No, no no! I'm not ready!

[emmagrant01]

Okay, The Title: I played the hangman game and literally stared at the screen with two letters left and thought, bzuh? Then got the title and still went bzuh? I'm not sure what I think. I wasn't too happy with HBP either, until I had finished the book and it made sense.

But mostly I'm thinking, noooooooo!!! I am SO not ready for book 7 to come out. The HP fandom has been a huge part of my life for the last three years, and I don't know what will happen after book 7 comes out. Fandoms fade when canon closes, and there's not much to be done about it. What if my favorite characters die? Will people stick around to read AUs? Will AUs finally be accepted by the mainstream of this fandom? Next year at this time, will we be anxiously reading holiday exchange fics, or will people be moaning about the death of the fandom? Will there still be meta? When the good-or-evil Snape dilemma is solved, will he remain an interesting character for people? What will we talk about at cons?

*wibbles*

I still have fics to write that are set after HBP, and I know I won't write them after the last book comes out. That will change everything. I doubt JKR is going to leave a lot of stuff unfinished for fanfic writers to tackle.

I'm not ready. I want another year.

Edit: Haha, CNN just got the title WRONG. :-P

Edit 2: My god, could Amazon's mock-up cover be any more ominous?? (Spoiler)

Comments

[loony-moony.livejournal.com]

What a weirdass title.

And anyway, she might have another baby. >:)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

But would she push to have the book done first? :-P

[hominysnark.livejournal.com]

I'm ready. My biggest fear has been that either I or JKR will expire or lapse into a coma before the last book comes out.

I have the same fear about George R.R. Martin, actually.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I just hate things ending. I'm dreading getting to the "The End" of that book, oh man. :-P

[clara-posts.livejournal.com]

Well, Q/O ran out of canon after one film and people still write and talk about that. It's never the same but, hey, it's more... exclusive ;oP

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

True. And there's a small core of the Buffy fandom that's still going strong. Small being the appropriate word in both cases.

Do you think Q/O is different, though, since Q was dead before the fandom even started? There was a lot of past history of Q/O people could write, and while that's true for some of the popular HP pairings (like many of the Snape ones), it would be problematic for those of us who ship Harry/Draco.

And IME, the HP fandom has much less tolerance for AU than does the TPM fandom. :-P

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

I WANT IT NOW

What about fics set in eras where the characters are still alive? My favorite character has always been dead.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

If you're a Snape fan, you could keep writing for ears to fill in his backstory, absolutely. My biggest fear is that she's going to kill Draco, which would pretty much Joss most of my fic. :-P

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

I'm not ready to have it all come to an end this soon, either and I hope that if the book is released next year that it comes out at the very end of the year. (After the fests and cons and whatnot.) It's silly, but I worry that the energy of the HP conferences (particularly Prophecy and Sectus) will be lost if the final book is released before they take place.

And indeed, what will happen to all the good Snape speculation (among other things)?

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I know. I asked Elanor what she would do if the book was released the weekend before Sectus, and she said she was actually most worried about it being released the weekend OF Sectus. But geez, can you imagine what would happen if a bunch of characters died and then there was a con a week later? :-P

[nekkidchick.livejournal.com]

I know, I can't stand it. I'm in total denial. *head in sand*

I mean... part of me is anxious to know what happens, but you know... after HBP, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't afraid to read it. *hides* I'm SO AFRAID JKR is going to KILL HARRY... oh god. *wibbles*

And I will miss fandom SOOO much if/when it disappears... *cries*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I'm terrified that either Harry or Draco will die in book 7. I think I could handle just about anyone else -- but not either of those two! If they're both alive at the end, I could keep writing fanfic for a while.

And I dread the fade of this fandom, I really do. :-(

[dartmouthtongue.livejournal.com]

Damn, do you think that could happen? I sure hope not. I mean, I'd think it would make you wanna write/read more fanfic, the fact that you'll never read more canon.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

In other fandoms I've been involved in, that's what happened. They didn't die altogether, because the hard core fans stuck around and kept reading and writing. But a lot of people moved on to more active fandoms. A lot of the big HP questions will be answered in book 7, so for some people, the mystery and excitement will be gone.

