Original Works Exchange 2018
Jan. 11th, 2018 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aurillyI’m so sorry. This somehow ended up as less of an exchange letter, and more of an epic dissection/celebration of my favorite genres. The lists are simply meant to get meyou in the mood, not serve as a checklist. Please don't think that including more listed things = better. It really doesn’t. I want a story that YOU had fun writing, and that you let go wherever it takes you! Thank you!
Here are anchor links to the different sections: English Public School Stories, Age of Sail, Swashbuckling Romances
General Notes:
Protagonists: You'll see that the 'mean' archetypes only appear in the background character lists. I want generally well-meaning people in the requested ship, even if they have huge flaws, do terrible things, are awful snobs, are little shits, etc. The more devoted they are/become to one another (even if they want to burn everything else down), the happier I will be.
Sexy Times: I'd be thrilled to get higher rated fic! See here for general porn likes; or here for the more egregiously detailed version.
External Abuse: I'm a sucker for whump that requires comfort, vengeance, triumphant overcoming, or jollying-out-of. As long as there's a happy ending and someone outside the main pairing caused it (or are forcing them to do it to one another), I'm fine with references to or detailed depictions of physical, sexual or emotional abuse. As long as there's no permanent physical damage or adults molesting children, you can make it as iddy and awful as you like before it all works out.
Adultery: I don't mind if the various requested soldiers have previously slept with married men or women. It's also fine if previous partners cheated on the main characters. And background characters can have all the affairs they want! However, please don't let the two main characters ever cheat on any of their partners.
Homophobia: These are all historical m/m pairings. While I don't want to pretend homophobia didn't exist (the forbiddenness adds a lovely frisson), I do want the main pairing to get away with their secret romance and have a happy/hopeful ending, without being caught or punished. However, background characters being punished is fine, if you want. I'm open to different internal reactions on the part of the main characters (each one having a different reaction would be awesome): confusion; internalized homophobia and overwhelming shame about his desires (that he hopefully at least partially gets over); desperate self-delusion; failed self-abnegation; devil-may-care; “love is never wrong” equanimity, etc. I also adore stories where no one’s particularly angsty and the social issues aren’t overtly discussed. They just… get away with it without the story having to explicitly talk about why they’re being secretive?
Do Not Wants
— Pre-ship (I want all my pairings to unambiguously get together, with actual makeouts, or more!)
— Things That Upset Me: major character death; the afterlife; bleak endings; shovel talks; dark dynamics within my requested ships; my ship stops liking each other
— Schmoopiness: plotless fluff; non-canonical pet names or terms of endearment; people saying "I love you" verbatim (I love other ways of saying or demonstrating feelings!)
— Sex & Relationship-Related: D/s dynamics; soulmates; yentas and matchmakers; pregnancy; underage/overage sex
— characters written as ace, aro or demi; gender identity headcanons
— Writing Things: 1st & 2nd person POV; phonetically spelled dialogue (my brain genuinely struggles to process it; however, foreign language exhortations--Mein Gott!--always make me smile, translations neither needed nor desired)
Pre-WWII English Public School Stories
Freeform Tags: Getting Together, Slice of Life
Pairing: Victorian or Edwardian English All-Boys Public School Student/A Classmate
I love deeply loyal friendships, repressed yearning, coming of age angst, and humorous hijinks. All of which make the classic British public school story one of my favorite genres. I want one in which two friends unambiguously hook up, get together and have a happy/hopeful ending. Funny, angsty, adventurous, etc—it’s all good!
Notes:
1) Any time from 1800-1920 will be lovely.
2) While I want the characters in the central pairing to both be 17-18, references to previous liaisons or background older/younger student pairings are totally fine.
