Fynn
is an EoFF Hero and/or Heroine
Radical Dreamer

Yeah, maybe it's the lesser exposure or the stories of yours that I've read just being more inline with my tastes.

And it's true that authors can improve over time (though not guaranteed). My favorite author currently writing, Jim Butcher, showed notable improvement through The Dresden Files.

You forget that I worked at a bookstore for seven years.

As such, I remember when Cuckoo's Calling was released...and met with a "meh" reception and mediocre reviews. Until she revealed that she wrote it, when it suddenly exploded in popularity and started getting rave reviews. Which basically killed any interest in it I may have had (though, TBH, I don't like mysteries unless they're short stories), and just told me that it was selling on name brand alone.

I do admire her writing skills, in so far as the actual, technical quality of the writing goes. And I do VERY much appreciate that she got kids reading again, and revitalized a lot of interest in books, and I think the world owes her a debt there. And I owe her further for getting you interested in writing.

But I don't think she's good at writing fleshed out characters, and I don't think she plans her world building at all (just makes it up as she goes along). You're far superior to her in both of those aspects.

The writing itself is good, but a good story, a good world, takes so much more than that.

It resonated with people, sure. The idea that you are magical and special and better than everyone else usually does. People like feeling that way, which is why all the fans consider themselves a part of the privileged wizard of elite instead of the worthless muggles that they would be in that world.

That doesn't make it good writing, or a particularly healthy or moral message for a story.

The more serious it took itself, the more glaring its problems became. And, again, the more disillusioned with it I became, the more intensely negative the fan base became.

It has its positive points, sure. But it is a deeply flawed series that is treated like it's the second coming of Tolkien.

Sorry, I got way more worked up about that than I thought I would.

I don't care enough about the world to want to go further with it. I burnt out around Half-Blood Prince. The world just doesn't have that many appealing points. And Fantastic Beasts is, from what I hear, a prequel, so none of the issues it raises get fixed, or even considered important enough to carry over into the main series at all. And, frankly, I heard it wasn't that well received, though better than the eighth book, at least.

The very fundamentals of how the world works is broken. It has been from the very beginning, and part of that is because of how the series was written. It started as a light hearted kid's novel that basically wholly ripped off entire sections of Matilda, even if the technical quality of the writing was better. But it found appeal with the elder teen demographic and wound up being rewritten more and more towards a serious route, despite the fact that the very fundamentals of the world set up in that first book just collapse when that happens.

I'm about to go into a long rant about some of my biggest problems with the series, so if you aren't interested, just skip it.

(SPOILER)The houses are nonsense. Every bad wizard ever has come from Slytherin, and apparently no good wizards ever. And not once has the idea of "jail or hang every student who gets sorted into that house" been suggested, even after a character as terribly written as "grr, I'm the literal definition of evil" as Voldemort comes out of there. Heck, there are students who still WANT to be Slytherin, even though they're basically saying "look at me, I'm evil". Which, even if they are evil, is the STUPIDEST thing they could do.

All the main characters come from Gryffindor. Because it's the house of holy saints and deus ex machina students. Yet there are students who don't want to be in Gryffindor, despite the fact that you're basically guaranteed a place in the holy writ of the series. And every major character, regardless of the actual content of their character or personality, winds up in Gryffindor, because that's the special house of awesomeness.

"Ambition" is supposedly the criteria for Slytherin, even though characters like Crabbe and Goyle, who are content to be second fiddle to the son of a man who is himself second fiddle to a greater evil wind up there. Because nothing says "ambitious" like being henchmen of a henchman's kid.

Ron should have been a Slytherin. His entire story arc is about his ambition, and how he has middle child syndrome, constantly trying to live up to the examples of his older siblings, or his best friend who is literally the series' messiah.

Hermione should have been a Ravenclaw. Her only defining feature through the entire first four books or so is her brains, and she's listed, mulitple times, as the school's smartest student, but she never winds up in the house for smart people.

This would have actually improved the story in multiple ways, by creating some inter-house tensions and making the magic trio of fate actually have to overcome some tensions and prejudice to be friends but NOPE, that'd be too complex for people's minds. We'll just ignore the entire definitions of the houses to shove them all together.

The entire wizarding world is built on the premise that they're all assholes. "Non wizards would always ask for magic solutions to their problems." Well no, trout. Wizards get magic solutions to THEIR problems, and have no problem with that. But they feel no obligation to help their fellow man, even though most of the effort required would be minimal at best. Heck, the wizards are perfectly okay using non-wizards when they need something that they're too lazy to do, but do muggles get any recompense for this? Nope! They have no rights, they aren't even people.

And, of course, this is mirrored by the fan base, who dismissively mocked and ridiculed the "Muggles" who didn't praise the series as sacred when it was at the height of its popularity, even though they themselves would be seen as literally the scum of the Earth and little better than slaves by these people they idolize.

The characters are for the most part one dimensional throughout most of the series, with many of them (like Voldemort) never getting any development or depth to their character.

I just think that, overall, while the technical writing quality may be nice, the world building, story, and character development are crippled from the starting point she had, and it's overall a mediocre piece of writing that causes other, better works to be overlooked, and is defended by an overly hostile fanbase of people who treat it as far better than it is.

Sorry. I know a lot of people like Harry Potter, but I find a lot of problems with the series, and the treatment of Muggles by the entire wizarding community (including the good guys) is one of them.

I also don't think the various houses are handled well.

Everyone has their own tastes. I have friends who prefer Cross over Trigger as well. Hell my GF can't be bothered to play FF series but that girl loves the MGS series.

If it works, do it. I feel I should be taking my own advice. I usually keep a little notebook around to jot down ideas and stuff or even write down interesting scenes for stories, but I don't take advantage of it enough.

It's a great song. I'm a huge fan of folk songs and ballads.

I'm a bit disappointed that version leaves out the Fairy Queen and the tithe to Hell, since that's sort of critical to the entire tale of Tam Lin. But it's such a great tune and performance that I can't get too upset.

Man, I seriously need to go to bed cause I read your last user-note weirdly.

I have been told that I have fairly good hand writing when I'm not rushing it. My issue is that some people find it hard to read because I write exclusively in cursive.