books someone should write: 2
in which I give you an outline and you write a story
Another novel(la) idea for someone else to write. This, in particular, seems like something I’d be tremendously poor at, but I sure would love to read it!
Jane Austen meets HP Lovecraft.
And, yes, I’ve heard of things like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I don’t want that. I don’t want someone to just remix a Jane Austen novel with some Cthulhu slapped in for good measure. I want the spirit of Jane Austen mixed with a cold, brutal universe!
I mean, isn’t that what we all want?
To laugh while the old gods ignore us?
Genre:
Comedy of Manners - Cosmic Horror
Characters:
I think the best way to go about this would be, essentially, to focus closely on a single family. A domestic comedy of generational conflict and social absurdity seems best if we don’t cast our nets too broadly with regard to the characters. Probably everyone should be an adult as well.
Father
Mother
Eldest daughter
Middle daughters (twins)
Brother
Youngest daughter (narrator)
This would be the primary cast. Though, being a novel about a society, there will probably be many secondary characters.
Setting:
How about steampunk? Seems fun, yeah? If there’s one thing Georgian literature could have used more of, it’s airships. I mean, if we’re including the vast cold cosmos and ancient indifferent gods, why not some goofy retrofuturism?
Other than that, the world would stick fairly close to earth’s history. Either very closely, with just a few wrinkles to make it lightly alternative history, or just go nuts and make it a full on secondary world.
Outline:
The morning involves the eldest daughter interviewing a new Lady’s Maid.
The narrator observes this in passing while she wanders the house idly. The twins are in their riding clothes and head out into the estate.
Her brother walks the grounds with their father.
The narrator finds the mother drinking brandy alone in the salon.
When she sees the narrator, she demands she come sit with her. Awkwardly, the narrator observes her mother uncharacteristically drunk in the morning.
Drunkenly, her mother explains a miscarriage and blames the eldest daughter’s former Lady’s Maid.
Claims she was a witch
The narrator spends the morning drawing the twins as they ride their horses.
A suitor for the eldest daughter arrives for dinner with his parents and entourage.
The narrator and bother play a game of messing with the suitor until their father erupts in displeasure and dismisses them from the table.
Their mother doesn’t make it to dinner.
The narrator and brother play with the hounds and observe the boys who work the kennels.
The narrator wonders idly if the dogs are really hers or if they belong to these boys who spend their lives caring for them.
Her brother meets this with indifference.
That night, the narrator is woken by a conversation in the hall between the new Lady’s Maid and the Head Housekeeper.
She hears, for the first time, the name of an unfamiliar god.
As the conversation drifts away, she creeps from her room after them.
This is where the spooky shit happens, which I’ll leave to you.
Mostly just a bit of set-up, but I think someone should be able to make something of this.