sendandburn

[sendandburn]

hello! i'm not sure if this is entirely the right place, but do you have any tips for getting back into writing? because of real life stuff i haven't been able to write for months, and now that i have the time i just have... no idea where to begin

Oh man, I know that feeling. There's nothing quite like feeling "rusty" to make something seem almost impossible to do.

There are a couple of approaches to take (and I'm sure folks can suggest even more in the notes), and I'll start with the most common suggestion:

Start small. If it's been a while, you might not want to start with a huge fic. Knock out a oneshot, maybe even just do some free writing sprints, just to get into the habit of writing again.

Find your writing space. Relearn what position you like to sit in, whether you prefer to type on a keyboard or tap on your phone. Figure out whether you want a playlist going and what songs you want to include on it.

Don't begin with the intention to post. Start with the goal of writing not with the goal of having written. Write something that you are utterly enraptured by, something that absolutely tickles you in whatever way you want to be tickled. Connect to your id or to your inner child or to whatever part of you really wants to come out and play, and let that part of you loose onto the page.

Which leads me to my last point

Find a story that you can't stop thinking about writing. It doesn't have to be huge. It could even just be a single moment or scene. But if you can feel that inspiration hit you and experience that drive to capture that inspiration in words, that feeling can go a long way to getting you back into writing again.

Inspiration can come from other people, from music or art, from prompt memes or challenges, from the daydreams you drift off into when you're zoning out on the bus. Personally, I have a lot of success with just thinking of a joke that makes me giggle hysterically, and then I write 500 words that gets me to the punchline I want to hit, and I'm done.

What about the rest of you? Where do you pick up writing when you haven't done it for a while? How do you get started again after a break?

[sendandburn]

Why The Room of Requirement isn't on the marauders map

because the Room of Requirement isn’t a fixed space, It changes depending on what the person needs. Sometimes it’s a cupboard, sometimes it’s a massive room like this. The dimensions and contents are always shifting.If it can expand, shrink, and rearrange itself, then no map could capture it accurately.

This was taken from a fanfict but i put it here cause i do think it's Canon so it wouldn't appear on it evdn if the marauders had found it.

[sendandburn]

Memory of a dog

"There was the memory Severus had viewed in Potter’s mind where the boy had been filled with terror whilst being chased by a snarling bulldog while the people watching laughed. Severus had told himself that it was an isolated incident. Many children had adverse experiences with animals. Severus convinced himself that it didn't mean anything. He purposely avoided seeking out other childhood memories from Potter's mind. " (Thimble of the banshee)

Many Snaters use the fact that Severus viewed this particular memory as an argument to say Sev knew about Harry's abuse and did nothing, conviniently forgetting that is perfectly possible to be chased by a rabid dog in childhood without being abused by your relatives.

[sendandburn]

A take on Snaters

"Many Potterheads I have seen say that Severus' love to Lily was just an obsession. But that is wrong. The fact that he loved Lily truly was well understood by both Harry and Dumbledore. Dumbles did initially thought it to be an infatuation that Snape couldn't move on. But the Prince's tale showed that even Dumbles couldn't believe that Severus' love to Lily was true.

“For him?” shouted Snape. “Expecto Patronum!” From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe. She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window.

Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.

“After all this time?”

“Always,” said Snape.

“ After all this time “ , Severus, you still loved her? You cared for someone who never wanted to talk to anymore? You were always on the look out for her ? Voldemort only considered Snape loyal for relaying him with the prophecy. Also, Voldemort would never , I think, go on telling all his death eaters , “ hey, I think Potter's son is referred to that prophecy. What do you think , my fellow Death Eaters?

“ Snape worked out Voldy's plan himself. And then told Dumbledore. There is a huge chance that Snape not knowing of Neville too. I think I went way off point.

Coming to the points.These are the reasons why Snape-Haters give for the obsessive love thing :

Same patronuses. That's the sign of true love and not an obsession. Dumbledore and Harry understood. Why can't the Snape-Haters understand that?

He tore off Lily's photo and that's creepy. He despised James. Why should he take his photo with it then? It was for Lily he did all the things. And for Dumbledore's death not to be in vain. After losing the only person who trusted him, he had to remind himself why he did all these, and with Dumbles gone ( it was usually him who reminded him ), he had to find some way and Lily's picture was the only thing.

F*ck it he was obsessed. The facts say…. Excuse me? What facts? The book said Snape truly loved Lily. The Snape-Haters say that it was an obsession. NOT HARRY, NOT DUMBLES, YOU GUYS SAY SO.

