Dear NFE Writer!
Jul. 2nd, 2025 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Note: I am repurposing my stock Yuletide letter here, which is why some of the sections may seem slightly off-topic for a single fandom exchange.
Hi, and thank you in advance for writing a story for me! I'm pretty easy to please -- unless you write context-free porn, I'll be thrilled just to get a response to one of my prompts. *grin* But I realize that's not terribly helpful, so here's the (very!) long version. (I am sorry for the tl;dr, but I like to talk about things I love and I figure more details are better than fewer.)
---------------
General Information:
1. I will read anything when it comes to pairings -- het, slash, femslash, threesomes, poly, whatever, so long as you put in a bit of character development so the relationships don't seem to come out of nowhere -- but I prefer gen, and I tend to skim sex scenes because the non-sex parts of the story are almost always more interesting to me. So while you can do whatever you like with background pairings, they are not what I am most interested in.
2. I read all kinds of genres and moods, from schmoopy fluff to angsty deathfic, but my favorite endings are bittersweet (...okay, bittersweet leaning toward happy) and a little complicated.
3. I fall in love with worlds and themes as much as I fall in love with characters, if not more, so any world-building you can sneak in around the edges of a story will be received with great joy. I am also totally open to OCs and/or the development of canon characters who might as well be OCs, as you may note from the structure of several prompts.
4. Stuff I really, really like: This can be boiled down to, 'Please treat characters as intelligent people who have understandable motives for their actions, please take the worlds seriously as settings, and please remember that there's more to life than sex. Also, ethics, metaphysics, and world-building are dead cool.'
The long version: I like character development; world-building; explanation of plot holes in canon; subtle humor; good spelling and grammar; a sense of wonder; writing that evokes an emotional reaction as well as telling a story; close relationships that don't necessarily involve sex (i.e., friendship, families, teachers and students, coworkers, traveling companions, soldiers in the same cause, etc.); the consequences of actions and choices; a sense of place and time; dialogue that conveys character as well as plot information; politics; ethics; people being intelligent even if they make bad choices; people trying to do the right thing even if they make bad choices; conflict because of opposing goals that both have points in their favor; a lack of simple solutions; female characters treated as people instead of plot devices; male characters treated as people instead of plot devices; ideas that make me stop and think; the nature of memory; the nature of truth; possession; soul-searching; non-gratuitous torture (...I have a kink, shut up); war and battles; hand-to-hand fighting; swordfights; peace and diplomacy; magic that's properly magical and strange or magic that's explained as a science (but not both at once); books and reading; people exploring a new country/world/city; linguistics and languages; early Industrial Revolution technology (or whatever technology is suitable to the milieu); people using logic to investigate a problem; and fires, floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
5. Stuff I'm not so keen on: obvious authorial hatred for characters I like and/or find interesting (which is generally all of them); sex or romantic love with no in-story justification (unless the people in question are already a canon couple); gratuitous angst/torture/rape (i.e., bad stuff that comes out of nowhere and is not necessary to make the plot or character arc work); idiot plots (i.e., problems that could be solved in five minutes if the characters asked one or two obvious questions); and predestination, prophecies, and anything else that denies free will.
6. If you want to know more about my general approach to Narnia, all my fanfic is available on this masterlist. Some of my meta posts are also listed there, down at the bottom of the page.
The three most important things to note are as follows:
A) The books are my canon, not any of their various adaptations to film.
B) My personal stance on the Pevensies after their initial return from Narnia is that they really did become children again, in mind as well as in body. So they are children who remember being adults, but those memories are filtered through children's brains and general perspective on the world. The only prompt for which this might be relevant is the Arthuriana fusion AU, but I figure that since this seems to be a minority viewpoint in the fandom and I'm asking for a tailored gift, I might as well mention it. :)
C) I am not Christian. However, Lewis's use of Christian mythology is central to the series, which I find creates an interesting tension for many writers that doesn't occur in stories built on mythologies that aren't in widespread current use. So while I prefer stories that stick to the general canon assertions that Aslan is a god and a Christ-analogue, that he created the Narnian world, and that he is good (but not safe), I would also prefer stories that acknowledge the existence of other gods in the Narnian world, in the world of England, in Charn, and any other worlds that become relevant. I would like a recognition that good does not always equal right, ethics are complicated and often situational, and there isn't always one right answer. And I do not want to be preached at.
