I'm *not* being defensive, really!

[emmagrant01]

I've seen several people remark lately that the H/D side of the HP fandom is on the downslide, that no good fic is being written anymore, and that the 'ship lost its sails after OOTP came out.

As a writer who came into this fandom after OOTP and fell in love with H/D anyway, this continues to baffle me! I see wonderful H/D fic being written all the time by many, many talented people. It could be because I wasn't around during the halcyon days of the 'ship and just don't know any better. It could be that I have a different perspective on the role of canon in fandom, coming from a fandom in which one member of the OTP was dead before the fandom even started (which forced people to be loose and creative with canon from the start). Yes, I've read all the "classic" fics. I don't actually think they're fundamentally better than the fic being written today, though that could be because of my post-OOTP mindset and my preference for post-Hogwarts fic (in which the writer has a lot more leeway and creative freedom, IMHO). There were many more novel-length fics a few years ago than there are now, but I'm not sure that's what people mean when they bemoan the decline of "good" H/D.

I can't be the only one who doesn't understand the source of this claim. Is it a case of "shiny new toy getting old" for the older fandom folks, or is it really true that something fundamentally changed about H/D after OOTP, something that will never be recovered?

*wonders why she always misses the "golden days" of every fandom by arriving two years too late*

Comments

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

The harder it is to get there, the more interested I am in the journey.

Abso-fuckin-lutely! I loved your essay on H/D, btw, along with everyone else! ;-)

I like to read one-shots, but I find it hard to write them. I'm not sure why. I wish I could! But everything I write seems to develop into something huge and plotty, no matter what I do. It slows the writing process considerably. And then, I'm paranoid and get everything beta'd two or three times by at least two people, just to make sure there isn't something I've missed.

Actually, geoviki doesn't write a lot of short stuff either, does she? *feels better*

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

geoviki does not! Hee! In fact, I tried to write a 100 word drabble for isiscolo's birthday that clocked in at 1300 words. Oops.

And I think the H/D fandom is going strong with good fics, if I do say so myself. Partially, I think there's a time compression factor at work - when people think of the good old days, I think they're compressing about 3 years into that frame. Whereas "recent" probably encompasses merely the past year, if that.

I like long and plotty, because I want to have something substantial to show my old lady friends in the nursing home. But it does take a while. A Thousand Beautiful Things was 6 months in the making.