Ask Us Anything!

[alt_moderator]

The cast thread is filling up rapidly, and while we don't have to fuss about comment collapse, it is getting difficult to navigate...

So here's a new post, where we're asking YOU to ask US: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?

Comments

[synecdochic]

RON AND ARISTA.

I think I remember at the time that there was a thread here in alt_fen with people going "holy shit! They've been planning this all along!" and we were all looking at it and cracking up like, no, we just took a LOT of random details and stitched them together. Heh.

[naomikritzer]

I think the lo-jack bracelet was a deliberate squid on the mantle. The gifting of the stuffed cat was just a piece that fell into place, I think, but I can't remember. (There was a bunch with that plot that we planned way in advance: the Machine of Doom, because we put in a bunch of hints that something was happening to muggleborns, for instance. And I think we started with, "we need to go to the Department of Mysteries, but anything as disastrous as the canon trip will wind up killing all our characters. What can we do instead?" A bunch of other pieces just fell beautifully into place as we built up to it.)

[synecdochic]

Which actually reiterates another piece of what I loved about writing Alternity, which I think a few other people have already called out: the combination of long-term pre-planning and "HEY I HAVE AN IDEA" five minutes before we kicked off the thing we'd been planning for made for some really great juxtapositions.