Penname: mctwist

Name: Brad

Beta Status: Active

Age: 18

Mood: Fantastic.

Reading (book): City of Ashes by Cassandra Claire, Dimestore Magic by Kelley Armstrong, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Hunger Games by Susanne Collins.

Reading (fanfic): Shades of Grey by MandaMedieval

Harry Potter and the Nightmare of Futures Past by S'TarKan

Writing: Bringing Down the Walls

Website: Mugglespace

Bio: I've been into Harry Potter as long as I've been into reading. Grade 3, 1999, age 8. I received Philosopher's Stone from my cousin for helping at her wedding (She's also now a massive fan), and then a little over a month later, got Chamber of Secrets for my birthday. From that point on, I was hooked. I'm a Ravenclaw, because all of the other houses are lame. Gryffindor's mistake foolishness for courage, Hufflepuff's mistake loyalty for a lack of respect, Slytherin's mistake cunning for lack of testes. Ravenclaw's, however, are smart enough to see through all of this, which is why we are far superior, of course. I'm married to a Death Eater, I'll get over it one day.

So instead of letting simple Nazi ideals judge which stories I enjoy, I leave it up to my open mind. Fascinating concept isn't it?

1. Traditionally I read stories concerning The Trio, but if it's humor then I can read about any character, as long as it's funny.

2. For romance, hmmm, H/HR is such a nice fan fiction ship. Not a fan of D/Hr, and as much as I don't like D/G they usually are pretty good fics. Marauder's stuff is always fun Remus/Nobody, Lily/James, Sirius/Wench, etc.

3. As for slash, the only slash I can handle is female slash, and even then I can't take it seriously, but for the purposes of lemon, whatever. As for male slash, D/H relationships are fine, because as cheeseball as it sounds, they're usually well-written and often get to the depth of Draco's character better than anyone. The only problem here being that the author will then force the characters to have gratuitous and explicit buttsecks for 26 chapters. No thanks. I can handle traditional pairings, but why is it that all of the most messed up once are slash? Snarry? Sirius/Remus, Sirius/Snape. Really, any ship with Snape in it is void in my books. Snape didn't HAVE relationships. Period. Certainly not with Ms. Granger, as well.

4. Most OC's are terrible. Don't get me wrong, I can see the need for original characters, but the problem here is that 90 of them are poorly written transpositions of the author's personality. They think that as soon as they can make up a character of their own, they can insert themselves into the story. I'm pretty sure most people do this subconsciously. And you know what, that'd be fine. Your personality is probably just great for an OC. The only problem with THAT, though, is that now that you have this pseudo-representation of yourself in your story, you'll begin to see this character as yourself. They wont have failings, they wont die, things will go great for them. If you're going to make good OC's, then either create characters vastly different from your own personality, or completely distance yourself from the characters. You can still write emotionally charged work without being so connected. That's how good authors do it.

5. Keep your fluff away from me. You know what happens when you write an entirely full-length story completely made of fluff? You get Twilight. Yeah, you should be horrified now. As great as it is to have the feel-good crap, you still need a plot. And a plot starts with a conflict, a problem. And you know what? Fluff seems all the sweeter if you have to read through the awful stuff that they had to go through before things turned out alright. Seriously, skipping right to the happy ending basically decreases the value of the relationship in the mind of the reader. Don't get me wrong, having fluff here and there in a story is GREAT. It works beautifully, and it really makes the readers identify with the relationships, but don't overdose.

6. Smut is great as long as it serves the plot. I mean, fine, if you're writing some lemon oneshot deal, great, whatever, but if you're trying to actually make it work in your story, that's a little different. You can't have you characters run off to get freaky all the time just because you like writing smut. It has to fit the characters, the plot, and the canon. That's how it works.

7. I've stolen this entire profile outline from MandaMedieval. I love her, and thanks for letting me borrow this.

How Not To Suck at Writing, A Guide By Brad Ausrotas.

1. This is probably the easiest advice to give, and the hardest advice to take. The first rule in not sucking at writing, is to never, ever, follow your impulses. Impulsive writing is always, always scattered and messy, and it often creates plot holes and other such embarassing things. The easiest way to avoid this is by writing an outline. And sticking to it. Don't get me wrong, things can change, and they should as you go along, but just impulsively deciding to change things always leads to disaster.

