Fic Corner Letter 2018
Jun. 18th, 2018 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maidenjediWell, hello again, Fic Corner. This was the challenge that last year kind of kicked my rear, and I'm back for a second round. :-) Hoping you, dear author, are here to have fun as well!
In each of the fandoms I requested, the primary thing I want to see is the sweet pang of growing up just a little, but not too much. The story of what-happens-next is fascinating in each one. I'd like a story that remembers the innocence of the source material, even while it takes the characters or the plot in a more mature direction.
I love crossovers, and in children's stories I think there's a special opportunity, because so many of the worlds have similarities, or at least potential for it. I didn't explicitly request crossovers this year, but I have some suggestions if that's your thing. And if not, ignore me :-)
Also love canon-divergent AUs, though not time/place AUs (like high school, university, coffee shop, etc).
DNWs - no non-canonical character deaths, no gore, no explicit sex or sexual violence of any kind. Please keep to canonical/textual relationships if you include them, unless otherwise noted by fandom.
Specific prompts/etc under the cut, and as always, if you already have an idea and you think it'll work, go for it. I'm pretty easy to please - I mean, after all, we matched on our choices, so you have a head start!
Harry Potter by JK Rowling - Slice-of-life for any character would be awesome - Hermione receiving her Hogwarts letter, Ron watching his brothers go off to Hogwarts and then staying behind with Ginny, and what their sibling relationship might have looked like (from his POV). AU where Ron, Hermione, and Neville are growing up in a world without Harry Potter (this can be a dark one). Boys' dorm bonding on a stormy night (scary stories, Neville huddled under a blanket). Hermione, Ron, and Harry bonding, 1st or 2nd year, with the spectre of Voldemort far from their thoughts. Hermione/Ron first kiss, assuming it happens before the events of Deathly Hallows. Here's where non-canonical romance is fine with me - I would be very interested in Harry/Hermione, hand-holding, first kiss, a dance, any of it set before Deathly Hallows. Or, Albus Dumbledore, and protecting Neville Longbottom as much as Harry Potter. Neville and Dumbledore interaction, any time during the series. Feel free to add any of the teachers or the kids (especially Gryffindor kids) as background characters. Also keen on Harry Potter/Chronicles of Narnia crossovers if you have a mind for one. Time-traveling (or not!) Harry, Ron, or Hermione encountering the Pevensies. Neville meets Prince Caspian. The Pevensie children at Hogwarts, after their collective experience in Narnia, just in time to have Dumbledore as a professor.
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder - I hate to start off negatively, but I want to get this out of the way: I'm not a fan of the television series, and I'd really like any story in this fandom to totally ignore The First Four Years and any of the extra-canonical Roger MacBride books. Beyond that - my favorite book in the original eight is By the Shores of Silver Lake, but I love them all. I ship Laura/Almanzo pretty hard and I love courtship stories. I would love a courtship story of some kind for Mary Ingalls, too - at college, maybe, or back home (maybe she catches Cap Garland's attention somehow!). Laura and Mary Power's friendship is definitely intriguing; do they have adventures that never made it into the "official" story? A story told from Nellie Oleson's POV would be interesting, but don't let her steal Almanzo from Laura; I'm more interested in seeing if she grows at all, becomes less spiteful or learns any kind of lesson. Caroline and Charles early in their marriage is always interesting, but it would also be fascinating to see more about them making it work as the girls get older, and as they let the girls go. Stuff about the Ingalls girls "left" at home after Laura marries Almanzo could be fun, especially about Grace, growing up so differently than Laura had. More ideas - Mary and Laura sharing a love for a particular novel, and Laura having to read it to Mary during the Hard Winter; Grace Ingalls experiencing the Dakota prairie, especially as a small child, contrasted with Laura experiencing the Wisconsin Big Woods at the same age. Mary coping with her blindness, getting along without Laura to "see" for her, nostalgic for that later in life. Or, and here's a radical thing - Laura witnessed the Osage losing their land and being pushed further into Oklahoma during Little House on the Prairie. Flip the POV and tell the story of a little Osage girl Laura's age who lives through the same thing.
Crayon Series - Drew Daywalt - I think these are the most creative picture books my daughter owns, and I'd love to see more about the crayons' daily lives. Expand on the dispute between Orange and Yellow - how did Green get involved in that?! Does Red Crayon secretly resent them both, because of a time Orange was lost and Red had to be combined with Yellow to make the sun? How does Beige get along with Brown? Do the crayons have a day where they meet other crayons, maybe at school? Are they intimidated when Duncan one day get a 96-crayon box, and new colors like Midnight Blue or Macaroni and Cheese are introduced to the line-up? Basically anything in this world would be awesome, epistolary or not.
Casey at the Bat - Ernest Lawrence Thayer - Please don't feel like you have to write verse for this one! Just tell me more about Casey and the other players. Are they perennial losers, mocked by fans and dragged down by their lot until one day, a miracle occurs? Or was the day in this story an anomaly - is Casey really a star? Anything about these characters would be amazing. I nominated this fandom and would love to see if someone can write a solid baseball story around it. Another thought - tell me what happens to Casey after that day. Are his baseball days over, is he going away with a busted heart (ala Robert Earl Keen's "Laughing River")? Or, re-tell the story of that day in prose.
