Dear Writer 2013
Dear Person Writing for Me --
Thank you. Thank you for loving something I love, and writing for me out of that. I know that I will love whatever you write, and I hope you enjoy writing it.
Previous Dear Writer letters for assorted fests, including the previous HLH_Shortcuts and Yuletides can be found here on Dreamwidth and here on LJ.
Generalities
Generalities (largely the same as previous years)
The thing that draws me to and brings me back to all of my fandoms (big and little) is Strength of Character wound about with Vulnerability - brilliance with fragility, knowledge/wisdom/power with geasa/restrictions, grace under strain, extraordinary capabilities under constraint. And when it is self-restraint, that is all the more wonderful. Nearly every fandom and character I deeply love contains this idea to a greater or lesser extent.
I adore hurt-comfort with a passion, and the comfort does not have to be passionate - back-rubs, hair-combing, just holding on can be so, so lovely. It's the emotional intimacy that truly does it for me, physical is nice but not essential. Plus, the part of the 'hurt' half of that equation that I find compelling is not the physical pain, but the vulnerability/internal distress/pain-and-coping&failing-to-cope thing.
Many of my favorite and perennial re-reads are stories about intelligent, capable, sensitive people sustaining damage while doing what they needs-must do, and then coping with that damage. This element/idea will get me sucked in and committed to a story faster than just about any other thing. That damage can be very subtle: the sheer weight of time, memory, loss (The Doctor, Methos, Captain Jack Harkness); one-of-a-kindness, hybrid, fish out of water (James Watson, Spock, Avon, Steel);-- variably subtle: PTSD and its ilk, mental/emotional trauma (Dwight Enys, Lord Peter, TELawrence, Lymond, ) -- or not subtle at all: crippling physical injury/illness (Gen, Raistlin, Gerald Tarrant, Tony Stark, Archibald Craven); catastrophic loss, displacement in space/time (Jessex Yron, beauty and the beast, Thomas the Rhymer).
And then there are the intelligent, capable people who are not so much with the nerve-endings but still feel things deeply, and get to cope with extraordinary circumstances - Hector, Declan MacRae, Vethulf and Skjaldwulf (and to reach back a ways -- Qui-Gon Jinn.)
I also appreciate language, and the way stories are put together. This is not meant to be a scary thing! I love transparent story-telling as well as lyrical and poetic atmospheric stuff.
I like plot, I like adventure, conversation, action, all sorts of things. Character interaction, introspection, all that. I also have a competence kink - not that the characters I love never make mistakes or mess up, but that they are all bright, and skilled and good at what they do. Fish out of water is lovely, but I do prefer when they then cope with that. I like stories that understand the canon they are working with - missing scenes, extrapolations, things like that; but I also like things that branch off from canon, "what might have beens," even alternate universe/alternate reality type things, though in general I'd rather within (or not contradicting) canon than otherwise. (Admittedly, there is very little of that sort of 'canon' in what I am requesting this year.)
Slash is good. Gen is also good. Femme-slash does nothing for me, and het needs to be very carefully integrated into the story, as it is all too often a turn-off for me. I like angst and depth and emotion, but I really like them to have happy endings, and I'd just as soon not have any major character death. Non-consensual stuff is a no.
I also like wry, sly, word and thought-based humor - dealing with incongruities with grace and style and an appreciation for absurdity.
I love the idea of intersections, of liminal space, of bridging the gaps between worlds and realities. Nearly all my requests this year go to that place. Combinations or conversations between the different places could be a neat thing, and totally extra-added-icing, if that's where your inspiration takes you.
But above all, have fun, go with your muses and ideas. I'm sure I'll love it no matter what.
Requests
1. King and Lionheart - Of Monsters and Men (music video)
- Woman in Red (King and Lionheart)
- Child in Red (King and Lionheart)
- Lionheart (King and Lionheart)
Link to the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A76a_LNIYwE
Link to the lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ofmonstersandmen/kingandlionheart.html
Both the video and the song itself are fascinating and amazing to me. If the song alone speaks more than the video, or the images more than the words, I am absolutely fine with with one, the other, or both as inspiration.
That said, here are some of the things I think & wonder about: who is the King and who/what the Lionheart? Who are the woman and child in red, and what is their story? Why are the ruffians after them? Does the woman get free? Do she and the child re-unite? Why is the world so desolate?
