My Latest Comic For The Nib Was Written By My Friend Mike Thompson- It’s His First Published Comics

I was talking over dinner over the HP world building / plot, mainly missed opportunities, and I feel like sharing one main point here: the wizards already live in a dystopia.

Wizard dystopia evidence:

Small society with little cultural diversity. There are other cultures referenced but they never play a large role, there’s this sense of Brit wizard exceptionalism that infects not only their relations with muggles but with foreign wizards too. Even when shit gets dire they don’t really call in allies for help or anything.

They have slaves and defend it as something the house elves prefer (+ Hermione is given the villain-with-a-point treatment in her efforts to free them; she is well meaning but her methods are Too Much and she doesn’t really Get It)

Second class citizens (particularly thinking goblins) are looked down upon and there is an extended history of them attempting to rise up and being defeated. This also goes for squibs (well, not the rising up, but).

Widespread racism - towards goblins, werewolves, centaurs, muggles… a lot of this is institutionalized or supported by society at large even if not officially approved of (think goblin statue in MoM lobby, werewolf treatment, the emphasis on being pureblood even in ‘nicer’ families).

Lack of proper education - the ‘best school’ has a lot of unqualified teachers working there but even beyond that there doesn’t appear to be any further education after 17, and especially with regards to the muggle world even so-called enthusiasts like Mr. Weasley and the Muggle Studies teacher don’t seem to know what the hell they’re talking about

Resistance to new ideas - goes hand in hand with some others here, but their world is steeped in tradition at the cost of innovation. They use candles and quills and fear of the Other is a major part of everyone’s life. They are highly selective about who can know about them and limit what change they can make.

Only ONE real source of news. No other newspapers we really hear of besides the universally-derided Quibbler. We also know for a fact the government has their hands firmly in the Daily Prophet.

Corrupt government - shows up strong in later books but is present from the start via the Malfoys clearly buying their way and also through the…

Harsh punishments for lawbreakers - Azkaban is pretty brutal and there is not much evidence of a more minor punishment beyond like… fines. We know from that the government has just skipped trials when it wanted to, and even the trials it gives don’t seem especially fair or thorough

At the very least, this society is highly flawed. And honestly, there’s nothing wrong with this set up. It’s great, even. Except for one detail…

Voldemort represents change. And he is the enemy.

What I mean by this is that he shakes up the status quo. Everyone seems horrified at him killing Muggles because of a combination of patronizing pity (“those poor helpless muggles can’t defend themselves”) and xenophobic fear (“if he reveals us to them we could all die”). There isn’t widespread societal hatred of his message that wizards are superior so much as there is to his methods. Some of which include things like giving power to second-class citizens like werewolves, for example. Sure, our heroes all know that his message is Wrong, not just his methods.

But Harry was abused by muggles and dives right into the escape of the Wizarding world. Hermione longs to be accepted and her hangups tend to get punished by the story (making them character flaws or moments of humor), until there’s even a scene where she fully cuts ties with her roots. Even exceptions to the rule (werewolves are horrible predators, but Lupin is a great guy. Giants are seen as violent beasts and half-giants discriminated against, but Hagrid is a true friend.) seem to only emphasize the rule itself by being the only exception and even having reinforcing events around those 'good’ characters. (Fenrir Grayback revels in being a beast and leads a whole pack of like-minded werewolves, and even Lupin has put people in danger multiple times. The giants sided with Voldemort/beat up Hagrid with even his brother being so dangerous he had to be tied up, and Hagrid himself has an affinity to dangerous creatures that has put being in danger several times.) These aren’t one to one comparisons but overall the impression you get is of exceptions while the norm isn’t really challenged.

And since Voldemort, who breaks the rules of the Wizarding society, is the villain, our heroes become representatives of returning the world to the way it was before he ruined everything. Their grand victory in the end is nothing more than a return to the status quo, at least on a textual level. Maybe Hermione becomes Minister of Magic but as far as I recall we don’t hear about all the house elves being freed or the goblins getting a fair shake.

And since the world is already pretty much a dystopia, albeit one with fun magic flavoring, this victory doesn’t make anyone really better off. If they had defeated Voldemort using Muggle tech or unconventional thinking or something, that would have helped to lead to a story of change. But they instead used old magic, pretty much, and let things go back to the way they used to be. There is no forward progress in the end. No true overhauling of the corrupt system.

My Tomarry | Harrymort recs

⭐ ★★★★★ All-time favorites or my top-tier

No Glory by @obsidianpen

A Dangerous Game by @cybrid

What He Grows to Be by Severus_divides_into_H @k-s-morgan

Consuming Shadows by @childotkw

A Future Without a Face by @dividawrites

And the living will envy the dead by Severus_divides_into_H @k-s-morgan

Either must die at the hand of the other by @metalomagnetic

love is touching souls (surely you touched mine) by @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger

The Train to Nowhere by MayMarlow

Vicious Circle by Bakuko

The two hundred and twelfth loop by Bakuko

★★★★★

Haunted and Hunted series by @obsidianpen (the one and only fic that made me cry)

(never) let me go by Ailora

dawn of a death of a dream by @cindle-writes

Inevitabilities by EclipseWing

Past’s Player by The_Fictionist

draw me after you (let us run) by @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger

Growing pains by Naomi_Riddle

I still have lots to read, I'm Tomarrymort fan since July '23 only :)

Honestly the sheer drama of Tom Riddle and his You-Know-Who nonsense...bitch changes his name to the tackiest french nonsense he can conceive of. and then doesn't even let people use it. What was the point Tom? What was the fucking point?

