Dickensblog

Fanfic challenge: Something new

Time for a new fanfic challenge! Your assignment: Write a story based on a Dickens novel that you like but have never written from before. (Characters that you wrote about in the group fanfic don't count; you can have written a scene with, say, Estella for that one, and still write a Great Expectations story.) It can be as short or as long as you like. I'm going to do an Our Mutual Friend story (just as soon as I finish a David Copperfield one I'm working on!).

By the way, this reminds me: I never gave the name of the novel I quoted from in the crossover challenge! It's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë.

Write like Dickens!

If you've been around these parts any length of time, you know we're fortunate enough to have some wonderful writers here. One of them, Nina, has posted an explanation of how she imitates Dickens's style. Visit the new blog that she's co-moderating, and you too can learn to imitate The Inimitable!

The Dickensblog 19th-century crossover fanfic challenge

I think it's time for a new fanfic challenge around here. (That's code for "I'm suddenly and unaccountably bored with every book I'm reading and I want some good new Dickensian short stories to read.")

Here's the deal: I will give you a paragraph from a novel by another 19th-century author. You may recognize the passage, or you may not; it doesn't really matter, though I'll go ahead and let you know where it's from when everyone's done with their stories (if no one's guessed it by then).

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Use it as your opening paragraph, and then build a Dickensian fanfic on it. It can, of course, be based on any Dickens book you desire.

Ready? Here's your paragraph:

"Unconscious of my presence, he began to pace the room in a state of fearful agitation, violently wringing his hands and uttering low groans or incoherent ejaculations. I made a movement to let him know that he was not alone; but he was too preoccupied to notice it. Perhaps, while his back was towards me, I might cross the room and slip away unobserved. I rose to make the attempt, but then he perceived me. He started and stood still a moment; then wiped his streaming forehead, and advancing towards me, with a kind of unnatural composure, said in a deep, almost sepulchural tone --"

It's raining men!

Birdienl is running a "Mr. Period Drama" competition over at her LiveJournal. Every day, one of her list of ten actors will be voted "off the island," until there's only one left. Four of these actors have appeared in Dickens adaptations: Richard Harrington (Bleak House), Matthew Macfadyen (Little Dorrit), Ioan Gruffudd (Great Expectations), and Hugh Dancy (David Copperfield).

Now, this is a beauty (or should I say handsomeness?) contest, so your votes are supposed to be based on appearance, not on how much you liked the characters they played. I know it's hard, but that's the rule, so do your best!

Pledge Drive: Offer #6

You might call this an expansion of Offer #1. I will write drabbles (100 words) or double drabbles (200 words) based on the Dickens novel of your choice -- except Martin Chuzzlewit, because I haven't read it yet. You may specify one or more characters that you want in it, and the mood you want (dramatic, humorous, romantic, etc.). Or, if you prefer, you can leave the details up to me. Drabbles: $2 apiece, double drabbles: $3 apiece. Comment at this post if you want to take advantage of this offer, and please specify whether you'd prefer to pay by PayPal or check. Stories will be posted on Fanfiction.net, and a link will be placed in the comment section here.

Samples of my work are available here.

Pledge Drive: Offer #1

Welcome to the Dickensblog Pledge Drive, where we're raising money to help conserve three of Dickens's manuscripts (and trying to be a little less annoying than PBS pledge drives)! Go here to read all about how this will work.

And here's offer #1:

I will write drabbles (100 words) or double drabbles (200 words) based on Great Expectations. You may specify one or more characters that you want in it, and the mood you want (dramatic, humorous, romantic, etc.). Or, if you prefer, you can leave the details up to me. Drabbles: $2 apiece, double drabbles: $3 apiece. Comment at this post if you want to take advantage of this offer, and please specify whether you'd prefer to pay by PayPal or check. Stories will be posted on Fanfiction.net, and a link will be placed in the comment section here.

The Dickensblog Halloweenfic challenge

I got this idea from the discussion we had recently about supernatural elements in the short stories vs. the novels. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Take a passage from any Dickens novel and rewrite it with a ghost in it.

I realize some of you are getting ready for NaNoWriMo, or Nina's FicSwap 2010, or both, and this probably isn't the best time for a fanfic challenge. But I decided to put it up anyway, and you can save it to do later if you'd like!

Mindblowing movie #2

Once upon a time, on this very blog, I wrote, "In general, I don't post about new projects involving actors who formerly appeared in Dickens adaptations."

Well, looks like I may not be able to keep to that rule, because news like this creates mental images that are just too good not to share. Picture it: Bella Wilfer as an 18th-century pirate fighting Bob Cratchit and Mr. Micawber in a mystic world created by Mr. Tulkinghorn . . . and the whole thing is (Nina, are you ready for this?) a prequel to Peter Pan.

Forget the movie, there's GOT to be some way to make a fanfic out of that.

Ill Blood

By Nina S., guest blogger

[Ed. note: Nina is using this for the FanFic 100 challenge. We don't generally put fanfic directly into posts here, apart from the group fanfic we did, but we do use poems, so when she offered to let me post it here, I was very happy to do so! Enjoy!]

Title: Ill Blood
Fandom: David Copperfield
Characters: Uriah Heep
Prompt: 022. Enemies.
Word Count: 327
Rating: G
Summary: Uriah resents the arrival of David Copperfield, as it casts him into deeper darkness. “I think it strange/These memories I entertain/Knowing now the inside of my angel’s heart/And the devil I became there.”
Author's Notes: This is rather a lame poem I wrote back in 2008, paralleling Uriah a bit with the biblical character; this is more Uriah-inspired, also, since the language doesn’t fit his vernacular. But I thought I’d share it anyway. ;) Enjoy!


I saw him one morning
Through the eye in the wall
Papers kindling in my hand
Letters burned across the page
I think it strange
These memories I entertain
Knowing now the inside of my angel’s heart
And the devil I became there.
So let it be.

With each new act, new look
New bright and cruel fascination
He brought to everything
I sank and shrank.
I folded every limb into a corner
Darkened by a false illumination.
But still I let it be.

I never understood how such
Uneasy sufferers
Could be quite so free round me
Free not in the goodness in their heart
-- No, only one was that --
But free in all the falsity they spat
They would not speak a word to me when I was there
But how they lay their souls about the floor
For me to glean!

And yet I still have questions:
The demon asks the saint
Did you never think
About the wisdom long inflicted on my head?
You noticed how
My eyes hungered, how they stared
And watched you as you took
My single precious lamb from me.
But let it be.

And let it be that,
Spider that I am,
I, with a poison thread
Stitched together all the artificial shreds
Of you who fled from me
Tied you to her and bound
Them by their look and word
And him to sins he harbored
By no act of mine.

Humility humility
Most scorching of all words
Cunning, mocking,
Marking by its subtle touch
False false false.

But does it speak of you or me?
Me, my humble desperate sins upon my head?
You, your cold and calculating dread
Of me and all about me?

And yet I have got a little power now.

I saw some kind of god one morning
Through the eye in the wall.
There was a time I could have struck him dead.

Fanfic grab bag

This post is just to help everyone get caught up with what some of our Dickens fans here have been writing lately. We've got a choice assortment of stories here, so happy reading!

• Nina has been working on the FanFic 100 challenge at LiveJournal (more on that tomorrow) and has collected most of her stories here. But her latest one is here, at her new LJ. Trust me, you do not want to miss that last one!
• Christy is doing the same challenge, and doing it all in drabbles. Go here to see all the ones she's written so far. My favorites are #3, 5, and 12.
• And my newest story, written for the Five Years Later challenge, is here.