Thank you for your consideration!
Okay. On to specific prompts.
---------------
Jadis & the Gods of the Narnian World:
Prompt: I would like a story about Jadis's dealings with other divine and mythical figures in the Narnian world. This can be set in the centuries prior to her conquest of Narnia, during the Long Winter, or after LWW while she lingers in bodiless undeath -- I am open to all possibilities! (The specific character groupings are just to give you some ideas. You are not required to use any of the three people I selected if your inspiration takes you in other directions.)
Some potential story ideas, if you would like a jumping off point: 1) What is Jadis's beef with Father Christmas? 2) Did Jadis ever encounter any of the Narnian deities outside that country's borders? They might well have links to Archenland or the Western Wild, after all. 3) Did Jadis have contact with the Calormene pantheon? If so, how did those encounters go?
Thoughts: If you want to use my take on Jadis's backstory and/or my Calormene pantheon and/or my ideas about the pantheon of the Seven Isles, please feel free! But that is not a requirement -- just have fun and do some interesting worldbuilding. :)
---------------
The Secret Life of Lasaraleen's Pet Monkey:
Prompt: Listen. Listen. What if Lasaraleen's pet monkey were secretly a Talking Monkey?
I don't have a plot to go with this. Maybe the Monkey reveals himself/herself/themself while Aravis is at Lasaraleen's house and derails the plot of HHB? Maybe the Monkey is a spy and has exciting adventures snooping around the Tisroc's court? Maybe we get a tragic backstory for how a Talking Monkey wound up in captivity? (Especially since Narnia's climate isn't really the kind of environment where non-talking monkeys tend to live, so perhaps the population migrated over the years? Really Narnia isn't at all the right climate for a LOT of the Talking Beasts who live there, but perhaps that is a story idea for another day.)
Anyway, I would love to see what somebody can grow from this thought!
Thoughts: This prompt has the potential to be anything from an outright farce to a dark story of slavery and depersonalization. I am okay with whatever tone and genre you choose!
---------------
Arthuriana & Morgan Le Fay:
Prompt: A Thought: if Mrs. Lefay is drawing on legends of Morgan Le Fay, why not have her actually BE Morgan/Morgana/Morgaine Le Fay and shift the England side of the chronicles back to the days of King Arthur? Dealer's choice what time period that actually was, not to mention how historically accurate you want to go with it, but wouldn't that be a grand adventure?
Also I kind of want to echo the medieval romance vibes Narnia exudes in HHB and SC. If we have to cope with the "battles are ugly when women fight" line, fine, let's show noble ladies managing castles and vast estates and politicking while their menfolk are out dying in stupid fights -- and, of course, picking up stray bits of sorcery from Morgan Le Fay. :)
Thoughts: I think the prompt is fairly self-explanatory? TBH if you just want to pick a random episode from Le Morte d'Arthur or any other strand of Arthuriana and retell it with a Narnian twist, that would be fine, as would retelling any episode from the Chronicles with an Arthurian twist. Or you can make up your own plot -- go nuts! My one stipulation is that Morgan Le Fay/Mrs. Lefay should feature at some point.