2. Don't over-do it. This applies to just about ANYTHING in writing. If you overdose, it's going to turn out bad. Angst, parody, fluff, expository, dialog, whatever. If you put too much, it's going to seem strained and thin and it's not going to help your case at all. Either that or it will make your reader nauseous, as is the case with angst and fluff. Moderation is the key, as it is with everything in life.

3. Cliches. Don't get me wrong, a well-placed cliche, or a fresh twist on an old cliche, is FINE. It's pretty much accepted as being necessary. It's called innovation, instead of invention. And really we're all innovators anyway, since we didn't write the original series' for which all of our work as fan fiction authors is based upon. But again, don't over-do it. If you're going to write all the same old tired cliches, then don't even bother. Nobody wants to read that crap. If they do they wont enjoy seeing it again, for the millionth time. I'm not saying to force yourself to be different, that's almost as bad, but find a place in your writing where you have fresh ideas, but you can draw on familiar ones too.

4. Romance. It's damn tricky. There's a subtle line that you have to walk. When it comes to romance, almost anyone can relate, so you have to be hyper-realistic. If you can't write the characters falling in love, don't make them. If you try to, people will see right through it and it'll look like you're just trying to pair them off. People know what they think is real, and what they think is bull. You have to make it seem real.

5. While we're on the topic: Realism. Realism is amazingly important to having your readers love your story. Anyone can write a character and call them the best student in school. A good writer shows how and why said student is the best. You can't just give your characters personality aspects through description, and then have them behave completely differently. They have to adhere to their description. If you want a character who's a brilliant military tactician for example, then there's no better way of convincing your readers that this is in fact the case than by proving it to them. This is how some writers become more elite than other writers, by creating realistic (Or at least seemingly) characters that that their readers can believe in.

6. Spelling and Grammar. In the age of built-in spell check, there really is no excuse for spelling mistakes. I can understand typographic mistakes, even grammar mistakes here and there, but really, spelling should be flawless. If you can't see a glaring red line below a word you've spelt wrong, I don't think you should be writing. Grammar, on the other hand, is a lot more flexible. There is no perfect grammar check, just like there is no perfect spell-check. At least not yet, anyway. Until such a day, you'll just have to actually reread your work before publishing it. A pain in the ass, I'm sure, but we all have to make sacrifices for professionalism.

7. Canon rules. Canon is another tricky game. The thing with canon is that you have to go one or the other: It's either AU, or it adheres to the canon as best as possible. What really pisses me off is when authors claim that their story is canon, but then change little details because they're too lazy to make their plots work. If it isn't covered under the canon, fine, go nuts, but if the canon has something to say about it, you need to follow.

8. And finally: If you suck, we'll know about it. If you're not a very good author, your readers will find out very quickly. If you know you're not a good writer, please don't publish. Find a beta and seek help instead. Even if you're not good at only one aspect, it will wreck things. If you're making jokes and you're not funny, if you're writing romance or fluff and you have no idea how to do it. I'm not saying to stick to your guns. That wont do you any good in writing. but when you step outside the box, make sure you're confident enough in your abilities to make it work. If you lack that confidence, it's not going to do anyone any good, you or your readers.

That's it. Like I said in the beginning, it's a lot easier to give advice than to follow it. If you have any comments/criticism about what I've written above, I'd love to hear it.

And finally: There is no greater service you can do for an author than review his or her work. First, it helps with confidence and motivation. If you're getting genuine feedback on what you've written, your motivation to write, and change things, triples. There's nothing better to waking up and seeing that people care enough to give you their thoughts on something you've written. It doesn't have to be good. In fact, the obnoxious: "OMG IT'S SOSOSOS GOOD! NEW CHAPPY PLZPLPLZPLZ!11!11" reviews are just as useless as not reviewing at all. Authors don't want to you to spew endless praise, but instead, they'd like to know WHY you like, and what they can do better. Even if you DON'T like it, tell them so, and provide the author with some constructive criticism. Y'know, how they can make their writing better, the whole point of fan fiction in the first place? I realize that not every one of the 3000 or so visitors I get to my stories every month is going to read through a whole chapter and want to review. but I know for those of you that do, you should leave a review. Even if you just tell them what you liked about the chapter! Authors love getting responses to the things that come up in their chapters! The shiny new green 'Review' button should be all the increased incentive you need!