austenexchange letter 2024
Aug. 2nd, 2024 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maidenjediHurray, Austen!
Dear writer, thank you! I'm pretty easy but also brimming with ideas. Please take anything you see here as suggestions and not directions! Frankly I'm just always thrilled to read Austen fanfiction.
Here we go:
Persuasion
This was my entry book into Austen, and I read it when I was 27. You can imagine how it resonated. I still love this one above all the rest, even though I don't re-read it as often. Anne is wonderful character with so much depth. And I am a hard-and-fast Anne/Frederick shipper. However, I thought for this exchange, I'd switch it up a little.
James Benwick/Louisa Musgrove - Okay, I love how Austen's sidebar characters aren't forgotten about, and get what we assume must be a happy ending in spite of everything. So what is Benwick and Louisa's happy ending, exactly? What happened, aside from her injury, that led Louisa to fall in love with Benwick? Is it legit? Does Benwick very seriously love her in return or does he see something else here? Would love anything you could imagine for them!
Anne Elliot/Charles Musgrove - The road not taken! I don't really see what Anne might have once seen in Charles. But maybe there was something, and it was enough. Or perhaps she never meets Frederick and Charles Musgrove is her destiny after all. Or just tell the story of their brief courtship from their own POV, and how she let him down, etc. How is it they remain cordial later on, what sets that up?
Anne Elliot/William Elliot - Another road not taken. So maybe they meet sooner than Lyme. Maybe it's arranged by her father and Lady Russell does some serious persuading. Maybe Anne, in a fit of pique over the possible pairing of Frederick and Louisa, decides she needs to take control of her future. Another idea - show them married, years later, and the regrets that have piled up. Totally fine to show Anne pining for Frederick here, too. Happily married maybe! And Anne has reformed the conceited Mr. Elliot. You do you, and I'm sure I will love it!
Crossover Fandom
Elinor Dashwood/Colonel Fitzwilliam - It's one of my favorite Austen fanfic tropes to give Elinor Dashwood a different beau and see where it goes. So why not Colonel Fitzwilliam? I have no idea how they might meet - he's a friend of Colonel Brandon's, or John Middleton's? They meet at that "crush" of a ball and he helps her with Marianne, or just dances with her and comes to call later? Perhaps Elinor is a friend of Elizabeth Bennet's and they meet at Pemberley down the road. You tell me, but I would just adore a sweet meet-cute and a sweeter romance for both.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy - If you count the endless retellings of P&P that are available, I've read this one more than all the rest of Austen's works. It's a bad, bad habit, because I don't always return to the source text as much as I should! But doing all this has given me a taste for a certain kind of Elizabeth/Darcy story. I love it when they are stuck together in some actually impossible situation and fall in love through closer contact. The more adventure the better, but any time they are forced to spend time together is great. Break the narrative! Don't let Darcy get away with seeming priggishness and smoldering looks no one understands! Don't let Elizabeth lay all the blame for Charles Bingley's ineptitude at Darcy's feet! Make them talk it out! Snowbound, kidnapped, locked in a room (or out of one!), zombies, quarantine, lost, you name it, let's do this.
Dear writer, thank you! I'm pretty easy but also brimming with ideas. Please take anything you see here as suggestions and not directions! Frankly I'm just always thrilled to read Austen fanfiction.
Here we go:
Persuasion
This was my entry book into Austen, and I read it when I was 27. You can imagine how it resonated. I still love this one above all the rest, even though I don't re-read it as often. Anne is wonderful character with so much depth. And I am a hard-and-fast Anne/Frederick shipper. However, I thought for this exchange, I'd switch it up a little.
James Benwick/Louisa Musgrove - Okay, I love how Austen's sidebar characters aren't forgotten about, and get what we assume must be a happy ending in spite of everything. So what is Benwick and Louisa's happy ending, exactly? What happened, aside from her injury, that led Louisa to fall in love with Benwick? Is it legit? Does Benwick very seriously love her in return or does he see something else here? Would love anything you could imagine for them!
Anne Elliot/Charles Musgrove - The road not taken! I don't really see what Anne might have once seen in Charles. But maybe there was something, and it was enough. Or perhaps she never meets Frederick and Charles Musgrove is her destiny after all. Or just tell the story of their brief courtship from their own POV, and how she let him down, etc. How is it they remain cordial later on, what sets that up?
Anne Elliot/William Elliot - Another road not taken. So maybe they meet sooner than Lyme. Maybe it's arranged by her father and Lady Russell does some serious persuading. Maybe Anne, in a fit of pique over the possible pairing of Frederick and Louisa, decides she needs to take control of her future. Another idea - show them married, years later, and the regrets that have piled up. Totally fine to show Anne pining for Frederick here, too. Happily married maybe! And Anne has reformed the conceited Mr. Elliot. You do you, and I'm sure I will love it!
Crossover Fandom
Elinor Dashwood/Colonel Fitzwilliam - It's one of my favorite Austen fanfic tropes to give Elinor Dashwood a different beau and see where it goes. So why not Colonel Fitzwilliam? I have no idea how they might meet - he's a friend of Colonel Brandon's, or John Middleton's? They meet at that "crush" of a ball and he helps her with Marianne, or just dances with her and comes to call later? Perhaps Elinor is a friend of Elizabeth Bennet's and they meet at Pemberley down the road. You tell me, but I would just adore a sweet meet-cute and a sweeter romance for both.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy - If you count the endless retellings of P&P that are available, I've read this one more than all the rest of Austen's works. It's a bad, bad habit, because I don't always return to the source text as much as I should! But doing all this has given me a taste for a certain kind of Elizabeth/Darcy story. I love it when they are stuck together in some actually impossible situation and fall in love through closer contact. The more adventure the better, but any time they are forced to spend time together is great. Break the narrative! Don't let Darcy get away with seeming priggishness and smoldering looks no one understands! Don't let Elizabeth lay all the blame for Charles Bingley's ineptitude at Darcy's feet! Make them talk it out! Snowbound, kidnapped, locked in a room (or out of one!), zombies, quarantine, lost, you name it, let's do this.
