Dear Yuletide Writer!
Oct. 4th, 2017 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorindaHeyyyy, writer! Hello!! Thank you so much for being willing to write something for me--I really appreciate you.
If you already have an idea you want to explore, please do go ahead and have fun with it. I want you to have a good time and enjoy your own story, and not stress out. But if more thoughts about my likes would be helpful, here are some!
Some of my general preferences:
Happy or at least hopeful endings (that doesn't rule out bittersweet or melancholy tones, and needn't be fluffy…I’m just not in the headspace for dark/hopeless/tragic stuff).
Slash, though for me that doesn't require mandatory sex. I mean, sex is great if the story you're telling calls for it. But don't feel hemmed in; it's entirely up to you. For me, slash is first about the depth of connection between the characters, the discovery of a startling and unexpected intimacy, a willingness to open up to previously hidden layers and vulnerabilities. Even the closest characters in my chosen fandoms still have some of those left to peel open.
Some of the tropes and approaches I enjoy: communicating between the lines, words that camouflage deeper/unspoken meanings, protectiveness, worry, extreme competence (with honest weakness), hurt/comfort (physical and/or emotional), chosen families, uncovering a secret, me-and-you-against-the-world, nurturing via food/drink/warmth. (Also, I must admit I like past tense best, unless there's a reason for present tense.)
Don't be afraid of classic frameworks if you like them! I mentioned hurt/comfort, but I also won't turn up my nose at Having To Share A Bed, Huddling for Warmth, Pretend Couple, Undercover as Rentboy, situations where one suffers or sacrifices for the other, rescues, stranded somewhere (idyllic or non-), etc.
If you're the sort of writer who'd like to hear a few more thoughts on my chosen characters, here are some details about my fandoms this year (in alphabetical order): Hap and Leonard (TV), Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World, Rejseholdet|Unit One, Shetland, The Sting (1973).
HAP AND LEONARD (TV):
Hap and Leonard are forever-lifemates and everyone knows it, including themselves. No matter what happens, like Leonard says, "In the end, it's always me and you."
I love how tenacious and skilled each is in his own way, but also how they have big wounds and blind spots and weaknesses--and that's one of the things they do for each other, looking out for the soft places, protective. Hap has this eternal willingness to hope and trust, and Leonard doesn't want to see that openness get misused; Leonard presses his deep feelings down under a hard, hurt shell, but Hap knows very well that doesn't make the feelings gone.
I keep thinking about Leonard's private exchange with Trudy in season one, where he warns her to look after Hap while he's gone, and she responds tartly, "It's sweet, actually... the way you pretend *he* needs *you*." Ouch. Even if it's partly true, she says it to hurt (i.e., you pretend Hap needs you so you don't have to admit how much you need Hap, but also wrongly implying Hap doesn't really need him), but how much might Leonard actually believe it when he's at his lowest?
The edges are rough in their world, and I love both how that shapes them and how they don't let it define them. A lot of their feelings are communicated with jokes and swearing, the back-and-forth of the crotchety old-marrieds--but they never let that be all there is to them. I love how middle-aged and worn down they are, but how together they always manage to bounce back for the next thing.
Other characters are welcome, or just Hap and Leonard on their own.
MASTER & COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003)
I adore the movie's style and tone. Jack's love for and deep knowledge of his ship, the way he cares for his officers & crew but also carries such natural authority over them, and his unquestioned intimacy with Stephen (and vice versa); Stephen's passion for the natural world and for medicine, his disdain for Howard's casual destructiveness, his respectful and gentle patience with Blakeney . The ship becomes a timeless world of its own, with Jack and Stephen at the center, Jack the body and Stephen the mind, with the two of them together forming the heart. ♥
I know the movie already gives us hurt/comfort of various stripes for both characters, but if you felt like it I would never be averse to more! Whether physical injury/tending, or emotional struggles/help, or whatever else, anything that would let them be in each other's space and show just how entwined they are. No need for h/c if you have a different idea, of course. I would just love to see their depth of connection--they have an intimacy with each other, are allowed liberties with each other, that no one else is and that they've come to rely on in this isolated little world of theirs.
You don't have to know anything about the books! I mean, if you do and you want to mix in some book tidbits, that's fine, I love them too. But this is the Master and Commander movie category, and that's all you need. Also, don't worry about technicalities of sailing terminology or whatever—include it if you want, skim over it if you want, it's all good.
Other characters are welcome if you want; I'm fond of all of them.
REJSEHOLDET | UNIT ONE
Fischer and La Cour seem to need each other so much, like there's something they just can't get anywhere else. But this need, while intense and unflagging, also seems frustrated and inchoate, like they just can't figure out how to grasp it and what to do about it.
