#tns shakespeare au

[haaam-guuuurl]

The Next Step Shakespeare AUs

Twelfth Night

featuring:

Piper as Viola

Finn as Orsino

James as Sebastian

[thisbluespirit]

Meme: Top 10 AO3 works vs Personal Top 10

I was tagged by @captain-aralias Thank you @captain-aralias! <3

Rules: List your "top 10" (or up to 10 if you haven't written that many) fics ranked by kudos on AO3. Are you surprised by what's most popular to your readers? Then, under a cut, provide your ranking of your personal top 10 fics (with explanations if you want!), and then tag a few fellow writers!

AO3 top 10 by kudos:

The Spirit of St Mary Mead (Miss Marple)

So We Meet at Last (Miss Marple/Dracula 1968)

it's the rain that will strengthen your soul (Star Wars Prequels)

Five Times the Doctor Got in the Way of Captain Janeway (and One Time They Got Along Just Fine) (DW/Star Trek: Voyager)

By the Book (Original)

Observation (Miss Marple)

We'll Burn That Barn When We Come To It (Hist RPF)

Not Bad For a First Attempt (Georgette Heyer)

Some With Arrows, Some With Traps (SW Prequels)

Dodging a Bullet (Doctor Who)

My own top 10.

A lot of these are fine as top stories, I think! Even if I think something is good, I don't trust that it is, if other people haven't said so. I mean, proof of the pudding is in the eating and all that. That said, there are definitely some random things that have got into this list.

(Dodging a Bullet has been pretty well unloved for YEARS, but looking at it it seems like maybe someone recced it last year somewhere or something? It suddenly had a bunch of bookmarks and has pushed out other things. Plus all the Star Wars ones have moved positions again.)

If I sort by comments, I think those are much better, so in no particular order:

The Spirit of St Mary Mead (Miss Marple yuletide fic, where Miss Marple is a Genius Loci, but it's still just canon. It was a great prompt, I think I wrote it fine, and it's top of my works by every measure, and there's no ship effect, so... who am I to argue?)

We'll Burn That Barn When We Come To It (William of Normandy/Harold AU in which the Battle of Hastings involves a lot more sheep and bees and a lot less people being killed. It's 'found texts' type fic, another Yuletide one, it was huge fun to write and it got a great response, so again, I'm not going to disagree!)

By the Book - I am SO happy and amazed this is on both lists. It was original fic written for Het Exchange (the tiniest exchange, lol!! XD) a few years back, for the prompt of Librarian/Demon she accidentally summoned. I got to use all my rl library knowledge and it, er, sort of stormed the exchange (it was VERY tiny, did I say?), and I would place it in my top ten, yes. I don't know how people still keep finding it, but I'm so delighted that they do, and they still like it.

it's the rain that will strengthen your soul - again, yes. This is a five times Padme Lives Obidala AU where they go on the run with the twins post RotS. It was another for an exchange (Space Swap, I think). I wrote it in mid lockdown, I buried myself in the Wookieepedia, and I was pleased with this one, and it's gradually got more love as the time has gone on, and I think it is a good fic; a very gentle story of healing that was probably a lot due to the times.

Okay, but there we diverge, because I think all of these are that bit better than the others in that list (which include at least 2 pieces of flash fic, one of which was written to cover a wrangling error I made long ago). Mind you, I think in some cases, it's because I Did The Research Dammit Appreciate This People, or because I plotted harder than usual, but most of these are or have been in top ten positions on AO3 as well:

(5) movements of the mind (Twelfth Night) - I wrote Shakespeare fic for Yuletide (about Feste & Olivia), and pulled it off. I had to watch TN a lot and then got 16th C jokes off the internet.

(6) Truth and Compromise (Discworld) - so old I hesitated a while over it, but I think I genuinely got the tone right (which is never easy for something like this) and I occasionally still read it myself if I want something to follow up The Truth with Wiliam/Sacharissa.