Heh -- maybe just the really wanky ones will leave? ;-)

[rolling-scone.livejournal.com]

I think that if fandom isn't happy about the ending there will be an upsurge of fics.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Well, that was certainly what happened with Star Wars for The Phantom Menace. There probably would have been a Qui/Obi-centric fandom anyway, but when Qui died at the end, the first thing people did was start writing AUs. OTOH, those two had a canon history of spending 12 years together, so there was a lot of backstory one could think about.

And I've found the HP fandom far less tolerant of AU fic than SW was.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

Yes, we touched on this at Lumos: will HP fandom survive the last book? I share your wibbles.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I just need to wibble about it some more. Time will tell, I suppose. :-P

[phaballa.livejournal.com]

Is there a release date yet?

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. People are guessing summer. *cries*

[karitawyr.livejournal.com]

Without being spoilery...Is that second word even a noun? It should be, but it's not in my American dictionary.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a verb that is usually used as an adjective. Like in "This xxx night". Hmmm...

[vichan.livejournal.com]

The HP fandom is huge.

HUGE huge.

Like, WAY bigger than any other fandom I've encountered.

I think it might slow down, but I really doubt it's going to die out all together. Not for a long, long time.

AUs - Yes, definitely.
Futurefic - Anything is possible in fanfic. They are wizards, after all. Resurrection, anyone? XD
Snape - Is gonna be interesting no matter which way he flies. He's a clever SOB.

Positive thinking!!! BLAAAAH


_{I need to be shot. Or given some tranquilizers. Something is seriously wrong with me today.}

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It's definitely true that even if 90% of the fandom leaves, there will be a heck of a lot of folks left.

I love AUs and I primarily write futurefic, so if those two things are the way the fandom goes, I'll be happy.

[ciel-vert.livejournal.com]

I don't want fandom to go away either... but I think we'll be alright for a while. I don't foresee it going completely away before the final movies are released in any case. And I think we'll see AU's out the wazoo after the seventh book. I don't know how many fics I read now that completely disregard HBP canon, but it's a lot. So... maybe it won't be so bad? I don't know. I hope not.

And the book title has me wibbling too. I'm with you... as long as she doesn't kill Harry or Draco, I'm good to go.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

That's true -- we have the movies still. But I do think there will be a dip after book 7, in which a bunch of folks will really struggle to find something that keeps them in the fandom.

As long as Harry and Draco survive, I'm good to go foe quite a while!

[silver-osiris.livejournal.com]

ZOMG. TITLE!!!11 XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

I think fandom will actually run fairly strong even after the book comes out because we'll still have the last two movies to contend with. After the movies- it might die down a bit but I think she's created such a force to be reckoned with that it'll never fade to the point of nonexistance. At least I hope. :)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I hope that's true. Or maybe the end of the books will just weed out the fans who start all the wank. ;-)

[novembersnow.livejournal.com]

*joins in the wibbling*

(*also uses inappropriately festive Voldemort icon*)

Knowing the title makes it feel so real, all of a sudden. *sigh*

Furthermore, I guess this means I really ought to get off my ass and finally write that H/D plotbunny that bit me the day I read HBP. ;)

(Surely we should be heartened that first letters of the words in the new title are "D" and "H," hmmmmm?)

[fourth_rose]

Surely we should be heartened that first letters of the words in the new title are "D" and "H," hmmmmm?

OMG, I totally didn't notice that! I'm a bad shipper...

[winnett.livejournal.com]

I hate things ending too. It leaves me somewhat hollow. This is my second fandom, but the first where I really got this involved and excited about stories and conventions and the next book or movie. It is a big part of my life.

I couldn't get the site to work. I got the chime 'key', but I couldn't use the key. Not sure if it is too late to use it or what. Is there a trick to use the key?

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Did you figure it out, or do you still need help?

[darth-kittius.livejournal.com]

I totally agree... I still had fic from pre-HBP that I wish I could have gotten around to writing because now... well they don't translate to post-HBP universe really well. And I still want to read new fic after book 7... but will as many people be writing? I kinda doubt it.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I also have several pages of pre-HBP fics I started and never got to. And I doubt I will now. I can't see myself writing H/D fic set at Hogwarts from here on out, not that I did much of that anyway. :-P

[gmth.livejournal.com]

I think we've got until at least this time next year before it comes out... she's not even finished with it yet, and if the last one is anything to go by it's not going to come out until at least 7 or 8 months after she's finished writing it. So we should have at least one more good year. *wibbles*

At this point, I'm more nervous about being spoiled for the last book than I am worried about what's going to happen to fandom.