Ideally, I would like a happy ending to the tale, not a bleak one.
2. Sulamith Wulfing - Works
- Knight (Sulamith Wulfing)
- Child (Sulamith Wulfing)
- Lady (Sulamith Wulfing)
- Spirit (Sulamith Wulfing)
I love the intricacy and delicacy of Sulamith Wulfing's work, and the closeness and contrast between the bright world and the grey, the magical and the mundane, the solid and the spiritual. How do these people navigate their lives living in the reach of the numinous? What are their joys and sorrows?
Any or all of these figures that appear over and over in Wulfing's works would be delightful. Here are four of my very favorites of her paintings, with some thoughts:
- Silent Heart (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/237424211578860441/ )
(What holds her in the grey land, visible under the moon? How did she come to be there?)
- The Big Friend (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/237424211578860460/ )
(How did the Child and the Dragon meet? What happens if/when the world finds out? Is the Dragon protecting the Child, and from what? Is the Child somehow protecting the Dragon?)
- Evening Star (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/237424211578860750/ )
(Is she the star, or only visible under it? What do they speak of? What happens next?)
- The Consoler (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/237424211578859177/ )
(Is this the Knight being consoled by the Spirit, or the Lady? Is the Spirit the Lady, or someone else? What is the sorrow? Is the tree part of the tale?)
If one of these figures or pictures is more inspirational than the others, please go for it! Do not feel obliged to include all four. Or if there is another painting that is one of your favorites, that would be lovely too (though I'd love a link to it if you chose a different one!)
3. Two Men Contemplating the Moon - Caspar David Friedrich
- Man in Cloak ( Two Men Contemplating the Moon)
- Man in Coat (Two Men Contemplating the Moon)
Link to painting: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/438417
Who are these gentlemen, and what are they to each other?
4. Printing and Typesetting (Anthropomorfic)
- Etaoin Shrdlu
- Lorem Ipsum
- The Quick Brown Fox that Jumps Over the Lazy Dog
- Qwerty Uiop
Links to Wikipedia entries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etaoin_shrdl | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_quick_brown_fox_jumps_over_the_lazy_dog | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwerty
Adventures in typesetting! Go for it! I think this is just neat, and have long had a love for the mechanics of how books are made and printing happens. How do these characters feel about the font-sets (physical and digital)? How do they feel about each other? What kind of trouble could they get into?
5. Paintings - Otto Frello
- The curious sea serpent from Sofastykke (Otto Frello)
- The mother in the recurring family (Otto Frello)
Link to high resolution detail with both sea serpent and mother: http://teilmann.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/idyllochness.jpg
Link to post with several good images: http://teilmann.org/?p=4526
Otto Frello's own site: http://www.ottofrello.dk/
I love this artist's world. I particularly love the delicacy and imagination, the detail and incongruities. I love that while there is a kind of underlying twilight feel, hope and possibility and beauty are all there too.
What is the Mother's life like? What adventures does she and her family have? Do they adopt the sea-serpent? Does the sea-serpent adopt them, or travel with them for a time? Is Frello's world related to Wulfing's?
Ideally, I would like a happy tale, not a bleak one.
Additional Thoughts: Is Frello's world related to Wulfing's? What kind of conversation might happen between the people from the different images?
6. The Iliad - Homer
- Hector (Iliad)
- Odysseus (Iliad)
I would love to see something happen between these two, before or during (or after! What if Hector doesn't actually die? Or in the afterlife? Or perhaps in re-incarnation or something) the story. I do see Hector as played by Eric Bana in Troy and Odysseus as played by Sean Bean, but that's really a visual/aural reference only, and if you see them differently, that is totally ok. Slash could be fun, though I'd prefer it if Andromache were not dissed in the process.
Anyway: Hector, noble, brave and true, (also: not stupid), and Odysseus, too smart for his own good. Sparks and snark and adventures.
Ideally, I would like a happy tale, not a bleak one, canon or otherwise.
Additional Thoughts:
Or a threesome with Andromache - heck, if we're speculating that far, Andromache/Penelope and Hector/Odysseus, or all 4 together.
I will add more Additional Thoughts if I think of them. Hopefully there is enough here to be going on!
This entry was originally posted at http://lferion.dreamwidth.org/245053.html, where there are currently
comments. Please comment there using OpenID.