(7) Cul-de-Sac (No hawkers, traders, cold callers, canvassers or purveyors of religious knowledge) (Sapphire & Steel) - I've written a lot of S&S I'm really pleased with. It was hard to choose one (I do think I've done some good and unusual things for it), but this stands up and was very well liked.

(8) One Step Forward (Two Steps Back) (Jonathan Creek) It's very timey-wimey and I had to write accurate Maddy and Jonathan and be funny, and I do think I achieved all of the above, even if it took quite a while.

(9) Salt of the Earth (DW) I always include this one in my self-recs, but there's a reason. I still think it's good. It's about a very minor character, but it was one I'd wanted to write ever since I first watched Image of the Fendahl.

(10) i love the rose both red and white (Shadow of the Tower) Maybe this is another 'i did the research' one, but it's very obscure and still has done pretty well in my stats, so I don't think it's just me. But I did do the research, and I tried to push myself as to style for it as well, I think.

I do like Some With Arrows, Some With Traps, but it's another SW Obidala exchange fic, and it is very surprising that it's as high in kudos because it has never got many comments, and I just thought it wasn't much liked. But it has an OC droid and was as much 'SW fun adventure but Obidala canon divergence' as I could make it. (Still, I it's a short story that clearly in my head should have been 80k and never ever will be, so I think it's fair to swap it out for variety.)

I do not know what is with the Miss Marple thing. It just happened. (Those are pretty much my only Miss Marple stories! It's a rare fandom! It is a mystery.) It's pretty funny, though, and I will be sad if one day the ships beat Miss Marple from the lists!

Tagging (if wanted/not already tagged): @maryellencarter @pers-books @lurking-latinist @herawell @scarletmanuka @human-nxture @bunn1cula @foreignobjecticus @jurijurijurious

[neil-neil-orange-peel]

32 for the fanfic ask post!! :)

32) Are any of your characters based on real people?

I probably don't have the longest list of OCs, if I'm being honest, because most of the fic I've written has just involved canon characters. The OCs I do have aren't so much based on real people, more on other comedy characters (I mean, I hope they're not carbon copies, but y'know, comedy characters are good character bases for fics about sitcoms 😂).

That said, my TNS OC Andy Arsole is based on Ade... although not Ade as a person, more just what an Ade character in TNS might be like, if that makes sense? One day I will actually write Of Bastards and Arseholes, where Andy and Alan argue in the Commons. Maybe.

As for other OCs that I've based on pre-existing comedy characters: the three poltergoosts from A Bastard's Carol were - fairly obviously, since Rick kept pointing it out 😂 - based on Neil, Mike, and Vyvyan. Since Rick got to be the Scrooge, they got to be the ghosts, so to speak. They were fun.

I have four other TYO OCs who have yet to see the light of day. They are part of a Modern/Ghost AU, which will be a massive project since there are eight main characters! The four OCs are each meant to correspond to one of the actual Young Ones - although I'd say they're sorta... better adjusted... on the whole. 😂 Their names are Harvey Poole, Robin "Rob Lowe" Lowe, Madison "Mad" Dean, and Lily "Will/Willy/Dickhead" Shakespeare. Any guesses who corresponds to who? I don't think I've ever revealed their names before, damn...

Oh, and they got a Balowski, of course, so he's based on Alexei and the other Balowskis.

My final fandom OCs pop up in The Basterds of Hammersmith (which is about Vyvyan's family; a TYO/Bottom crossover that is more elongated and angsty than I can honestly justify, but HA!). The first part of the story is very OC heavy because it's centred around an OC: Adelaide "Addie" Basterd. I've already had a few people tell me they like Addie, which really warms my heart. ❤️ I know it can be harder to get into fic with OCs, since we're all really here for the canon characters, so I'm very grateful to the people who've given TBOH a chance.

