It is this time of the year again and I’m very happy we both take part in Yuletide - and that I have you as my assigned author (or, as a pinch hitter)!
You seem to be a talented writer and very giving person, and also to have quite good taste in fandoms - otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this, would you?
Now, here are some things about me: I am German (so feel absolutely free to write in German if you are able and want to!). I work as a teacher for biology and German literature and I love all things artsy and crafty. Which, of course, includes fanfiction, since it is both artsy and crafty.
In order to help you find some inspiration and ideas for the story you’re about to write, I’d like to tell you some things about what I like and dislike and what I love about my fandoms. Here we go:
Likes:
I like Happy Endings! :) Yay!
Especially at Christmas. Really, I do. I honestly believe Happy Endings to be one of the things that made mankind tell stories in the first place. This world can be scary and mean and unfair and hard - so why not use our creative mind to create a different world that is peaceful and good and fair (in the end)?
Don’t get me wrong, a Happy Ending need not be all sweet sunshine and sugary cupcakes and unicorns. From time to time, I enjoy a good darkfic, but especially at Christmas time I prefer something at least optimistic in tone. I hereby confess that I’m a hopeless idealist and romantic.
I appreciate some good humor, yet for some reason plain comedy isn’t really my cup of tea.
I like the characters in my fandoms! Very much. They are the cause I chose those fandoms for yuletide! And likely you like them, too. So show to me what makes them special, what they can do that no other person could, what drove their authors to tell us about them in the first place, and most of all, what you love about them! I’d love to read about the lesser known sides of characters - but that does not mean I won’t enjoy their established traits very much, too. It is both that makes them complex and life-like. I should add that I really am much more interested in the “good guys” that in my eyes, too often get disregarded in favour of “interesting wicked guys”. It is my opinion that the goodies can be at least as interesting.
What about porn? Yes, please - if you like. Personally, I’m not so much into the technical details as in the feelings for the participants, the intimacy, the thrill, the thoughts, the small things, a touch of realism. And I much rather would have a story without any sexytimes than one with a scene that does not stick true to the overall vibe.
In case of kinkyness - if you can justify it in-character and in-story, this is absolutely fine! Maybe a little festish may work wonders to symbolize some deep-rooted feelings or wishes?
Of course, if you do not like any of it, that’s completely fine, too!
Dislikes:
As I’m sure you may have guessed from what I said already, I don’t like fics that include character death(s) and accurately described cruelty. I’d prefer the (main) characters to stay alive. At least at Christmas. Please - do not let anyone die and please don’t make atrocities the main point of your story. Otherwise I don’t think I’d be able to enjoy it.
What I like about the fandoms:
Warning! This part is not yet ready and will be updated in the next few days.
There is so much I like about this series - somehow it seemed to be a dream come true: all the loving research that went into the tiniest nerdiest details of medicine history (Virchow’s bureau, the notion that not everyone instantly bought the “illness is caused by little animals”-idea of Koch, injections being given into the shoulder, Behring using his own horse for research purposes etc. etc.), the charming aesthetics, the overall idea of a series about an important moment in medicine history, the nod to the crucial part deaconesses (women!) and Diakonie (the idea of Christian charity!) at whole played in the establishing of modern medicine! Being a biology teacher, I knew about most of the persons shown, yet had never had a chance to see and show them to my pupils this lifelike, even if of course the series is fictional! Also, it is great how so many diverse life styles of the Wilhelminian Era were shown... I’ve never seen anything the like before. I really *want* to love “Charité” with all my heart and mind. Yet, alas...
Between all the really great stuff they pulled a lot of surprisingly big boners.
The first is that the writer very obviously had no clue whatsoever (and was to lazy to ask, too!) what Protestantism and being a deaconness was all about: the whole idea of Sister Therese’s great fear of not going to heaven - has no point. The whole point of Protestantism is that *every* believer is going to heaven. Period. There is no sin imaginable that could not be atoned with Christ’s death. The whole story arc is a crass misunderstanding. Obviously the writer thought deaconnesses to simply be “Protestant flavour nuns”.
That is not to say that absolutely, it would have been possible to show Sister Therese as a person feeling sinful and guilty and not being in terms with herself or having a crisis of faith or the idea of being punished with her desease. But from a Protestant POV literally all the sin she ever committed was kissing someone she was not married to (and, maybe, expose this someone to the danger of getting infected with a serious desease). Because having sexual fantasies and desires is considered a natural thing, not a sin.