He called Lily a mudblood. Yes he did and no one denies that. But he never used that term ever since. He corrected himself. But no one sees that. They only see that James changed himself to a better man, just because he shows it outwards. If you say James redeemed himself so did Severus. If you can ignore what the marauders did when they were young and then corrected themselves, and then ignore James and maruders bullying Severus, then I can ignore what Severus said when he was young and then never repeated that. The only fact they can really rely on is:

“He desired her, that was all,” sneered Voldemort, “but when she had gone,he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him—” Deathly Hallows~

The flaw in the plan This is totally negligible. He said because he preferred a life to an afterlife. Why should he die when he can live and maybe try a better way to save Lily Potter. So we can totally see that Snape truly loved Lily and it was not an unhealthy obsession.

Edit: When I shared this answer in another platform, a Potterhead told me that Snape never cared for Lily's happiness. I am pretty sure many Potterheads too think the same. The proof they provide is the following excerpt from the book :

“You know what I mean! He thinks it means her son, he is going to hunt her down—kill them all—”

“If she means so much to you,” said Dumbledore, “surely Lord Voldemort will spare her? Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son?”

“I have—I have asked him—”

“You disgust me,” said Dumbledore, and Harry had never heard so much contempt in his voice. Snape seemed to shrink a little, “You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?” Snape said nothing, but merely looked up at Dumbledore.

“Hide them all, then,” he croaked. “Keep her—them—safe. Please.” Deathly Hallows~ The Prince's Tale

Severus was pretty much wrong there, but he corrected himself the very next moment. He understood that Lily's safety means her family's safety too. He understood that Lily valued her family as much as he valued Lily.

“ They can die, as long as you have what you want?”

What exactly did Snape want? He knew Lily was unattainable for him. He just wanted her to be safe. He did not want Lily as such. He understood what Dumbledore meant. He corrected himself the vey next second :

“Hide them all, then,” he croaked. “Keep her—them—safe. Please.” (Taken From Quora)

[sendandburn]

The argument about Snape being an abusive teacher actually falls apart pretty quickly when you remember he did not support Umbridge in any single way and in fact made things deliberately difficult for her.

Had Snape been abusive, or sadistic, wanting to hurt the children, he would have openly supported and sucked up to Umbridge (like Filch did).

And he wouldn't be supplying her with fake Veritaserum or risking being put on probation for being "deliberately unhelpful".

[sendandburn]

Why can’t snape haters dislike him like normal people instead of saying he would be a pedophile or school shooter or something

[sendandburn]

I've noticed something about Snape—one of his biggest red lines, the thing that truly pushes him to his limit, is when someone's life is in danger.

In those moments, he becomes the most vulnerable version of himself. He forgets everything—every grudge, every precaution, every defense mechanism—and his only focus is getting people out of harm's way, no matter the cost.

So vulnerable that hearing about Ginny Weasley's kidnapping forces him to lean on the back of a chair. So vulnerable and unguarded that while saving Harry from Quirrell’s curse, an eleven-year-old sets him on fire. So vulnerable that, in his attempt to manage the chaos of the Shrieking Shack—with children, a werewolf, and a supposed murderer—he’s disarmed by 13-year-olds. He's so reckless that he makes an Unbreakable Vow for Draco. So reckless that he chases a werewolf, without Wolfsbane, under the full moon near sunset. So reckless that he ventures into the Forbidden Forest to find lost children. So reckless that he roams the hallways in the middle of the night, in his nightgown, chasing the sound of a scream. So reckless that, as a Death Eater, he risks everything to warn the leader of the opposite side about Voldemort's plans to kill the Potters—and is willing to give anything to save them. He's so ungrudging that he carefully carries an unconscious Sirius Black. So ungrudging that when Black is captured, he checks on him immediately and alerts the Order of the Phoenix. So ungrudging that he risks his cover to save Lupin.

And I think these moments say so much about his humanity—things the books never fully explain.

[sendandburn]

Maybe it was Eileen he heard talking shit about Muggles. Eileen, who married a Muggle and gave up her entire world for that Muggle—who lowered herself to live in a shitty neighborhood, in a shitty house, surrounded by shit, all for that Muggle. Eileen, who could have had a decent life in the magical world but ended up not even being able to buy her son clothes in the Muggle one—all because of a man. The same man who yelled and was violent and scary and made her existence miserable. So Eileen probably told her son how amazing the magical world was compared to the hellhole they lived in, the opportunities he could have, and how good it would feel to be among people like him—not among those Muggles who only brought misery, poverty, and violence.

