Name: Lauren

Languages: English (1) and Spanish (2)

Age: 25

Life: Error 404 File not found. I'm doing a PhD.

Where are the updates?

Writing is taking back seat at the moment. I'm studying/working full time and I've started taking my art a bit more seriously. I regularly write to let of steam, so that actually goes very well even when you see no updates... but you see no updates because I lose momentum at the editing process. It's hard to use my precious free time to do something so completely not fun, but I'm still working on it.

Other places you can find me:

AO3: user Act_Naturally. It mostly overlaps with what I have here.

Skillshare: I teach a class called "Realistic Pencil Drawing: Go from Beginner to Expert"

Instagram: l. thornton. art (remove spaces)

Deviantart: agree-to-dissagree

Warpath

I like cliches - I like tackling them and twisting them into new and more interesting configurations. I do it first by finding a new approach to old problems, and then I throw walls at it. I like boundaries because constraints force creative solutions. If there's a spell for everything, it gets boring really quickly. So I put strict limits on what my characters are capable of, and I try to justify it.

A sub-note, The whole immortal Master of Death debate:

A constant complaint I like to ignore is a lack of godlike Potters. Let's remember that interpretation fannon, not cannon. JK's Harry Potter was a normal wizard (I have sources, fight me), but he liked mysteries and he was motivated to stay alive so he went out of his way to practice DADA. Defense was all he was good at. He wasn't motivated to learn for the sake of it, like Hermione, Dumbledore or Riddle. The Master of Death is a normal Harry Potter with some useful trinkets. A really old Harry is just a guy with a few more life experiences and some of them may have given him motivation, but you have to justify it. Don't tell me that Harry is powerful if you can't tell me how he got there. If you gave the Elder Wand to Peter Pettrigrew, what do you think would happen - dramatic power boost? Nah, a mouse with a stick. Don't rely too much on the mystical powers of the tool that only amplifies what's inside.

But that's beside the point, I don't care what you think Harry is made of. If you're born with a leg up, be it brains or magical ability, that's only potential. Potential is not a straight shot to success. You're only as good as you push yourself to be. I'll believe Harry made himself powerful when you tell me how. The fastest way to lose my attention is to make a story unbelievable. The character development behind a lot of the MOD stories is not realistic. There are some great exceptions (murkybluematter's stories come to mind).

But when I'm writing my own fiction, I don't have to jump on board. I think it's a shame that the over-powered, unstoppable approach has become so popular, as if creative problem solving isn't good enough any more. I hate the idea that you only have a good character if he's got the magical grunt to solve every issue with one word. I don't want him to be untouchable, I want him to get into tough situations that can't be solved immediately. I like thinking, and my favourite characters are the ones that are good at that, not the ones with the hardest kick or the best memory.

Updates: Some of you may have noticed odd, completely unpredictable surges of updates from me and then weird periods of total silence... yeah, that happens. There are times when I can't be bothered to scrounge two words together, and other when I can't stay away from the keyboard. The second tends to happen around exams. It's a problem.

Works in Progress (order of priority)

With a resolute heart: I've writing this since I started my PhD, it's my stress release and I've been very stressed, so I've got a lot to work with. I have ~120 000 words and it’d say it’s about 80% complete. That said, I’m flat out and don’t know when I’ll finish it. I’m editing as I go and there are still some holes to patch, so updates will be as regular as I can manage but may not be regular by any other metric.

Book-wyrm: I have created a monster. It's actually going places. 40 000 words have been pre-written, then we're going to run into problems.

Mystery HP crack fic: I'm working on this when I get stuck with the HP/Marvel time travel fic, and when I'm frustrated with the world in general. I'm going to post it soon.

On Hiatus (sorry)

Turned Around in Time: a Harry Potter / Marvel universe cross over. And I mean entire Marvel Universe. It's happening people! The plot has arrived, we can begin in earnest! I'm really enjoying it, it's a nice challenge. I think I'm going to break something. If there are pauses between updates it's because I've encountered an unsatisfactory bit of planning and can't decide how to fix it.

Secret Keeper: the Potter in Thedas 2.0 I'm getting there, plot is happening.

Exhibit A: drawing of Harry in deer form next to the Inquisitor's hart http:// /art/Hart-and-red-deer-595483019

Bound Together: going nowhere.

Bird's Eye View: It's so immature its both embarrassing and amusing for me to look back on. Hence why it is still here. Giggle away, mock to your heart's content, in this case it's a sign of maturity, because you're old enough to understand that it is rubbish.

Finished (hah. not much in this section)

Scales of Change: this little thing is actually the first multi-chapter story I have ever finished. And I have about 30 stories sitting on my hard drive, so that's saying something.

Hope's Calling (The Potter of Thedas): we are all surprised about how well that turned out.