The second real big boner is that Therese - being the nicest person imaginable - did not get the slightest consolidation! Not by Sister Martha who ex officio is obligated to give her solace, nor by any other deaconness or clerical person or nurse or doctor or reading or lecture. Even at her deathbed, she still gets kicked in the face - the last thing she witnesses on earth is Ida telling her she is giving up all her plans of becoming a doctor and marrying herself off to some guy that proposed while seriously drunk. WTF. And Therese’s body hardly being cold, the story nearly alltogether forgets about her, Ida having fun at a wedding party. :(
So - long rant short - I would wish for a story that fixes it (or, at least, partly or for a moment fixes it) for Sister Therese. This could take many forms: some of which I suggested here:
http://elektra121.tumblr.com/post/159506389239/what-do-you-think-about-them-basically-portraying
http://elektra121.tumblr.com/post/159652268064/ard-charit%C3%A9-2017-episode-4-and-5
- Sister Therese is sent to a sanatorium (I know, I know, the first ones were founded some years after her death in the series, but let’s call it artistic licence) - maybe there she comes to terms with herself, gets visited by Ida or meets another love interest - some more optimistic, feminist version of the MagicMountain ;)
- What about her childhood and youth in an orphanage? How did she come to choose the life of a deaconness? Did she swoon over some teacher or classmate or deaconness? Why does she cut herself? How did she discover this helps her for a short time?
- What does she love about her profession? What does she love about Ida?
- Some little getaway with Ida on a Sunday leave in Berlin/ How did she spent her Sunday leaves before Ida?
- a Christmas Eve in the Charité
Feel free to use as many characters from the series and make up as many OCs as you like! I especially would be delighted if Matron Martha makes an appearance.
Falls du Deutsch kannst: schreib natürlich gerne auf Deutsch! Ich glaube, es würde sich ein bisschen komisch anfühlen, eine Charité-Fanfiction auf English zu lesen, wenn wir die Serie beide auf Deutsch gesehen haben!
If you have anything in mind by now - please feel free to write it!
I don’t particularly have plotbunnies for this one, but my fasciation with Shakespeare is to a large point that his charcters are so complex and enigmatic - you can read them in so different ways, always finding another layer to them. I must say that my interest in and opinion about most of the charasters in “Hamlet” changed not so little over the years. Maybe you will get some inspiration if I tell you about various ideas I’ve had:
- Hamlet: is he the misunderstood teenager, mourning his father, feeling left alone by his mother, a child of divorce? Or an self-absorbed emo wallying so much in self-pity that he simply doesn’t get everyone around him has their own serious problems, too? Or maybe even a clever sociopathic asshole, manipulating all the people around him just for fun - the possibility of death of his victims absolutely taken into account. Or a mixture of all that?
- the Queen: Is she the relatively young woman who always had been a pawn of state matters, now realising that for the first time in her life there is a man that sincerely loves her so much that you would kill? Does she love Claudius with all her heart? Or is she the one puppet master in the background who really is to blame for her husband’s death?
- Claudius: Cruel murderer of his brother and machiavellist? Ignorant and driven by base motives? Or wise statesman, caring husband and believing Christian, deeply moved by his own guilt and Ophelia’s decline?
- Ophelia: The meek, mild, obedient girl who even dies lovely? Or an angry young woman who - when they take everything and everyone she loves away from her - doesn’t feel tied anymore to decency and modesty, using the same way as Hamlet to tell everyone just how she thinks about them? Did she really kill herself? Or did the queen knew a little too much details about how it happened?
- Laertes: I didn’t find too many layers in Laertes so far. He seems a sweet, innocent young man who likes to go see the world. He loves his family dearly, respects and obeys his father and wants revenge. Somehow a foil of what Hamlet could have been if he just wasn’t... well, Hamlet.
- Polonius: Ridiculous old man, jabbering stuff of no importance? Or a strict but caring father, faithful statesman and servant to the royal house? Why is he called “Polonius” when the story takes place in Denmark?
- Horatio: Oh, Horatio. I must say he is my favourite. I read a sadness into him that I don’t know the reason for. I think it would work fine if he was secretly in love with Hamlet, knowing this love never stands a chance and so keeping quiet about it, subliming it into the most deep and loyal friendship. Why is he called with a classical name like Polonius, Laertes and Ophelia? What, actually, does he *do* at court in Denmark (he seems to know everyone!)? What where his studies in Wittenberg? Theology, maybe? How come he doesn’t believe in ghosts, yet is able to give a lecture about them out of thin air? And never blinking an eye speaking to one?
I’d love to see all of them as basically good people who sadly got tangled in this mess that is the Shakespeare tragedy. Prequels are fine, too! And I’d be especially glad if they had at least one bright moment in between all the terrible things that will happen to them.
Again, I hope you can apologize the delay... :/
There is a blogpost that says it all. :)
https://assimbya.livejournal.com/2007/10/14/
Feel free to use any of the “pairing” plot bunnies - or think of your own! :)
I deeply apologize for this veeeeery long letter and want to remind you that “optional details are optional”. ;)
May the Muses be gracious! Have fun!