[r-grayjoy.livejournal.com]

I really hope you're right about that. I'll be attending Sectus this summer, and maybe Prophecy, and I'd rather not have Book 7 come out right beforehand. In part because there is always some confusion and reconfiguring (and wank, in some quarters) in the fandom when a new book in the series comes out, but mainly because I simply want to attend these events with things (more or less) as they are now.

[zentariana.livejournal.com]

Fanfic writers will find other odd things to tackle.
It can't go away. Too many of us will cry.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Ah, but things change. Of course, this fandom is so big that if half the people leave, it will still be huge. ;-)

[gilawoof.livejournal.com]

I have a great fondness for AUs.

I'm just sayin'. (DO THE AUs!!)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I like AUs too! I wish more people would write HP AUs, actually. Maybe they will after book 7. That would be nice. :-)

[doro-chan.livejournal.com]

I thought AUs were already mainstream. Half of the stories I come across start like this: "disregards HBP/OotP", so I suppose it must be mainstream. In fact, I think it's hard to find decent post-HBP-stories.

Which reminds me... I have a post-HBP-story to finish as well.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I guess I don't see that very much. I see lots of comments from people who say they only like canon-fic. Maybe the AU people are just keeping a low profile, heh.

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

I'm in the QAF fandom. The show ended last year, but the fandom is still around. Not as big as it was, but still there, and very active.

I think AU's will still be interesting, especially if we don't get the closure we want. You know everyone is going to want to re-write the ending.

*replies randomly*

[blackboggart.livejournal.com]

I've just jumped in the QAF fandom, and when I first started trawling around for fics I was absolutley depressed over all the wonderful fics I was finding--whos authors had left the fandom.

It kind of seemed as if the fandom was dead, but then I stumbled over all this underground activity, and it totally cheered me up. :D

[r-grayjoy.livejournal.com]

Stumbled across your post, and I have to say... I AM RIGHT THERE WITH YOU ON THIS.

Every time I see people squeeing over the impending release of the next and final book, I'm filled with dread rather than excitement. I don't want it to come out. Not yet, anyway. I'm not ready. Not even close.

You've just summed up all of my fear; fandom fading, JKR closing things in such a way that it seriously limits what can be written that won't be AU, the death of my favorite characters, the death of my favorite pairings. I came into this fandom a little later than many (around the time OotP was released), and I feel like I'm being cheated or deprived of so much time.

There's only one thing for it. After this new book comes out, someone needs to write an alternate Book 7, rewriting events to the way they should have happened, and leaving things open-ended enough to allow for continued creativity in the fandom. ::grin::

Anyway, thank you. It's good to know I'm not the only one feeling this way.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I don't know what to expect, but I'd like to think the community we've built is strong enough to survive the end of the series.

[blackboggart.livejournal.com]

So, one side of me kind of wants another 3.5 years before the book comes out. Just because I'm absolutely petrified over what's going to happen to Snape. And I totally want to wallow in fandom. :D

And then the other side of me just wants it over right now, so I can start reading wonderful shiny new AU fic, or soemthing. (To be honest, my feeling is JKR is going to end book 7 in a very unsatisfying way.)

With the fandom--I think it'll get smaller, but not too much smaller. I hope. I'm just going to skip along and cross my fingers.

And with the title? the less said about that, the better. Ugh.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I'm sure large segments of fandom will be unhappy with book 7. I don't think there's any way she'll be able to please us all. Which yes, leaves lots of room for fic!

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

In a way, I think the Harry/Draco/Hermione shippers, and to some extent, the Draco/Hermione and Draco/Harry shippers, should luuuuuurve the title for the acronym if for no other reason.

I mean, look at them:

HP + D/H? Harry/Draco/Hermione.
D/H? That's either Draco/Hermione or Draco/Harry, if you exclude the HP portion of it.

At the very least, it deserves icon-ization. :D

But I also agree with you, Emma, about the wibbliness at the series ending. I hope there are still gaps and holes so people can drive fanfics through by the lorry-load!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Bwahaha! Absolutely! As long as she doesn't kill one of more of those folks off. :-P