Writing again, but, oops, not old stories!

[predatrix]

That is, people are trying to get me to post my old stories and/or get back into my older fandoms, but I seem to have fallen head-first into a new fandom's rabbit-hole.

I loved the book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell when it came out, loved the TV series more recently, and have been writing for several weeks (a couple of short fics on the kink-meme

Comments

[lexin]

It's nice that you're writing again, even if it's not in my fandom. Lovely to see you posting.

[predatrix]

I'm glad people notice when I occasionally prod Lj--I know I have a bad habit of forgetting for ages!

[julesjones]

Sorry - was too tired today to look at it and give sensible comments, so decided it was more sensible to leave it until tomorrwo. And am about to turn into a pumpkin...

[predatrix]

Ah--pumpkin time prompt at 10 pm! Thanks, hope to hear from you.

[neyronrose]

I'm not a writer, but I'm much more likely to want to read about protagonists who are kind, or at least kind in their own ways, enough so that others can recognize it as kindness. As I said to Jules, I thought your characterization of Mr. Norrell was beautiful. Spot on. I forgot to say that your footnotes were quite decent, very much in the spirit of the book, and those must be tricky things to write. There are some character flaws I can deal with, and some I don't want one of the "heroes" of the story to have. But it's certainly more interesting if a character has flaws. Generally I am one for "pretty" characters, it's true, although I have a range of what I consider pretty. I don't mind academia and learning in a story. I don't have an initial attraction to characters who are "prim."

So, yeah, when you portrayed Mr. Norrell so vividly that I could visualize him doing the non-smutty things exactly like that, the smutty bits didn't send me to my bunk. But if you have Pred's kinks, the fic was just lovely for what it was.

[predatrix]

I'm absolutely delighted you think the footnotes work; I was a bit doubtful, especially since I let them get a bit 'meta' (the cheeky Eliot ref. particularly). Am not looking forward to coding them properly, but I think pseudo-html was quite good: it tells me where they start and end, and I can put the numbers in at the last minute.

Also glad you think I got Norrell roughly right: I know I'm too soft on my favourite 'awkward' characters, so that's useful to know!

The 'primness' is of course a desire to see what might make such a character ruffled/rumpled and altogether reduced to a creature of want and impulse. I'm not the only pervert in the fandom with that particular kink...luckily for me!

[kalypso_v]

Well, I'm not sure about beta-ing, but I'm certainly interested in reading it. I thought the Norrell/Childermass relationship was fascinating...

[predatrix]

Thank you. Well, if you can stand it being filthy (you've probably seen stuff I write), it'll probably be up reasonably soon on AO3.

I've seen a few good Norrell/Strange stories, but that always looks rather unrequited to me, and my muse doesn't do sad, tragic &c. Childermass always seems to me fairly protective, and as if he has no illusions at all about Norrell but can cope very well with him. Meanwhile, I read it that he's really got under Norrell's guard in the 20 or whatever years he's been working for him, and Norrell likes and respects him in his own warped little way. Writing a character with ridiculously little insight, I write Norrell consciously thinking Childermass is 'just a servant' while he'd be completely miserable without him.

[kalypso_v]

I haven't yet read the book, but from the television version it appeared that a lot of the time Childermass was the one in charge; for instance, it seemed that he was the one who decided they should go to London. (I wondered whether it was the influence of Lascelles and co that caused Norrell to lose sight of the underlying bond between them.)

[predatrix]

Lascelles and Drawlight had a pernicious effect on poor Norrell, and got him thinking of social consequence rather too much. He thought they were his friends more than Childermass because they were gentlemen, and did not realise they were doing him no good at all. (There's a lot of Norrell apologising to Childermass in my story)