Quidditch Pitch Interview with RogueSugah
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Quidditch Pitch Interview with RogueSugah |
| Interviewer: | "Ron Weasley" |
| Interviewee: | RogueSugah |
| Date(s): | October 2006 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Harry Potter |
| External Links: | interview is here, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
In 2006, RogueSugah was interviewed for The Quidditch Pitch as an Editor's Choice author. Her story, The Price of Love, was selected as the Editor's Choice for October 2006.
The interview was conducted with the interviewer in character as Ron Weasley.
See Quidditch Pitch Interview Series.
Some Excerpts
Like most fans, I started out reading the HP books. I was lucky enough to discover them late in the series (after GoF had already been published), so I had four books to read, one right after the other, and didn't have to put up with years between installments. I did have to wait for PoA [the film], but only for 6 months or so, and I managed to keep myself busy re-reading books 1-4, working, etc. until it was finished. Waiting for OotP was much harder to do, but somehow I managed and needless to say, I was beyond excited when it was finally for sale at my local bookstore. Not only did I get a copy on the first day, I finished it in no time.The problem was, once I was finished, I was at a loss for what to do to get my HP fix. All these questions kept popping into my mind about what was going to happen and where J.K. Rowling was headed and I just knew that I wouldn’t be able to go years without any answers this time. So I got online and started lurking at some of the HP sites and that lead me to this wonderful thing called fan fiction. And WOW, was there a lot of it. More than enough to keep me entertained. For a month or two anyway. But my mind kept going back to where J.K. Rowling left off in OotP and what the Power the Dark Lord knows not could be. And then one day while I was reading a story it dawned on me that I could do this. I could write a fan fiction. All I needed was a plot. And not only could I entertain myself, and answer all the questions I wanted answered the way I wanted them to answered, I could share it with others and entertain them as well. So I started mapping out a storyline in my head, and once I started writing it all just fell into place.
I suppose we’re supposed to favor Harry, he is the chosen one and all, but I’ve always had a thing for sidekicks. Luke Skywalker? No way. Who cares about him, he’s moody and that bad boy Han was yummy. Frodo Baggins? Couldn’t stand him. Sam was always the hero in my eyes. Why? Because he had a choice. He wasn’t the chosen one, he could have walked away and was given numerous chances to do so, but he didn’t. Even though he didn’t get any of the glory (or very little of it) he stayed and fought it out to the bitter end because it was the right thing to do. It’s the same with Ron.Harry doesn’t have a choice. Voldemort has marked him for death and sooner or later one of them will have to die. Ron does have a choice. He’s always had the choice and each and ever time he’s presented with the opportunity, he chooses to stand beside his best mate and help him fight his insurmountable battles. He chooses to stand with Harry, not just out of loyalty and friendship, although that’s part of it, but also because it’s the right thing to do. And Ron Weasley wasn’t raised to turn his back on others and shrink away from doing the right thing, just because it’s easier and/or safer. In my eyes Ron is every bit the hero Harry is, more so in fact because he has been given the choice.
I had no clue how popular [The Price of Love] would become. Frankly I still have a hard time believing it. Unless someone comments on the story in a review on one of the sites I’ve posted it at, I’m pretty much oblivious. I’ve been told by others that it’s a huge hit and that people are/ or were talking about it in droves when I was still working on it, but I was never exposed to much of what was said. I don’t really know what has been discussed in live Journal discussions or on other message boards, etc. All I’ve had to gage [sic] the popularity of the story on is the number or reviews I received and how many hits the story had gotten. When I first started writing the story, the number of reviews was low. Say 5-10 per chapter. Hardly enough for me to suspect it was a huge hit. It wasn’t until Harry whipped his Invisibility Cloak off and caught Ron and Hermione together that the number of reviews skyrocketed. That’s when I realized there actually was a much larger fan following than I had previously assumed.As for the research, I guess it depends on what aspects we’re talking about. I’d already read book 1-5 several times before I started writing, so I had most of the facts down. The Harry Potter Lexicon was an invaluable source when it came to checking on spells, correct spellings, and miscellaneous HP info though. Other aspects, like the whole Coupling Potion thing and the Lànain, didn’t take any research at all. They damn near wrote themselves actually. In fact, the only thing I had to research for the Lànain, was a Gaelic word to use as the name. Overall, the only thing I really spent any length of time researching was syntax and lexicon. I spent loads of time looking for British slang words to use because I didn’t want the story to sound overly American and being a bit of a perfectionist, I wanted the Latin terminology I used for the spells I created to be accurate.
Write for yourself, not for the amusement of other people. If you’re happy with your end result, if you can entertain yourself with each new chapter you write, then you will entertain others as well. But more than anything you have to be satisfied with what you’ve written.The simple truth of the matter is, no matter how good your story is, no matter how well written or popular, it’s impossible to please all of the fans all of the time. In fact, I’ve found that the more popular a story becomes, the more criticism it’s likely to receive.
You have to realize that really good stories draw the fans in and they can’t help becoming emotionally invested in the storyline. And the more invested they become, the more they start to think about where you might be headed and how they’d like to see the plot unfold. And when what they want to see, or what they expect to happen, doesn’t go exactly the way they envisioned it, some of them will feel disappointed. Most will roll with the punches, but there will always be those that simple can’t take it all in stride and want you to know how disappointed they are.
And even though you go into it knowing that you won’t be able to please everyone, part of you will still want to and strongly worded criticisms will sting. Not only that, they can be VERY disruptive to the writing process if you don’t believe whole-heartedly in what you’ve written. That’s why it’s vital to write your story for yourself first, and for other’s [sic] second. If you believe in the merits of what you’ve written, if you’ve followed your vision as you set out to do and are proud of your work, it’ll be much easier for you to defend your work or let the criticisms roll off your back entirely. As long as you are proud of what you’ve written, that is really all that should matter.