REVIEW: Crossroads
Post all your general reviews of the revamped Crossroads here.
Mardia Registered User
Posts: 39
(7/27/03 7:16 pm)
Re: REVIEW: Crossroads
YOU UPDATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I'm the first to review this! Hah!
Now, to the actual review.
Great job on keeping the basic premise the same, while still tweaking things to fit within canon. My favorite part, when James is teasing Lily and she believes he's just doing it to embarrass her. Oh, Lily, Lily, Lily...how charmingly blind you are. And the last part? Loved it before, love it just as much now.
BTW, Arabella's still in this! Yay! I loved her animosity between her and Sirius, and I can't wait to see how you introduce this.
Just to reiterate: I am so glad you updated and saved me from Crossroads withdrawal. Now, as long as you update frequently, (and by that I mean not just every month or two months--oh, yeah, it happened) I'll be happy.
Revamp Review
Oh this is smashing!! You can't imagine my great surprise and excitement when I saw you had posted the first part of the revamped Crossroads!
I am happy to say after reading the new version of your beautiful story, I found it completely spectacular. The revisions and slight changes were perfect. All I can say is that now I am (if it is possible) even more excited to see the rest of the chapters.
I am also extremely happy that you kept Arabella's character and name in the revamped version. I one of those who believe that perhaps Arabella Figg is a relative of the Mrs. Figg who has helped to guard Harry at Privet Drive.
Superb work, Emmyjean!! All of us at the Tower are so proud of your stunning work!!
Re: Revamp Review
Emmyjean, you are amazing! On a whim, I went to go see if there were any recent updates and you updated!
Amazing job with the prologue. Loved the way you tied in canon so well and great job keeping the characters in character.
Can't wait to read more!
musichick Registered User
Posts: 25
(7/28/03 1:31 pm)
Re: Revamp Review
I honestly can say that I hadn't been expecting an update so soon. After all, you have been working really hard on the site. But it was a really super surprise to come home to after a vigorous couple of hours of swimming, believe it or not. I'm going off-track now, so on to the actual review.
I really liked the fact that you managed to tie in the story with OotP without changing too much of it. James's arrogance is definitely appropriate, and you can even see his attraction to Lily, too. Also, Peter Pettigrew's characterization was great. Peter always seemed sort of lost and out of place in this chapter, and that's the way I envisioned him since PoA. The way you brought about James's hatred of Lily is realistic, too. I wasn't quite sure how you were going to make that happen, but it sure suits my liking. The way Lily sees James is super! The fact that she figures that he does this for her own embarrassment.
Quote:Turning, he eyed her for a moment before a slow smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “Besides...it’s obvious that the things I’ve been doing so far to impress you haven’t been working.” She narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head, embarrased as always when he did this in front of people. It was clear they were completely different people and had nothing in common, and everyone knew that a relationship of any kind between them was a ridiculous notion...but did he have to use this knowledge to consistently make fun of her? She knew he wasn’t serious, and that it was probably just his way of joking with her...but she couldn’t help feeling sometimes that there was a slight bit of maliciousness behind it as well. He knew full well that it embarrassed her...and he knew that everytime he did it, he’d get a laugh.
I don't find it odd at all that Lily's not aware of his infatuation with her. I mean, let's face it, who would?
To recap, I really thought it was great. I can't wait to see how you'll make Arabella tie into the story and how you'll make Lily and James's relationship develop.
emilyjm Registered User
Posts: 133
(7/29/03 2:47 pm)
K, now that I've expressed my extreme gratitude at seeing the update, Emmyjean, on to the comments.
This is great, I love how you managed to update Crossroads to follow OotP, and still managed to keep it the Crossroads that we all know and love. I'd forgotten how great this story was (if that's possible), and now I can't wait to see how the rest of the story pans out. Excellent job, Emmyjean!
Emily
Melissa Renee Registered User
Posts: 11
(7/30/03 9:43 pm)
Re: Crossroads Revamped
I'm so excited that you started putting it up!
I loved the interaction between James and Lily, especially the fact that Lily is clueless concerning James' affections for her and how she misinterprets his comment about trying to impress her.
Melissa
littlepooh Registered User
Posts: 134
(8/1/03 12:35 pm)
Re: Crossroads Revamped
Alright I'm confused. Is that the exact same chapter as the original. I didn't notice anything different, and if so why did it take so long to post. Or is you master plan to divert all our attention away from the fact that Casca hasn't updated Seeking Ginny in ages, by giving us a little bit of crossroads at a time. Very evil of you by the way.
Mardia Registered User
Posts: 53
(8/1/03 12:48 pm)
Re: Crossroads Revamped
littlepooh, no, it's not the exact same chapter. I saw a few mentions--two, I think--of Remus trying to defend Lily against James and Sirius. I'm not completely sure, but I don't think that was in the original version.
On another note, Emmyjean, I noticed that you referred to James as a Chaser when in OotP, he was definitely mentioned as being a Seeker. It was only a passing thing, but it caught my attention.
Oh, and Emmyjean, if you think you're going to distract us from Casca's lack of updates, it's not gonna work. In fact, I'm off to nag her some more. The Nagging Dungeon's like a second home to me...
Re: Crossroads Revamped
First off, to clarify, as you prolly didn’t see her author's note, Littlepooh, many of Emmyjean's chapters won't change—just a testimony to how good she was at guessing I suppose!
Secondly, in the interest of holding back chapters, it takes a certain amount of patience and resilience to hold back chapters even though they are finished because in a sense, they aren’t completely finished until you've written certain future scenes. I know I'm always ahead one chapter with whatever fic I'm writing – that is, I update with chapter 15 when, and only when, chapter 16 is completed. It's not because I'm evil and want to make people wait, it's because I want to be absolutely certain that everything works and not post something that I may have to change. Much is the same in Crossroads case—consider that in order for Emmyjean to have even begun posting chapters, later scenes that may not even appear until the very end of the fic had to be written and worked. In order for her to upload this chapter, much effort was put into being confident that nothing would have to be changed—effort in the way of writing so much. I yell at her all the time for uploading the chapters too soon—even back before this revamp-- and here she's given two chapters in three days. If it were up to me, she would have waited until the entire thing was reworked before uploading… I'm a paranoid perfectionist like that. Emmyjean is more confident in her work.
Thirdly, Mardia, I'm confused about the Seeker thing. Rowling clearly said in an interview that James was a Chaser and nothing in OotP convinced me otherwise… perhaps it was just an impression from him fooling with that snitch or something?
Also—the place to joke about why we are holding back updates and such is the Nagging Forum, not the review threads. Please try and adhere to this as we worked so hard on the boards revamp. Our plan was to change the Fanfiction review threads from the rather lame direction they were heading in to a more active discussion. So... strictly reviews here please.
Thanks for listening everyone... we know it's going to take some time to adjust to things. Edited by: Casca at: 8/1/03 5:35 pm
littlepooh Registered User
Posts: 135
(8/2/03 6:38 am)
crossroads revamp I guess i just hoped something would change in the first few chapters and was surprised that nothing had. Like James attitude towards Lliy.He's still so mean! I just thought given what we now know that you might ease up on the meaness and have him a bit more able to joke with her. Although that tension between them is what really makes the story work in the long run. In fact the story in it's original form isn't far off from canon at at, and now i'm really curious to see what does change.
A slight request if possible, could you some how work in James messing up his own hair It seems like a habit he's got and it's just too cute.
The prologue was beautifully done, Emmyjean. It was the same lovely Crossroads even though you had me scared there at first with this line:
Quote:"Besides...it's obvious that the things I've been doing so far to impress you haven't been working."
But then you made it all better in the end with the animosity between them that eventually grows into love! Yay!
