A Young Wizard's Journey - Prisoner of Azkaban

Introduction

Short version for those who don't care and just want to read

This book, medium amount of chapters, really long, bad, going forward, more chapters less words per chapter. Same amount of content just split up

Enjoy book

Love you

For those who do come here for these. Hi! Welcome to my Prisoner of Azkaban book. I've been wondering whether or not to get real in this bit but I've decided I might as well. Give you a peak behind the curtain

Truth be told, I struggled with this book a lot. I know and knew where I wanted Y/N's story to go. But Prisoner felt way too early to begin introducing these ideas. So instead I used it as a book to build new and old relationships which worked, for a while...

The big issue with Prisoner is that it's such a Harry centric book in comparison to the others. All the major plot points are purely linked to him and his past. Whereas whilst the others are about him they can also be linked to the others. Tom Riddle was after Harry, but Y/N was after the Basilisk etc. Whereas Sirius has nothing to do with Y/N

So twisting it to help reflect Y/N like the first two proved difficult. In the end, I stopped trying.

This caused 2 major issues:

1 - Burnout

My stories are long. I like them that way. But when every chapter is breaking 8k it's a lot. Especially as I tend to do the chapters in sittings.

If a chapter was finished in the sitting it left me feeling drained and took several hours of hard work

If a chapter wasn't finished I left the sitting feeling like I hadn't achieved everything I'd wanted too and that the story was subpar because of that

This lead to several sections of burnout whilst writing this. Goblet of Fire is reverting to Chamber and Philosophers methods. I'd sooner release 50 chapters at a 6k average word count than I would 20 at 10k. It's easier on me mentally and realistically.

Please understand my stories will not be smaller. Simply more spread out to prevent me feeling like I need to cram everything in

2 - Filler Attempts

This book fills out quite nicely on a reread and I'm grateful for that. But because I felt as though each chapter had to be a certain length a lot of scenes came in earlier than I'd have liked or just existed in the first place despite me originally having no plans to add them. This coupled with it being a Harry focused book meant that one of these happened essentially every other chapter

In the end they added to the story I wanted so it worked out, but they were simply filler sections because I saw my word count was 7450 and was like "nope, needs to break 8000"

I set a ridiculously high expectation on myself and forced the story to be to that standard. Forgetting the main reason I even began this. For fun. I'm endlessly grateful for all of you who read, comment, favourite, and all sorts. Even if you don't really like it I still appreciate you taking the time out of your day to look. But I can't do this story justice if I just beat my head against it. That's how it either loses its unique nature or I just burnout and give up. It needs to continue being a passion project, not a chore

So instead, I used this book to prepare myself for Goblet. Goblet is very much going to twist away from Harry's story. I've shown so far that Y/N isn't taking his story over but he's certainly alongside Harry through the worst of it. Harry is still having his tale be told but there is and will be another going on. Harry knows this and the two have a good friendship and respect because of that.

However, we know Harry's story. We know how his ends. So what about Y/N? His mother, father, ability, history? I can't exactly wait till after book 7 and then lore dump you. That wouldn't be satisfying

So instead I used this as a setup book for Y/N. That's not to say it's not important. This sets up connections, abilities, talents and even shows how strong of a wizard he truly is when he doesn't let himself be caught off guard. And there are plenty of moments in here that are truly his own. But it's not "his" story. Not just yet. We're nearly there. The foundation is being set

I promise you that this story is my baby. I am giving it everything I have, whenever I can and I have lots of plans for the future. I do my research, normally have 10+ tabs open on wikis to try and get as lore friendly as I can and try to provide growth to these characters. Even going so far as to look up Rune translations and what exactly Arithmancy is and entails. Any questions, feedback or queries throw them in a message or comment and I'd be happy to respond to you. I guarantee I almost always have a reason or explanation for something you've noticed even if I can't tell you why just yet

And I promise you that if there's a chapter in here you thought was "alright I guess"

I am definitely sat at home tearing my hair out about how it's the worst thing I've ever written

For those of you who read all of this, you rock and thank you for taking this peak behind the curtain with me. A writers struggle, we all get them. And know that if you're out there, writing, and feel this way. I get it. We all do. It sucks, but if I can do it then so can you! Just take the time and re-find what sparked your love in the first place. Read or watch something to grant you inspiration. Run through scenarios in your head. Ideas will come to you. But don't let it get you down, impostor syndrome and burnout are both very real things and they suck.

We're all human and the pressure only mounts as more of you arrive. But I'll do my upmost to let none of you down. And know that you, reading this now, yes you. Every single one of you. Are brilliant, and I wouldn't be here without you

Without further ado. Let's get into it. There's a bushy haired someone who'd like to talk to you...