"Rule One: If you do anything to increase the protagonist's power, or make their life easier, you must also amplify their opponent or add extra difficulties to their life. You can't make Frodo a Jedi unless you give Sauron the Death Star. Otherwise, even if it is well-written in all other ways, your story will suck because the reader will know to expect an unending string of easy victories, leading them to neither wonder or care about what happens next. The Mary Sue is not defined by her power being too strong, but by her challenges being too easily overcome."

The First Law of Fanfiction, from Less Wrong, author account for Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. /u/2269863/

I would like to become a serious author one day, but feel that my current standard is not up to what is required for publication. Here, I am hoping to polish my skills a little in a public forum that does not risk any original work at all, since by its nature, any story published here cannot be reasonably published elsewhere, no matter what the commercial success of Fifty Shades of Grey might have you believe.

Harry Potter and the Gaining of Power: [Chapter 5 pending]
I write to improve my writing, and this story will hopefully help me expand my understanding of such concepts as world building, horror, and the mechanics of magic as a protagonist's tool. This particular story was inspired at least partially by the story Time Braid by ShaperV (at /s/5193644/1/) and its description of the different types of Chakra. I'll be exploring that idea at least a little as applied to the HP characters' magic.

The Self-Insert Series: [Harry Potter chapter pending]
Sometimes I write to improve my writing. In this case, I write because the world I choose displeases me, or inspires me. I take the place of a character, with my knowledge of the world, but with at least some of the character's abilities, and I poke and prod at the world as I see fit. Sometimes this makes things better for the characters (now me), sometimes it does not. These will largely be one-shots, but if I happen to experience a deluge of inspiration for any one world, they might be coalesced into their own story. These are generally written because if I don't put them down, they won't stop bouncing around in my head.