Dear Scribbler
Jul. 28th, 2013 12:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swan_towerThis was a last-second decision to sign up -- it was pure chance that I saw the announcement on the Yuletide community, ages after it got posted. But I'm glad I did see it! This looks like it'll be a lot of fun.
So, general stuff first. Given that this is an exchange for children's and YA books, I'd prefer whatever you write to stay more or less in that bracket, content-wise. I marked "Mature" as a possibility for the Tortall request more for potential violence and psychological darkness than out of any desire to read sexual content. These things are my childhood; I'm not looking to spice them up.
Good things: plot, introspection, drama, drama mixed with humour, fidelity to canon, earned competence, female characters being cool. Feel free to include characters who weren't nominated, or OCs to fit the story you're telling.
And now the fandom-specific stuff!
Fandom: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci
Character: Christopher Chant
I'm fairly certain The Lives of Christopher Chant was the first Diana Wynne Jones book I ever read. It was definitely the first of the Chrestomanci books, which colored the way I read the series; I'm always aware of Chrestomanci as Christopher, and have a deep fondness for him as a result. Which is why, when Conrad's Fate came out, I was absolutely delighted to see more of Christopher!
. . . which was actually a bit of a problem, since I can't make myself stop bearing that book a minor grudge for not having More Christopher, Dammit. :-P I mean, he's in there, but it didn't quite scratch the itch for me.
What it did do was give me an intense desire to see more of what happened on Christopher's end, before he got out to Stallery. Specifically, the throwaway line about him stealing his life out of Gabriel's safe. I want to read that scene. Or however many scenes it takes to tell the badass story of Christopher breaking in and taking his life back (in more senses than one). By that point he's pretty highly trained, but of course Gabriel de Witt is no slouch at magic, either, so I can't imagine the theft was easy. I'd love to see how it happened.
If you're in a mood to write something a bit longer, I'd love to see you include Millie, and the surrounding events that motivated Christopher to run off like that in the first place. Anything filling in life at the Castle is shiny; we don't get to see the transition between Gabriel's dour setup and the more relaxed one Christopher has instituted by the time Cat gets there. How far has that gotten? Is Throgmorton still around? I also love Tacroy . . . okay, truth, I love everybody in these books, so I'll stop before I list everybody from the tag set and then some. :-)
Secondary alternative, if you know the book and don't mind writing a crossover: The Homeward Bounders. The ending of that book is achingly gorgeous, and for the most part I don't have an interest in sequel-fic . . . except for one thing. There's evidence in the short stories that Jamie's multiverse and Christopher's are the same, or are at least connected. Which means the two of them could theoretically meet.
I'm fascinated by this idea. What would Christopher (as an adult and Chrestomanci) say to Jamie? How long has Jamie been wandering, by the time the two of them run into each other? It isn't the sort of encounter that could fix anything, I think, though Christopher would probably offer to try; the anchor has to keep moving, and even Chrestomanci can't change that. But the encounter could be really intense. If this idea floats your boat, by all means, go for it.
Fandom: Archer's Goon
Characters: Any
I requested "any" here because this is more of a worldbuildy sort of prompt -- assuming you're up for that, of course. If you aren't, I have more details below that you might be able to run with.
The worldbuildy prompt comes from the post I made about Archer's Goon while re-reading my way through DWJ's body of work:
I find myself deeply curious what backstory, if any, Jones had in mind for where the seven of them came from in the first place. We only get the barest hints of clues: Awful calls Dillian an "enchantress," and Quentin calls all of them "wizards;" Archer says they're not the same as humans, and live a good deal longer; they refer in passing to their parents. Because this is the British Isles, my first thought was that you could fic them as the children of Merlin and Nimue or whoever, but then their large stature makes me think of nephilim.
Those are just guesses, though if they work as starting points for you, awesome. Do you have other theories? What are the siblings? Who were their parents? How did they come to be in this town? (We know why they're trapped there, but that's it.) You could approach this from any angle you like: a story from their past, some interaction with each other or the Sykeses or whoever that lays it out, etc.
If you're daunted by the idea of trying to fill in that blank, I would enjoy anything featuring sibling dynamics, whether it's among those seven (how do Erskine and Torquil get along, especially post-book?) or between Howard and Awful. I don't know why I have a thing for siblings; I just do. Especially ones who share something out of the ordinary, as these guys do.
Fandom: Song of the Lioness
Characters: Alexander of Tirragen, Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau
Man, I love this series. I read it when I was a kid; coming back to it later, I discovered that not only had the Suck Fairy not paid a visit, it had qualities I never appreciated when I was ten. (Yes, it’s kind of stereotypical girl-disguised-as-boy wish-fulfillment, but Alanna has three lovers. And doesn’t get slut-shamed or anything. It’s kind of amazing.)
