really like the 'Sleepless', another I would suggest is 'Waken' =)]
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 01:05 am (UTC)Glad that the similarity in universes is a plus point for you rather than a negative. Universal Chaos turned out colder and harder than I meant it to be at first (the original plot involved the alternate universe Draco coming back to Harry's universe).
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-25 04:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 11:34 am (UTC)