---------------
Telmarine Aeneid:
Prompt: Hear me out: What if you told Caspian I's journey from Telmar to Narnia, and subsequent conquest of Narnia, as if it were the Aeneid? Aslan is Jupiter/Fate, because Guy In Charge who we're told is good but who acts pretty damn ambiguous is totally Aslan's bag. Maybe the Lady of the Green Kirtle is Juno (wants to keep Narnia as her own playground? received a prophecy that a Telmarine Narnian would be her doom?). Is Dido a Talking Beast the Telmarines encounter in the Western Wild en route to Narnia and the sea? Who is the equivalent of Lavinia? Is the trip to the underworld a sidequest to Bism or an actual visit to Aslan's Country? Does the war start because a Telmarine kills an actual Talking Deer?
The possibilities are FASCINATING, and I want you to explore them because I do not have the time or spoons to do this justice myself!
Thoughts: Listen, sometimes you just get An Idea that will not leave you alone until you release it into the world. Hopefully I have now infected you and one day this will be born in all its unhinged glory. :D
Also I know some of you people are into Greek mythology -- have you considered moving a bit west and a few centuries later? *makes puppydog eyes at you*
---------------
Journey to an Alternate Charn:
Prompt: Suppose Digory and Polly stumble into a version of Charn where Jadis's sister won. What's that like?
Did the sister die a thousand years ago? Did she somehow absorb the Deplorable Word and wind up using it herself? Did Charn destroy itself a different way? Do the kids get arrested on suspicion of being spies or escaped slaves or something? There are so many directions this could go and I would like to see someone explore one of them!
Thoughts: Again, I feel that this is fairly self-explanatory? Your AU departure point is that Jadis's sister won their confrontation -- how she did that, what happened after, and how long it's been between that victory and Digory and Polly's arrival are up to you. If you want to use Cynara, my version of Jadis's sister, that's cool, but is of course not a requirement.
I do ask that you not make the sister a paragon of virtue or secretly a convert to Christianity who was trying to "save" Charn. (Yes, I have seen those plots. They are not my delicious cup of tea.) She is still the product of the same culture that produced Jadis, and even if she didn't want to outright destroy the universe, she was still willing to fight a world war to be the sole ruler of an entire planet. (Or DID Charn encompass the entire planet? If you want to undercut Jadis's triumphalist narrative, please feel free.)
---------------------------------------------
And that is that.
Hi, and thank you in advance for writing a story for me! I'm pretty easy to please -- unless you write context-free porn, I'll be thrilled just to get a response to one of my prompts. *grin* But I realize that's not terribly helpful, so here's the (very!) long version. (I am sorry for the tl;dr, but I like to talk about things I love and I figure more details are better than fewer.)
---------------
General Information:
1. I will read anything when it comes to pairings -- het, slash, femslash, threesomes, poly, whatever, so long as you put in a bit of character development so the relationships don't seem to come out of nowhere -- but I prefer gen, and I tend to skim sex scenes because the non-sex parts of the story are almost always more interesting to me. So while you can do whatever you like with background pairings, they are not what I am most interested in.
2. I read all kinds of genres and moods, from schmoopy fluff to angsty deathfic, but my favorite endings are bittersweet (...okay, bittersweet leaning toward happy) and a little complicated.
3. I fall in love with worlds and themes as much as I fall in love with characters, if not more, so any world-building you can sneak in around the edges of a story will be received with great joy. I am also totally open to OCs and/or the development of canon characters who might as well be OCs, as you may note from the structure of several prompts.
4. Stuff I really, really like: This can be boiled down to, 'Please treat characters as intelligent people who have understandable motives for their actions, please take the worlds seriously as settings, and please remember that there's more to life than sex. Also, ethics, metaphysics, and world-building are dead cool.'