They rely on the structure of the job to let them be together, work together, relax together, sit quietly in dark cars on stakeouts together, protect each other, rescue each other, talk about private and intimate things. And eventually, they rely on it to let them create a situation where literally Fischer's only lifeline is La Cour. They have this desire to connect at very deep levels, and I would love to see them finally learn to create and savor this connection without needing to pretend it's about something else.
I love their high levels of competence, each with their own very different angle: Fischer the expressive extrovert who is so good at talking with people, and La Cour the tightly-wrapped introvert who loses himself in the tiniest crime scene details. I love how matter-of-fact and supportive Fischer is about La Cour's abilities, even when they get otherworldly and frighten La Cour himself. I love their humor and the way they enjoy poking at and needling each other. But also how much they share with each other, support each other, think of each other.
Other characters are welcome if you want; I love the team. But Fischer and La Cour on their own would be great too.
SHETLAND
I love Jimmy and Duncan’s relationship, both in its contrasts and its surprising unity. On the one hand, Jimmy has a thoughtful, protective, almost paladin-like urge to protect his community with the power of the law compassionately applied; whereas Duncan earns his bread with a more slippery, cynical, opportunistic, shades-of-gray approach to the law and to people alike. So they’re coming from very different places and personalities.
But when it comes to their domestic situation, they are both such honest-to-god grownups, doing their best to co-parent together. Duncan explicitly points out that while he’s the biological father, Jimmy’s the actual dad, and there’s none of that soap-opera dramaz or jealousy that too much TV relies on. They don’t always agree on the perfect approach, but they still do their best to communicate and to support each other, and I love seeing them manage that.
I also love seeing that tenderness show up in parts of their lives that don’t have to do with Cassie—she was the original catalyst, but now Jimmy and Duncan can use that connection with and trust in each other in other arenas as well. Duncan comes to Jimmy as his automatic refuge in hard times, he can even just move in and make dinner; Jimmy in turn can stop pretending he has it all together, and lean on the wisdom Duncan has beneath his casual exterior.
Other characters are welcome if you want, though I’m not really up for exploring the aftermath of Tosh’s season 3 plotline in any detail.
THE STING (1973)
Henry and Johnny are the battle-worn veteran and the promoted minor-leaguer champing at the bit, whose competence and skill and risk-taking brings a little sweet justice into a hard world. They’re mentor and mentored, but also equal partners by the end of the movie, and I love either or both of those dynamics, so feel free to suit yourself--I enjoy Henry teaching and Johnny learning, but also Johnny opening Henry's eyes or otherwise keeping him on his toes.
Henry’s more of a realist, what with everything he’s seen and lost, and he’s a worrier--up all night before the sting, giving Johnny a secret bodyguard, taking on so much responsibility and feeling it heavy on his shoulders. Johnny’s more of a risk junkie, and until the end of the movie feels he has to keep aloof and look after himself (guilt over Luther?), but oh, the look on his face when he first sees Henry after the bodyguard reveal. Now he knows he has someone who feels so deeply about him, and he certainly seems to have deep feelings of his own in return.
I love the whole con-artist milieu, and feel free to include other characters if you want—I especially love Twist, but they're all great, as is that feeling of the far-flung network of skilled grifters who network like one big shady extended family.
Have fun writing, and thank you! *\o/*
If you already have an idea you want to explore, please do go ahead and have fun with it. I want you to have a good time and enjoy your own story, and not stress out. But if more thoughts about my likes would be helpful, here are some!
Some of my general preferences:
Happy or at least hopeful endings (that doesn't rule out bittersweet or melancholy tones, and needn't be fluffy…I’m just not in the headspace for dark/hopeless/tragic stuff).
Slash, though for me that doesn't require mandatory sex. I mean, sex is great if the story you're telling calls for it. But don't feel hemmed in; it's entirely up to you. For me, slash is first about the depth of connection between the characters, the discovery of a startling and unexpected intimacy, a willingness to open up to previously hidden layers and vulnerabilities. Even the closest characters in my chosen fandoms still have some of those left to peel open.
Some of the tropes and approaches I enjoy: communicating between the lines, words that camouflage deeper/unspoken meanings, protectiveness, worry, extreme competence (with honest weakness), hurt/comfort (physical and/or emotional), chosen families, uncovering a secret, me-and-you-against-the-world, nurturing via food/drink/warmth. (Also, I must admit I like past tense best, unless there's a reason for present tense.)