Can I ask for advice my dear?

Like, you know how you write fics and you have an idea of where you want it to go.

I have an exposition and an ending ready but how do you guys bridge that? Like there is a plot but also how do you connect and make sense of the whole thing? I dunno if it makes sense but I hope it does 😅

Sorry it took me so long to get to this - I was thinking about how best to answer!

From what I understand, you have a general plot and the ending of your story worked out? You know the rough beats and the main overarching 'this is what the story will be about'?

Since I'm not sure how much experience you have writing, I might cover some things you're already aware of - if so, sorry about that. I'm just going to bring in some of the basics.

So, while I believe there is no 'one way' to design and plan your plot, there are a few good structures you can use to help put your ideas in some semblance of order. I use both of these frequently when setting out a plot, or even when just planning out a scene. These story cycles are usually pretty scalable, which is great!

Story Cycle 1 - Hero Arc

This is a very basic explanation of the hero cycle. There are some more broken down versions that go into the in-between steps, but these are the main beats that I tend to drift towards, and this is a graphic I made that helps me remember the rough stages.

Now, I mainly use this cycle when it comes to longer, drawn out stories, like CS, or my own original novels. This is one of the most well known and most used in story writing.

I really encourage people to try and use this cycle. It is a very popular and strong way to structure a long story because it works.

Story Cycle 2 - Regular Arc

This second cycle is a favourite of mine because it's applicable for both a story as a whole and on a scene-by-scene basis. I've often used this model to craft specific scenes in my stories.

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Structuring a plot can be a very laborious and frustrating task, but where your story is short or long, I really do think these two cycles can help you.

Depending on the length of your story, take one of the models above (or heck, look up another if you think these aren't quite suited to your style), and start to categorise your ideas beneath the main titles.

Ask yourself questions like: 'where does this scene fit?', 'what is this scene accomplishing in the story, is it before or after the climax?', or 'how would it affect the flow if I put it *here*?', and go from there.

Remember that this outline isn't set in stone either. You can chop and change where you want ideas to come into your story as you write it.

This is how I go about linking my ideas up into a coherent plot. After you do it for long enough, you stop consciously realising that you even do this anymore. You pick up a natural feel for things. So long as you just start somewhere - whether it's a vague idea or the final scene in a story - you're already doing fantastic!

Hope this helps!

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headcanon that while Dazai happily flirts with people and finds it amusing, when that energy is matched and they flirt back his brain just shuts down.

Definitely happened with Chuuya when he asked to sit in his lap or made a joking response or something and Dazai just stared blankly at him, he literally never recovered from it.

suddenly remembered this poem as i was making breakfast this morning & frantically googled “poem remembered to buy eggs?????????” & somehow managed to find it & it utterly knocked the wind out of me just as much as when i first read it

An unfinished fanart of Yeni(?) from the manhwa ‘Seduce the Villain’s Father.’ When I first saw I her, she really caught my attention with her hair similar to cotton candy and big blue eyes, so I just had to try to draw her.

hey, i read your rec list and fell in love with dust in your pocket. do you know any other fics like it?

by ‘other fics like it’ i’m going to assume you mean femslash tomarry fics, not vaguely steampunk tomarry aus (which would also be incredibly valid.) however, i will grab at any excuse to talk about fem tomarry

femslash tomarry/harrymort recs

at first and fierce affirming sight by @being-luminous is probably my favorite on this list. it’s a one-shot featuring Giant Immortal Snake Queen Tom Riddle and Tiny And Incredibly Smitten Harry Potter: Life Companions. i just adore tom’s characterization in this one

til death do us part (i know that you are mine) by @artsy-death is a short, smutty one-shot featuring a master of death, universe-hopping harry who harbors a minor obsession with tom riddle (across most universes) and of course a deliciously possessive and sadistic tom to top it off.

if you like dark themed tomarry, tag, you’re it by @whotooklortan is perfect. obsessive tom, kidnapped harry, and a wonderful case of stockholm syndrome. i personally like my toms as sociopathic as possible, and i adore this fic

for the well loved Tomarry As Academic Rivals That Also Occasionally Have Hate-Sex trope i offer you favourite pastime by @hookedonthesky

and finally, wolf_of_lilacs has written a ton of great fem tomarry/harrymort fics. here is the link to their collection

go forth and read fanfiction !

Currently reading^, it's a romance and since it Valentine's Day, I thought it apt to make a fanart of it.