Because Eileen is often portrayed as a helpless victim and fairly loving toward Severus, but I prefer to think she also contributed to her son's cognitive dissonance, to his resentment, and to his obsession with becoming someone in the magical world. That precisely because of the trauma and personal drama, she wasn't in any condition to be a functional mother, nor was she particularly emotionally close. And maybe, over the years, Severus felt torn between a certain affection for her—because, after all, she hadn’t been a total piece of shit like his father—but also a deep internal resentment for feeling like she had never truly protected him, despite being a witch and having the upper hand.

[sendandburn]

A thought about Sirius' death

One thing that many potterheads often believe is that, had Severus been more competent at teaching oclumency, Sirius wouldn't have died but the fict The inner Light - HP Style by RedPony, while innacurate in it's portrayal of Snape's feelings for Lily and (during the events of books) towards muggles & muggleborns* posed a excelent question : would a branch of magic wich stops an invasion of the mind also work to stop a soul conection? The answer according to the author and as of now myself is a big fat

If you remember a big plot point of the last three books was that Harry James Potter was also Lord Voldemort's final horcrux and there's no freaking way that the horcrux in Harry would allow his conection to Voldemort to be closed in any way shape or form, specially since, unlike the diary, it didn't contain enough of Voldemort's soul to believe that it could exist on its on. It needed more and where could it find more? On the main vessel! But since it couldn't be reabsorbed by him, it could do the next best thing wich is to keep their conection open.Thus oclumency was always bound to fail even if Harry had mastered, however that dosen't mean that it wouldn't be useful for other things.

Oh, and in regards to Severus not hating muggles and muggleborns by the time the books take place, if he does then why the only muggleborn he is mentioned to have bullied is Hermione always follow the books Granger? Like, i get not mentionig the Creevey brothers, as they weren't in Harry's year but Dean Thomas was.

[sendandburn]

Severus thoughts on Children

"For nearly all of Severus Snape’s life, he had been cruelly teased and mocked by children. As a child on Spinner’s End, he was the dirty freak who spoke strangely and dressed in his mother's old clothes for lack of anything else to wear. His father, somehow ignorant of how he had caused the conditions that made Severus a pariah among the other schoolchildren, urged him to put down his books and go outside and play.

“Just go toss a ball around, roll in the mud, just be normal, for Christ’s sake,” the man grumbled as he pushed Severus out the door.

Even when Severus, Circe forbid, attempted to smile and join in on the neighborhood games, more often than not he ended up with a face full of mud and fresh bruises for his trouble. Then, Severus had met someone like him. Lily. She wasn't really much like Severus, besides their shared magic. Lily was beautiful while Severus was ugly, vibrant while he was sullen, and she was kind while Severus was sharp-tongued and hateful. But at least, for a time, Lily had loved him regardless. Hogwarts was an escape from the horrors of his home but also held even children to torment him. There was James Potter and his gang of miscreants, who thought Severus was weird, ugly, poor, and dark. Then, there were his housemates who also thought he was weird, ugly, and poor, but not dark enough. After his brief tenure in the Dark Lord's service, Severus returned to Hogwarts to be tormented by children once more. Once again he was weird, ugly, and dark. In addition, he was strict, cruel, and unfair. Children were uniquely cruel, Severus learned. Their insults no longer harmed him. Severus knew himself. He knew which taunts were true and which were false. As for the taunts that were true, he learned to accept them. "

This came from a fanfict (The Timble of the Banshee) but quite honestly, i do believe that it might be true for canonverse as well : Severus spent his whole life being mistreated by children so he mistreated children as well (not that this justifies it).

[sendandburn]

Severus Snape is literally the most important character of the entire Marauders' generation because the fate of all of them depends on him, and because, basically, they only exist, aside from giving Harry some parents and friends, to complete Snape's backstory. Without Snape, we wouldn’t even know what those people’s school years were like because it wouldn’t matter. It's to explain why Snape has issues, why he has that personality, why he switches sides, or why he helps Harry while simultaneously hating him that we get flashbacks and learn things about them. So, guys, you should show him a bit more respect because if you have a fandom, it's basically thanks to that character you constantly leave out of your fics filled with people with colored hair and 70s wizards behaving as if they went to school during the golden era of Gen Z.

[sendandburn]

For anyone who hasn't seen them before, Hidden Search Operators are handy tricks you can use when you're either searching or filtering AO3.

summary: string is a generic way of explaining that you can search AO3 for a specific word that appears in a summary. You can do this from the search bar in the header, from the Any Field box at the top of the Advanced Search form, or from the Search Within Results box at the bottom of the filter menu.

Examples:

summary: Bruce

summary: "Bruce Banner"

summary: Bruce OR summary: Banner OR summary: Hulk

You need to put quotation marks around your search term if it is more than one word. The quotes make sure that the site searches for those two words together.