Don't be afraid of classic frameworks if you like them! I mentioned hurt/comfort, but I also won't turn up my nose at Having To Share A Bed, Huddling for Warmth, Pretend Couple, Undercover as Rentboy, situations where one suffers or sacrifices for the other, rescues, stranded somewhere (idyllic or non-), etc.
If you're the sort of writer who'd like to hear a few more thoughts on my chosen characters, here are some details about my fandoms this year (in alphabetical order): Hap and Leonard (TV), Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World, Rejseholdet|Unit One, Shetland, The Sting (1973).
HAP AND LEONARD (TV):
Hap and Leonard are forever-lifemates and everyone knows it, including themselves. No matter what happens, like Leonard says, "In the end, it's always me and you."
I love how tenacious and skilled each is in his own way, but also how they have big wounds and blind spots and weaknesses--and that's one of the things they do for each other, looking out for the soft places, protective. Hap has this eternal willingness to hope and trust, and Leonard doesn't want to see that openness get misused; Leonard presses his deep feelings down under a hard, hurt shell, but Hap knows very well that doesn't make the feelings gone.
I keep thinking about Leonard's private exchange with Trudy in season one, where he warns her to look after Hap while he's gone, and she responds tartly, "It's sweet, actually... the way you pretend *he* needs *you*." Ouch. Even if it's partly true, she says it to hurt (i.e., you pretend Hap needs you so you don't have to admit how much you need Hap, but also wrongly implying Hap doesn't really need him), but how much might Leonard actually believe it when he's at his lowest?
The edges are rough in their world, and I love both how that shapes them and how they don't let it define them. A lot of their feelings are communicated with jokes and swearing, the back-and-forth of the crotchety old-marrieds--but they never let that be all there is to them. I love how middle-aged and worn down they are, but how together they always manage to bounce back for the next thing.
Other characters are welcome, or just Hap and Leonard on their own.
MASTER & COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003)
I adore the movie's style and tone. Jack's love for and deep knowledge of his ship, the way he cares for his officers & crew but also carries such natural authority over them, and his unquestioned intimacy with Stephen (and vice versa); Stephen's passion for the natural world and for medicine, his disdain for Howard's casual destructiveness, his respectful and gentle patience with Blakeney . The ship becomes a timeless world of its own, with Jack and Stephen at the center, Jack the body and Stephen the mind, with the two of them together forming the heart. ♥
I know the movie already gives us hurt/comfort of various stripes for both characters, but if you felt like it I would never be averse to more! Whether physical injury/tending, or emotional struggles/help, or whatever else, anything that would let them be in each other's space and show just how entwined they are. No need for h/c if you have a different idea, of course. I would just love to see their depth of connection--they have an intimacy with each other, are allowed liberties with each other, that no one else is and that they've come to rely on in this isolated little world of theirs.
You don't have to know anything about the books! I mean, if you do and you want to mix in some book tidbits, that's fine, I love them too. But this is the Master and Commander movie category, and that's all you need. Also, don't worry about technicalities of sailing terminology or whatever—include it if you want, skim over it if you want, it's all good.
Other characters are welcome if you want; I'm fond of all of them.
REJSEHOLDET | UNIT ONE
Fischer and La Cour seem to need each other so much, like there's something they just can't get anywhere else. But this need, while intense and unflagging, also seems frustrated and inchoate, like they just can't figure out how to grasp it and what to do about it.
They rely on the structure of the job to let them be together, work together, relax together, sit quietly in dark cars on stakeouts together, protect each other, rescue each other, talk about private and intimate things. And eventually, they rely on it to let them create a situation where literally Fischer's only lifeline is La Cour. They have this desire to connect at very deep levels, and I would love to see them finally learn to create and savor this connection without needing to pretend it's about something else.
I love their high levels of competence, each with their own very different angle: Fischer the expressive extrovert who is so good at talking with people, and La Cour the tightly-wrapped introvert who loses himself in the tiniest crime scene details. I love how matter-of-fact and supportive Fischer is about La Cour's abilities, even when they get otherworldly and frighten La Cour himself. I love their humor and the way they enjoy poking at and needling each other. But also how much they share with each other, support each other, think of each other.
Other characters are welcome if you want; I love the team. But Fischer and La Cour on their own would be great too.
SHETLAND
I love Jimmy and Duncan’s relationship, both in its contrasts and its surprising unity. On the one hand, Jimmy has a thoughtful, protective, almost paladin-like urge to protect his community with the power of the law compassionately applied; whereas Duncan earns his bread with a more slippery, cynical, opportunistic, shades-of-gray approach to the law and to people alike. So they’re coming from very different places and personalities.