Thank you. Thank you for loving something I love, and writing for me out of that. I know that I will love whatever you write, and I hope you enjoy writing it.
Previous Dear Writer letters for assorted fests, including the previous HLH_Shortcuts and Yuletides can be found here on Dreamwidth and here on LJ.
Generalities
Generalities (largely the same as previous years)
The thing that draws me to and brings me back to all of my fandoms (big and little) is Strength of Character wound about with Vulnerability - brilliance with fragility, knowledge/wisdom/power with geasa/restrictions, grace under strain, extraordinary capabilities under constraint. And when it is self-restraint, that is all the more wonderful. Nearly every fandom and character I deeply love contains this idea to a greater or lesser extent.
I adore hurt-comfort with a passion, and the comfort does not have to be passionate - back-rubs, hair-combing, just holding on can be so, so lovely. It's the emotional intimacy that truly does it for me, physical is nice but not essential. Plus, the part of the 'hurt' half of that equation that I find compelling is not the physical pain, but the vulnerability/internal distress/pain-and-coping&failing-to-cope thing.
Many of my favorite and perennial re-reads are stories about intelligent, capable, sensitive people sustaining damage while doing what they needs-must do, and then coping with that damage. This element/idea will get me sucked in and committed to a story faster than just about any other thing. That damage can be very subtle: the sheer weight of time, memory, loss (The Doctor, Methos, Captain Jack Harkness); one-of-a-kindness, hybrid, fish out of water (James Watson, Spock, Avon, Steel);-- variably subtle: PTSD and its ilk, mental/emotional trauma (Dwight Enys, Lord Peter, TELawrence, Lymond, ) -- or not subtle at all: crippling physical injury/illness (Gen, Raistlin, Gerald Tarrant, Tony Stark, Archibald Craven); catastrophic loss, displacement in space/time (Jessex Yron, beauty and the beast, Thomas the Rhymer).
And then there are the intelligent, capable people who are not so much with the nerve-endings but still feel things deeply, and get to cope with extraordinary circumstances - Hector, Declan MacRae, Vethulf and Skjaldwulf (and to reach back a ways -- Qui-Gon Jinn.)
I also appreciate language, and the way stories are put together. This is not meant to be a scary thing! I love transparent story-telling as well as lyrical and poetic atmospheric stuff.
I like plot, I like adventure, conversation, action, all sorts of things. Character interaction, introspection, all that. I also have a competence kink - not that the characters I love never make mistakes or mess up, but that they are all bright, and skilled and good at what they do. Fish out of water is lovely, but I do prefer when they then cope with that. I like stories that understand the canon they are working with - missing scenes, extrapolations, things like that; but I also like things that branch off from canon, "what might have beens," even alternate universe/alternate reality type things, though in general I'd rather within (or not contradicting) canon than otherwise. (Admittedly, there is very little of that sort of 'canon' in what I am requesting this year.)
Slash is good. Gen is also good. Femme-slash does nothing for me, and het needs to be very carefully integrated into the story, as it is all too often a turn-off for me. I like angst and depth and emotion, but I really like them to have happy endings, and I'd just as soon not have any major character death. Non-consensual stuff is a no.
I also like wry, sly, word and thought-based humor - dealing with incongruities with grace and style and an appreciation for absurdity.
I love the idea of intersections, of liminal space, of bridging the gaps between worlds and realities. Nearly all my requests this year go to that place. Combinations or conversations between the different places could be a neat thing, and totally extra-added-icing, if that's where your inspiration takes you.
But above all, have fun, go with your muses and ideas. I'm sure I'll love it no matter what.
Requests
1. King and Lionheart - Of Monsters and Men (music video)
- Woman in Red (King and Lionheart)
- Child in Red (King and Lionheart)
- Lionheart (King and Lionheart)
Link to the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A76a_LNIYwE
Link to the lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ofmonstersandmen/kingandlionheart.html
Both the video and the song itself are fascinating and amazing to me. If the song alone speaks more than the video, or the images more than the words, I am absolutely fine with with one, the other, or both as inspiration.
That said, here are some of the things I think & wonder about: who is the King and who/what the Lionheart? Who are the woman and child in red, and what is their story? Why are the ruffians after them? Does the woman get free? Do she and the child re-unite? Why is the world so desolate?
