Dear Yuletide Goat
Hi there,
Thank you for writing for me! This is my second year in Yuletide and I had a ball last year - I'm really looking forward to seeing your story.
General Stuff About Me
I'm relatively recent to the world of fan fiction (mostly this last year or so), although I've been enjoying myself wading through various archives (my AO3 handle is DaisyNinjaGirl). Some things I've noticed about myself is that I tend to enjoy more stories that are reasonably consistent with the original canon - so sequels and prequels and inbetween scenes, and I love it when a minor character gets their story expanded or someone does a nifty bit of world building on some little detail and makes it all make sense. AUs and crossovers are less my thing, although there have been some definite exceptions that really blew me away, so please take this paragraph as an 'optional details are optional' section and write the story that will make you happy. The prompts I've given are also optional, please have fun with what you choose to write. Also, stories that pass the Bechdel Test Are Love!
Squicks
I'm seriously not into non-consensual or underage sex. I also don't like graphic torture scenes or incest. Consensual BDSM isn't a squick for me (no problem with consenting adults doing what makes them happy), but it's also not something I'm particularly interested in reading about (sorry, if that's one of your things.) That said, one of the fandoms I asked for contradicts a bunch of what I just said here, and yes, I'm aware of the contradiction - I guess that particular story is detached enough in time and language and intent that it doesn't trigger for me. Or something. I don't have a problem with where you want to write characters on the Kinsey Kaleidoscope with respect to pairings, but I guess I'm more interested in how characters' relationships work out with each other than erotica. (I generally read in the Gen and Teen brackets.)
The Life of St Margaret of Antioch
This is the contradictory fandom I mentioned in my Squicks section (it comes with trigger warnings for an attempt to coerce a marriage and graphic violence (some versions more than others)). Margaret's been dear to me since I did a big research on variant versions of her Life in my last year at University. She's one of the virgin saints, and a very popular one in the Middle Ages - her basic story is that she's a young woman of good family who gets sent to live out in the country, is seen by a pagan prefect Olibrius who asks about her ancestry (he wants to marry her if she is free, take her as a concubine if a slave), and when she refuses to marry him has her tortured, then thrown into prison for the night to have a think about things. This is where things get interesting - she prays that she might be given sight of her enemies and a dragon appears with golden teeth and iron hair that swallows her whole. It immediately bursts asunder by reason of her Awesomeness, and then she sees a black devil with his wrists tied to his knees. They debate for a bit about who has to answer whose questions, then she grabs him by the hair, puts her foot on his neck, and makes him tell her all about the different ways that devils cause problems for the virtuous. The next day, she gets brought out in front of Olibrius again, refuses to marry him or sacrifice to his gods, gets tortured some more, causes some mass conversions and, just before she's executed, promises all the witnesses that anyone who lights a candle to her, or builds a church, or writes a copy of her life will get intercessions for theirs sins plus a bunch of good stuff in real life - children not being born deaf or halt or blind, that kind of thing.
Things I like about the Life:
- There's a dragon! More seriously, the inner section is a place where the different writers all went to town on their demonology. There are a lot of interesting details coming through that show different trends in the ways that people understood the world back in the Middle Ages.
- There's a big thing about sight and sensibility. There are recurring discussions about who can see what - Margaret as a devout person has a lot more awareness of what's going on, Olibrius' idols are described as deaf and mute and blind, the interior private scene in the middle of the Life is described as the really important battle (for Margaret's soul, rather than the external public one for Margaret's body), who can stand to see what ie Olibrius keeps on being written as a guy who had to cover his face with a cloak.
- As with other stories about virgin saints, there are threats of rape, but they're never carried out - what the bad guy really wants is Margaret's consent, first to marry, and then to sacrifice to his gods. And that puts Margaret in a really good place to exercise passive resistance, and tell the guy off but good.
- It's a self replicating virus. At the end of the Life, always, there's a section where Margaret promises the audience that she'll help them if they do things like keep copies of her life in their house or make a copy. I think that, just for that, our Margaret deserves to have fanfiction of her own.
- There are interesting things going on with the transmission of the Life - it started off as a text that would have been read only in monasteries or given to anchoresses to read, got broadened out into encylopaedias that parish priests might have available as reference texts, and then started being published in miscellanies that would be read by anyone, all mixed in with romances and poetry and texts like the Canterbury Tales. Somewhere in here, Margaret got picked up as a patroness of childbirth, and people started doing things like copying her Life into medical textbooks and making amulets and charms that you could give to someone in labour. S'interesting.
Possible Prompts:
Pretty much any story about Margaret would make me very happy indeed. Some possible ideas for a story are a straight retelling, or a deconstruction, or maybe a group of women somewhere or when who are affected by a retelling of her life. (In case it matters to someone who's interested in this request, I'm not Catholic, I'm just fascinated by saints' lives.)