The second chapter is the same as it always has been. Nothing changed right? The parts with Remus had been there already in the original. It's sad that I can tell when stuff has changed because I've read it so many times.
Cheers!
emilyjm Registered User
Posts: 136
(8/4/03 2:57 pm)
Crossroads Revamped
Loverly first chapter, Emmyjean! Can't say much that hasn't already been said. Your characters are great, you write the animosity between James and Lily so well! Anywho, keep them coming!
Crossroads. . .part deux
Oy, I can't believe it's taken me so long to come here.
Thank you so much Emmyjean for posting this chapter. I enjoyed reading it again and like the rest of the people posting here I wasn't sure how much you changed in this chapter from the original. And since I always notice any mention of Remus, I did notice that you added a bit more to the whole scene with him giving her an apologetic look and his reaction (or lack thereof) to James's and Sirius's insult. It's those subtle hints and references to cannon that I love about your writing.
Also, was that reference to Peter's voice giving her the creeps new? Peter's character development in fics is another thing I look closely to. One of things I admired about Crossroads (before Ootp) came out was how fairly you treated Peter. After all, why would Lily and James choose someone as their secret keeper that they didn't really like. But then again, this was before we saw that brief glimpse into the life of the "Marauders" and JKR herself describing his snigger being "shrill."
And thank you for keeping Bella. Love her. After all, the Arabella Figg in the series is a "Mrs.". . .so unless your Bella is one of those teens who married when she was 16, I'm going to assume she's a relative. But you will explore this a little more in the story, won't you??? **puppy dog face**
Fabulous job and I look forward to reading the rest and looking for all of those slight changes.
Re: Crossroads. . .part deux
Thanks so much to the people who have posted as well as to those lurkers I know are in here somewhere for reading. As I've said before countless times and will probably say a million times again, it means alot to see you here.
I think it's my duty now to clear up the seeming confusion we had about how much the chapters were going to be changing and what my goal is for this fic...maybe I didn't do as good a job explaining it in my author's note as I'd hoped.
There will be some chapters of this fic that will change a little bit (such as the prologue), some that will not change at all (such as chapter one) and some that will not at all resemble the original version. Most of the latter will come toward the end of the fic, as that's where I had to make most of my changes. The reason I'm not specifying with each chapter exactly which are changed and which aren't isn't because I'm trying to be horrid, but merely because this isn't Crossroads: Version Two. This IS Crossroads now, and I wanted everyone to read it in its entirety and not just skip the chapters that they know haven't changed. Thos chapters are still vital to the story, and some of them are given a whole new dimension by new things that have been added later on in the fic. The fact that I haven't added anything to certain chapters doesn't mean I skipped them or overlooked them...I didn't add because nothing needed to be changed.
What Casca said about the way we post chapters here is right on target. See, the way an author writes a fic isn't chapter by chapter, it's as one story. Casca already knows (and therefore so do I) how Seeking Ginny is going to go, for example...every detail planned down to the last tiny thing. It's the only way to do it right, because if you don't plan ahead then while you're writing chapter ten you're going to suddenly realize that you should have put something way back in chapter four and want to kill yourself because you've already uploaded it, and people have already read it. There's no worse feeling. So in order to start posting chapters, I have to have everything planned out already...not necessarilly WRITTEN, just planned.
So...hopefully no one will be disappointed if certain chapters don't change. It doesn't mean that I didn't work hard on them the first time around...or like I said, that I overlooked them this time. Everything was done with care, I assure you. The thing was that I knew people loved the old Crossroads, and that I probably shouldn't change things just for the sake of changing them. I wanted it to remain, in concept and character, the fic everyone read the first time as much as possible.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Anyway, thank you all AGAIN for your reviews. I hope I'm being clear and not just muddling it all more.
musichick Registered User
Posts: 26
(8/6/03 9:31 am)
Re: REVIEW: Crossroads
I just have a little question here on my end. About Arabella, how can she be a Figg? I was a little confused when you mentioned that she was still Arabella Figg. And if I read correctly, in OotP, it's established that she's a squib and therefore couldn't go to Hogwarts as a student studying magic. Perhaps you can clear that up for me.
