Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 22 (or: Yuletide 2020 edition)

[cahn]

ETA: Whoops, I missed my cue -- this might as well be the next discussion post, I guess! :)

This is about the fic I didn't author (I have another reveals post for the fics I did author).

So my goal this Yuletide was NOT to write any historical fandom (because hard!) and just enjoy the excellent stuff that other people wrote. And... that sort of happened? I didn't end up authoring anything history-intensive? Buuuuut I ended up spending a lot more time than I did on any of my own fics working with mildred_of_midgard on her fic, which she was worried about being able to pull off because she had had this completely insane idea to write a long casefic about Frederick the Great that every time I turned around had another twist put in :P :) She supplied me with what we called a "rough opal in matrix" bus pass casefic, and I cut away the matrix that remained and in some cases carved the opal -- that is to say, writing additional text for some of the scenes, what we liked to call "putting in feels," and in at least two cases entirely rewriting and/or restructuring the scene she'd written. She didn't always keep what I wrote (which we'd agreed upon in the beginning), but when she did (which was most of the time :) ) she then went in and rewrote/restructured what I put in to wordsmith (some of the words I gave her were really rough) and match her style, adding even more scenes -- that is, polishing it up and adding some gold and diamonds -- and voila, a beautiful pendant, I mean, story :)

I'm really proud of it and also it was really fun and also what I could handle this year, especially because mildred did all the parts I thought were hard and also wrote all the parts involving actual history or subtle AU before I was brought in so I didn't actually have to know historical stuff (though I guess I will never forget the battle of Leuthen now), and took full responsibility for how the whole thing turned out, so all I had to do was be like "Here, I'll write some rough feels for you for this scene!" The funny part was that I would often then write a paragraph justifying why I *had* to write the scene the way I did, and more likely than not mildred would be like, "yeah, I was sure you would do that, of course it should be written like that." (The most glaring example of this was where I inserted the Letter of Doom at the climax. I was worried there was some reason she didn't want it there, but she said, no, she just didn't have time to put it in herself and was just trusting me to do that :) ) She started jokingly calling me her "other self," to which I replied that it was with 1000% less angst and frustration -- as Frederick the Great's brother was his "other self" (which actually comes up in the fic) that he could trust to do all kinds of competent things, but they had a relationship that was, um, fraught? radioactive? Whereas this was just fun :)

Mildred did so much more than I did (we estimated a 90%/10% word ratio, not even counting the part where she wordsmithed a lot of my text) that I felt very uncomfortable being listed as a co-author, but hey, ~3000 words is a respectable Yuletide fic length :)

Yet They Grind Exceedingly Small (30384 words) by mildred_of_midgard
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, Historical RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Anna Amalie von Preußen & Wilhelmine von Preußen, Anna Amalie von Preußen & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen, Wilhelmine von Preußen & Elisabeth Friederike Sophie von Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia
Characters: Anna Amalie von Preußen (1723-1787), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758), Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802), Elisabeth Friederike Sophie von Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1732-1780), Wilhelmine von Hesse-Kassel (1726-1808), August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Alcmene 1 | Frederick the Great's Italian Greyhound, Voltaire (Writer), Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dysfunctional Family, Suicide, Alternate Universe - Dark, Siblings, Canon-Typical Violence, Mystery, Tide of History Challenge
Summary:

January 1758. Prince William is dead, some say of a broken heart. Frederick wants to absolve himself of blame for William's death. Henry schemes to end the Third Silesian War on his terms. Amalie and Wilhelmine team up to find out what really happened to their brother. Alcmene just wants to be told she's a good dog.

Comments

Re: Yet They Grind Exceedingly Small

[mildred_of_midgard]

...I thought it was? But now I'm second-guessing. I mean, I remember writing up to the part about Catt making it all about him, but for the last couple weeks I've been seeing the part about considering himself the bereaved, having no memory of writing it, and thinking, "Good job, cahn!"

But given my recent state of mind, it's entirely possible I wrote it in a sleep-deprived, deadline-driven frenzy, had forgotten by the next morning that I wrote it, and attributed it to you. :)

Speaking of sleep-deprivation, here I am on 4-5 hours again. :( As I hinted recently to cahn, I might have to extend my salon hiatus into January. This is frustrating, because I still have a backlog of comments to reply to, plus a growing list of things I'm encountering in my reading (or questions that came up during YT fic writing!) and want to talk about, but this month, I need to focus on fixing my sleep, putting in more hours at work, and studying German.

My hope, though, is to get to the point where I can read Katte salon-relevant books in German at a reasonable speed, and then I should have *plenty* to talk about, sleep permitting. (I guess it'll be a race to see if my German or my sleep fixes itself first, lol.)

Anyway, I will try to be around a little bit, but whenever you don't hear from me, imagine me heads-down on German investing as hard as I can in our future salon goodness. :)

Re: Yet They Grind Exceedingly Small, and Lehndorff&Amalie

[cahn]

ahahahaha actually I think maybe I did write it? As you know, my memory is just... always awful :P

Sorry about your sleep :( Yes, get sleep and work and German fixed up!

Bringing another comment over here, since relevant: I'd thought that I'd come across Lehdnorff describing Amalie not just in selenak's description, but in the actual journal, and yes in fact it was one of the last entries I had read before giving it up for Yuletide. :D

1753: June 9th
I go to Schönhausen at 6 o'clock, where Princess Amalie also comes, who has a charming and extremely friendly nature. She is a lovable princess in every way. She is criticized in various ways, but I believe that this comes more from worries that she often has than from whims. Her looks are lovely, and I think she's the most beautiful woman in the world. She is not tall, a little stout, but at the same time of an appearance that impresses everyone, and you can see her soul size in her whole being. One would always recognize her among a hundred people and note her royal ancestry. Her eyes are gorgeous, which she has in common with all her illustrious family, her mouth is small and gives her an infinite grace when she speaks; in short, she is extraordinarily gracious.

Re: Yet They Grind Exceedingly Small, and Lehndorff&Amalie

[selenak]

Ah yes, the first entry on her. He'll later change his mind on her extremely friendly nature, lol, but I think that entry conveys yet another way Amalie was similar to Fritz (aside from the sharp tongue, the musical talent, the size and the eyes) - when she tried, she could be very charming indeed and could make a great first impression. It's just that in later years, she tried less and less.

Re: Yet They Grind Exceedingly Small, and Lehndorff&Amalie

[cahn]

*nods* Yeah, I thought that was a little more positive than in your (overall) writeup :) Also: :( therapy for everyone, as mildred says. (I mean, I imagine some of that is just age! but I also imagine some of it is... her life. As mildred said in the fic.)