Ideally, I would like a happy ending to the tale, not a bleak one.
2. Sulamith Wulfing - Works
- Knight (Sulamith Wulfing)
- Child (Sulamith Wulfing)
- Lady (Sulamith Wulfing)
- Spirit (Sulamith Wulfing)
I love the intricacy and delicacy of Sulamith Wulfing's work, and the closeness and contrast between the bright world and the grey, the magical and the mundane, the solid and the spiritual. How do these people navigate their lives living in the reach of the numinous? What are their joys and sorrows?
Any or all of these figures that appear over and over in Wulfing's works would be delightful. Here are four of my very favorites of her paintings, with some thoughts:
- Silent Heart (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/237424211578860441/ )
(What holds her in the grey land, visible under the moon? How did she come to be there?)
- The Big Friend (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/237424211578860460/ )
(How did the Child and the Dragon meet? What happens if/when the world finds out? Is the Dragon protecting the Child, and from what? Is the Child somehow protecting the Dragon?)
- Evening Star (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/237424211578860750/ )
(Is she the star, or only visible under it? What do they speak of? What happens next?)
- The Consoler (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/237424211578859177/ )
(Is this the Knight being consoled by the Spirit, or the Lady? Is the Spirit the Lady, or someone else? What is the sorrow? Is the tree part of the tale?)
If one of these figures or pictures is more inspirational than the others, please go for it! Do not feel obliged to include all four. Or if there is another painting that is one of your favorites, that would be lovely too (though I'd love a link to it if you chose a different one!)
3. Two Men Contemplating the Moon - Caspar David Friedrich
- Man in Cloak ( Two Men Contemplating the Moon)
- Man in Coat (Two Men Contemplating the Moon)
Link to painting: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/438417
Who are these gentlemen, and what are they to each other?
4. Printing and Typesetting (Anthropomorfic)
- Etaoin Shrdlu
- Lorem Ipsum
- The Quick Brown Fox that Jumps Over the Lazy Dog
- Qwerty Uiop
Links to Wikipedia entries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etaoin_shrdl | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_quick_brown_fox_jumps_over_the_lazy_dog | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwerty
Adventures in typesetting! Go for it! I think this is just neat, and have long had a love for the mechanics of how books are made and printing happens. How do these characters feel about the font-sets (physical and digital)? How do they feel about each other? What kind of trouble could they get into?
5. Paintings - Otto Frello
- The curious sea serpent from Sofastykke (Otto Frello)
- The mother in the recurring family (Otto Frello)
Link to high resolution detail with both sea serpent and mother: http://teilmann.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/idyllochness.jpg
Link to post with several good images: http://teilmann.org/?p=4526
Otto Frello's own site: http://www.ottofrello.dk/
I love this artist's world. I particularly love the delicacy and imagination, the detail and incongruities. I love that while there is a kind of underlying twilight feel, hope and possibility and beauty are all there too.
What is the Mother's life like? What adventures does she and her family have? Do they adopt the sea-serpent? Does the sea-serpent adopt them, or travel with them for a time? Is Frello's world related to Wulfing's?
Ideally, I would like a happy tale, not a bleak one.
Additional Thoughts: Is Frello's world related to Wulfing's? What kind of conversation might happen between the people from the different images?
6. The Iliad - Homer
- Hector (Iliad)
- Odysseus (Iliad)
I would love to see something happen between these two, before or during (or after! What if Hector doesn't actually die? Or in the afterlife? Or perhaps in re-incarnation or something) the story. I do see Hector as played by Eric Bana in Troy and Odysseus as played by Sean Bean, but that's really a visual/aural reference only, and if you see them differently, that is totally ok. Slash could be fun, though I'd prefer it if Andromache were not dissed in the process.
Anyway: Hector, noble, brave and true, (also: not stupid), and Odysseus, too smart for his own good. Sparks and snark and adventures.
Ideally, I would like a happy tale, not a bleak one, canon or otherwise.
Additional Thoughts:
Or a threesome with Andromache - heck, if we're speculating that far, Andromache/Penelope and Hector/Odysseus, or all 4 together.
I will add more Additional Thoughts if I think of them. Hopefully there is enough here to be going on!
This entry was originally posted at http://lferion.dreamwidth.org/245053.html, where there are currently
comments. Please comment there using OpenID.