Author's Note

Did you enjoy James and Lily? (: I hope you did! Just so you know, I worked super hard on it, sleeping at midnight to finish it because someone’s bugging me at school to post more! Tee-hee.

After re-reading my works many times, I kind of wish I had played up the arrogant part in James a bit more. So keep waiting for one-shots! (One-shots are just short stories about James and Lily, the super long one that I just wrote was practically a novel…ßYes, it was 40+ pages of hard work!) But I think it’s quite good for a first-timer! (:

I really love writing about James and Lily, they’re so cute and romantic together. And their relationship is so complicated. The troublemaker falls head over heels for the goody-goody and the best friend gets in the way. There're loads of twists and turns... But then it all boils down to one point: Lily loves James and James loves Lily.  

And over the course of writing, I’ve begun to have a special feeling for James and Lily. Their relationship was so happy yet so short, such a shame. So every time they mention Lily or James in the HP series, I smile oh-so tenderly. I’ll really miss them, it’s like losing a friend, one you know so well (well…because you created them) yet their actions take you by surprise (I had never planned for James to take Lily for a ride on his Nimbus!). 

I PROMISE to write one-shots. Pinky promise! Maybe once a month? I've been inspired quite a lot and this super long fanfic is actually a summary of Lily/James relationship. I've actually left out some crucial information here and there so there are definitely one-shots coming up. I don’t want to write about Harry’s children because it’s kind of boring. Lily and James were much more interesting! (:  

So tips to budding authors (like me!) out there:

1.     Read, like, A LOT! There aren’t that many references to James and Lily in the HP series so I had to find information on them on Wiki and get inspiration from more…covert sources like HPfanfiction.com and Fanfiction.com. There are seriously some gifted people there, they really should write their own book! And read more because you can pick up a lot of good writing techniques and beautiful word pictures. Then, I also had to rummage through my books for clues and hints about them.

2.     See if everything runs smoothly. Some of the scenes in the fanfic were particularly hard to write so I had to re-read everything and I acted it out in the shower, I tried to feel how the characters would and their movements. The duel between James and Snivelly, I acted it out in the shower and I think I yelled “Sectumsempra” a bit too loud and my mom knocked on the door, asking me what was going on. :P

3.     Work hard and don’t give up. I put a lot of effort into this fanfic, sleeping at midnight for two whole weeks, reading works on Fanfiction and typing it out on my Mac. This didn’t spring up overnight, okay? So you need loads of determination. I had writers’ block a couple of times in the middle but I smoothed it out…eventually.

4.     Brainstorm, edit and delete. I advise you to get a Writers’ notebook to write down your ideas when it suddenly comes to you in a flash or something special. I have two, one for class and one for my own Emblems. Write everything you can think of, there is never a wrong answer and you can write a few chapters on it when you don’t have access to you Word doc or something. I wrote Lily’s nightmare on the bus and the beginning in the backstage when I was waiting for my cue in a play. Re-read everything, as much as you can and see if there’s anything you don’t think is necessary or not suitable or, even better, add something to it! (: Delete because some things just don’t work out. Yes, it’s excruciating pain when your finger is on the backspace button but for the sake of your readers and the quality of the chapters, you have to do it. I had written down at least six pages in my Writers’ Notebook only for James’s pranks, four pages didn’t make it. Ophelia gave me this great idea about James and Lily’s date but I couldn’t fit it in and I didn’t think it was necessary. But I might find some time to write about it for a one-shot!

5.     SURPRISE! :D Make sure you have loads of twists and turns, it grabs the reader. We all knew James and Lily were going to end up together but the process is really nerve-wrecking and I was just running around in the my little universe, desperately finding ways to create James and Lily. 

I wrote something like this backstage but most of it didn't make it to the final version. I'll try to showcase it here but not guaranteed. 

Just searching and searching and searching for James and Lily.