things I am not writing, part umpity-whatever

[edenfalling]

Evil palate cleanser fic idea I will probably not write because it would run way too long:

TLB AU. Remove some of the 'end of the world' bullshit and just have the Calormene invasion plot using Shift's cult as a cover. Jill and Eustace fail to save Narnia from the invasion, get chucked through the stable door... and instead of random afterlife hijinks, they are right back on the train as it crashes into the station.

For extra bonus angst, not everyone dies. Some do (I'd probably roll dice to decide, because I trust random chance more than my ideas of narrative 'appropriateness' in this case), others are permanently disabled to various degrees, and even the ones who recover fully have a long hard road to get there. And they have to live, knowing they failed and Narnia is now an outpost of Calormen, and they have no idea if any of them (or anyone unrelated to them) will ever get a chance to go back and fix it.

Have they lost the rings in the accident? If so, woe! If not, oh my god the knock-down ethical fights I could play out, mwahahahaha. Also Susan gets to say "I fucking told you so" to people because they are (at least some of them) alive to listen.

...

Quick, someone remind me that I don't like writing England-based Narnia fics because the historical research is prohibitive and also I need more long WIPs like I need a gaping bullet wound in my gut.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

Don't write it, too much research.

(that said, if someone were to write it, I would delightedly read it)

[edenfalling]

Thank you. (I want somebody else to write this idea for me so much, because I strongly feel that it should exist in the world and yet I do not have the time to do it justice myself. Woe!)

[the_rck]

I would be very hesitant to take on a Narnia fic set in England if it had any detail at all. There are things one can handwave and things one can't, and history within living memory tends to involve a lot of the latter category.

I have started keeping a Gdoc of 'things I want someone else to write.' I'm throwing things in there that I would very much like to read but know, beyond doubt, that I cannot write. I'm also using it to store my list of potential Yuletide fandoms.

[edenfalling]

I greatly admire people who are good at 'within-living-memory' historical research, since that is a skill I very much do not have. (I mean, I don't even trust myself to write stuff about time periods and places that I lived through, because I know my life has been atypical in various ways and I don't want to get into arguments over what a person in time-and-place-X should or shouldn't have known and experienced.)

Oooh. A file of things I wish someone else would write (for me, or just in general) sounds like a great idea -- especially since I tend to blank on that topic if I'm put on the spot. *makes note*

[gramarye1971]

...see, and here I have the historical research skills for something like this, but would struggle with the characterization because it could go in so many different directions and I'm not sure how it would conclude. (Also, I too do not need another long WIP.)

[edenfalling]

A bunch of the characterization would depend on who lives, and who lives in what physical/mental conditions, but yeah, there are a LOT of variables.

I think it would probably have to end either with some kids whom one of the survivors is mentoring for [fill in reason] going to Narnia, helping out in a rebellion/revolution, and coming back to report on the results OR with the survivors realizing that by remaining stuck in this guilt/blame cycle over Narnia, they are neglecting the lessons Aslan notionally sent them there to learn, and slowly investing themselves in doing the good works in England they were unable to manage for Narnia this last time.

Possibly both, actually! (These are the good endings.)

Or maybe you get one or two people who move on and thereby trigger the next set of kids to go to Narnia, which leaves the ones who are still stewing feeling even MORE guilty and angry because now it looks like there is objective evidence their approach was wrong, and they're all going to have to live with the emotional fallout of that revelation. (This is the mixed ending.)

Or, of course, it could end with at least one person suiciding and the others becoming bitter and all losing touch with each other, but I don't think I want to write something quite that dark. (The nasty ending, obviously.)

[autumnia]

Don't even write a sentence of this... once you start, it won't leave you till you write more!

Writing England-based Narnia fics always seem to be a lot harder to write than ones in Narnia itself, and for a TLB AU, I think it'd end up being far darker in tone as well.

[edenfalling]

I think it is because in Narnia you have the freedom to make up/control more of the setting, whereas in England you are constrained by the historical realities.

Annoyingly, even this minimal speculative outlining is making me want to actually write the thing... *headdesk*

[wistfulmemory.livejournal.com]

Don't do it! *is forever bitter about The Last Battle*

[edenfalling]

One of the appeals of this story is getting to take TLB seriously as a bad-ending story the way Lewis totally finked out of doing (and mitigating the 'only Narnia-the-country really counts; if it goes, the whole world goes' attitude that permeates the book), but yeah, I would probably be angry all the time while writing this, if I wrote it, and that's not a mindset I particularly need to dive into. *wry*