Main Character Types: practical-minded everyman; mastermind with a single weakness; earnest team captain burdened with school's cricket hopes; mischievous but charismatic leader ofmenboys; dryly witty eccentric; grumpy new transfer; hapless but well-meaning boy everyone looks out for; universally respected/liked prefect with a dark secret; accidental prefect buckling under the pressure; boy who’s ashamed of his poor/disgraced/other roots; wannabe stone-cold philosopher undone by innate romanticism; unhappy aristocrat; boy who's useless at games
Background Character Types: sadistic Latin master; kindly but absent-minded House Master; secretly amused Headmaster; sister who drops epistolary bombs; evil Head Boy; bully and his cronies; hero-worshiping younger boy; indulgent cook, sassy errand boy or grumpy groundskeeper; boy who gets expelled (either due to 'filthiness', or after a terrific rag); unused character types from list above
Locations (for trysts or plot action or whatever): shared study; dormitory; school baths; secret swimming hole; infirmary; cave on school grounds; off-limits woods adjoining the school; senior day room
Slice of Life Details: sneaking around after lights out; teatime; cricket or other sports practice; sobriquets; fagging; corporal punishment; impossible exams; crossword puzzles; awful food; self-sacrificial gestures (false confessions, giving up your spot on the team, etc); writing lines; dealing with subtle class differences; finding unexpected applications for Classics education; days too beautiful to stay inside; getting called to the Headmaster's office
Plots: investigating who is behind the anonymous bully brigade; starting a Scarlet Pimpernel-type do-gooder brigade; nostalgia, fear or 'give no fucks' attitudes during last week before graduation; get rich quick schemes that go awry; ferreting out the evil master’s embarrassing secret; pulling off the Greatest Rag; stealing something for the greater good; rallying against injustice; organizing illicit midnight feasts; only ones spending the holidays at school; stuck hiding somewhere all night because there’s no way to sneak back into dorms without getting caught; defending the school from invaders or supernatural threats; Groundhog Day/time loop
Age of Sail
Freeform Tags: Getting Together, Action/Adventure
Pairings:
• Virginal Age of Sail Midshipman/Same but with slightly less internalized homophobia
I adore this 17-19th century genre, for similar reasons as the Dumas stuff below, but on a boat! I would like a story in which two junior officers unambiguously fall in love, hook up, and have a happy/hopeful ending. Many of the character types, genre details, and plots in the schoolboy or swashbuckling sections would work here, but I’ve added some extra ones below to supplement.
Please make the characters in the main ship at least 17. The level of internalized homophobia doesn't matter (this wasn't my nom), but I do want lots of angst and forbidden yearning... what finally makes them act on it? They could be British (or Spanish or French?) naval officers, merchant sailors just trying to deliver their goods for fuck's sake, or young pirates (who maybe have a crisis of conscience, or who are charismatically awful people loyal only to each other, or whatever). They could be fighting Napoleonic wars or in the Caribbean or working for Venetian merchants or...
Background Characters: the grumbling cook; the ship’s doctor; the honorable captain they’re desperate to impress; the terrible captain they have to defy; the men the midshipman is supposed to command; evil midshipman or lieutenant who hates/is jealous of main character(s); mutineers; everyone's favorite prostitute; the female tavern owner who feels aunt-like about the main character
Plots: intercepting supplies or information; rescue missions!; transporting mysterious or top secret passenger (or cargo); legends turning out to be real, like about the Bermuda Triangle or sirens or merpeople (I don’t want the main characters to be supernatural creatures, though), or that mythical Canary Island that sounds a bit like Lost’s island
Setting Details: ropes and rigging; cabins and hammocks; white linen, big hats and brass telescopes; turning the big wheel; supplies running out; watching the stars from the bird’s nest; beset by storms; false flag operations; walking the plank; sword between the teeth; boarding parties; burials at sea; deserted islands; sheer terror before or during a sea battle; the only one who knows how to swim; trying to find privacy on the crowded ship; seasickness; the glorious moment he realizes he's got the hang of this whole ‘being a naval officer’ or ‘living at sea’ thing; slowly getting the non-officer men to respect you as a leader despite being half their age; people falling off the ship at night under dramatic circumstances and being presumed dead except they’re not
Swashbuckling Romances
Freeform Tags: Getting Together, Action Adventure
Pairings:
• 17th Century French King's Male Musketeer/17th Century French Cardinal's Male Guard
• 17-18th Century Continental European Young Male Aristocrat Going to War for First Time/Same
• Virginal Ancien Régime Soldier/Virginal Soldier Fighting for Opposing Side
I'm looking for passion and drama and blood and wine and yes. I love sword fights, lusty living, loyal bands of found family brothers, strict codes of honour that somehow don't preclude assholery... I want a story in which the two main characters unambiguously fall in love, hook up, and have a happy/hopeful ending. Please make the main characters 18+ years old, and set it well before the French Revolution.
The Musketeer/Cardinal’s Guard request comes from my love of 'enemies to lovers' and 'love across enemy lines'. The real life feud between the two corps is a great premise for this! I'm more interested in the adventures they have and/or the angst about falling for someone on the other side of the feud than I am in the meet-cute (but include it as well if you want!). What makes them decide not to care anymore? How do they resolve the problem? Do they end up getting new jobs, or succeed in ending the feud, or forever pretend to hate each other? Something else?
For the First-Time or Virginal Soldiers requests, I'd like something about an odd couple of untried young nobles forging a bond on the way to war, or during their first campaign or assignment, or while captured or something. It could be ‘friends to lovers’ or ‘love across enemy lines’, depending on whether they’re the same or different nationalities. If doing the opposing sides one, I'd be up for one being the war prisoner of the other, but only if the jailer is the most honourable and kind. Or, A could be the prisoner of some horrible outside character that B (who's in the capturer's side's army) wants to save him from. Basically, no mean prisoner/jailer stuff within the pairing, please!
Notes: While these requests are coming from a love of Dumas, I'm looking for original characters in an original story that simply happen to share a similar setting. I don't want Dumas fanfic (outsider POV, canon rehashes, AUs, missing scenes, etc.), or for Dumas’s plot or characters to exist at all. The only exceptions are the real life employers--Richelieu, Mazarin, Anne, Louis XIII-XV, Prince de Condé, etc.—who can make plot-facilitating cameos. You could even characterize them totally differently from how Dumas wrote them! It doesn't need to sound like Dumas, though it can it you want.
Genre Details: duels; fighting back to back; clothing porn; honor before reason; saved by the love token he wears beside his heart; combat compliments; apologetic attacks; taking it to the streets!; OTT self-sacrificing gestures (ex. taking the bullet, taking the blame; ‘take me instead’; ‘I will only slow you down’, dying moment of awesome that he ends up not dying of); 'thought you were dead'; ‘it's okay, it isn't my blood’; horse falls lame so we have to share; revenge!!; trying to hide wound until dramatic fainting or pool of blood gives it away; tenderly wrapping wounds with ripped pieces of his shirt; coming to blows over whose native region makes the best bouillabaisse or whatever
Main Character Types: unjustly disinherited stoic woobie; paranoid secret Huguenot; naïf newly arrived from the provinces; repressed romantic hiding under feigned apathy/misanthropy; elegant playboy whose daddy bought his commission; weakling whose cleverness compensates for fencing incompetence; noble birth dictated soldiering career but should have been a painter; self-loathing illegitimate son who possesses superior nobility of spirit; unjustly shunned deserter or son of disgraced family starting over under a new name; something tweaked from schoolboy main character list
Locations: rowdy taverns; battlefield tents; country inns; shitty rented rooms; atmospheric cemeteries; walkways under the quays of the Seine; candlelit corridors; secret passageways; carriages; barns/haylofts; royal gardens; creepily quiet villages; glittering salon parties; post-battle fields strewn with wounded and dead; lonely country roads or desolate forests
Background Character Types: inspiring or incompetent Prince/General; nosy landlady; understanding benefactress; trusty tavern wench; loyal, lazy or wily valets; servant who looks just like a member of the royal family; easily bribed city watchmen; grizzled old fellow soldier; vicious psycho; dashing foreign duke; effete snob with unexpectedly generous heart; mysterious repeat opponent; secretly immortal grandmaster of the Chess Game of History; vengeful husband of mistress past; royals with no idea of/care for the emotional havoc their actions wreak
Dynamic Types & Meet-Cutes: childhood friends unexpectedly reunited; meet while hidden in the closet of their mistress(es); turns out to be less of a dick than his friends; seconds in other people’s duel; identity porn; loyal lieutenants of enemy leaders; first love/love that heals a previously broken heart; Chaotic Good/Lawful Good
Plots: assigned as bodyguard(s) to distasteful people; foiling an assassination attempt; partnered on espionage assignment; tasked with apprehending highwaymen (stakeouts!); A involved in a righteous conspiracy that B has been assigned to stop; kidnapped, captured or imprisoned together; making their way back after being left behind on the battlefield; get rich quick schemes; losing a card game (with money, objects or actions/dares as payment)
Here are anchor links to the different sections: English Public School Stories, Age of Sail, Swashbuckling Romances
General Notes:
Protagonists: You'll see that the 'mean' archetypes only appear in the background character lists. I want generally well-meaning people in the requested ship, even if they have huge flaws, do terrible things, are awful snobs, are little shits, etc. The more devoted they are/become to one another (even if they want to burn everything else down), the happier I will be.