Resources:
What I had to say about Margaret, way back when is here. (Kinda long, but the Introduction (pp1-3) and Literature Review (pp42-5) will give you an overview.
The Wikipedia page also has an overview, and links to an annotated copy of the Stanzaic Life which is in pretty readable late Middle English.
If you can get hold of them easily, I also recommend the Corpus Christi OE version (Clayton, Mary, and Hugh Magennis, eds. The Old English Lives of St Margaret. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. 149-80.) and the Katherine Group ME version (Millett, Bella, and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne. Medieval English Prose for Women. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.) both for their literary merit and because they come with facing page translations, so you can enjoy the flavour of the original text without having to be a language specialist.
Right, my other nominations are much easier, I promise!
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
This is one of my favourite rereads. It's got that whole music is just as important as might, and style, and its important to get your relationships with people right, because that's what the fate of your city depends on. It also has that very Emma Bull thing of being in a broken stained glass window - vivid as anything, but it cuts.
Possible Prompts:
1. Carla and Dan have this relationship simmering along in the background - it'd be great to see some more of the detail expanded out.
2. At the end of the book, the Phouka suggests that the band go on tour - there's gotta be a story in that!
3. What happened with Willy Silver and his break with his family. What are the things they all regret?
4. There are some really creepy characters in both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Maybe a scene where Eddi gets to spend more time with them?
Dan in Real Life (2007)
Dan in Real Life is a very sweet, very gentle movie about this guy who's seriously good at coping (widowed father, writer of an advice column) except when all of a sudden he isn't (he falls in love with the woman his brother brought home to a family party and things get Awkward.) Things I like about it are the big messy family, and how they've got their shared history and traditions, and their layers, and even when they're having problems with each other they keep on going back to a place of love. I like how Dan has to deal with hormonal teenager daughter and at the same time realise how he's going through exactly the same experience she is. I like how they draw a line in the physical humour between embarrassing and humiliating. I like the light and how beautifully it's filmed and the sound track. Basically, it's all good. :-)
Possible Prompts:
1. The events of the movie but from someone else's point of view (one of the kids, or the grandparents maybe?)
2. What the next family get together a year later was like. How do Dan and Mitch and Marie deal with each other? Did Mitch find the person he can settle down with?
3. What was Dan's relationship with his first wife like? How did they meet? What was special about her? What was it like when she came to meet the family the first time?
Resources:
IMDB page
Trailer
Anyway, thanks again for writing a story for me.
Stephanie
Thank you for writing for me! This is my second year in Yuletide and I had a ball last year - I'm really looking forward to seeing your story.
General Stuff About Me
I'm relatively recent to the world of fan fiction (mostly this last year or so), although I've been enjoying myself wading through various archives (my AO3 handle is DaisyNinjaGirl). Some things I've noticed about myself is that I tend to enjoy more stories that are reasonably consistent with the original canon - so sequels and prequels and inbetween scenes, and I love it when a minor character gets their story expanded or someone does a nifty bit of world building on some little detail and makes it all make sense. AUs and crossovers are less my thing, although there have been some definite exceptions that really blew me away, so please take this paragraph as an 'optional details are optional' section and write the story that will make you happy. The prompts I've given are also optional, please have fun with what you choose to write. Also, stories that pass the Bechdel Test Are Love!
Squicks
I'm seriously not into non-consensual or underage sex. I also don't like graphic torture scenes or incest. Consensual BDSM isn't a squick for me (no problem with consenting adults doing what makes them happy), but it's also not something I'm particularly interested in reading about (sorry, if that's one of your things.) That said, one of the fandoms I asked for contradicts a bunch of what I just said here, and yes, I'm aware of the contradiction - I guess that particular story is detached enough in time and language and intent that it doesn't trigger for me. Or something. I don't have a problem with where you want to write characters on the Kinsey Kaleidoscope with respect to pairings, but I guess I'm more interested in how characters' relationships work out with each other than erotica. (I generally read in the Gen and Teen brackets.)
The Life of St Margaret of Antioch
This is the contradictory fandom I mentioned in my Squicks section (it comes with trigger warnings for an attempt to coerce a marriage and graphic violence (some versions more than others)). Margaret's been dear to me since I did a big research on variant versions of her Life in my last year at University. She's one of the virgin saints, and a very popular one in the Middle Ages - her basic story is that she's a young woman of good family who gets sent to live out in the country, is seen by a pagan prefect Olibrius who asks about her ancestry (he wants to marry her if she is free, take her as a concubine if a slave), and when she refuses to marry him has her tortured, then thrown into prison for the night to have a think about things. This is where things get interesting - she prays that she might be given sight of her enemies and a dragon appears with golden teeth and iron hair that swallows her whole. It immediately bursts asunder by reason of her Awesomeness, and then she sees a black devil with his wrists tied to his knees. They debate for a bit about who has to answer whose questions, then she grabs him by the hair, puts her foot on his neck, and makes him tell her all about the different ways that devils cause problems for the virtuous. The next day, she gets brought out in front of Olibrius again, refuses to marry him or sacrifice to his gods, gets tortured some more, causes some mass conversions and, just before she's executed, promises all the witnesses that anyone who lights a candle to her, or builds a church, or writes a copy of her life will get intercessions for theirs sins plus a bunch of good stuff in real life - children not being born deaf or halt or blind, that kind of thing.
Things I like about the Life:
- There's a dragon! More seriously, the inner section is a place where the different writers all went to town on their demonology. There are a lot of interesting details coming through that show different trends in the ways that people understood the world back in the Middle Ages.
- There's a big thing about sight and sensibility. There are recurring discussions about who can see what - Margaret as a devout person has a lot more awareness of what's going on, Olibrius' idols are described as deaf and mute and blind, the interior private scene in the middle of the Life is described as the really important battle (for Margaret's soul, rather than the external public one for Margaret's body), who can stand to see what ie Olibrius keeps on being written as a guy who had to cover his face with a cloak.
- As with other stories about virgin saints, there are threats of rape, but they're never carried out - what the bad guy really wants is Margaret's consent, first to marry, and then to sacrifice to his gods. And that puts Margaret in a really good place to exercise passive resistance, and tell the guy off but good.
- It's a self replicating virus. At the end of the Life, always, there's a section where Margaret promises the audience that she'll help them if they do things like keep copies of her life in their house or make a copy. I think that, just for that, our Margaret deserves to have fanfiction of her own.
- There are interesting things going on with the transmission of the Life - it started off as a text that would have been read only in monasteries or given to anchoresses to read, got broadened out into encylopaedias that parish priests might have available as reference texts, and then started being published in miscellanies that would be read by anyone, all mixed in with romances and poetry and texts like the Canterbury Tales. Somewhere in here, Margaret got picked up as a patroness of childbirth, and people started doing things like copying her Life into medical textbooks and making amulets and charms that you could give to someone in labour. S'interesting.
Possible Prompts:
Pretty much any story about Margaret would make me very happy indeed. Some possible ideas for a story are a straight retelling, or a deconstruction, or maybe a group of women somewhere or when who are affected by a retelling of her life. (In case it matters to someone who's interested in this request, I'm not Catholic, I'm just fascinated by saints' lives.)
Resources:
What I had to say about Margaret, way back when is here. (Kinda long, but the Introduction (pp1-3) and Literature Review (pp42-5) will give you an overview.
The Wikipedia page also has an overview, and links to an annotated copy of the Stanzaic Life which is in pretty readable late Middle English.
If you can get hold of them easily, I also recommend the Corpus Christi OE version (Clayton, Mary, and Hugh Magennis, eds. The Old English Lives of St Margaret. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. 149-80.) and the Katherine Group ME version (Millett, Bella, and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne. Medieval English Prose for Women. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.) both for their literary merit and because they come with facing page translations, so you can enjoy the flavour of the original text without having to be a language specialist.
Right, my other nominations are much easier, I promise!
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
This is one of my favourite rereads. It's got that whole music is just as important as might, and style, and its important to get your relationships with people right, because that's what the fate of your city depends on. It also has that very Emma Bull thing of being in a broken stained glass window - vivid as anything, but it cuts.
Possible Prompts:
1. Carla and Dan have this relationship simmering along in the background - it'd be great to see some more of the detail expanded out.
2. At the end of the book, the Phouka suggests that the band go on tour - there's gotta be a story in that!
3. What happened with Willy Silver and his break with his family. What are the things they all regret?
4. There are some really creepy characters in both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Maybe a scene where Eddi gets to spend more time with them?
Dan in Real Life (2007)
Dan in Real Life is a very sweet, very gentle movie about this guy who's seriously good at coping (widowed father, writer of an advice column) except when all of a sudden he isn't (he falls in love with the woman his brother brought home to a family party and things get Awkward.) Things I like about it are the big messy family, and how they've got their shared history and traditions, and their layers, and even when they're having problems with each other they keep on going back to a place of love. I like how Dan has to deal with hormonal teenager daughter and at the same time realise how he's going through exactly the same experience she is. I like how they draw a line in the physical humour between embarrassing and humiliating. I like the light and how beautifully it's filmed and the sound track. Basically, it's all good. :-)
Possible Prompts:
1. The events of the movie but from someone else's point of view (one of the kids, or the grandparents maybe?)
2. What the next family get together a year later was like. How do Dan and Mitch and Marie deal with each other? Did Mitch find the person he can settle down with?
3. What was Dan's relationship with his first wife like? How did they meet? What was special about her? What was it like when she came to meet the family the first time?
Resources:
IMDB page
Trailer
Anyway, thanks again for writing a story for me.
Stephanie