I hope you'll add some hints from your own writing as well. Your Snape is especially nasty and very interesting, and I know you'll have lots of advice to share.

I espically like LariLee's Snape. Check Occlumency for 'A Right Bastard'...she got a new PWP on Occlumency too and I can't remember the name right now. She also has 'Great Plans' on Ashwinder which is more like a series of vinegettes that portray the progression of the relationship between Snape and Hermione and I think he's perfect in that.

I've noticed that "canon" Snape has a very limited amount of expressions: He says, he smirks, he sneers, he barks (but only one or two times in all of canon JKR---mostly, Sirius "barks". but Snape also does this on occasion.)

I plan to go through ALL of my Snapey quotes, just to double-check---but can anyone think of more expressions before I do??

I try to keep Snape more formal with no slang and few contractions. I see him as having infinite control and less likely to voice a positive emotion. He hisses, murmurs, and whispers. He people-watches a bit, so knows most buttons to push and exactly how to push them. I also feel Snape thinks he deserves the bad in life, yet rails against his fortune. Very complex in thoughts and ideas and apt to brood. I also see him as exceptionally intelligent and more apt to appreciate intelligence in others as long as he is not in direct competition. And who can mention Snape without saying "snarky"? I can't.

That's almost exactly the way I see him, couldn't have said it better. Someone mentioned something about a virgin Snape. This is something I can hardly imagine. I always imagine him to have quite some experience. After all he may not be someone who is attractive at first sight like Gilderoy Lockhart. But the latter turns out to be pretty shallow if you look a bit closer and Snape only gets more appealing the closer you look. So I guess with the right women a character like Snape might be very successful. I mean, he has all of us drooling helplessly, doesn't he? *g*

...when I first started writing my humble fanfic, I tried so hard to portray my Snape as canon that later on, when I steered him away from canon, I got all kinds of unhappy feedback from readers. I found out that keeping him close to canon right from the start has real drawbacks, which is something novice writers need to know as they reason out how close to canon they want to portray him right from the start.

...we have to keep him Snape-like (one of the requirements of SH is keeping characters recognizable.) But how to do that, while having him do new and different things, is the challenge.

...Someone mentioned something about a virgin Snape. This is something I can hardly imagine. I always imagine him to have quite some experience.

...Snape only gets more appealing the closer you look.

I admit that I end up feeling sorry for Severus a lot of the time because, despite his considerable virtues, he's so howlingly dysfunctional. I mean, really--the man is fascinating, but psychologically he's a mess. Occasionally I look back at what I've written and realize I've portrayed him in a far more sympathetic light than canon could possibly begin to support. When I do that, he's saner, more sensitive, and far less bitter, paranoid and vindictive; he also has good, logical reasons for behaving abominably. I find myself making excuses for him, or ignoring his worst moments, rather than include scenes that make him look bad.

I can't let myself pretend that he doesn't behave in monstrous ways for stupid, petty reasons. Writing wicked, witty, snarky dialogue for him is lots of fun, but I also have to explore the ugly, ill-concealed rage that lies beneath it. However, he isn't evil; I do think he has some ability (however limited and conditional) to form emotional attachments to other people. Figuring out what conditions have to be met before he will take that kind of risk is part of what makes him so interesting to write.

I don't think he'd be a hit with the ladies (or the gentlemen, for that matter), and it would be a very rare person who could find him sexually attractive as he is.

So I think Snape may also be portrayed from the trio's POV to a certain extent. And students are very likely to see their teachers in a much more negative light, especially when they are very strict and frightening like Snape. So I think he is only half as ugly as he appears in the description. At least that is the way I depicted him in my fan fiction. He is certainly no Brad Pitt but he is not completely unattractive. From a thirteen year old girl's point of view though.... rather hooked nose, pale, skinny... not exactly the stuff a teenager's dreams are made of. *g*

He's skinny and physically unattractive, neglects the finer points of grooming, keeps people at arm's length (either through formality or hostility), and is obsessed with self-control (even as he frequently loses it in explosive rages). When he was younger, all of these liabilities, plus coming from a poor background, would have made him even more undesirable.
<SNIP>
Ah, yes--but you have to be willing to stick around for a closer look. That's not a hard task for a reader, but if you're a witch hanging out at the Three Broomsticks, hoping to meet Mr. Right (or at least Mr. Will-Do-For-Tonight), that's another story.