World's most overdue Yuletide letter

[sarren]

Dear Santa

I think most of us tend to write the sort of prompt we’d like to get ourselves. I think (hope) I gave you enough to go on to spark ideas without strangling your creativity.

Can I say again, any ideas I suggested were just that – feel free to take the story in another direction if that’s the story idea that you’re enthusiastic about. It is just as important for the writers to have fun too. I promise you I mean that.

My only caveats are
- Some kind of happy ending.
- No rape or deathfic.
- It probably goes without saying, given that I chose three gay films, but no het, please.

IF you do click on the link, I am going to babble excitedly about my choices at you in some detail, so if you feel you have plenty to go on already, and don’t want to feel constrained, I strongly encourage you NOT to read the letter. Really truly!!!.



I seem to have gone for a theme this year, and since you’ve liked at least one of these gay films enough to volunteer to write for it, you might want to check the others out if you haven’t already seen them! You’ll probably enjoy them! And want to write a crossover fic.

I’ve been pretty desperate for fic from any of them since forever. They’re my three favourite gay films, which seems odd, as none of the couples end up together. But then I realised it’s because they’ve left the endings open for more story to happen to the characters.

The other thing these films have in common with these is that one of the guys has had to reassess his whole identity to be with the guy he loves. Having said that, please don’t feel I’ve locked you into writing those pairings, or that you have to set it within the constraints of the film - I hope my prompts didn’t give you that impression. If you want to write a genderfuck wingfic! go for it. Seriously, if you want to make John run off and join the French Foreign Legion, or have Brendan land in a Thai prison (I’m thinking Bridget Jones here, NOT Midnight Express, she hurries to add), go for it!


Things in fics what I love mostest:

Character-driven, relationship-focused stories, whether slash or BFF. Shove as much or as little plot in as you like.


Oh, something about the fandoms, right, and why I love them.

Echte Kerle!!! Also, known as Regular Guys

I love how Chris is bemused by the whole thing - his developing feelings for Edgar, his jealousy of Marco, the uncertainty of not knowing if he did have sex with a man and not rejecting outright the possibility that something COULD have happened. How disconcerted he was about Mike and Edgar suddenly apparently boyfriends now.

I love that Edgar is so genuinely nice, and completely in love with Chris, that scene where he looks at a dozing Chris and murmurs just a little sadly about having fallen for him at first sight. And the teasing, the goggles ‘Du machst mir blind.’ I HAVE SO MUCH LOVE.

I like Helen and Mike too, so if you'd like to write a fic with the established pairings, that'd be cool too. My take on the end of the film was that Mike and Edgar were either yanking everyone's chains or, since they could have only just hooked up, that it was just a fuck buddy thing, so if you wanted to write about Mike and Edgar falling in love with a side order of Chris and Edgar BFF, I could totally be on board with that.



Get Real

The first time I saw this, I didn’t much like John, with his angst and his fear and his inability to stand up for the boy he’s in love with, but I’ve come to appreciate that he’s highly strung, and whether it’s external or internal, the extreme pressure he feels is very real to him, so while I’m not a huge fan of extreme angst, I can totally see it with this character.

I’d also like to give a shout out to Kevin. I forgot to mention him before. Yes, he’s a complete dick. But he’s best mates with John. I reckon they’ve been best friends since they were kids and as John’s grown up he’s had to share less and less with Kevin because he’s afraid of what Kevin will think of him, while Kevin probably senses that they’re not as close as they were but doesn’t understand why. Remember how bewildered he was, that John was swimming with Steven. I bet he heard their shout of laughter as he jogged away and wondered if they were laughing at him. So if you wanted to write about aspects of their friendship, or whatever.

It occurs to me that you might not want to write Steven and John getting back together and that’s cool, so a fic about one of them getting himself a new boyfriend ::koff:: Kevinwasbeingadickbecauseofhisownsexualconfusion ::koff:: that'd rock my socks off too. *looks sheepish* Or not!! Ninja cowboy AUs FTW!


Bedrooms and Hallways

I love Brendan's insouciant attitude to suddenly becoming bisexual and being in a relationship with a guy. I love his appreciation for anal sex. Also, I think James Purefoy is hot like molten lava.

Brendan and Leo's first kiss is, hands down, my favourite gay screen kiss of all time.

I thought the end of the film was disappointing and a bit like, what just happened? One minute Leo and Brendan are fucking like bunnies and then Sally comes along and confuses the issue, and instead of any kind of resolution happening, suddenly the vibe is that it was a while ago and they're relegated to 'exes' status and Leo's back to just drifting along.

Leo’s friends are adorable so I wouldn't mind if Adam, Angie and/or Darren/Jeremy got some screen time, but that is totally optional!!!

Randomly, I get a HUGE kick out the fact that Kevin McKidd and James Purefoy star in Rome together.