Yuletide reveal!
As usual, I meant to write treats and didn't manage to write anything but my assigned story, but I ended up very pleased with that one!
Merrily In Springtime, Robin Hood (Traditional)
My recipient's prompt was for the Sheriff and Robin being friends and/or lovers somehow despite everything, and for a happy or at least somewhat hopeful ending rather than angstfic. Figuring out how to work that out while keeping the Sheriff plausibly within his canonical antagonistic role was a super interesting puzzle, especially given that the traditional ballads allow for a certain amount of flexibility of characterization and continuity, and I had a lot of fun with it. I also had a ton of fun reading lots of old ballads -- thanks, Project Gutenberg! -- and cracking up over them.
My recipient also suggested "Robin Hood and the Butcher" as a potential base for the fic, and I did indeed end up going with that, mixed in with "Robin Hood and the Potter" because I love the Sheriff's wife in that ballad to bits. I just want to hang out with her! (I also ended up with all kinds of thoughts about the Sheriff's wife, Marian, etc that didn't end up in the fic, but I had a great time thinking about them.) The tack I took was to make the Sheriff someone very committed to working within the system and with a lot of investment in the underlying class/monarchy system, but who was still devoted to his people and to ideals of justice, so it was interesting to try to walk that characterization line.
bookofstars not only was a huge help in brainstorming (thanks again, Izzy!) but also gave me the best description of what I was trying to achieve with this fic: "This fic tackles the question of how affection might survive in the face of enormous political disagreement. What do you when you can’t set aside your moral differences, but you don’t want to set aside your feelings?" Thanks also go to
skygiants and
saramily for brainstorming, encouragement, and super-speedy betaing.
This entry is also posted at http://genarti.dreamwidth.org/168775.html. You can comment on LJ or DW, whichever you like.
comments at DW.
Merrily In Springtime, Robin Hood (Traditional)
My recipient's prompt was for the Sheriff and Robin being friends and/or lovers somehow despite everything, and for a happy or at least somewhat hopeful ending rather than angstfic. Figuring out how to work that out while keeping the Sheriff plausibly within his canonical antagonistic role was a super interesting puzzle, especially given that the traditional ballads allow for a certain amount of flexibility of characterization and continuity, and I had a lot of fun with it. I also had a ton of fun reading lots of old ballads -- thanks, Project Gutenberg! -- and cracking up over them.
My recipient also suggested "Robin Hood and the Butcher" as a potential base for the fic, and I did indeed end up going with that, mixed in with "Robin Hood and the Potter" because I love the Sheriff's wife in that ballad to bits. I just want to hang out with her! (I also ended up with all kinds of thoughts about the Sheriff's wife, Marian, etc that didn't end up in the fic, but I had a great time thinking about them.) The tack I took was to make the Sheriff someone very committed to working within the system and with a lot of investment in the underlying class/monarchy system, but who was still devoted to his people and to ideals of justice, so it was interesting to try to walk that characterization line.
bookofstars not only was a huge help in brainstorming (thanks again, Izzy!) but also gave me the best description of what I was trying to achieve with this fic: "This fic tackles the question of how affection might survive in the face of enormous political disagreement. What do you when you can’t set aside your moral differences, but you don’t want to set aside your feelings?" Thanks also go to
skygiants and
saramily for brainstorming, encouragement, and super-speedy betaing.
This entry is also posted at http://genarti.dreamwidth.org/168775.html. You can comment on LJ or DW, whichever you like.
comments at DW.