The long version: I like character development; world-building; explanation of plot holes in canon; subtle humor; good spelling and grammar; a sense of wonder; writing that evokes an emotional reaction as well as telling a story; close relationships that don't necessarily involve sex (i.e., friendship, families, teachers and students, coworkers, traveling companions, soldiers in the same cause, etc.); the consequences of actions and choices; a sense of place and time; dialogue that conveys character as well as plot information; politics; ethics; people being intelligent even if they make bad choices; people trying to do the right thing even if they make bad choices; conflict because of opposing goals that both have points in their favor; a lack of simple solutions; female characters treated as people instead of plot devices; male characters treated as people instead of plot devices; ideas that make me stop and think; the nature of memory; the nature of truth; possession; soul-searching; non-gratuitous torture (...I have a kink, shut up); war and battles; hand-to-hand fighting; swordfights; peace and diplomacy; magic that's properly magical and strange or magic that's explained as a science (but not both at once); books and reading; people exploring a new country/world/city; linguistics and languages; early Industrial Revolution technology (or whatever technology is suitable to the milieu); people using logic to investigate a problem; and fires, floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
5. Stuff I'm not so keen on: obvious authorial hatred for characters I like and/or find interesting (which is generally all of them); sex or romantic love with no in-story justification (unless the people in question are already a canon couple); gratuitous angst/torture/rape (i.e., bad stuff that comes out of nowhere and is not necessary to make the plot or character arc work); idiot plots (i.e., problems that could be solved in five minutes if the characters asked one or two obvious questions); and predestination, prophecies, and anything else that denies free will.
6. If you want to know more about my general approach to Narnia, all my fanfic is available on this masterlist. Some of my meta posts are also listed there, down at the bottom of the page.
The three most important things to note are as follows:
A) The books are my canon, not any of their various adaptations to film.
B) My personal stance on the Pevensies after their initial return from Narnia is that they really did become children again, in mind as well as in body. So they are children who remember being adults, but those memories are filtered through children's brains and general perspective on the world. The only prompt for which this might be relevant is the Arthuriana fusion AU, but I figure that since this seems to be a minority viewpoint in the fandom and I'm asking for a tailored gift, I might as well mention it. :)
C) I am not Christian. However, Lewis's use of Christian mythology is central to the series, which I find creates an interesting tension for many writers that doesn't occur in stories built on mythologies that aren't in widespread current use. So while I prefer stories that stick to the general canon assertions that Aslan is a god and a Christ-analogue, that he created the Narnian world, and that he is good (but not safe), I would also prefer stories that acknowledge the existence of other gods in the Narnian world, in the world of England, in Charn, and any other worlds that become relevant. I would like a recognition that good does not always equal right, ethics are complicated and often situational, and there isn't always one right answer. And I do not want to be preached at.
Thank you for your consideration!
Okay. On to specific prompts.
---------------
Jadis & the Gods of the Narnian World:
Prompt: I would like a story about Jadis's dealings with other divine and mythical figures in the Narnian world. This can be set in the centuries prior to her conquest of Narnia, during the Long Winter, or after LWW while she lingers in bodiless undeath -- I am open to all possibilities! (The specific character groupings are just to give you some ideas. You are not required to use any of the three people I selected if your inspiration takes you in other directions.)
Some potential story ideas, if you would like a jumping off point: 1) What is Jadis's beef with Father Christmas? 2) Did Jadis ever encounter any of the Narnian deities outside that country's borders? They might well have links to Archenland or the Western Wild, after all. 3) Did Jadis have contact with the Calormene pantheon? If so, how did those encounters go?
Thoughts: If you want to use my take on Jadis's backstory and/or my Calormene pantheon and/or my ideas about the pantheon of the Seven Isles, please feel free! But that is not a requirement -- just have fun and do some interesting worldbuilding. :)
---------------
The Secret Life of Lasaraleen's Pet Monkey:
Prompt: Listen. Listen. What if Lasaraleen's pet monkey were secretly a Talking Monkey?
I don't have a plot to go with this. Maybe the Monkey reveals himself/herself/themself while Aravis is at Lasaraleen's house and derails the plot of HHB? Maybe the Monkey is a spy and has exciting adventures snooping around the Tisroc's court? Maybe we get a tragic backstory for how a Talking Monkey wound up in captivity? (Especially since Narnia's climate isn't really the kind of environment where non-talking monkeys tend to live, so perhaps the population migrated over the years? Really Narnia isn't at all the right climate for a LOT of the Talking Beasts who live there, but perhaps that is a story idea for another day.)
