Dear Sufficiently Advanced Writer

[eye_of_a_cat]

 Thank you so much for writing for me! I have some general likes and DNWs in the signup; I’ll put canon-specific things here. Please don’t feel obliged to stick to any particular prompt or suggestion, though. This is mostly to give an idea of what I like about these fandoms/characters - so long as you avoid my DNWs please do feel free to write whatever you’re happiest writing.

 

 

Lord of the Rings

 

Happy with LOTR era for these but equally happy with First or Second Age too (or Fourth if you want!)

 

Celeborn/Galadriel: Things I like about them: ‘and together we have fought the Long Defeat’, all those years; that she’s Noldor and he’s Sindar; that in a mythology with so many unnamed wives and mothers, he’s one of the few men who is there as the husband of somebody the narrative considers more important; the points in the Lothlorien chapters of LOTR when it feels like there’s a whole different level of a conversation and argument and reconciliation happening between them that nobody else is quite following. You really get the impression that they have a sound marriage that works for them.

 

I’d love to read anything about either of them dealing with some kind of problem and getting past it with the other one’s support; or dealing with some kind of culture clash; anything involving Doriath (I love Doriath); or what it must be like looking back over thousands of years, and whether they’d have made the same decisions if they’d known all that lay ahead. Angst is more than welcome; just don’t split them up or kill either of them off! 

 

Celeborn/Glorfindel: Again I’m fascinated by Noldor and Sindar differences, especially if you want to get into all the First and Second Age history, and I’m fascinated by how they’ve both been around so <I>long</I> (if intermittently in Glorfindel’s case!) and seen so many wars fought and (mostly) lost. Angst and pain and sorrow is good here; or maybe they could find a bit of happiness and company away from all of it. 

 

If it’s a canon period where Celeborn and Galadriel should be married I’d rather they still were. Fine with open relationships of whatever sort, fine with infidelity <I>if</I> Celeborn still loves Galadriel and it’s all angst and turmoil for him, but prefer that they not break up and that she’s not presented as inferior or horrible (unless it’s an AU where she takes the Ring, in which case go wild.)  

 

Silmarillion: 

 

For all this canon I like the angst, the sorrow, the hope in the face of it all, the idea that even in the bleakest and most awful of things there is still room for love, and that even the greatest and grandest of victories can’t escape the Long Defeat. I like anything about the Sindar and the Noldor not getting along, the power of guilt and forgiveness, the idea of loyalty (both good and bad).

 

Celeborn/Sauron, Annatar/Celeborn/Galadriel, Galadriel:

See my LOTR prompt above for Celeborn and Galadriel. If Sauron’s involved; I love the idea of him using anything he sees as a weak point between Celeborn and Galadriel to try to turn them against each other (reminding Celeborn of what the Noldor did to Doriath, that sort of thing). Or I’m really intrigued by how Annatar’s stated wish to make Middle-earth as great and beautiful as Valinor is really quite similar to one of Galadriel’s Unfinished Tales stories where she tells Celebrimbor she wants the ‘skill of the Eldar’ to make trees and grass that don’t die, and to rule herself rather than go back to the Valar.

 

Elrond & Elros & Maglor & Maedhros; Feanor; Elwing/Earendil; Maedhros: 

I absolutely adore the ‘and love grew between them, as little might be thought’ line about the kidnap fam; I would love to read anything about them that factors in the pain and sorrow behind their circumstances but allows for some of that light to shine through. The idea of finding hope and love in really brutal circumstances fascinates me with Earendil and Elwing too - it’s such a bleak time in Middle-earth and yet they marry and have children. And I’d love anything about what Feanor thinks of his sons, or what his sons think of him. 

 

Eight Days of Luke

 

This feels like such a rare fandom I would just be grateful for anything you wrote in it, really! But what particularly intrigues me is how Norse myth works in 70s England, and other ways that might look (are there other characters we don’t see in the book?). A gap filler story about any of the pantheon or mythological characters (whether that’s ones who appear in the novel or others) actually living in that time and place - what they might think about it - would be great. But again, really I’d love anything that avoids my DNWs.

 

The Owl Service

 

This is another one where I’d just be happy to read anything! It’s such an amazing, haunting story, and I’m particularly fascinated by the idea of myth seeping through into reality, of stories so powerful they insist on being told. I’d love anything about the power of story.

 

Station Eleven

 

My favourite thing about this book is hope (and I was sad that the TV adaptation didn’t quite give me the same sense of it) - that many people do kind things and act normally even in the bleakest of circumstances, and that ‘Survival is Insufficient’. I’m fascinated by the Museum of Civilisation, and Clark’s feelings about it; I’m also fascinated by Kirsten and Jeevan, and I’d love to read about them being reunited.