u/CherriesAndWine31

The Professionalization Of Dramione Fanfic Is Making It Suck

I am in several writing communities for Dramione writers and I am noticing a trend that is making me very sad: Writers are getting burned tf out.

Why? Because a hobby that started out as a way to practice a skill, connect with others, share ideas, and have fun has become an unpaid side hustle.

Do you want your fic read? Well then, honey, you better at least learn Canva. But then again, if you’re going to do that, you might as well also buy an iPad and an Apple Pencil, and learn Procreate, so you can have a dedicated Instagram for the art you MUST have for your fics.

You also need a tumblr. You also need a TikTok. You also need to be active in Facebook groups and Reddit communities. You should look into how indie book writers market their work, and do as much of that as you can fit in around your normal life and job and family.

And that’s just the marketing.

You also need to have a creative writing degree—an MFA, if you can snag one—because people will apparently bitch and moan that too many children are writing fanfic, and oh no, now there will be more???? And where is my expected free indirect speech in this Dramione??? Why are you telling and not showing???? Why haven’t you paid a copy editor to make line edits??? How do you expect anyone to read this story about sexy Draco Malfoy if it’s not even good enough to file off the serial numbers and submit it to literary journals???

For the love of Merlin! Fanfiction is allowed to be “bad!” Fanfiction is allowed to be weird! You can have too much description! You can put them in a white room! You can go too hard at a metaphor! You can have plot holes! You can have scenes that are too long! You can skip the boring bits!

People I adore who were once passionate, prolific, happy writers are going quiet. The pressure to write perfectly, edit perfectly, market perfectly, and keep producing no matter what else is happening in their lives is simply too great.

Fanfiction is *not* meant to be a path to internet fame or a book deal. All these expectations are sucking the joy right out of it, and it’s also contributing to the rise of AI fics and AI art, because people are afraid to be bad, and weird, and unprofessional about it.

Can we just go back to what it was all about at the start? Can the only litmus test please be, *did you have fun writing it?*

🫠 I am just very tired.

I’m literally shaking right now. Every time I hear about 🤢Dramione🤮 my pristine moral compass starts spinning. How can ANYONE ship them when he literally called her the M-word?????

Like, do these sickos write them as older teens after the war? Or do they start in first year and completely negate the fact that he said a slur?! WHERE IS THE BLAND, UNCHALLENGED MORAL PURITY IN MY HARRY POTTER FANFICTION?!

In reality my smooth brain literally cannot comprehend the concept of enemies-to-lovers or fictional character redemption arcs. If a fictional 12-year-old bully is mean, he is irredeemable forever and must die. It very much gives abused-victim-sympathizer vibes it’s frankly gross.

Thoughts????

There are obviously moments that are designed to shatter you into a million pieces and they do exactly that. Like Draco saying >!“One grave. I want you to bury us together.”!< in Secrets & Masks, of cooouuurse that’s gonna make you cry until you’re dehydrated.

But I want to know which parts made you sob unexpectedly like that over something that maybe wasn’t even intentionally written to hit that hard.

For me, on my reread of The Disappearances of Draco Malfoy, I absolutely lost it over this Ron scene:

>>!“The whispers collected in the Deluminator, and Ron looked down into the tiny glow of its chamber after nightfall. The light couldn’t fix anything, but Ron found that he could make himself walk in the yard again.”!<

Context (spoiler): >!Ron is in Azkaban and starts losing himself and his will to live. It’s like he doesn’t even remember any moment when he was happy, because his mind turned them into negative thoughts, he doesn’t even want to walk or talk to Dean or Ted who are also there… until he starts hearing these whispers coming from the Deluminator.!<

That hit me personally and made me cry so hard, like when you’re stuck in your own mental prison and everything feels like so much darkness, and then something tiny starts to give you just enough light and motivation to crawl out. The fact that it started with something so small and ordinary as being able to walk in the yard again because of those little lights and whispers completely destroooyed me.

So yeah :) share your moments that did that to you. Could even be something soft or comfy that made you feel a lot, or reminded you of something good too.

I’m so mad at myself right now. I usually download fics, but during a recent clean-up I accidentally deleted a bunch of them.

I can't remember the title of this specific one but on her final day at Hogwarts Hermione drinks too much and is assaulted by Draco and company. He obliterates her memory so she won't say anything. Years later he finds her wandering the streets with absolutely no memories of who she is.

It was a heartbreaking but I absolutely loved it. Help please!!

And thank you so much! 💖