Anyway, I would love to see what somebody can grow from this thought!
Thoughts: This prompt has the potential to be anything from an outright farce to a dark story of slavery and depersonalization. I am okay with whatever tone and genre you choose!
---------------
Arthuriana & Morgan Le Fay:
Prompt: A Thought: if Mrs. Lefay is drawing on legends of Morgan Le Fay, why not have her actually BE Morgan/Morgana/Morgaine Le Fay and shift the England side of the chronicles back to the days of King Arthur? Dealer's choice what time period that actually was, not to mention how historically accurate you want to go with it, but wouldn't that be a grand adventure?
Also I kind of want to echo the medieval romance vibes Narnia exudes in HHB and SC. If we have to cope with the "battles are ugly when women fight" line, fine, let's show noble ladies managing castles and vast estates and politicking while their menfolk are out dying in stupid fights -- and, of course, picking up stray bits of sorcery from Morgan Le Fay. :)
Thoughts: I think the prompt is fairly self-explanatory? TBH if you just want to pick a random episode from Le Morte d'Arthur or any other strand of Arthuriana and retell it with a Narnian twist, that would be fine, as would retelling any episode from the Chronicles with an Arthurian twist. Or you can make up your own plot -- go nuts! My one stipulation is that Morgan Le Fay/Mrs. Lefay should feature at some point.
---------------
Telmarine Aeneid:
Prompt: Hear me out: What if you told Caspian I's journey from Telmar to Narnia, and subsequent conquest of Narnia, as if it were the Aeneid? Aslan is Jupiter/Fate, because Guy In Charge who we're told is good but who acts pretty damn ambiguous is totally Aslan's bag. Maybe the Lady of the Green Kirtle is Juno (wants to keep Narnia as her own playground? received a prophecy that a Telmarine Narnian would be her doom?). Is Dido a Talking Beast the Telmarines encounter in the Western Wild en route to Narnia and the sea? Who is the equivalent of Lavinia? Is the trip to the underworld a sidequest to Bism or an actual visit to Aslan's Country? Does the war start because a Telmarine kills an actual Talking Deer?
The possibilities are FASCINATING, and I want you to explore them because I do not have the time or spoons to do this justice myself!
Thoughts: Listen, sometimes you just get An Idea that will not leave you alone until you release it into the world. Hopefully I have now infected you and one day this will be born in all its unhinged glory. :D
Also I know some of you people are into Greek mythology -- have you considered moving a bit west and a few centuries later? *makes puppydog eyes at you*
---------------
Journey to an Alternate Charn:
Prompt: Suppose Digory and Polly stumble into a version of Charn where Jadis's sister won. What's that like?
Did the sister die a thousand years ago? Did she somehow absorb the Deplorable Word and wind up using it herself? Did Charn destroy itself a different way? Do the kids get arrested on suspicion of being spies or escaped slaves or something? There are so many directions this could go and I would like to see someone explore one of them!
Thoughts: Again, I feel that this is fairly self-explanatory? Your AU departure point is that Jadis's sister won their confrontation -- how she did that, what happened after, and how long it's been between that victory and Digory and Polly's arrival are up to you. If you want to use Cynara, my version of Jadis's sister, that's cool, but is of course not a requirement.
I do ask that you not make the sister a paragon of virtue or secretly a convert to Christianity who was trying to "save" Charn. (Yes, I have seen those plots. They are not my delicious cup of tea.) She is still the product of the same culture that produced Jadis, and even if she didn't want to outright destroy the universe, she was still willing to fight a world war to be the sole ruler of an entire planet. (Or DID Charn encompass the entire planet? If you want to undercut Jadis's triumphalist narrative, please feel free.)
---------------------------------------------
And that is that.