The actual canon scratches most of my itch, but there’s one thing that’s stuck in my mind like a burr, which is the focus of my request: Alex’s betrayal.
I’ve got a thing for the slender dark ones (and the good swordsmen), so I always had a real liking for Alexander of Tirragen . . . which is why it sucks that he ends up on Roger’s side. I’m not looking for fix-it fic, though. Instead, I want to know why.
There are fics out there that answer this question, but as good as some of them are, none of them really scratch the itch for me. All the ones I've found have taken one or more of the following three tacks: 1) Alex is being magically controlled, 2) Alex is in a relationship with Roger, 3) Alex is a hillman, and their history with the rest of Tortall is less than harmonious. Me, I’m looking for something more psychological. I do think magical control might have played a role (his “sparring match” with Alanna when she’s a squire is too weird to seem entirely natural), but I also think any such control worked because it leveraged things already within Alex. And by the time you get to the fourth book, it’s Alex’s own choices that bring him to that final fight.
So why does that happen? My read on him is that he’s driven by the pursuit of skill, to the point of perfection. He’s competitive not because he wants to win, or even trounce the other guy, but because he wants proof that he’s the best. And that’s why he has such an interesting relationship with Alanna; she’s more or less as good as he is, and driven in a similar but not identical way, which makes them natural rivals.
What did it mean to Alex that a boy several years younger was nearly his match? What did it mean when he found out that boy was actually a girl? How about when Alanna went off and started having adventures, covering herself in glory in distant lands without Alex ever getting to test himself against her on equal terms? He insisted on facing Alanna before she got to Roger; by that point the rivalry, and the need to find out which of them really was the best, seems to have consumed him utterly. I’m fascinated by the question of how that comes to pass. So: perfectionism, obsession, the gradual abandonment of other values in the service of those things, yes please. :-)
Other stuff I'm keen on: the physicality of a knight's training; fantasy!medieval society and the burdens it places on people; the philosophical implications of the code of chivalry, as Myles debated with the pages. I also really enjoyed the Keladry books, because that entire world of knightliness is really fascinating to me, even though I recognize that it doesn't match up with historical reality.
I hope that isn't too daunting. I tend to ramble on in my letters, in the interests of clarifying where I'm coming from and what I enjoy. I hope you enjoy yourself, too!
So, general stuff first. Given that this is an exchange for children's and YA books, I'd prefer whatever you write to stay more or less in that bracket, content-wise. I marked "Mature" as a possibility for the Tortall request more for potential violence and psychological darkness than out of any desire to read sexual content. These things are my childhood; I'm not looking to spice them up.
Good things: plot, introspection, drama, drama mixed with humour, fidelity to canon, earned competence, female characters being cool. Feel free to include characters who weren't nominated, or OCs to fit the story you're telling.
And now the fandom-specific stuff!
Fandom: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci
Character: Christopher Chant
I'm fairly certain The Lives of Christopher Chant was the first Diana Wynne Jones book I ever read. It was definitely the first of the Chrestomanci books, which colored the way I read the series; I'm always aware of Chrestomanci as Christopher, and have a deep fondness for him as a result. Which is why, when Conrad's Fate came out, I was absolutely delighted to see more of Christopher!
. . . which was actually a bit of a problem, since I can't make myself stop bearing that book a minor grudge for not having More Christopher, Dammit. :-P I mean, he's in there, but it didn't quite scratch the itch for me.
What it did do was give me an intense desire to see more of what happened on Christopher's end, before he got out to Stallery. Specifically, the throwaway line about him stealing his life out of Gabriel's safe. I want to read that scene. Or however many scenes it takes to tell the badass story of Christopher breaking in and taking his life back (in more senses than one). By that point he's pretty highly trained, but of course Gabriel de Witt is no slouch at magic, either, so I can't imagine the theft was easy. I'd love to see how it happened.
If you're in a mood to write something a bit longer, I'd love to see you include Millie, and the surrounding events that motivated Christopher to run off like that in the first place. Anything filling in life at the Castle is shiny; we don't get to see the transition between Gabriel's dour setup and the more relaxed one Christopher has instituted by the time Cat gets there. How far has that gotten? Is Throgmorton still around? I also love Tacroy . . . okay, truth, I love everybody in these books, so I'll stop before I list everybody from the tag set and then some. :-)
Secondary alternative, if you know the book and don't mind writing a crossover: The Homeward Bounders. The ending of that book is achingly gorgeous, and for the most part I don't have an interest in sequel-fic . . . except for one thing. There's evidence in the short stories that Jamie's multiverse and Christopher's are the same, or are at least connected. Which means the two of them could theoretically meet.