Also, thanks for the clarification about the story and the updates. I'll be sure to read each chapter thoroughly.
Re: REVIEW: Crossroads
I always meant to review this story and I figured since Emmyjean's putting so much effort into tinkering with the story I should at least stop being lazy and give her the review she deserves.
I've actually read the whole thing pre-OOTP, so I'm very excited to see what you do with it now that you've got so much more canon to work with. I love that you refuse to just leave it "as is" and slap an AU on it and I fully believe that the end product will be even better than before (which is hard to believe is possible, but if anyone can do it, you can Emmyjean).
I think your characterizations are spot on, which is very difficult to find in fan fiction. Your writing style is also one I admire greatly. You have the ability to show instead of tell, which is a very difficult skill.
Beyond that, I am dying to see how you resolve the Arabella Figg puzzle. That was probably the only thing that ever really bothered me about your story. I was never in the camp that thought Mrs. Figg was a former schoolmate of Lily's, but I never knew what to make of Arabella Figg. I kinda assumed she and Mrs. Figg were the same person, so seeing Arabella Figg used in FF kinda annoys me. But I'm interested to see what you do with Arabella after the info we learned about Mrs. Figg. Hope that made sense.
Finally, I am so happy that you take the time to actually plan your stories. It seems that so many writers just write a first chapter and post it, not even bothering to think about where they're taking their story. I've never understood that method of writing.
Anyways, thank you for sharing your talent with us Emmyjean!I look forward to seeing more of Crossroads soon (and that was my not-so-subtle hint that I'm dying for the next chapter).
"Astronauts have an unaccountable hold on us. They are explorers. Curious, humorous, serious, daring. Where they go, they go in peace. Every kid wants to be one. Astronauts are the essence of humanity -- the good parts. They are somewhere inside each and every one of us."
--Tony Phillips To the astronauts of the shuttle Columbia and their families.
Lioness Registered User
Posts: 31
(8/11/03 1:45 am)
Re: REVIEW: Crossroads
That was fabulous, I cannot wait to see more of Post-OoTp Crossroads! Thanks so much for posting frequently. I love this story, and the only thing I regret is not printing it all out when I had the chance! (lol--darn my hesitancy to kill two or three trees)
Keep 'em coming!
Love always,
Lioness
Re: REVIEW: Crossroads
Hmm...Maybe Arabella is the Mrs. Figg from the books. Maybe she just decided to keep her last name. I don't know...just a thought!
musichick Registered User
Posts: 27
(8/19/03 4:20 pm)
Re: REVIEW: Crossroads
Okay, this is a review for chapter three. I'd only checked earlier today and there wasn't anything. I'm glad I decided to check again, so I could read the new chapter.
Anyway, I'm really sorry if I didn't pick up on that many changes. But the chapter still holds - and held - all of its power and emotion. I wasn't quite sure, that if I read it a second (Okay, maybe it's not exactly a second. It's more like reading it in a different context. I don't know if that makes sense...) that the story would still have the same impact on me. You know, it did. And that's what surprised me. I'm pretty sure I've already reviewed this chapter Pre-OotP on ff.net, but I'm not quite sure. So, here it is. It's not much, but it's enough from me to say that I really like it. I'm glad to hear that the chapters will be coming quicker.
and excitement when I saw you had posted the first part of the revamped Crossroads! 
of you by the way.
Emmyjean is more confident in her work. 
I guess i just hoped something would change in the first few chapters and was surprised that nothing had. Like James attitude towards Lliy.He's still so mean! I just thought given what we now know that you might ease up on the meaness and have him a bit more able to joke with her. Although that tension between them is what really makes the story work in the long run. In fact the story in it's original form isn't far off from canon at at, and now i'm really curious to see what does change.
It seems like a habit he's got and it's just too cute.
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