The other two operators listed work best in the Search Within Results box.

expected_number_of_chapters: 1 will return results where every fic has only 1 chapter currently posted.

You can use expected_number_of_chapters: -1 if you want results where every fic has more than 1 chapter currently posted.

otp:true will return results where there is only 1 relationship tag on the fic. If you want results where there are 2+ relationship tags (and no fics with only 1 relationship tag) then you can use otp:false

[sendandburn]

10 Non-Lethal Injuries to Add Pain to Your Writing

New Part: 10 Lethal Injury Ideas

If you need a simple way to make your characters feel pain, here are some ideas: 

1. Sprained Ankle

A common injury that can severely limit mobility. This is useful because your characters will have to experience a mild struggle and adapt their plans to their new lack of mobiliy. Perfect to add tension to a chase scene.

2. Rib Contusion

A painful bruise on the ribs can make breathing difficult, helping you sneak in those ragged wheezes during a fight scene. Could also be used for something sport-related! It's impactful enough to leave a lingering pain but not enough to hinder their overall movement.

3. Concussions

This common brain injury can lead to confusion, dizziness, and mood swings, affecting a character’s judgment heavily. It can also cause mild amnesia.

I enjoy using concussions when you need another character to subtly take over the fight/scene, it's an easy way to switch POVs. You could also use it if you need a 'cute' recovery moment with A and B.

4. Fractured Finger

A broken finger can complicate tasks that require fine motor skills. This would be perfect for characters like artists, writers, etc. Or, a fighter who brushes it off as nothing till they try to throw a punch and are hit with pain.

5. Road Rash

Road rash is an abrasion caused by friction. Aka scraping skin. The raw, painful sting resulting from a fall can be a quick but effective way to add pain to your writing. Tip: it's great if you need a mild injury for a child.

6. Shoulder Dislocation

This injury can be excruciating and often leads to an inability to use one arm, forcing characters to confront their limitations while adding urgency to their situation. Good for torture scenes.

7. Deep Laceration

A deep laceration is a cut that requires stitches. As someone who got stitches as a kid, they really aren't that bad! A 2-3 inch wound (in length) provides just enough pain and blood to add that dramatic flair to your writing while not severely deterring your character.

This is also a great wound to look back on since it often scars. Note: the deeper and wider the cut the worse your character's condition. Don't give them a 5 inch deep gash and call that mild.

8. Burns

Whether from fire, chemicals, or hot surfaces, burns can cause intense suffering and lingering trauma. Like the previous injury, the lasting physical and emotional trauma of a burn is a great wound for characters to look back on.

If you want to explore writing burns, read here.

9. Pulled Muscle

This can create ongoing pain and restrict movement, offering a window to force your character to lean on another. Note: I personally use muscle related injuries when I want to focus more on the pain and sprains to focus on a lack of mobility.

10. Tendonitis

Inflammation of a tendon can cause chronic pain and limit a character's ability to perform tasks they usually take for granted. When exploring tendonitis make sure you research well as this can easily turn into a more severe injury.

This is a quick, brief list of ideas to provide writers inspiration. Since it is a shorter blog, I have not covered the injuries in detail. This is inspiration, not a thorough guide. Happy writing! :)

Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks? 

Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors!

Instagram Tiktok

[sendandburn]

what could he have possibly said that molly thinks is so monstrous?

did he say he wanted to watch harry play quidditch just once again someday and–god forbid–maybe even play with him? did he say he missed harry and wanted him around? did he say he wished harry could come live with him? or that he was capable of looking after himself?

yeah, absolutely unforgivable, molly, well done.

to tell you the truth, not long ago i read a post–not the first, not the last here–discussing the lack of any empathy towards sirius and his trauma in the order of the phoenix, and i think that largely contributed to my curiosity, so i chose to eat the glass reread the book even though i know it's going to hurt. and so far i've been so infuriated with molly and dumbledore.

[sendandburn]

Harry and Snape’s Clashing Communication Styles

It's interesting to think that Harry and Snape don’t have longer conversations in the series, but when they do, their communication styles are so different that they often clash.

Harry’s way of communicating is practical and straightforward. He tends to break down complex ideas into simpler terms that he can easily understand. This makes sense, given his upbringing in a non-magical world and his tendency to rely more on gut instinct than deep theoretical knowledge. For Harry, things are usually black and white, and his directness shows his desire to cut through the confusion and get straight to the point.