I'm fascinated by this idea. What would Christopher (as an adult and Chrestomanci) say to Jamie? How long has Jamie been wandering, by the time the two of them run into each other? It isn't the sort of encounter that could fix anything, I think, though Christopher would probably offer to try; the anchor has to keep moving, and even Chrestomanci can't change that. But the encounter could be really intense. If this idea floats your boat, by all means, go for it.
Fandom: Archer's Goon
Characters: Any
I requested "any" here because this is more of a worldbuildy sort of prompt -- assuming you're up for that, of course. If you aren't, I have more details below that you might be able to run with.
The worldbuildy prompt comes from the post I made about Archer's Goon while re-reading my way through DWJ's body of work:
I find myself deeply curious what backstory, if any, Jones had in mind for where the seven of them came from in the first place. We only get the barest hints of clues: Awful calls Dillian an "enchantress," and Quentin calls all of them "wizards;" Archer says they're not the same as humans, and live a good deal longer; they refer in passing to their parents. Because this is the British Isles, my first thought was that you could fic them as the children of Merlin and Nimue or whoever, but then their large stature makes me think of nephilim.
Those are just guesses, though if they work as starting points for you, awesome. Do you have other theories? What are the siblings? Who were their parents? How did they come to be in this town? (We know why they're trapped there, but that's it.) You could approach this from any angle you like: a story from their past, some interaction with each other or the Sykeses or whoever that lays it out, etc.
If you're daunted by the idea of trying to fill in that blank, I would enjoy anything featuring sibling dynamics, whether it's among those seven (how do Erskine and Torquil get along, especially post-book?) or between Howard and Awful. I don't know why I have a thing for siblings; I just do. Especially ones who share something out of the ordinary, as these guys do.
Fandom: Song of the Lioness
Characters: Alexander of Tirragen, Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau
Man, I love this series. I read it when I was a kid; coming back to it later, I discovered that not only had the Suck Fairy not paid a visit, it had qualities I never appreciated when I was ten. (Yes, it’s kind of stereotypical girl-disguised-as-boy wish-fulfillment, but Alanna has three lovers. And doesn’t get slut-shamed or anything. It’s kind of amazing.)
The actual canon scratches most of my itch, but there’s one thing that’s stuck in my mind like a burr, which is the focus of my request: Alex’s betrayal.
I’ve got a thing for the slender dark ones (and the good swordsmen), so I always had a real liking for Alexander of Tirragen . . . which is why it sucks that he ends up on Roger’s side. I’m not looking for fix-it fic, though. Instead, I want to know why.
There are fics out there that answer this question, but as good as some of them are, none of them really scratch the itch for me. All the ones I've found have taken one or more of the following three tacks: 1) Alex is being magically controlled, 2) Alex is in a relationship with Roger, 3) Alex is a hillman, and their history with the rest of Tortall is less than harmonious. Me, I’m looking for something more psychological. I do think magical control might have played a role (his “sparring match” with Alanna when she’s a squire is too weird to seem entirely natural), but I also think any such control worked because it leveraged things already within Alex. And by the time you get to the fourth book, it’s Alex’s own choices that bring him to that final fight.
So why does that happen? My read on him is that he’s driven by the pursuit of skill, to the point of perfection. He’s competitive not because he wants to win, or even trounce the other guy, but because he wants proof that he’s the best. And that’s why he has such an interesting relationship with Alanna; she’s more or less as good as he is, and driven in a similar but not identical way, which makes them natural rivals.
What did it mean to Alex that a boy several years younger was nearly his match? What did it mean when he found out that boy was actually a girl? How about when Alanna went off and started having adventures, covering herself in glory in distant lands without Alex ever getting to test himself against her on equal terms? He insisted on facing Alanna before she got to Roger; by that point the rivalry, and the need to find out which of them really was the best, seems to have consumed him utterly. I’m fascinated by the question of how that comes to pass. So: perfectionism, obsession, the gradual abandonment of other values in the service of those things, yes please. :-)
Other stuff I'm keen on: the physicality of a knight's training; fantasy!medieval society and the burdens it places on people; the philosophical implications of the code of chivalry, as Myles debated with the pages. I also really enjoyed the Keladry books, because that entire world of knightliness is really fascinating to me, even though I recognize that it doesn't match up with historical reality.
I hope that isn't too daunting. I tend to ramble on in my letters, in the interests of clarifying where I'm coming from and what I enjoy. I hope you enjoy yourself, too!