Sexy Times: I'd be thrilled to get higher rated fic! See here for general porn likes; or here for the more egregiously detailed version.
External Abuse: I'm a sucker for whump that requires comfort, vengeance, triumphant overcoming, or jollying-out-of. As long as there's a happy ending and someone outside the main pairing caused it (or are forcing them to do it to one another), I'm fine with references to or detailed depictions of physical, sexual or emotional abuse. As long as there's no permanent physical damage or adults molesting children, you can make it as iddy and awful as you like before it all works out.
Adultery: I don't mind if the various requested soldiers have previously slept with married men or women. It's also fine if previous partners cheated on the main characters. And background characters can have all the affairs they want! However, please don't let the two main characters ever cheat on any of their partners.
Homophobia: These are all historical m/m pairings. While I don't want to pretend homophobia didn't exist (the forbiddenness adds a lovely frisson), I do want the main pairing to get away with their secret romance and have a happy/hopeful ending, without being caught or punished. However, background characters being punished is fine, if you want. I'm open to different internal reactions on the part of the main characters (each one having a different reaction would be awesome): confusion; internalized homophobia and overwhelming shame about his desires (that he hopefully at least partially gets over); desperate self-delusion; failed self-abnegation; devil-may-care; “love is never wrong” equanimity, etc. I also adore stories where no one’s particularly angsty and the social issues aren’t overtly discussed. They just… get away with it without the story having to explicitly talk about why they’re being secretive?
Do Not Wants
— Pre-ship (I want all my pairings to unambiguously get together, with actual makeouts, or more!)
— Things That Upset Me: major character death; the afterlife; bleak endings; shovel talks; dark dynamics within my requested ships; my ship stops liking each other
— Schmoopiness: plotless fluff; non-canonical pet names or terms of endearment; people saying "I love you" verbatim (I love other ways of saying or demonstrating feelings!)
— Sex & Relationship-Related: D/s dynamics; soulmates; yentas and matchmakers; pregnancy; underage/overage sex
— characters written as ace, aro or demi; gender identity headcanons
— Writing Things: 1st & 2nd person POV; phonetically spelled dialogue (my brain genuinely struggles to process it; however, foreign language exhortations--Mein Gott!--always make me smile, translations neither needed nor desired)
Pre-WWII English Public School Stories
Freeform Tags: Getting Together, Slice of Life
Pairing: Victorian or Edwardian English All-Boys Public School Student/A Classmate
I love deeply loyal friendships, repressed yearning, coming of age angst, and humorous hijinks. All of which make the classic British public school story one of my favorite genres. I want one in which two friends unambiguously hook up, get together and have a happy/hopeful ending. Funny, angsty, adventurous, etc—it’s all good!
Notes:
1) Any time from 1800-1920 will be lovely.
2) While I want the characters in the central pairing to both be 17-18, references to previous liaisons or background older/younger student pairings are totally fine.
