Pure Harmony

Harmony. <3

Meet S.D. Hopkins 

Q. Who are you?

A. I go by many pennames. My latest one is S.D. Hopkins. =) I'm a 19-year-old college student working three part-time jobs. Needless to say, I never seem to have enough time to think. I live at home with my parents and three of my siblings (ages 18, 8, and 22 months).

Q. What do the S and the D stand for?

A. LOL, the S stands for Squishy and the D stands for Davis. Squishy Davis Hopkins.

Q. Why did you use that as a penname?

A. It was something I came up with in High School. I called one of my best friends Squishy and he absolutely hated it. As for the Davis Hopkins part, I really wanted to attach something to Squishy and make it sound awesome. S.D. Hopkins does sound like a professional writer, yes?

Q. What is your favorite pair to write about? OTP?

A. My OTP varies every month (I guess it's not much of an OTP, huh?). At the moment, I'm utterly obsessed and devoted to Harmony, or Harry/Hermione. Like someone else said, 

"That's the huge attraction of H/Hr, of course; the pleasure in watching a deep, rock-solid friendship flower and evolve into romantic love. Very satisfying; so much more than the sudden appearance of hormonal chest monsters!"

Q. Why did you start writing fanfiction/other works?

A. It started in eighth grade when my friend would bring me manga books. I would devour them and became so impatient waiting for the next day for him to bring more that I googled stories about manga books. I was so inspired by the stories that I read that I decided to give it a shot myself. I eventually stumbled across FF.Net, and it's been a fulfilling relationship ever since.

Q. How long have you been writing?

A. Since the sixth grade when I knew nothing about grammar, punctuation, characterization, or anything. (At least it seems that way. I've stumbled across some of my old works--they're awful.)

Q. What was the first fanfic you wrote? What do you think of it now?

A. First one was an Inuyasha story. It was an extremely overdone plot (Shikon High AU plot) and it didn't really contribute anything to the fandom.

Q. What do you really think of your writing?

A. Well, I'd like to think I've gotten loads better and am more than decent. There's always room for improvement, of course, but I find that as the years go by and the more I write, I can actually see my goal of publishing a novel getting closer and closer.

Q. When you come down with writer's block and can't seem to come up with anything, what do you do?

A. I go back to the original source of my inspiration. For Harry Potter, I re-watch the movies, surf through my books, listen to music, pace, and write down whatever comes to mind.

Q. Are there any fanfiction trends you can't stand or are sick of?

A. There are a good number of stories that I just can't stand.

1) Bashing stories. It's just so immature and pointless to me, and most of the so-called humor isn't funny.

2) Mary Sue/Gary Stu stories. I really don't want to know about your deluded fantasies; keep those in your head, please.

3) Incorrect stories. What I mean by this is stories that obviously didn't pay attention to HP or even look up information. Parseltongue is the language, and someone who speaks it is a Parselmouth. It is an inherited trait and cannot be gained through some obscure ritual (otherwise, I think most of Slytherin house would have already done so). Unless you can convince me otherwise, please, for the love of Merlin, get it right!

4) Obviously un-betaed stories. There are tons of directories, and spell check is not so hard to find.

5)Review whores. I love reviews; what writer doesn't? That does not mean you can keep your story hostage. It's one of the biggest turn-offs in all of fanfiction.

Q. What do you find yourself reading the most?

A. Not going to lie--I'm a fan of super!Harry. Well, I'm a fan of it when it's done realistically. He can cast a fully corporeal Patronus at the age of thirteen--something most adults in the HP world can't so--and he's defeated Voldemort numerous times. Yes, I'm aware a good deal of those times were luck, but I just enjoy having Harry's strong points displayed blatantly. (In case you haven't figured it out, he's my favorite character.)

Q. Do you have trouble taking criticism?

A. Not at all. I love the chance to improve my writing. Sure, it annoys me when people blatantly flame me since I think that's also immature. There's no need to insult my intelligence just because you don't like what I've written. On the other hand, I also feel that if someone decided to tell me something negative, no matter how crass or rude, then someone else was thinking about it. It just makes me question, "Do they have a point? How can I rectify this mistake? Is this something I can explain in a future chapter, or should I include it  in this one and repost?"

Have more questions? Please feel free to fill out the contact form below, and I'll answer it as soon as I can. Thanks!

The stories found here are based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Story ideas found on this website are © S.D. Hopkins.