But when it comes to their domestic situation, they are both such honest-to-god grownups, doing their best to co-parent together. Duncan explicitly points out that while he’s the biological father, Jimmy’s the actual dad, and there’s none of that soap-opera dramaz or jealousy that too much TV relies on. They don’t always agree on the perfect approach, but they still do their best to communicate and to support each other, and I love seeing them manage that.
I also love seeing that tenderness show up in parts of their lives that don’t have to do with Cassie—she was the original catalyst, but now Jimmy and Duncan can use that connection with and trust in each other in other arenas as well. Duncan comes to Jimmy as his automatic refuge in hard times, he can even just move in and make dinner; Jimmy in turn can stop pretending he has it all together, and lean on the wisdom Duncan has beneath his casual exterior.
Other characters are welcome if you want, though I’m not really up for exploring the aftermath of Tosh’s season 3 plotline in any detail.
THE STING (1973)
Henry and Johnny are the battle-worn veteran and the promoted minor-leaguer champing at the bit, whose competence and skill and risk-taking brings a little sweet justice into a hard world. They’re mentor and mentored, but also equal partners by the end of the movie, and I love either or both of those dynamics, so feel free to suit yourself--I enjoy Henry teaching and Johnny learning, but also Johnny opening Henry's eyes or otherwise keeping him on his toes.
Henry’s more of a realist, what with everything he’s seen and lost, and he’s a worrier--up all night before the sting, giving Johnny a secret bodyguard, taking on so much responsibility and feeling it heavy on his shoulders. Johnny’s more of a risk junkie, and until the end of the movie feels he has to keep aloof and look after himself (guilt over Luther?), but oh, the look on his face when he first sees Henry after the bodyguard reveal. Now he knows he has someone who feels so deeply about him, and he certainly seems to have deep feelings of his own in return.
I love the whole con-artist milieu, and feel free to include other characters if you want—I especially love Twist, but they're all great, as is that feeling of the far-flung network of skilled grifters who network like one big shady extended family.
Have fun writing, and thank you! *\o/*
no subject
Date: 2017-10-05 03:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-10-05 02:44 pm (UTC)I wasn't sure how much I'd like them, but it turns out I love them! ♥ Seems to me there's always a risk, with dude buddy canons, that the writers might only be able to write them bonding with banter and namecalling. And it's not that I mind banter and namecalling. BUT, if that's the only tool the writers have in their toolbox, I wear out pretty quick, because it doesn't have any layers or depth or nuance, and ends up feeling shallow and samey.
So, I worried about that with H&L, but that isn't what I got! Show and books alike. There are the jokes and namecalling and back-and-forth, like where Leonard rescues Hap then wakes him from his near-drowning by calling "SHITHEAD." (Or is it Asshole? :D ) But, there are also great broccoli-test silences, and actual conversations about actual feelings, and also little glowing sparks of things that are too intense and important for banter or even conversations.
Like, the protectiveness they feel for each other, and how they sometimes try to keep it hidden, maybe trying not to make the other guy feel like he has weaknesses that need protecting. As when Hap grabs homophobic Uncle Chester and threatens him if he keeps treating Leonard like that, or when Leonard warns Trudy that she better look after Hap while Leonard's not there to do it properly. It's like being-protective-about-being-protective, and on top of all the other stuff it's a cherry on the sundae.
The books, happily, are similar. I wasn't sure if the show had added chemistry from the actors that the books might not have--but Hap and Leonard seem just as close in the books, in the same sorts of ways. At least in the ones I've read so far.
I also just really love the whole tone and approach of it. The ages of the characters, the way they live and what they do. It's so different from the usual shiny-upper-class-everywhere-is-a-bleached-Los-Angeles of soooo much other TV. Not that I always mind shiny-idealized things, but man, not all the time in almost everything, and certainly not where everyone's magically whitey mcwhiterson from a toothpaste ad.
Besides, the sound design is really satisfying. The creaks and ka-CHUNKs of steel car and truck doors. ♥ :D
no subject
Date: 2017-10-06 07:05 am (UTC)Much as I loved S1, I ADORED S2, and really appreciated the subtleties of both characters in those eps, and how they evolved after the events of S1.
Just FYI, James Purefoy is a joy on Twitter, and he just posted this cool photo and thought on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ48iPfH-oV/)
no subject
Date: 2017-10-07 05:46 pm (UTC)It doesn't seem like anyone has offered to write it so far, so it probably won't happen this yuletide. But oh well...given more time, maybe I will eventually feel ready to take a crack at it. I'm a slow learner, but you never know!