This Writer's Fine Abilities

[paulamcg]

Challenge #7

Promote/Rec/Sing the Praises* of Yourself!


All right, here’s a panegyric praising PaulaMcG.

I haven’t always believed it, but it’s turned out that I’m bright and kind and creative and strong enough. It’s always been particularly important to me that I’m good at writing and getting better at it. I’m also faithful, and I care deeply about my characters and their story and all the words I choose for conveying it.

I’ve been dedicated and persistent, completing my very first fanfic, a chaptered post-OotP story from Remus Lupin’s perspective in seven years. The novel Remus Lupin and the Revolt of the Creatures depicts Remus’s personal and social development – and PaulaMcG’s development as a writer of fiction.

Some readers have told me,

it is truly amazing. … Your Remus … is completely real. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him, or any other character in fanfiction, written so deeply and extensively, with such multifaceted approach.

I’m good at world-building and extrapolating from canon (the canon I’ve chosen or been bound to limit myself to, because I started in 2003: Rowling’s first five novels) without contradicting it or anything in my earlier fic (or even real-world things like calendar or weather or other conditions in 1970s London or in 1980s and 1990s Mediterranean). Each of my fics works separately but also complements the story I’ve published before.

I can resort to praise I’ve got from readers (before my hiatus):

The writing is powerful and evocative … Not dreamlike this time. Awfully solid. Very tactile, very realistic

the construction is perfect in its torn form

your writing can be so poetic and almost lyrical, but not flowery in the least.

your use of the different person/tense works really, really well. So well that it has exactly the effect you want without being remotely intrusive.

I've realised that I actually prefer it when you use the first person; it's part of your unique Remus voice, and there's nothing "off" about it at all (which is what I usually think of first person). I think you're one of the few authors out there who writes about weightier subjects and manages to make it work in the first person … it worked extremely well

you place your characters in believable settings, have OCs who are contributing to the storyline, and use relevant narration to keep the story moving along

I think one of the marks of your fine ability as a writer is that you do leave some things open for interpretation.

You've got a far more serious, intellectual take on the boys than one usually finds in fanfic, and I think this lends the whole piece enormous gravitas and authenticity. … You somehow manage to make your fiction very mysterious, so one senses a larger world beyond the characters … Altogether, this is a very strong, compelling story.

I love the depth of your characters, they are raw and full of a realness that often does not surface in fanfiction.

you make sure to show how the outside world impinges on the character's choices. … he ruminates over time and distance, but he and Padfoot are right there, in the moment

your careful control of the prose, characterization, and skillful imagery are marvelous.

You handle your words and space with a deftness that I… envy.

I also care about my readers, always reply to feedback in detail, and am eager to read and review their fiction. In 2010 I was nominated for the Kindest Author category at The Deathly Hallows Awards, while my novel was nominated in the Best Multi-Chapter category.

On the other hand, having returned to fandom last February, I proved that I was able to write without any feedback or even hope for any. I completed 17 out of the year’s total 24 short stories in my isolation on LJ , before mid October and HP Halloween.

I’ve written some exceptionally good pieces of fiction, and these are just two examples:

(in 2006) Anywhere And Back Again (set in Remus’s drifting years, often called the lost years in fandom)
and (in 2019) Truly Travelling Towards Someone (set in the summer when Sirius leaves Hogwarts).

Comments

[chez_jae]

Huzzah!

[paulamcg]

Thank you! And my thanks to all those old readers of mine whose words I’ve quoted.

[writcraft]

This is a real testament to how lovely comments can stay with an author. I know they do for me, and I loved reading what people have said about your work. If I'm doubting myself, I often look at feedback on one of my stories and it gives me a push to pick up the pen and get back to writing. Thank you so much for sharing!

[paulamcg]

Thank you so much for reading and for saying this! In fact, after commenting on your challenge #7 post, and while you must have been reading here, I was just deleting some of the quotes because I felt they were too many and, combined with what I’d written here myself, made me look too arrogant. (But I’ve got them all saved, of course – also in my LJ profile). I actually think I should read these old comments more often, instead of craving new feedback, and just go on writing fic.