Main Character Types: practical-minded everyman; mastermind with a single weakness; earnest team captain burdened with school's cricket hopes; mischievous but charismatic leader of
Background Character Types: sadistic Latin master; kindly but absent-minded House Master; secretly amused Headmaster; sister who drops epistolary bombs; evil Head Boy; bully and his cronies; hero-worshiping younger boy; indulgent cook, sassy errand boy or grumpy groundskeeper; boy who gets expelled (either due to 'filthiness', or after a terrific rag); unused character types from list above
Locations (for trysts or plot action or whatever): shared study; dormitory; school baths; secret swimming hole; infirmary; cave on school grounds; off-limits woods adjoining the school; senior day room
Slice of Life Details: sneaking around after lights out; teatime; cricket or other sports practice; sobriquets; fagging; corporal punishment; impossible exams; crossword puzzles; awful food; self-sacrificial gestures (false confessions, giving up your spot on the team, etc); writing lines; dealing with subtle class differences; finding unexpected applications for Classics education; days too beautiful to stay inside; getting called to the Headmaster's office
Plots: investigating who is behind the anonymous bully brigade; starting a Scarlet Pimpernel-type do-gooder brigade; nostalgia, fear or 'give no fucks' attitudes during last week before graduation; get rich quick schemes that go awry; ferreting out the evil master’s embarrassing secret; pulling off the Greatest Rag; stealing something for the greater good; rallying against injustice; organizing illicit midnight feasts; only ones spending the holidays at school; stuck hiding somewhere all night because there’s no way to sneak back into dorms without getting caught; defending the school from invaders or supernatural threats; Groundhog Day/time loop
Age of Sail
Freeform Tags: Getting Together, Action/Adventure
Pairings:
• Virginal Age of Sail Midshipman/Same but with slightly less internalized homophobia
I adore this 17-19th century genre, for similar reasons as the Dumas stuff below, but on a boat! I would like a story in which two junior officers unambiguously fall in love, hook up, and have a happy/hopeful ending. Many of the character types, genre details, and plots in the schoolboy or swashbuckling sections would work here, but I’ve added some extra ones below to supplement.
Please make the characters in the main ship at least 17. The level of internalized homophobia doesn't matter (this wasn't my nom), but I do want lots of angst and forbidden yearning... what finally makes them act on it? They could be British (or Spanish or French?) naval officers, merchant sailors just trying to deliver their goods for fuck's sake, or young pirates (who maybe have a crisis of conscience, or who are charismatically awful people loyal only to each other, or whatever). They could be fighting Napoleonic wars or in the Caribbean or working for Venetian merchants or...
Background Characters: the grumbling cook; the ship’s doctor; the honorable captain they’re desperate to impress; the terrible captain they have to defy; the men the midshipman is supposed to command; evil midshipman or lieutenant who hates/is jealous of main character(s); mutineers; everyone's favorite prostitute; the female tavern owner who feels aunt-like about the main character
Plots: intercepting supplies or information; rescue missions!; transporting mysterious or top secret passenger (or cargo); legends turning out to be real, like about the Bermuda Triangle or sirens or merpeople (I don’t want the main characters to be supernatural creatures, though), or that mythical Canary Island that sounds a bit like Lost’s island
Setting Details: ropes and rigging; cabins and hammocks; white linen, big hats and brass telescopes; turning the big wheel; supplies running out; watching the stars from the bird’s nest; beset by storms; false flag operations; walking the plank; sword between the teeth; boarding parties; burials at sea; deserted islands; sheer terror before or during a sea battle; the only one who knows how to swim; trying to find privacy on the crowded ship; seasickness; the glorious moment he realizes he's got the hang of this whole ‘being a naval officer’ or ‘living at sea’ thing; slowly getting the non-officer men to respect you as a leader despite being half their age; people falling off the ship at night under dramatic circumstances and being presumed dead except they’re not
Swashbuckling Romances
Freeform Tags: Getting Together, Action Adventure
Pairings:
• 17th Century French King's Male Musketeer/17th Century French Cardinal's Male Guard
• 17-18th Century Continental European Young Male Aristocrat Going to War for First Time/Same
• Virginal Ancien Régime Soldier/Virginal Soldier Fighting for Opposing Side
I'm looking for passion and drama and blood and wine and yes. I love sword fights, lusty living, loyal bands of found family brothers, strict codes of honour that somehow don't preclude assholery... I want a story in which the two main characters unambiguously fall in love, hook up, and have a happy/hopeful ending. Please make the main characters 18+ years old, and set it well before the French Revolution.