Snape, on the other hand, has a more complex and layered way of speaking. His language is precise and often sarcastic, which reflects not just his intelligence but also his disdain for what he sees as Harry’s lack of subtlety. Snape’s use of imagery and metaphor, especially when he describes consepts, gives his speech a poetic, almost philosophical quality. He takes pleasure in showing off his superior knowledge and uses this as a way to belittle Harry.

We see this clash clearly in OOTP during Harry’s first Occlumency lesson:

Snape looked back at him for a moment and then said contemptuously, “Surely even you could have worked that out by now, Potter? The Dark Lord is highly skilled at Legilimency —” “What’s that? Sir?” “It is the ability to extract feelings and memories from another person’s mind —” “He can read minds?” said Harry quickly, his worst fears confirmed. “You have no subtlety, Potter,” said Snape, his dark eyes glittering. “You do not understand fine distinctions. It is one of the shortcomings that makes you such a lamentable potion-maker.” Snape paused for a moment, apparently to savor the pleasure of insulting Harry, before continuing, “Only Muggles talk of ‘mind reading.’ The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter . . . or at least, most minds are. . . .” He smirked. Whatever Snape said, Legilimency sounded like mind reading to Harry and he did not like the sound of it at all.

For Harry, when Snape mentions Legilimency, it immediately sounds like “mind reading,” which is a reasonable but overly simple way to understand such a complex concept. His quick jump to this conclusion shows his need to make sense of something that feels threatening, but it also reveals his limited grasp of the deeper nuances.

Snape, however, can’t resist mocking Harry’s lack of subtlety. His response is laced with condescension as he insists on the complexity of the mind and dismisses the idea of “mind reading” as something only muggles would think of. Snape’s explanation is detailed and philosophical, contrasting sharply with Harry’s desire for a straightforward answer.

Another great example of their different communication styles comes in HBP when Snape puts Harry on the spot, asking him to explain the difference between an inferius and a ghost:

“Let us ask Potter how we would tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost.” The whole class looked around at Harry, who hastily tried to recall what Dumbledore had told him the night that they had gone to visit Slughorn. “Er — well — ghosts are transparent —” he said. “Oh, very good,” interrupted Snape, his lip curling. “Yes, it is easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Potter. ‘Ghosts are transparent.’ ” Harry took a deep breath and continued calmly, though his insides were boiling, “Yeah, ghosts are transparent, but Inferi are dead bodies, aren’t they? So they’d be solid —” “A five-year-old could have told us as much,” sneered Snape. “The Inferius is a corpse that has been reanimated by a Dark wizard’s spells. It is not alive, it is merely used like a puppet to do the wizard’s bidding. A ghost, as I trust that you are all aware by now, is the imprint of a departed soul left upon the earth . . . and of course, as Potter so wisely tells us, transparent.” “Well, what Harry said is the most useful if we’re trying to tell them apart!” said Ron. “When we come face-to-face with one down a dark alley, we’re going to be having a shufti to see if it’s solid, aren’t we, we’re not going to be asking, ‘Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?’

Once again, Harry demonstrates his practical and straightforward approach. He gives a simple, clear distinction based on what would be most useful in a real-life situation—whether the entity is solid or transparent. This shows how Harry tends to focus on what’s immediately relevant and actionable, and Ron’s defense of Harry’s answer highlights this practicality. Ron even points out that in a real-world scenario, Harry’s answer is actually the most helpful, contrasting it with Snape’s more academic approach.

Snape, though, dismisses Harry’s answer as too simplistic and mocks him for stating what he sees as the obvious. Snape’s communication is more about the theoretical and precise understanding of magical concepts. He emphasizes the deeper, more complex nature of an Inferius, which, while academically accurate, is less practical in the context that Harry is thinking of. Snape’s disdain shows that he values this deeper, nuanced understanding more than the direct, practical knowledge that Harry offers.

These moments really bring out the deeper divide between Harry and Snape. Harry approaches things with instinct and a straightforward mindset, while Snape is all about nuance, precision, and seeing the layers in everything. Because they see the world so differently, they struggle to communicate, which only adds to the distrust and misunderstanding between them—a tension that echoes throughout the entire series.

[sendandburn]

Why Harry Potter never become a obscurus

"Harry Potter was punished for accidental magic. If he had been taught that he was being punished because his magic was evil, he could have tried to suppress it. And it would have mutated out of control but his relatives did not teach him that magic was evil. They taught him that it did not exist. It caused him to doubt his sanity because he couldn’t understand why he was being punished. But it did not allow his magic to mutate to the point where it could kill him or anyone else. "( taken from the fict more than magic)

It is is from a fict but i firmly believe that's what happened on canon, hence why it is here and not in my headcanon blog.