Entry tags:
Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 22 (or: Yuletide 2020 edition)
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![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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:
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.
Poached Eggs and Boiled Frogs
A couple comments I wanted to reply to here instead of AO3, for greater visibility.
The modern setting is a fix-it for some things and a break-it for others.
Fixed: Stigma-free no fault divorce for women.
Broken: Fritz has access to Slack and text messages and expects round-the-clock instantaneous responses. Can you imagine? 18th century people, you didn't know how good you had it with the postal service. ;)
:D
My immediate response: If I write a fic that picks up immediately where this one left off, it's going to be titled "Kaphengst Kommt" and rated M. ;)
More seriously, thoughts that suggest themselves:
- First Polish Partition on the Europe trip with Catherine.
- Catherine being shocked to find that her kids are being raised with Poniatowski-influenced values instead of only hers.
- Fritz/Mike, where Mike is the CFO but also so much else. <3
- Mike talks a reluctant Fritz into therapy?
- Okay, but I'm serious about the Kaphengst porn. :P
And who knows what else. But I also want to study German and French and Voltaire and write a Voltaire/Heinrich showdown sequel to a certain other fic, so who knows what 2021 will bring. :D I still haven't given up hope on that fix-it fic where everyone escapes to France!
In the meantime, I'm delighted my rushed last-minute borderline crackfic brought the chortles and the giggles it was intended to. You two are the best of readers and commenters!
Re: Poached Eggs and Boiled Frogs
Broken: Fritz has access to Slack and text messages and expects round-the-clock instantaneous responses. Can you imagine? 18th century people, you didn't know how good you had it with the postal service. ;)
Good lord yes, no kidding. However, his various employees, relations and friends are spared whenever he and Voltaire are texting at each other, clearly, because then no one else exists!
Meanwhile, Lehndorff is an earnest blogger with good descriptions (who can be snarky on occasion, such as when posting a snapshot showing Kaphengst's double chin in a photo featuring Heinrich in Las Vegas) who is into lengthy emails more than texts but who got on twitter just to follow Heinrich there.
Re: Poached Eggs and Boiled Frogs
Ooooof. Yeah, I bet Heinrich's batteries are dying a lot. (Fritz is like, you should get a new phone! No, you can't expense it.)
- Okay, but I'm serious about the Kaphengst porn. :P
Hahahahaha so that's what I was expecting when you said you were thinking about Heinrich/Kaphengst, and why I said I'd be OK for a treat but not for an assignment, and why I didn't realize it was you :P (I had a LOT of reasons for not thinking it was you, okay.) And similarly, Heinrich/Kaphengst porn is fine as long as I get alllll the politics and corporate dysfunction :D
write a Voltaire/Heinrich showdown sequel to a certain other fic
Really???? I AM HERE FOR THIS.
Re: Poached Eggs and Boiled Frogs
And not just his! I bet Fritz just thinks he's way better at battery life management than *anyone* else (naturally), because other people's are always dying. :P
Hahahahaha so that's what I was expecting when you said you were thinking about Heinrich/Kaphengst, and why I said I'd be OK for a treat but not for an assignment, and why I didn't realize it was you :P
I'm perfectly capable of adjusting my id when writing for other people! It's a compromise.
write a Voltaire/Heinrich showdown sequel to a certain other fic
Really???? I AM HERE FOR THIS.
Yes, I told Selena we should plot this out in salon and see what happens, but NOT NOW.
Re: Poached Eggs and Boiled Frogs
Re: Poached Eggs and Boiled Frogs
Fritz probably writes frequent emails to All Staff all the time Re: Tips to Keep Your Batteries Lasting Longer. Some of these tips are actually completely incorrect but hey, he does them and his batteries last longer than everyone else's,
Lol, OMG, these are the BEST ideas and I might have to steal one or both! :D
Re: Poached Eggs and Boiled Frogs
Re: Poached Eggs and Boiled Frogs
I meant to say, yes, yes, you had many valid reasons, I just think it will never not be funny, is all. :D :P
Fritz is like, you should get a new phone! No, you can't expense it.
Okay, Fritz refusing expense requests is totally going in. :P Salon is where all the best ideas come from. :)