The Musketeer/Cardinal’s Guard request comes from my love of 'enemies to lovers' and 'love across enemy lines'. The real life feud between the two corps is a great premise for this! I'm more interested in the adventures they have and/or the angst about falling for someone on the other side of the feud than I am in the meet-cute (but include it as well if you want!). What makes them decide not to care anymore? How do they resolve the problem? Do they end up getting new jobs, or succeed in ending the feud, or forever pretend to hate each other? Something else?
For the First-Time or Virginal Soldiers requests, I'd like something about an odd couple of untried young nobles forging a bond on the way to war, or during their first campaign or assignment, or while captured or something. It could be ‘friends to lovers’ or ‘love across enemy lines’, depending on whether they’re the same or different nationalities. If doing the opposing sides one, I'd be up for one being the war prisoner of the other, but only if the jailer is the most honourable and kind. Or, A could be the prisoner of some horrible outside character that B (who's in the capturer's side's army) wants to save him from. Basically, no mean prisoner/jailer stuff within the pairing, please!
Notes: While these requests are coming from a love of Dumas, I'm looking for original characters in an original story that simply happen to share a similar setting. I don't want Dumas fanfic (outsider POV, canon rehashes, AUs, missing scenes, etc.), or for Dumas’s plot or characters to exist at all. The only exceptions are the real life employers--Richelieu, Mazarin, Anne, Louis XIII-XV, Prince de Condé, etc.—who can make plot-facilitating cameos. You could even characterize them totally differently from how Dumas wrote them! It doesn't need to sound like Dumas, though it can it you want.
Genre Details: duels; fighting back to back; clothing porn; honor before reason; saved by the love token he wears beside his heart; combat compliments; apologetic attacks; taking it to the streets!; OTT self-sacrificing gestures (ex. taking the bullet, taking the blame; ‘take me instead’; ‘I will only slow you down’, dying moment of awesome that he ends up not dying of); 'thought you were dead'; ‘it's okay, it isn't my blood’; horse falls lame so we have to share; revenge!!; trying to hide wound until dramatic fainting or pool of blood gives it away; tenderly wrapping wounds with ripped pieces of his shirt; coming to blows over whose native region makes the best bouillabaisse or whatever
Main Character Types: unjustly disinherited stoic woobie; paranoid secret Huguenot; naïf newly arrived from the provinces; repressed romantic hiding under feigned apathy/misanthropy; elegant playboy whose daddy bought his commission; weakling whose cleverness compensates for fencing incompetence; noble birth dictated soldiering career but should have been a painter; self-loathing illegitimate son who possesses superior nobility of spirit; unjustly shunned deserter or son of disgraced family starting over under a new name; something tweaked from schoolboy main character list
Locations: rowdy taverns; battlefield tents; country inns; shitty rented rooms; atmospheric cemeteries; walkways under the quays of the Seine; candlelit corridors; secret passageways; carriages; barns/haylofts; royal gardens; creepily quiet villages; glittering salon parties; post-battle fields strewn with wounded and dead; lonely country roads or desolate forests
Background Character Types: inspiring or incompetent Prince/General; nosy landlady; understanding benefactress; trusty tavern wench; loyal, lazy or wily valets; servant who looks just like a member of the royal family; easily bribed city watchmen; grizzled old fellow soldier; vicious psycho; dashing foreign duke; effete snob with unexpectedly generous heart; mysterious repeat opponent; secretly immortal grandmaster of the Chess Game of History; vengeful husband of mistress past; royals with no idea of/care for the emotional havoc their actions wreak
Dynamic Types & Meet-Cutes: childhood friends unexpectedly reunited; meet while hidden in the closet of their mistress(es); turns out to be less of a dick than his friends; seconds in other people’s duel; identity porn; loyal lieutenants of enemy leaders; first love/love that heals a previously broken heart; Chaotic Good/Lawful Good
Plots: assigned as bodyguard(s) to distasteful people; foiling an assassination attempt; partnered on espionage assignment; tasked with apprehending highwaymen (stakeouts!); A involved in a righteous conspiracy that B has been assigned to stop; kidnapped, captured or imprisoned together; making their way back after being left behind on the battlefield; get rich quick schemes; losing a card game (with money, objects or actions/dares as payment)