In each of the fandoms I requested, the primary thing I want to see is the sweet pang of growing up just a little, but not too much. The story of what-happens-next is fascinating in each one. I'd like a story that remembers the innocence of the source material, even while it takes the characters or the plot in a more mature direction.
I love crossovers, and in children's stories I think there's a special opportunity, because so many of the worlds have similarities, or at least potential for it. I didn't explicitly request crossovers this year, but I have some suggestions if that's your thing. And if not, ignore me :-)
Also love canon-divergent AUs, though not time/place AUs (like high school, university, coffee shop, etc).
DNWs - no non-canonical character deaths, no gore, no explicit sex or sexual violence of any kind. Please keep to canonical/textual relationships if you include them, unless otherwise noted by fandom.
Specific prompts/etc under the cut, and as always, if you already have an idea and you think it'll work, go for it. I'm pretty easy to please - I mean, after all, we matched on our choices, so you have a head start!
Harry Potter by JK Rowling - Slice-of-life for any character would be awesome - Hermione receiving her Hogwarts letter, Ron watching his brothers go off to Hogwarts and then staying behind with Ginny, and what their sibling relationship might have looked like (from his POV). AU where Ron, Hermione, and Neville are growing up in a world without Harry Potter (this can be a dark one). Boys' dorm bonding on a stormy night (scary stories, Neville huddled under a blanket). Hermione, Ron, and Harry bonding, 1st or 2nd year, with the spectre of Voldemort far from their thoughts. Hermione/Ron first kiss, assuming it happens before the events of Deathly Hallows. Here's where non-canonical romance is fine with me - I would be very interested in Harry/Hermione, hand-holding, first kiss, a dance, any of it set before Deathly Hallows. Or, Albus Dumbledore, and protecting Neville Longbottom as much as Harry Potter. Neville and Dumbledore interaction, any time during the series. Feel free to add any of the teachers or the kids (especially Gryffindor kids) as background characters. Also keen on Harry Potter/Chronicles of Narnia crossovers if you have a mind for one. Time-traveling (or not!) Harry, Ron, or Hermione encountering the Pevensies. Neville meets Prince Caspian. The Pevensie children at Hogwarts, after their collective experience in Narnia, just in time to have Dumbledore as a professor.
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder - I hate to start off negatively, but I want to get this out of the way: I'm not a fan of the television series, and I'd really like any story in this fandom to totally ignore The First Four Years and any of the extra-canonical Roger MacBride books. Beyond that - my favorite book in the original eight is By the Shores of Silver Lake, but I love them all. I ship Laura/Almanzo pretty hard and I love courtship stories. I would love a courtship story of some kind for Mary Ingalls, too - at college, maybe, or back home (maybe she catches Cap Garland's attention somehow!). Laura and Mary Power's friendship is definitely intriguing; do they have adventures that never made it into the "official" story? A story told from Nellie Oleson's POV would be interesting, but don't let her steal Almanzo from Laura; I'm more interested in seeing if she grows at all, becomes less spiteful or learns any kind of lesson. Caroline and Charles early in their marriage is always interesting, but it would also be fascinating to see more about them making it work as the girls get older, and as they let the girls go. Stuff about the Ingalls girls "left" at home after Laura marries Almanzo could be fun, especially about Grace, growing up so differently than Laura had. More ideas - Mary and Laura sharing a love for a particular novel, and Laura having to read it to Mary during the Hard Winter; Grace Ingalls experiencing the Dakota prairie, especially as a small child, contrasted with Laura experiencing the Wisconsin Big Woods at the same age. Mary coping with her blindness, getting along without Laura to "see" for her, nostalgic for that later in life. Or, and here's a radical thing - Laura witnessed the Osage losing their land and being pushed further into Oklahoma during Little House on the Prairie. Flip the POV and tell the story of a little Osage girl Laura's age who lives through the same thing.
Crayon Series - Drew Daywalt - I think these are the most creative picture books my daughter owns, and I'd love to see more about the crayons' daily lives. Expand on the dispute between Orange and Yellow - how did Green get involved in that?! Does Red Crayon secretly resent them both, because of a time Orange was lost and Red had to be combined with Yellow to make the sun? How does Beige get along with Brown? Do the crayons have a day where they meet other crayons, maybe at school? Are they intimidated when Duncan one day get a 96-crayon box, and new colors like Midnight Blue or Macaroni and Cheese are introduced to the line-up? Basically anything in this world would be awesome, epistolary or not.
Casey at the Bat - Ernest Lawrence Thayer - Please don't feel like you have to write verse for this one! Just tell me more about Casey and the other players. Are they perennial losers, mocked by fans and dragged down by their lot until one day, a miracle occurs? Or was the day in this story an anomaly - is Casey really a star? Anything about these characters would be amazing. I nominated this fandom and would love to see if someone can write a solid baseball story around it. Another thought - tell me what happens to Casey after that day. Are his baseball days over, is he going away with a busted heart (ala Robert Earl Keen's "Laughing River")? Or, re-tell the story of that day in prose.