The comedy character I use as a base for Addie is Edina Monsoon from Absolutely Fabulous. There are some pretty major differences in circumstances: Addie is a teenager, not a middle aged woman; Addie's living in the 1940s, not the 1990s; Addie is working class, not rich. People might look at Addie and not see the comparison at all, and that's fine since I don't want her to be a straight up copy. Addie's supposed to be a much more sympathetic character than Eddy, anyway. I'm really putting her through it! 😅

The other important OCs in TBOH include Eduard [SURNAME REDACTED DUE TO SPOILERS], who isn't really based on anyone. At a push, I'd say he's Ade playing another German character - but he's not really the Red Baron (from Blackadder) or Ace (from TCSP Slags). There's also the Head family, who are relations of a certain Dick Head. Running with the Ab Fab thing, Mrs Head is sorta based on Mrs Monsoon. Dicky, on the other hand, is based on Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf. Why? Well, because he's my OC and it's my fic so I've let myself be self-indulgent. 😂 There are some Heads who haven't been introduced yet, so I'm gonna keep mostly stum about them... apart from to ask you all to smoke me a kipper.

There are other minor OCs in that fic - it's fucking massive, so much of it is still a WIP - but I've already waffled enough now. 😂

Thanks for the ask!

[its-shakespeare-baby]

Me, with tears streaming down my face: “Twelfth Night AU where Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Maria, Feste, and Fabian actually treat each other like friends and care about each other more. Twelfth Night AU where they just tease Malvolio and do small pranks on him. Twelfth Night AU where Malvolio is simply one of the only braincells in the group. Twelfth Night AU where there is a weird Malvolio/Sir Toby friendship dynamic that’s fun. Twelfth Night AU where no one is mean to each other.”

[haaam-guuuurl]

The Next Step Shakespeare AUs

Macbeth

featuring:

Kingston as Macbeth

Lily as Lady Macbeth

Noah as Banquo

(also, Summer, Richelle and Kenzie as the Three Witches)

[haaam-guuuurl]

The Next Step Shakespeare AUs

As You Like It

featuring:

Amy as Rosalind

Henry as Orlando

Piper as Celia

Finn as Oliver

(also, Richelle as Phoebe and Ozzy as Silvius)

[haaam-guuuurl]

The Next Step Shakespeare AUs

The Taming of the Shrew

featuring:

Emily as Katherine

Hunter as Petruchio

Riley as Bianca

James as Lucentio

[haaam-guuuurl]

The Next Step Shakespeare AUs

Love's Labour's Lost

featuring:

West as King Ferdinand

Eldon as Dumaine

James as Berowne

Hunter as Longaville

[haaam-guuuurl]

The Next Step Shakespeare AUs

Romeo & Juliet

featuring:

Eldon as Romeo

Michelle as Juliet

credit to @springmagpies for her amazing AoS Black and White Shakespeare AU Collection, which was a big inspiration for this one!

[haaam-guuuurl]

The Next Step Shakespeare AUs

King Lear

featuring:

Emily as King Lear

Nick as Gloucester

Summer as Cordelia

Richelle as Regan

Lily as Goneril

[haaam-guuuurl]

The Next Step Shakespeare AUs

Much Ado About Nothing

featuring:

Michelle as Beatrice

Emily as Benedick

Thalia as Hero

Eldon as Claudio

West as Don Pedro

[haaam-guuuurl]

The Next Step Shakespeare AUs

Julius Caesar

featuring:

Emily as Caeser

Riley as Brutus

Michelle as Cassius

[haaam-guuuurl]

The Next Step Shakespeare AUs

A Midsummer Night's Dream

featuring:

Piper as Helena

Amy as Hermia

Henry as Lysander

Finn as Demetrius

Summer as Puck

(also, Michelle as Oberon; Emily as Titania; Nick as Bottom; Noah as Theseus; and Richelle as Hippolyta)

Bonus! Another version of this AU with other characters because a big part of the original idea for this project came from me thinking Ella was so much like Puck. Eventually, I figured these guys were closer to the plot than the early cast, so I decided to go the other way, but here, as a treat: