Entry tags:
dear jukebox writer
First off, thanks for signing up and offering these songs! I'm really excited about this fest and think the concept is really cool, so I'm looking forward to pretty much anything. I don't tend to come up with very concrete narrative ideas from songs outside of what's explicitly there in the lyrics, so please feel free to take any prompts very loosely or just go to town writing original fic inspired by the song in some way. I say this in all my dear author letters, but I really want to read the story you want to write, and that matters way more to me than anything I suggest here. Especially with this fest, I'm really looking forward to being taken in a totally random direction with my assignment, so I want to emphasize that kind of open ended-ness in my letter. I like slash, femslash, het and gen fic, all ratings. I have very few squicks, and can be sold on pretty much anything narrative-wise.
General thematic likes: worldbuildy stuff, in spaaaaace, dystopias, creepiness, horror elements, totally weird & out of left field stuff, slice of life, historical fiction, romance, melancholy or dark fic as long as there's hope in there somewhere.
Dislikes: lots of explicit gore or violence, though aftermath or discussion of such is fine. Totally gratuitous non-con, although again it's all in the handling.
The songs!
Cemetery Gates, The Smiths: I get this image of friends who are also academic or artistic rivals in some way, because of the narrator chiding the second person for plagiarizing. Adults or teenagers or younger kids, it's all good. Why are they in the cemetery? Are they ~deep, emo teenagers who hang out in graveyards? Are they ghosts?
Hairdresser on Fire, Morrissey: The story behind this song is fascinating to me- it just seems like such an off the wall thing to write about. I would love to read a story that just takes the lyrics and plays them straight: A hairdresser with powers-what are they exactly? Is this a world where this kind of power is common, or are they hiding it? "Can you squeeze me into an empty page in your diary/and supernaturally change me?/I've got faith in you."
Razzle-Dazzle Rose, Camera Obscura: So Razzle-Dazzle Rose is a Crayola crayon color, which I know because I was really into the massive package of Crayolas as a child. Anyway. Maybe because of that, I get kind of a coming of age/childhood friendships evolving vibe from this song. Femslash for this one might be really awesome.
Off To The Races, Lana Del Ray: There's so much going on here, man. You could go play with the Old Hollywood vibe, write about a struggling actress who thinks she has it all figured out, treat her as an unreliable narrator, write her as actual Lolita/Dolores Haze all grown up...this song pleases me immensely, so you can seriously just go nuts with it and I'm sure I'll love it.
General thematic likes: worldbuildy stuff, in spaaaaace, dystopias, creepiness, horror elements, totally weird & out of left field stuff, slice of life, historical fiction, romance, melancholy or dark fic as long as there's hope in there somewhere.
Dislikes: lots of explicit gore or violence, though aftermath or discussion of such is fine. Totally gratuitous non-con, although again it's all in the handling.
The songs!
Cemetery Gates, The Smiths: I get this image of friends who are also academic or artistic rivals in some way, because of the narrator chiding the second person for plagiarizing. Adults or teenagers or younger kids, it's all good. Why are they in the cemetery? Are they ~deep, emo teenagers who hang out in graveyards? Are they ghosts?
Hairdresser on Fire, Morrissey: The story behind this song is fascinating to me- it just seems like such an off the wall thing to write about. I would love to read a story that just takes the lyrics and plays them straight: A hairdresser with powers-what are they exactly? Is this a world where this kind of power is common, or are they hiding it? "Can you squeeze me into an empty page in your diary/and supernaturally change me?/I've got faith in you."
Razzle-Dazzle Rose, Camera Obscura: So Razzle-Dazzle Rose is a Crayola crayon color, which I know because I was really into the massive package of Crayolas as a child. Anyway. Maybe because of that, I get kind of a coming of age/childhood friendships evolving vibe from this song. Femslash for this one might be really awesome.
Off To The Races, Lana Del Ray: There's so much going on here, man. You could go play with the Old Hollywood vibe, write about a struggling actress who thinks she has it all figured out, treat her as an unreliable narrator, write her as actual Lolita/Dolores Haze all grown up...this song pleases me immensely, so you can seriously just go nuts with it and I'm sure I'll love it.